Garden Diary

from Country and Border Life Magazine

AUGUST

Gardening-wise August can be a lazy month.  Lawns are growing more slowly, annual flowers are all in place in pots and border spaces, perennials need little attention and for the wildlife gardener there are, as yet, no meadows to cut.  Although haymaking in the countryside is traditionally done in July or even late June if the weather has been fine, a garden meadow need not be cut this early.  Leaving mine for a couple more months means that I can continue to enjoy the later flowering blooms of bedstraw, meadowsweet and field scabious which may flower into September, as well as the seed heads of knapweed and wild carrot and of course the grasses. 

So the best moments of warm August days are spent beside the pond, drink in hand.  Water is a magnet to my garden wildlife this month as birds drink and bathe and a succession of dragonflies joust for possession of a territory in which to lay their eggs.  Dragonflies and damselflies never cease to fascinate me – their appearance, life cycle and habits are all extraordinary and it is easy to forget that the wonderful flying creatures we see around our ponds this month are the brief culmination of a much longer life – several years for some species - under the water as rather ugly and fearsome looking larvae. If you have the time to sit and watch, look out for the adult insect’s astonishing ability to catch its prey, and eat it, on the wing.   

With so much happening at eye level it is easy to forget to look skyward occasionally when I’m wandering around my garden in mid summer.  The call of a buzzard will draw my eyes upwards though and if the sky is clear there may well be several of these magnificent birds of prey circling on thermals.  Our record here is twenty-nine!  On these occasions too I sometimes see a red kite, which makes me wonder how many I miss by gazing at the ground!

 So August gives the gardener a little breathing space before summer comes to an end and garden maintenance begins again in earnest.  I will be preparing myself for the hard work of haymaking.

What to do in August

• If you grow vegetables don’t forget to sow more cut-and-come-again lettuces now for autumn salads, plus spinach and chard for the spring.
• Herbs can be gathered this month for drying for winter use.  Pick non-flowering shoots, strip the leaves and spread them on sheets of clean paper on sunny windowsills.  Thyme, sage, marjoram, dill and fennel all dry well.
•  Now nesting has finished you may want to prune back early flowering shrubs such as forsythia and flowering currant to encourage plenty of blossom next spring.
• Dead head buddleia as the flowers fade to ensure that more spikes develop.  These will keep your butterflies happy into the late summer.

August Project - Collect your own seeds

 The best way to increase the plants in your garden – and the most economical in terms of transportation miles and use of compost and pots, is to grow your own from seed.  This month you can start to collect seeds from some of your favourite plants to sow in the autumn or next spring.  Not all will come true from seed but half the excitement is the surprise element!   If you are new to collecting your own, stick to plants with larger, easy to handle seeds rather than the ‘dust’ produced by foxgloves or verbascums.  Cowslips, primroses, Jacob’s ladder, aquilegia, hollyhock and delphiniums and annuals such as poppies, nigella and larkspur will all germinate with ease if sown at the right time.  Collect whole seed heads on a dry day and place them into well-labelled paper envelopes.  Store them in a small cardboard box in a cool room until you want to sow them.  You can re-use garden centre seed trays, plastic module and pots for an eco-friendly approach.

JULY

Although we think of July as the very height of summer, it is rather sad to think that the day length is already shortening.  Actually I prefer not to think about that and make sure I enjoy the garden and countryside around me while it is at its best.  Work in my garden is minimal this month except for successional sowing of salad crops, weeding here and there and of course watering where it is essential.  I prefer not to water the garden at all and certainly never the lawn.  Plants are more likely have shallow roots if there is water readily available.  Left to their own devices they develop deeper roots to find moisture lower down in the soil.  Watering pots is a different matter though, but I try to keep pots to a minimum and use so-called ‘grey’ water as well as anything that may be available from the water butts.  No problems there last year!!

July is a great month for insects in the garden, especially bumblebees and butterflies.  Dragonflies too, if you or your neighbours have a pond, are likely to appear, hawking around and searching for prey which they catch on the wing.  These amazing aerobatic creatures are wonderful to watch, but identification can be somewhat difficult.  Their old country name of ‘horse stingers’ gives the impression that they are rather dangerous creatures, but they have no sting.  Devil’s darning needle is another rather quaint name, but I prefer to think of them as aerial jewels as their colours are so bright.

