end of July 2018

It's been a very difficult time in the garden and wider environment. It's hot and dry. So hot and dry I don't even want to think about it. I refuse to waste water watering the entire garden and have only been watering pots and the recently planted rhubarb and a few others recently put in the ground. I only planted the wild bergamot in the ground recently after growing them from seed sown last summer. I could not even begin to get that larger pot in the ground until it rains and softens the rock-hard ground. If this weather continues, these are the kind of plants I will need to concentrate on.

the morning glory flowers are here and there on the patio

this sunflower was from free seeds with a seed order, only 1 germinated and grew but for free - I'm happy

close-up of the sunflower, which just opened this afternoon since I took the photo above this morning

the next day, a bee has found the sunflower

I wish I could say the cats are enjoying the catnip but it's been so hot and they seem so uncomfortable they've only had a bit of it. At least the bees are enjoying it.

it was hit and miss with the slugs but I did manage to achieve 10 catnip plants from seeds (sown in May)

this was a catnip plant I had grown from seed in a previous year - and it survived

finally a lupin flower spike, after repotting this a few weeks ago

a few days later the flower are opening, revealing my favourite colour

I've never grown toad lily before so looking forward to seeing the resulting flowers from these buds.

10 days later the first flower is open

I saw this beetroot in a neighbour's vegetable plot in their front garden.

I could see the similarity with the sea beet I saw on Hayling Island recently.

As well as the sea beet above, I saw a few other plants on Hayling last week, thistle

horned poppy and thistle

a certain amount of woolliness

sea holly

hottentot-fig

wild carrot

echium vulgare

the spent echium was all furry

also saw sea purslane, golden samphire, rock samphire and sea kale, see South Downs and Coast

the artichokes in the front garden are amazing - magnificent purple flowers beloved by bees and growing without any rain, I planted them originally in my garden, bought a very small plant for my neighbour 2 doors down (far right in the pic) and they self-seeded themselves next door, the garden in between