The prolonged drought has to be the main feature of our garden in July.
On the first page I wrote, “The long period of no rain continues into July with every day being hot not just warm. Hottest temperature records keep getting broken especially at Kew and Wisley. For us this means that the garden is suffering badly with perennials shriveling up and turning brown right to the ground. It is a sad sight. Shrubs and treess are showing signs of drought stress, with leaves on some turning shades of brown. My painting shows one Hypericum inodorum surviving well with the other suffering badly.”
On the second page I consider the drought survivors where I noted that, “Certain plants have coped really well with the extremes of both heat and dry. Others haven’t! Best survivors through this period have surprisingly been roses.”
July has been a good month for wildlife with a wide variety if visitors, so I noted that,“We have had some interesting visitors to our garden this month, some totally unexpected, others frequent but welcome visitors.”
My photos show just nine of them. Firstly three green beauties.
Oak Bush Cricket
Green Shield Bug
Green Leaf Hopper
Then I move onto photos of some beetles, some bees and a butterfly.
Strawberry Seed Beetle
Rove Beetle
Garden Bumble Bee
Honey Bee
Honey Bee
Red Admiral
We return to plants for the next page and consider two plants that are surviving the droughts very well so far this year. I noted that, “Likewise echinops and eryngium have ignored the dry and the heatwave and simply carried on regardless. Their flowers change colour as the seasons progress. They attract pollinators so efficiently too.”
On the final page for July I considered just how many jobs we still had to do regardless of the weather conditions. I wrote,“Even in the middle of yet another heatwave and drought there is plenty to be going on with around the garden such as putting in plant supports, taking succulent cuttings, tidying borders, having tea breaks, tying up plants, watering newly planted plants and even revamping a corner of the Rill Garden.”
That is the end of a very strange month’s gardening and we can only hope that August at least brings us some rain and perhaps cooler temperatures.
greenbenchramblings 