Butterflies are usually plentiful this month and if you grow a buddleia you are likely to see a good selection of the larger species including red admiral, small tortoiseshell and peacock.  To attract the small blues, small copper and gatekeeper I make sure I have a good supply of marjoram in the garden, both our wild native plant and other varieties of ‘oregano’ which is really just another name for marjoram.  The yellow leaved golden marjoram is especially nice – tasty, good for insects plus it brightens a border on even the dullest day. 

Experience has shown us over the last two summers that July can be wet and windy, hot and dry or beset with thunder storms.  Whatever comes this summer I’ll be making the most of my garden and its wildlife. 

What to do in July

• If you grown vegetables you could sow a green manure this month into ground that isn’t being used.  I use the lovely plant Phacelia which is turned in once it has produced a good amount of leaf.  If a few seeds stray the lovely mauve flowers are a magnet for bees
• Remove older leaves from strawberries that have finished fruiting to encourage strong new growth
• Try to keep on top of vegetables that may be fruiting – courgettes in particular need to be picked when they are small and French beans will continue to produce if they are picked frequently.
• Dead heading some flowers – roses for instance – is worth the effort if you want flowering to continue into the late summer months.

July Project – bumblebee survey 

If you have a little time to spare this month you may want to have a closer look at the bumblebees around your garden.  It’s well known that these attractive and important insects are becoming less common in the countryside but gardens are increasingly important refuges for them.  The Bumblebee Conservation Trust needs more information about our bumblebees and is carrying out several surveys this summer where the general public can help.  Bumblebees nest in a variety of places, including disused mouse and vole nest in the ground, in compost heaps and even occasionally in bird boxes.  You can let them know about any nests you find as well as what varieties of bumblebees you have around.  Their website has information on bumblebee identification or you can send digital photos of the bees in your garden if you are in doubt.  You can find out more at www.bumblebeeconservation.org

JUNE

This June I am expecting great things from my meadow right through until September and also from my nectar borders.  This month I will looking out for a plentiful supply of bumblebees amongst the flowers and hopefully more butterfly species too as the garden continues to develop.  My herbaceous plants have been chosen especially to provide nectar and pollen and have been planted in long, deep borders with ornamental grasses that hopefully hums with insects all through the summer.   And with any luck, and decent weather, our gardens and the countryside will be graced with some of the migrant butterflies that make their way here from the Mediterranean and North Africa this month.  It seems extraordinary that these flimsy, delicate creatures can travel such long distances, but the red admiral and painted lady do just that.  They breed here, the former on nettles and the latter on thistles.  Look out for these two colourful species feeding on Buddleia later this month.

In good weather June can be the most glorious of months when everything seems to happening at once – birds, bees and butterflies are breeding and buzzing and its hard to remember the dreary days of winter.  Even if we experience a wet month, our local wildlife and wildflowers will surely keep our spirits high.

What to do in June 

• If you have any areas of lawn where bulbs or wildflowers such as cowslips grow, you can cut these at the end of the month.  Divide clumps of daffodils and replant for better flowering next spring.
• Early summer herbaceous plants such as lupins and delphiniums can have their spent flower heads cut back now.  This will encourage a few more flowers from side shoots later in the summer, maintaining the colour in your borders for longer as well as providing more nectar and pollen for insects.
• If you grow vegetables, now is the time to plant out your small leeks plus brassicas including broccoli, spouts and winter cabbages.  Keep an eye open for the ‘cabbage’ white butterflies and squash eggs when you find them, rather than resort to sprays later which may kill other beneficial insects.
• Continue to feed the birds in your garden – this is a crucial time when adult birds are feeding their chicks.  Sunflower hearts and peanut kernels will keep the adults going as they search for insects for their young.

June Project - sow foxglove seeds

It may seem like an odd time of year to be sowing seeds but many biennial plants naturally disperse their seeds at this time.  Foxgloves are amongst my favourite flowers and come in all shapes and sizes.  Our native biennial is one of the best bumblebee attracting plants you can grow and comes in a huge range of colours.  If you fancy something other than our native pink you could try white, primrose yellow, apricot and of course a whole range of spotted varieties.  The seeds of foxglove are tiny and need sowing with care.  Firm peat-free compost into a seed tray and cover with a thin layer of horticultural grit, obtainable from garden centres.  Gently distribute the minute seeds as thinly as you can on top of the grit – they will fall into the spaces between the grit particles.  It is very easy to cover them too thickly with compost so this method works well.  Keep the seed tray damp and prick out the little plants when they are large enough to handle.  Pot up and plant out in the autumn for a fabulous and dramatic display next May and June.

