I graduated from the Open University in July with a First Class Honours in Combined STEM, after 6 years of part time study. We celebrated with a day out to Clumber Park to see their walled garden, & their national collection of apples which was spectacular. Seeing all of the cordons and espaliers really inspired me, and their extra long victorian greenhouse was a thing of pure beauty and envy for me!
The summer has passed by in a constant stream of hot sunny days, and trying to stay ontop of watering! Since the two wet days at the start of June, we had no significant rain until the beginning of September. Veg plants were really starting to struggle, although the flower beds held up much much longer than expected with no rain. A clients heavy clay beds were cracking up with dehydration, but the established perennials were roaring away.
A spectacular summer for fruit harvests after such a dry spring where the blossom wasn’t immediately smashed off by heavy rain and winds (I’m looking at you, 2024). The weather also gave us an exceptional year for butterflies, despite what the “Big Butterfly Count” said of their results. I have seen 14 species in my garden this year, in triple the numbers I would usually see, but easily peaked 2-3 weeks earlier than the traditional date for the count. Shifting seasons mean that they must adapt the count somehow to gain a truer picture of what is going on. I think the “no mow” meadow by the veg patch is having a significant impact on my butterfly numbers, as almost all the species I saw lay eggs in long grass/weeds, and my count was far higher than anyone elses in my local area, except unsurprisingly in one of my clients gloriously biodiverse gardens just down the road, who saw the same species as I did! I’ve also had many other interesting insects I’ve never seen before, including the red underwing moth, a noon fly and a shield bug nymph.
My front garden, the only real part of my garden I have put to flowers, was looking spectacular this summer, My home bred and grown dahlias are coming into their own more each year, and I am growing on and saving the ones I love, and placing the remainder into clients gardens or passing on to my various gardening groups so nothing is wasted! I’ve also grown gladioli for the first time ever this year, they are very striking! My sweet pea arch was a slight dissapointment, as they grew fantastically on the soil side, but the gravel side where they were grown in a bag of compost were pathetic to say the least, so it was very one sided!
In my work, I carried out some summer pruning of some out of control cordon apples, aiming to get them back into their shape over a period of a few years, and following quite a hard winter prune. Seeing the clumber park cordons made me more confident that we are on the right track with these!
I also helped a customer clear their pond of a floating grass that was choking up the water and stopping the ducks from landing, which was a lovely job to do in waders, in the heat & unbroken blue skies of the summer!
In veg growing at home, my trials of blight resistant potatoes showed a clear favourite in Sarpo Una, fabulous baking potatoes, and Blue Danube which although prone to slug damage make the best chips! We also had our very first grape harvest from our Vitis guna, which was very exciting and is currently maturing as a small bottle of red wine! Tomatoes has a good year, with new to me blight resistant Buffalo Sun producing a whopping 12.4kg of tomatoes from 4 plants (two at 800 grams!) and Primabella cropping 10kgs. Molten Lava was one I tried this year, with rave reviews on taste from my husband/taste tester it is one I will definitely grow again.
And finally we celebrated our wedding anniversary in September by travelling to Cornwall where I was able to visit the Eden Project, The Lost Gardens of Heligan & the wonderful little Japanese Garden. I also managed a visit in September to Arley Hall & Gardens, all in the spirit of continuing professional development of course!