Oxalis Purpurea update

As I'd hoped when administering its 24 September trim, the plant has generated plenty of new leaves, not to mention flowers.

Spuds batch 2 harvested

A few damaged ones, and in the corner
the last remaining spuds from batch 1

Front garden update

The oxalis, which I cut back on 4th July, has regrown. There are a couple of tomato plants growing towards the right had side of the bed.

Oxalis Purpurea trimmed

I cut off the drooping stems/leaves. Hope the plant will generate some new leaves.

Spud update

Spuds are doing really well, although some stems have snapped due to the windy conditions today. I have been watering them once a week with tomato feed.

Oxalis Pupurea update

I'm hoping this is just the plant losing its summer leaves before generating some new ones to get it through the winter.

Water Butt 4

Water butt number 4 was fitted yesterday. The heat wave has come to an end and it's been raining all day today. Yesterday the water butt by the shed just about ran out, so today's rain will hopefully provide a nice top-up.

Spuds eathed up

 

I put netting around the sides hoping the foxes won't jump over it.

More rain!

Early yesterday morning we had a thunderstorm with heavy rain. This appears to have replenished the water butts. Update: it filled the water butt by the shed, and the first one by the extension, but wasn't enough to go on to fill the second. Nevertheless, a welcome boost to water supplies.

Rain!

We had some rain 2 days ago, and some more today. Not the torrential downpours I was hoping for to fill the water butts, but better than nothing.

Front garden update

Apart from the rudbeckia. I haven't planted out any summer bedding (I grew some coleus) as the heatwave/drought has continued. Several of the heuchera have died (I must admit I forgot to water the front garden during the early part of the summer). However, the euphorbia seem to be coping well so I'm planning on planting more of them in the autumn, and the oxalis seem to be growing back after their trim on 4th July.

Courgette update

This variety, Astia, seems to grow more upright than the usual ones that creep along the ground. Nice!

Spinach update

Doing well.

Wallflowers planted out

Wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to plant these seedlings out during a heatwave/drought but I did it anyway.

First tomatoes picked

Two small Marmande and three Gardener's Delight.

Wild rose

A lot of the wild rose has died, probably due to the severe cold weather in the spring. Fortunately, there is some new growth. I cut the dead stuff away (or at least as much as I could fit in the garden waste wheely bin - will cut the rest later).

Hellebore update

None of the hellebore seed that I sowed on 2nd June have germinated. However I did find a couple of seedlings in the container where the hellebore is growing so I potted them up.

Drought/Heatwave continues

Apparently the last time it rained here was 29th May. Thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow, although not everywhere will get them. Hope we get a good soaking, and filling for the water butts.

Spuds batch 2 planted

I planted out the spuds I got from Dobies. Quality looks good. I bought 2kg which amounted to 25 spuds so I planted 4 rows of 3 in the greenhouse bed and 3 rows of 3 and 1 of 4 in the large bed.

Rudbeckia planted out

I was a bit unsure about planting out the rudbeckia during a heatwave, but was also afraid they would begin to suffer if I waited much longer.

I also cut back the oxalis.

Drought/Heatwave

It was one of the driest Junes on record, with hot weather that has now developed into a heatwave. The 3 water butts ran out about a week ago, and there's no rain forecast for the next 7 days.

Batch 1 spuds harvested

Chrysanthemums potted up abaout a week ago

Last week I potted up the chrysanthemum cuttings I took on 9 May. They look a bit worse for wear, but hopefully they'll survive.

Euphorbias pruned and cuttings taken

I cut all the flowering stems from the euphorbia, then selected a few of the remaining non-flowering stems to take as cuttings.

Seed potatoes sourced

I'm not confident that the latest batch of supermarket spuds will chit (they're probably this season's crop - also I don't know whether they're early spuds), so I've ordered some proper seed potatoes for planting at this time of year - apparently they don't need chitting.

Back garden update

Chitting failed - started again

The spuds I began chitting on 30 May haven't sprouted and are going green.

Not sure if it's because they didn't originate in the UK.

Bought a different variety, from the UK.

Multi-stemmed foxglove

Hellebore seed sown

The seed before I covered them with compost.

Mystery tree

This

is a seedling I dug up from beneath this tree