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FRAGRANT SWEETPEAS

Instead of Runner Beans next year, I think I'll grow more Sweetpeas.

After a slow start, this mix Elegant Ladies have been flowering really well.

They smell amazing, and remind me of the old-fashioned Matucana and Cupani varieties.

I took up Monty Don's invaluable advice to pick blooms every 10 days, which has proved a great success!

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PAINTED LADY

I don't know where they've been hiding up until now, but today I spotted the first Painted Lady of the year.

A year or so back Britain saw an invasion!

Have you seen one or more, or a Hummingbird Hawk-moth in your garden this year? If so, how about plotting your finding(s) at the Butterfly Conservation's website in their survey Migrant Watch.

In my garden both species have been favouring Verbena Bonarensis.

Which plant(s) have you spotted either species on?

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SUMMER AND SOWING

This weekend the clocks go forward, and for us gardeners is the best time of the year because it means that at last the light has caught up with all our instincts to get out there and garden for as long as possible - Monty Don on Gardener's World.

How right you are Mr Don, and contrary to an earlier post I have been enjoying the gardening coming from your very large patch at Longmeadow.

I know I am going to be envious of your Dahlias come Autumn!

For well over a week now the UK has been basking in the most glorious sunshine, and today has been no exception and an excellent day for making a start on seed sowing - Beetroot, Tomato, Sweet Pea, Nasturtium, Calendula, and Morning Glory.

The seeds I ordered from Thompson and Morgan arrived yesterday, just in time for the weekend - Runner Bean Lady Di, Beetroot Kestrel, Tomato Vilma, Nasturtium climbing mixed and Patty Pan mixed with Cerinthe major Purpurascens to follow.

I also cut back and tidied foliage around the garden, and potted up cuttings from Coreopsis and Scabious - a simple and cost effective way of increasing stocks of perennial plants.



I love the colours of lemon and lime together, inside and outside.

Looking positively zingy and zesty in the sunshine have been the colourful blooms of the Mahonia and bracts of the Euphorbia.

Two seven-spot Ladybirds and butterflies of all colours have been emerging into the sunshine, a Comma, Holly Blue and Small White.

Also visiting, a pair of Goldcrests and the welcome return of Greenfinches to the garden.

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RASPBERRY AND ORANGE SQUASH

Raspberry ~ pink Bergenia flower.



Orange ~ buds of Berberis.



Squash ~ seeds I sowed today.

o

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NASTURTIUM

The nasturtiums are continuing to romp away happily, doing me a great favour this year by covering up two heaps of compost I plan to move in the Spring. These are the climbing variety, and their growth spreads further than most varieties of Nasturtium. Originally seeds potted up by me, they continue to self-seed in situ every year.

It looks like these plants have survived being decimated by the Small/Large White butterfly, but will be knocked back by our first frosts.

Wikipedia says, Nasturtium comes from the Latin nasus tortus, meaning twisted nose, in reference to the effect on the nasal passages of eating the plants.

It's amazing the funny facts you learn when you have a blog!

o

photo - rspb website

SOWING SEED & A SWALLOW

I may have to sacrifice growing my own plants from seed this year. I had so many plans, but just haven't had nearly enough time to commit to the garden. I have yet to sow a single seed!

I had word from my Dad the other day. He has seen the first swallow of the summer, so this is the time he starts getting his seeds on the go.

Do you follow a set pattern for seed sowing?

Have you seen your first swallow of the summer?

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PLANT COMBINATIONS TWO

Another plant combination which I have been enjoying in my garden over the past couple of years is with Statice and Sedum. This photo was taken about a week or so ago, the Sedum is now just starting to turn a blushed shade of pink.



I have plans to grow more Statice from seed next year. It really does look great in both borders and on sloping banks.

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SUMMER SQUASH (PATTYPAN)

Unfortunately, I have no spare time to keep an allotment. I dream of having one, but dream on, the space you already have is at times too much to cope with, I can hear myself saying.

