My Garden Journal 2023 -August

After a break of a few months, due to family health probems and computer troubles, my garden journal returns to share with you my pages in the journal for August.

On the first two pages I featured some of the roses we had in flower in August and wrote, “August starts as a confusing month both for us gardeners and our gardens.

Some days felt like spring with the addition of April showers, while others were more like dull November days. Some plants developed rapidly and collapsed when wind and rain battered the borders Nothing could stop our roses from flowering though. They are having their best year ever.”

Over onto the next double page I shared two of my sketches, a pencil drawing of a small grass called, Briza maxima and a pencil sketch of the seed heads of a plant that has just had its name changed back to Allium siculum after a decade or so being removed from the allium group and named then to Nectaroscordum siculum. So someone must have realised that its first name change must have been recognised as a mistake.

Over the page onto another double page spread featuring our crazy weather and the damage it caused and opposite I looked at some of our August wildlife.

“In the skies above us huge flocks of gulls congregate. We feel like we are at the seaside as we enjoy their calls.”

I wrote that, “After last year’s drought and the long wet periods that followed complete with deeply cold times, the garden is reflecting this in the trees and shrubs that are suffering. But now some are dying and we are experiencing many sad losses.

Our Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’ has had branches broken in the wind and we have had to prune back to healthy growth points.Several of our Acer palmatum are slowly dying as foliage dries and becomes crinkled.”

I wrote that, “Our Pittosporum tennuifolium ‘Silver Queen’ lost all its leaves and branches after turning brown and brittle.”

The first photo below shows Jude helping Ian to reduce the Pitosporum to just a 6ft trunk. Within weeks there were new shoots shooting which was so unexpected.

On the next page I looked at some of the fruit appearing on some of our shrubs and I noted that, “Fruit comes to the fore from now onwards and two 0f our cornus shrubs have produced so many berries. Cornus mas drips with deep red fruit almost grape-like.”

Below I wrote, “Cornus kousa ‘China Girl’ follows its white bracts looking just like impressive flowers with fruit on 3in stalks. They begin green and move on to red raspberry-like fruit. In dry weather they turn brown and drop.”

On the opposite page I looked at the time when we tried to improve one of the ‘Doughnut Circles’. I wrote, “We often redesign areas of our garden and this month it was the turn of one of our circular beds in the front garden. We call the two circles “Doughnuts”.

Firstly we stripped the bed of most of the existing planting. We put fresh gravel on the surface and began planting a new set of plants.”

I continued by adding, “The new plants are featured overleaf. We were so pleased with our ‘new look’ doughnut.”

The final page in my journal was concerned with new plants that we ordered for the doughnut. “The plants we chose were Agapanthus, Alliums, Sanguisorba and Thalictrum.”

We will return for another look into the entries for my garden journal for the month of September. Plenty to look forward to in the next few weeks!