August 2001

I don't think I have ever enjoyed the back garden so much in August as I have done this year. The lawn has kept green and there have been no days when I have felt the heat has made the garden flat and uninteresting.

The front garden has been a different story. The roses succumbed to black spot, the Sweet Williams, which had given so spectacular a display earlier, died back very messily. I will start getting rid of the roses gradually starting with the two central beds this autumn. I am debating whether to put them down to heathers and dwarf conifers which will give colour in winter with minimum maintenance or to plant up with dwarf daffodils, tulips and dahlias, which will mean planting up each year but the dahlias would provide colour when the aubretia has given up.

As usual the backbone of August has been the huge clumps of giant crocosmia. Their long pointed foliage , kept green by the intermittent rain has given the beds height throughout the summer so the plants have well and truly earned their keep.The clematis Jacmanii has been at its best this month after doing well since early June.

The dahlias have come into their own. I hope Doris Day and the Bishop of Llandaff make respectable tubers as I want to increase my stock.

The dwarf chrysanthemums gave a good show, I want to keep and divide a dwarf, dusky red one for next year.

I have been moderately pleased with the vegetable patch. The runner beans started early this month and have done well as have the courgettes. The pumpkins look as if they are going to grow large although in comparison to my son's they are mere courgettes. He has had to pick his already before it grew too large for him to carry. The 'large' onions have done better this year than last but none have achieved any great size; a mistake to grow them in holes in the black material. In some cases the holes were too small and those squeezed by the material rotted at the base.

Caterpillars have had a go at the brassicas. My fingers are stained green with squashing them but I think I have managed to save the crop. My plants are certainly less skeletal than my son-in-law's.

The beetroot have done well but the carrots are mishapen and germination was very erratic.

The cooking apples have grown large and healthy this year and the eating apple Discovery has done what I hoped it would, turned so bright a red, it looks like a Victorian sampler.The plums on the Victoria are plumping up well and taste delicious straight from the tree