Through the Garden Gate--August 2023

On Gardener's World last week Monty Don described his garden as 'chaos'. That's a good description of my garden at the moment. It's that time of year when many plants are now going over, others getting big and flopping over. 

If I go out to do some gardening I'm never sure where to start. Putting in plant supports earlier in the year is something I never get right, I forget which ones need the support and I often don't have enough of the right sized supports. As I've been working in the garden trying to tidy up I've been trying to decide which plants to cut back and which to leave over the winter for the wildlife.

The highlight of the garden over the last few weeks has been and still is the Hydrangea 'Limelight' with it's lovely creamy white conical flower heads. It's about four or five years since I planted it and each year more flowers have appeared. This year I've been able to cut some of them for the house without spoiling the display. 

Down in the shed border there's a tangled mess of white lysimachia and pink Japanese anemones. It does look to be out of control but I like it. The Hosta bed in the front garden is quite a dark area which doesn't get much sun and a couple of years ago I planted three white Japanese anemones to brighten it up.  These started flowering a couple of weeks ago and are looking good.

I always sow some annual flower seeds for the  allotment cutting bed and usually have enough left to fill a few gaps in the garden. I grew Lavatera for the first time this year and am quite pleased with how well they've done. They seem to be trying to climb up the arch with the Getrude Jekyll rose. They are almost the same colour too.

Now at the end of the month the weather seems to be improving a little. I'm hoping we might get a nice warm spell in September and perhaps the garden will perk up a bit.

I am linking this blog post to Sarah's blog at 'Down By the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.