My Garden Journal 2021 August

I began my entries into my 2021 Garden Journal by noting, “August is traditionally the holiday month because there should be more chance of guaranteed fine weather, warm and sunny. Sadly this year august has been a month of erratic weather, alternating wet and dry periods. This is most confusing for our garden residents, especially the butterflies and bees.”

Over the page I looked at yellow and orange flowers in the garden in August. and then shared ten plant portraits. I noted, “The most colourful patches of flowers in the borders in August are those in the yellow, orange and red spectrum. So many late summer flowering plants fit into this colour range.”

On the opposite page I continued with the brightly coloured flower theme when looked at the many forms of crocosmias that we grow, where I wrote, “One family of plants within that colour range is crocosmia, of which we grow so many cultivars. They provide a colourful presence throughout the garden.”

I then put in a set of crocosmia portraits.

Turning over to the next page we look at a different colour range of blooms and I wrote, “Not all flowers fit in this bright range of yellow, orange and red as there are many out now that fit into the pink, purple, blue range.”

Below I shared a set of photos of flowers within this colour palette.

On the opposite page I shared a photo I took of a selection of seed heads I had recently found while gardening.

Overleaf I featured just two close-up photos of a large flowered bright orange lily and noted, ” These deep orange lily flowers are the last lilies to flower in the garden. These three inch flowers have numbered up to 13 per stem.”

Turning over the page to the next double page spread I look at seed heads and then finish off for this month with a quicklook at the garden tasks we were presented with by the garden in August.

I wrote, “As early-flowering perennials die down an interesting array of seed heads appear adding the delicacy of biscuit, beige, brown and ginger colours.”

As the header for the last page for August I added, “August presented us with a wide variety of tasks to keep us busy in our patch. I cleared the drive edge of the ‘Beth Chatto Border’ to open the area up and plant a few new irises. Jude sorted out plants to sell at the village’s ‘street market’. We changed the hose on one of the reels with a new 100m length. We also began clearing the ‘Chicken Garden’ to give it a fresh look. And we watered!”

We will be back to visit my garden journal at the end of September when we can share what we have been up to and observing in our patch.