This year I have steered towards growing more flowers, with the idea of a small cutting garden in mind. Out are the vegetables and in has come precious extra space. I have kept some ground for soft fruits and will always leave room for my favourite, runner beans, and will continue to grow container size vegetables in pots, just like I do tumbling tomatoes.

One space which isn't earmarked for anything else, is the bin which holds the rotted down compost. This area is perfect for growing summer squash, a vegetable I got to know a few years back and a vegetable I would now rather grow in preference to courgettes. So easy to propagate from seed, and once established and kept well watered, it will reward you with a bumper crop.

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THE COLOUR PURPLE

I think the majority of us are familiar with Verbena bonariensis with its tall and willowey, candleabra-like stems. The photo above is of one of its many relations, Verbena rigida.

This smaller, more robust version with its much shorter stems, carries vibrant mauve flower heads on each. It never fails to grab mine, or butterflies, bees and hoverflies attention.



My neighbour pulled up some clumps of this from her garden when we first moved here, some ten years ago. Osteospermum, white with a splash of pink/purple. It's a great gap filler and I have maximised on this by taking lots of cuttings to make new plants, which soon establish.



Statice, one of my all time favourites. So easy to grow from seed and one packet goes a long, long way.

All these plants I would describe as a border line annual. With the warmer climate here in the South, mine make it through the winter months.

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STATICE

I remember as a kid my mum saying how much she disliked Statice in dried flower arrangements, so when a garden magazine was giving away freebie Statice seeds on the front cover I was in two minds about growing them, but I am pleased I did, I really like them. They are really easy to grow from seed, appear to be drought tolerant and flower for months on end, they are still in flower now in November. Established plants also survive in the ground over winter, the foliage does die down a little but they manage to spring back into life in the summer, well they do down here in the South.

The top photo is of plants I grew this year from seed they include some unusual colours such as salmon pink, orange-yellow, pink, carmine and blue, the blue being shown in the second photo.

The 'everlasting' blooms on strong wiry stems hold their colours superbly after drying. Pick when foliage is quite dry and flowers are well coloured. Tie in small bunches and hang upside down in a dry, well ventilated place until really dry.

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MORNING GLORY

The morning glory is native to tropical America. The botanical name Ipomoea comes from the greek, ips means worm and homois means being like, because of its pale, worm like stem.

No frost as yet so these two morning glory plants are still flowering, the pale pink is 'candy pink' and the cerise is an unknown variety as a friend of mine kindly gave me the seeds. If you leave them to go to seed they may become invasive around the garden, I don’t mind as I like them, but funny how I hate its common cousin, the dreaded bindweed!

Small quantities of substances similar to the hallucinogenic drug LSD are found in the seeds of some species.

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ASARINA

I love hanging baskets but I am rather lazy when it comes to keeping them watered, so asarina (sometimes sold as lofos) is the perfect plant for me. This annual is really versatile, the first year I had them climbing, but for the last few years I have had them trailing out of hanging baskets, all you need is one plant for each basket as they really fill out, like surfinia does. Each flower is trumpet shaped and after flowering they develop a lovely seed head.

The plant flowers from June to October, they do need watering, but if you miss a day or two they will pick up again, although you may have to pick off a few crispy leaves here and there. I manage to over winter my plants under cover, they do die down but little shoots will appear again in spring ready to be planted out again after the last frosts, ready for the forthcoming summer.

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VERBENA BONARIENSIS

I first took notice of this plant when I saw Alan T using it on one of his gardening programmes, I loved the way it acted as a screen but that you could also see through it as well. Since introducing it into my garden, originally sowing by seed and potting on to make my own plants, I have developed a love/hate relationship with it; I love it because it encourages lots of butterflies, bees and even the hummingbird hawk moth, I hate it because it is prone to self seeding itself all around the garden giving me a lot of extra work pulling up seedlings from every crack in the paving!

