The Mitcheldean Garden 2023
Endless Summer?

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2023. Click here for the index.

June 2023 was the hottest June on record in the UK. With lots of long sunny days, everything in the garden would have rocketed upwards save that the ground was already too dry. The well established plants will have deep roots, the lesser ones have needed judicious quantities of water but the lawns have just had to wait which is why they have seen little cutting and look plain awful.

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As an economy measure there have been no hanging baskets by the roadside this year, which has had the side effect of making watering the garden less onerous. The star performer in this area recently has been the garage honeysuckle which we have let run riot although when the dahlias there complain it will get a hair cut. The various spring bushes are taking a rest and above them on the north side, the peonies have given their best show yet, while the Johnson's Blue and the rock roses have been their reliable selves.  

Normally hebes do not have a long life and our original stock has thinned out over the years, but these two next to the steps are still going strong and now, in early July, they are covered in flowers.

In front of the house are the traditional baby begonias, lobelia and snapdragons, the latter in particular would like even more water than we give them but the lavenders and clematis have had extra water and have been splendid as a result.

To which you add the lupins in the bed next to #35.In front of them but not visible are what we call Yuehong's dahlias, proving that discount supermarkets like Lidl can supply quality material if the staff / management look after them properly which sadly is not always the case. At the moment they are a mass of greenery but their planting position will ensure they are among the front runners come the end of July, ahead of the main season dahlias in the #31 bed and those in the upper garden.

Tomatoes have joined Yuehong's long list of forbidden fruits so we have just six this year from the Tyack nursery, but several more are in #35's nursery. The first flowers are out.

The two wisteria on the pergola battle it out and the time has come to do a hatchet job on the precocious one which is based on the patio because while it provides plenty of summer shade, its flowers are pathetic. The one that is based in #35 for historical reasons doesn't grow so fast but its flowers are a delight. 

Of course you'd never guess how many hours Yuehong puts in on the patio. The trusty geraniums overwintered well and everything is well regimented. The phlox are in their last season here as they need more space and will go to the bed next to the wall in front of the house where we expect they will do well.

Having given a fair number of lifts up to the pond to visiting frogs, I have to say I am disappointed not to have seen any tadpoles, perhaps I should have looked more closely This one was recently rescued from the overflow 'tank'  These days the cascade is regularly occupied by a charming yellow annual that we paid good money for many years ago and which keeps coming back naturally each year..

It gets everywhere, including the pansy boxes (plants courtesy of Lidl), it just needs cutting back regularly, there a few busy Lizzies below the pansies. Yuehong cut back the overstretched Albertine rose last year, a brave act which has been rewarded with a great set of blooms. Sadly, the not very beautiful giant white clematis did not survive the winter.

The flower budget has been savagely cut this year but not completely. We have two kinds of smaller dahlias ('dwarf' and appropriately 'patio'), the former are old hands which survive the winter in their growing compost in a greenhouse, the latter are from a cheap job lot of plants off the internet. The African marigolds have been sown from our own seed but the red salvia are luxury items from the Castle Combe Steam Rally. Their regular position is below the upper dahlia wall, but I kept back a few as we usually have snail munched casualties. However, there were none this year and after a comfortable ride with the pansies complete with regular doses of fertiliser, these lucky ones are twice the size of the others and proud patio residents. These are patio dahlias (left) and a mixture of African marigolds and red salvia (right). 

Moving up, it seems that this year at least, I got the dahlias in at a 'sweet spot in time'. On the left are the red dark dahlias and I will be very disappointed if we don't see them at their best ever, maybe including the baby one on the left and almost invisible. It seems likely that I stored the white and purple varieties separated as intended and the latter responded to last year's dry conditions by dividing furiously As a result they have overflowed into the vegetable patch, including  an area behind the rosemary as well as an impromptu bed right at the very top of the garden where I have no idea how they will do; even if they are a total failure there I will still be left with more than I know how to deal with, there must be over a hundred of them and as I compile this during the first week of July, the very first flowers are about to open.

The main season dahlias are still some way off blooming, last year I very carefully catalogued every single one and made up their tubs on the patio accordingly. However, when the time came, it seems I suffered 'brain fog' and I fear the display will not be as I originally planned but the good news is that the survival rate is extremely high. The very  few that have been lost will have been comfortably outnumbered by those which have successfully divided. Using combinations of coloured strings as labels sounded a great idea but over time, the blue and green types became indistinguishable (which is as good an excuse as any).

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