Tua Pek Kong Rules, the Mitcheldean Garden 2019
Garfield, Wilbur and Friends

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2019. Click here for the index.

July is meant to be the month when we spend every weekend on the road and the time in between watering the garden or cutting back the jungle according to the weather. This year has tended on the dry side and we have invested in a fourth water butt which has gone to the garage to be filled by hose so Yuehong can easily water her tubs and baskets at road level. So no more struggling down the steps with full watering cans.

Ruddington's Wilbur disappeared before his 10th birthday party (BBC Report and ITV Report) and so did Garfield who took one look at my two young grandsons and decided it was time to prepare to move on and disappeared for 5 days When he popped back for a bowl of milk he condescended to pose for the camera.

Another five days later he was back for more, Yuehong tried to pamper him but I think we knew what would happen next. Suffice to say that when we finally pull up sticks from Penang, Yuehong will be in the market for a ginger cat. A less welcome form of wildlife was the roe deer which returned. Serious deer fences cost serious money and are unsightly so I doubled the height of the fence between us and #35 at the top because access to it from the field behind is easier than to our garden. So far it seems to have worked which is good news as I understand that these creatures are partial to rose flowers. Rather more benign is the robin which has built a nest in the Albertine rose so that when it sings at first light it acts as an alarm clock. We have a wasps nest on the summer house which we have left as they are good at clearing out smaller pests and all I have to do is remember to duck when I open or shut the door to avoid being bitten (again).

As for the world famous wall, we had a discussion over a couple of glassfuls and decided to adopt Yuehong's suggestion to add some of our excess railway sleepers to the slope down from the fuchsias. These pictures were taken in the middle of the month since when the gladioli have started their successive flowering and the dahlias are beginning to show.

With the final Leylandii tree removed last year, the vegetable patch gets a lot more sun. The broad beans are extra tall as we had a wet week when they should have had their first flowering. The runner beans now grow at the same rate as everyone else's in the village - the red splodges are wild poppies which I tolerate as adding colour. I have planted dark dahlias as a border for some time, but this year they have excelled themselves and in due course the African marigolds will provide a contrast.

Some years ago, Yuehong planted some bulbs in front of the summer house. The small flowers are more blue than suggested and they give us several weeks of colour. Another beneficiary of the 'tree removal programme' has been this white flowered bush (identity anyone?). Like its partner pink Weigela and the forsythia, it needs a heavy prune each year after flowering.

This is what they looked like afterwards. It's not very beautiful but they looked the same this time last year! Now the bluebells are cleared I can access all the 'hedges' at the top and give them a good cut too. Necessarily this meant yet another bonfire. I've modified my technique for these to make a sausage shaped pile running parallel to the fence, lighting it at the bottom and letting it spread upwards carrying the smoke away up the hill, always choosing a day when there is a gentle breeze from the east.

Now all the young plants have left the patio, Yuehong has it as she wants, neat and tidy, a wonderful array of colour. It doesn't get better than these lilies which will spend their first year in pots before being planted out in beds.

Despite the rather dry summer, the front garden was also colourful. Yuehong now knows how to maintain the lavender and most of the roses had a fairly good season. We've relented and started giving them tap water as otherwise they drop their leaves in protest. This year's snapdragons are mainly bronze and gold (don't ask why) and the salvia are mixed instead of the traditional red, an experiment which has not really been a great success.

The public displays are much easier to maintain with water available from the garage. Yuehong does a brilliant job each year and even though most people drive (occasionally walk) past without looking, it's clear that some people appreciate the display.

Honeysuckles need sun to thrive and the first flush of the one by the garage 'failed'. The second flush is much more successful, it's a plant that photographs better in weak rather than full sun. Strictly there are three now and they are currently taking over the garage roof, not a permanent arrangement as I don't want them rooting themselves. The grey planters contain about three times as many chrysanthemums as they should, fortunately we have sufficient empty tubs for the excess. There are a few dahlias out in the bed behind the fuchsias (dark red and purple) but the main blooming will be from the middle of August. 

At the moment we are heavily reliant on our early season time investment. Fortunately, in the nick of time we had 12 hours of rain to refill the water butts and refresh the parts which for various reasons don't get watered by us. August is upon us and from here on it's downhill all the way... 

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