MAY

May is my favourite month in both the garden and the countryside, when every shade of green is apparent and I can almost see my plants growing day by day.  It is also a great month for wildlife as many bird species are feeding young in the nest and bumblebees drone between white dead-nettle flowers in search of nectar.   Spring butterflies around my garden including orange tip and holly blue, mingle with early summer species and I will be looking out for the first common blues which breed on the bird’s foot trefoil in my meadow, and the speckled wood.  The common blue is the sweetest little insect - a flash of silvery blue which, when it alights on a favourite flower reveals pale blue underwings with golden orange spots.  Where the common blue enjoys May sunshine, the speckled wood is a creature of dappled shade, frequenting woodland rides and hedgerows.  Both species will visit gardens and in my South Shropshire territory these two species linger and breed.   May is renowned everywhere for one special wildflower and one extraordinary insect.  The bluebell is not an especially good plant for attracting wildlife – the odd long-tongued butterfly such as the brimstone will sip its nectar - but it ranks as one of our most beautiful wildflowers.  And the maybug or cockchafer, one of our largest native beetles, will be out and about, throwing itself at lighted windows as it whirrs around at dusk.

May is the month when my personal obsession takes over.  My moth trap – a large square box topped with a bright light – will be operating on warm, overcast nights in my garden.  The catch is not harmed, but hides away in the depths of the trap amongst old egg boxes, ready to be identified the next morning and released in a safe place away from too many searching beaks.  Chinese Character, iron Prominent, Hebrew Character and Nut Tree Tussock – the names alone make these insects interesting.  As beautiful as butterflies and much more varied in shape, size and colour, moths deserve better press!  So with bats and moths at dusk, foxgloves opening their spotted bells in my burgeoning borders, maybugs hammering against lighted windows and swallows nesting in my porch, May really is an exciting month in the garden.

What to do in May

• By the end of the month it is safe (hopefully!) to assume that we will have no further frosts so plant out any tender bedding now.  Choose wildlife friendly bedding where you can especially petunias for moths, tagetes for butterflies and verbena for bees.
• Dahlias can also be planted out now.  Again some provide nectar and pollens for insects. Varieties such as Redskin reveal their yellow stamens and attract hoverflies and some butterflies.
• Cut back spring flowering shrubs including flowering currant and Forsythia, but first check carefully for nesting birds.
• If you are a vegetable grower plant out your courgettes, pumpkins, squashes and French and runner bean plants at the end of the month.

May Project - make a mini-pond

Adding water to your garden is one of the most important things you can do for wildlife.  If you don’t have room for a wildlife pond (or for safety reasons would prefer not to have one) you may still be able to provide a drinking spot for birds and attract the odd dragonfly or damselfly.  A ‘mini-pond’ is easy to create in a large ceramic pot or, better still, in a half-barrel, available from most garden centres.  Position the barrel in a light but not overly sunny spot and place garden soil, gravel or a mixture of both in the bottom.  Create a shallower spot on one side with stones, covered with soil.  Fill with rain water from a water butt and add plants – wildflowers such as brooklime and water mint can be pushed into the gravel, or a miniature water lily or the native fringed lily placed gently on the bottom in a container.  Add oxygenators, keep your barrel well topped up in dry weather and a great variety of garden birds will use if for drinking and the smaller dragonflies and damselflies may lay their eggs in your tiny wetland habitat.

APRIL

In April my wildlife garden is a hive of activity – literally.  The honeybees from our beehives are making the most of any pollen they can find to feed their offspring in the comb.  Bumblebees too are active this month.  The huge queens have emerged from hibernation and they will be searching for pollen and nectar before seeking a suitable nest site.  This will usually be an underground disused mouse nest still with its bundle of dried grass, but a queen bumblebee will take her own nesting material into a suitable hole in a bank.    And it is not just the bees that are out celebrating the change in the weather.  My hedges will be full of nesting birds and some species, including robins and dunnocks, will already be feeding their newly hatched fledglings.  Birds rather dominate my garden this month as migrants, including the chiffchaffs and blackcaps whose songs define this time of year, return.  Hopefully willow warblers too will sing their cascading notes from the hawthorn trees on my boundary as they did last year.  And I’ll be keeping my eyes skyward for the first swallows and ensuring that there is mud around the edges of the ponds for the house martins to use for building their nests.   I will be hoping too for butterflies, especially the wonderful little holly blue.  The female lays her eggs in April on the flower buds of holly, or if her preferred plant is not available, on dogwood.  Small tortoiseshell, peacock, comma and brimstone butterflies, all of which have spent the winter months in hibernation should now have emerged, often the worse for wear, with tattered wings. 

