The curse of the neglected patch

monster runner beansThat will teach me to let things go.   I have weeded the base of the broad bean bed for the first time.   And found some monsters in among the weeds. Edible monsters, but it’s going to take an awful lot of work to make them palatable.

It has been so hot today I’ve been almost bone lazy.   Scandiwegian crime fiction kept me indoors this afternoon.   But I did manage a bit of energy earlier in the day.

I deadheaded the achillea plants down by the pool. And have kept an awful lot of the seeds. I have scattered them all about, even behind the big miscanthus grasses by the lawn. But most of them I will try and sow in the spring.   I never thought I would have had such a passion for a bright yellow flower.   But it is so structural and dramatic.   And one of the biggest successes of the wildflower bank. cut back achillea

grasses mid augustThe grasses look great.   Not growing evenly, but head high and flowering.   I have spotted a few more miscanthuses about the rest of the garden and will move them there next spring.

I moved my mighty wheelbarrow around to other parts near the lawn – and pulled out hanks of weeds. I’m trying to clear a space around the teasel in the pool garden edge in the hope the seeds will fall and self sow.

I had kept the seeds from the teasel at the top terrace in a pot in the potting shed (apt).   But with all the windows open and a fierce wind getting up I managed to sow them all about the interior.   Luckily I brought the eragrostis and achillea seeds into my office to store and label.   But teasels are precious and I yearn for more.

010The wind was making the tall sunflowers sway alarmingly.   So I cut a few floewrs before they were battered to the ground and brought them indoors. Marvellous colours, if a bit fragile. 011

I did a cursory extra weeding in the veggie garden: around the basil and the lettuce plants at the front of the garden.   My little helper didn’t help much. He spent more time hiding under the wheelbarrow and preventing me from emptying it.

And then up to the beans.   But by then the heat defeated me. artur hiding under wheelbarrow

I bid a lethargic retreat. Later tonight I shall switch the water supply over to spring water and try and lavish as much liquid onto the hot garden as I can.