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NASTURTIUM - Patriotism, Conquest, Victory in battle

I cannot rate nasturtiums highly enough, not only do they give great ground cover but the flowers are great added to salad leaves for a lovely peppery taste. They are dead easy to grow from seed; as I love all the colours available these days I grow lots of different varieties, these are two which I have grown this year.

I am an advocate for using different herbs and flowers as companion plants when growing vegetables; nasturtiums are great for attracting aphids away and are even said to repel whitefly and ants. They are good companions to broccoli and cauliflower, cabbage and sprouts, courgette, marrow and squash.

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THE HARVEST TODAY

Today is Saturday and there has been a breakthrough, the sun is shining, at last! Guess what will go towards our dinner tonight?

The runner beans (Lady Di) are doing well after a very slow start; the carrots are Parmex, they can be grown in containers to eat small, as you can see from the larger one it was missed, and was given the opportunity to put on a bit of weight; and the turnips are Milan Purple Top.

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SUNFLOWER ‘STELLA’ - Adoration, Pride

Listed by English seedsmen as early as the mid 1800s the blooms were sold in Covent Garden as cut flowers and the plants were grown in ornamental borders. It was also known as the classic insect attractant especially with honey and bumble bees. A border would often accompany a block of hives.

I love this one, they look lovely dotted around the garden, give much needed late summer colour and make an excellent cut flower, what more could you ask for! My sister-in-law’s name is Stella, she doesn't know it but if it wasn’t for her I would never have discovered this lovely variety.

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THE HARVEST TODAY

Today I had my second pickings of runner beans. I have tried a few different varieties but keep coming back to this one (Lady Di). They are heavy croppers and because they are deemed to be stringless they are lovely and tender.

Another old faithful is tomato Gartenperle, they are so easy, I grow them in troughs and large pots, just as long as you remember to feed and water them they remain happy.

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SWEET PEA ‘MATUCANA’ - Blissful pleasure, Goodbye, Departure

This variety dates from about the 1930s, it is sometimes confused with Cupani which is of much earlier origin.

Everyone should grow these, they are wonderful. Each stem has four lovely flowers, each with a heady intoxicating scent. Once they start to flower they can be picked up until October, just as long as you don’t allow them to go to seed.

For anyone interested in antique varieties of sweet pea visit http://lathyrus.com/. I have got my eye on Henry Eckford which has vibrant orange flowers, which I am sure will go on my shopping list for next year.

SWEET PEA 'SPENCER WHITE SWAN'

This variety has produced masses of white flowers on lovely long straight stems, so ideal for cutting to bring indoors, unfortunately once picked they only stay fresh for a day or two, but who cares as you can just go outside and cut some more.

I have a lovely hazel tree in my garden so I use the twiggy branches as a support.

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SUNFLOWER 'SPARKY' - False riches, Pride

I have grown this variety for the first time this year (as the seeds were gratis). I shall have these again next year, they have been good for picking as they have multi-headed stems and are fairly short in height, although the one growing by my compost heap is taller.

I always grow my seedlings in pots and I don’t put them out until they are sturdy little plants as I have discovered that in my garden if I put the seeds straight into the soil they never reach more than about an inch before the slugs find them.

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SUMMER SQUASH ‘PATTYPAN’

For a couple of years now I have been growing summer squash instead of courgettes (this variety is Sunburst F1, great seeds from Simpson’s Seed http://simpsonsseeds.co.uk/). These are disc-shaped and yellow, like courgettes you can pick them at any stage but best to pick when small. After initially impressing my friends with a more than sufficient supply of produce, they now expect me to supply them with plants, which I grow in toilet roll tubes, they propagate really well in these, and cheap too. Also you can see that I grow my plants in last year's compost heap, once the plants are over I then know it is time to bag the compost up, and then transfer this year's compost into that bin, clever eh ...!