Gardening in April is fast and furious – so much to do and not enough time!  Vegetables to sow, lawns to cut and borders to tidy now that hibernating insects have emerged.  I will be planting additional small wildflowers in my recently established meadows, and squeezing last minute bare rooted native shrubs into the spaces in my new hedges where there have been winter casualties.

• If you wish to increase your stocks of herbaceous border plants, you can sow seeds of easy to grow perennials such as lupins, scabious or achillea, in seed trays to prick out later.  These will flower in their first summer and attract bees and butterflies to your garden.
• There is just time to plant bare rooted native hedging at the beginning of April as long as the weather is damp.  A native hedge is a fantastic habitat in even the smallest garden, providing shelter, food and nesting places for a wealth of wildlife.
• Continue to sow salad crops including rocket, coriander and mixed lettuce leaves now, as well as carrots, beetroot, spring onions and broad beans. 
• Leave all hedges and shrubs alone from now on as any cutting or pruning may disturb nesting birds.

 April Project - make a cornfield bed

If spring makes you feel energetic and keen to get out and do something new and exciting in your garden, there is no better month to sow a stunningly colouful area of cornfield annuals.  Poppies, corn marigolds, corncockles, cornflowers and corn chamomile - available as a seed mix from many seed suppliers - are all annual wildflowers that were once common on field margins, but are now less frequently seen.  Begin by preparing an area of bare soil in full sun, making sure you remove any invasive perennials such as thistles, dandelions or couch grass.  Rake the soil down to a fine tilth and scatter the seed as evenly as possible over the area.  You may want to add a handful of silver sand to the seed, to aid distribution.  Walk over the area, gently pushing the seed into the soil but resist the temptation to rake the seed in too deeply.  These species rely on light to trigger  their germination.  Water the area if the weather is dry but little else is needed to create your cornfield patch.

MARCH

Spring is upon us and in my garden the month of March brings more than just the inevitable excitement of getting out and sowing seeds.  This is the month when the garden seems to be bursting at the seams with life, whatever the weather.  Robins and long tailed tits start their nest building in the hedges, mounds of frogspawn appear in the wildlife pond and the occasional peacock butterfly, bedraggled after four months of hibernation, seeks nectar from the many golden dandelions in the lawns.  For me most of March’s gardening activities are about looking ahead and preparing for the summer. 

My fledgling wildflower meadow will have a spring cut late this month with the mower on a high setting, but then it can be left completely alone until my annual ‘haymaking’ event in September.  Any spaces in the new nectar borders will be filled with home grown plants that have over wintered in a sheltered spot outside, and work to establish wetland wildflowers will continue around the new wildlife pond this month, now full with winter’s rainwater.   March is a month of contrasts in any garden – mild but welcome sunshine or icy winds whipping through the daffodils and hellebores – but there is always the promise of great things to come.

What to do in March

• Start to cut lawns this month, but remember to leave areas where wildflowers and bulbs are established.

• Don’t overdo the tidying in your herbaceous borders just yet.  These areas provide shelter for many beneficial insects including ladybirds, which will be your natural allies in months to come.

• Sow hardy annuals into border spaces at the end of the month if your soil is not too wet.  Larkspur, California poppies and English marigolds will bring early summer colour and provide bees and hoverflies with pollen, or try night-scented stock to fill the evening garden with perfume in May and June.

• Prepare vegetable plots for sowing, but hold off planting shallots, broad beans and salad crops until next month if the weather is wet and cold.

 March Project - sow some vegetables 

If you are not a vegetable gardener, this could be the month to turn over a new leaf.  Any small patch of soil can be used to grow your own salad crops – so much tastier and healthier than shop bought bags of days old lettuce.  You don’t need a dedicated vegetable area – for starters mixed baby salad leaves can be sown into small empty spaces in borders or I use large terracotta pots which stand outside the kitchen door.  These can be quickly harvested in a ‘cut-and-come-again’ fashion for a healthy and attractive garnish or an addition to a lunchtime sandwich. 

Fill pots with peat free compost, firm lightly and sprinkle with a salad leaf mixture containing ‘baby leaf’ red and green lollo rossa, oak leaf lettuce, rocket, endive, chicory and radicchio.  Cover with a little compost and water lightly when the compost looks dry.  If you prefer to fill border spaces, choose open sunny spots.  Rake the soil to a fine tilth, sprinkle seeds and cover lightly.  These attractive mixtures are ready to harvest in four or five weeks.

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