We have lived here for 24 years and I think this has been the hottest and longest summer during that time. Although many of the trees in our garden were selected to grow in hot conditions, plants like annuals were very short lived this year, although I was able to collect the seeds from some of them to try again next year. Even herbaceous perennials have struggled hard in this extremely hot summer. Of course, a lot depends on where you live. Coastal towns may have more humidity than those at higher elevations, but we all suffer from some humidity from time to time.
My veggie garden suffered. This year I only tried sweetcorn, which was doing well until the heat came along and despite watering it died on me and even my sunflowers, which I like to grow for the bees, gave up too. Yet I have seen fields of sunflowers in Australia flowering their heads off in the heat and sweetcorn doing well in Pennsylvanian summers, without any visible signs of watering. My neighbour below had a bore dug some years ago and grows abundant veggies each summer as he laid pipes with drips at each plant along each row. We have a well and every year we see how long it holds out – usually mid-July. Plants that grow in pots are able to be watered by hand, which could be ‘saved’ water from the house, but it doesn’t stop the flowers outside getting burned off. My big pots of pelargoniums, which always look so bright and cheerful against the black veranda railings, were absolutely splendid until temperatures rose rapidly. These South African perennials need constant dead-heading but hopefully with some feeding and care, they will start to recover eventually. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that after Maria’s Assumption on August 15 (according to local legend), the weather should start to cool down a little, but the temperatures may drop only a few degrees, and it will be a slow downward trend from then on!
The last of our lemons fell off the trees during the hot June weather, but they were sunburned inside, so no use for lemon curd or summer drinks. We don’t grow apricots, although they should thrive in our garden as they need a winter chill (as do most stone fruits), and they also need some summer warmth to ripen them. So, I buy the big juicy apricots imported from Greece, prick the fruits all over and place them in a bowl of white balsamic vinegar over-night. I strain the fruits, which then go in the compost bins, and keep the bottled liquid in the fridge until I need it for salad dressings.
There are lots of jobs that you can do in the shade or cool of the early morning or late evening, dead-heading is one which can become a chore if left. I find that feeding my pot plants weekly with Phostrogen helps them along. Removing seed pods is another job. Caesalpinia seed pods can be quite heavy and eventually break the thin branches. Some plants make enormous amounts of seeds like the bulbinellas and bulbines, both good ground cover plants, so cut off the long stems to avoid too many new plants growing in your garden that you may not want. Another good ground cover plant is known as The Daisy Bush. It takes a while to come from cuttings, but after it has settled in it will spread, layering the stems of felted grey leaves into the ground as it does so.
As the lovely flowers of canna lilies fade remove them but do take care and don’t cut too far down the stem as a new flower might just be waiting there. There are some lovely varieties about these days. When I first came here there were only the tall bright red ones, growing in every cottage garden. Now they come with names and glorious colours. They need very little care and attention and I have even seen them growing in water in the famous Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania. Hibiscus, according to the experts, once established really only need a couple of inches of water once or twice a week, so don’t drown them! It’s not everyone’s favourite plant, as again it needs daily dead-heading, but that gives you the chance to hunt for hidden mealy bugs beneath the leaves and stems. They really are persistent, so keep a watchful eye on them.
Bougainvilleas look their best in the sunshine, but constantly shed their brightly coloured bracts everywhere. The double ones with their dense heads, tend to keep their bracts much longer and are much better grown if you have a swimming pool nearby, as their bracts tend not to blow off. but need to be cut off. This way they shouldn’t drop into the pool.
We have had many dragonflies in our garden this year and love to watch them hover over the water and rest on the sticks around the edge that we provide for them. Our dragonflies are known as The Common Darter, natives of Eurasia, and are one of the most common dragonflies in Europe. They breed in still water such as ponds and lakes and our swimming pool. Interestingly they wait on a prominent perch – such as a leaf or the sticks around our pool edge, for some insect to fly by, which they then gobble up. I remember back in biology classes that we were told that Dragonflies mate on the wing and we see that happen here. Eggs are not laid, but broadcast from the air. The male holds the female in tandem and swings her down and forward over water. At the furthest point of the arc the female releases some of her eggs which fall on the water. Lifespan is very short, ranging from several weeks to six months.
Jasminum officinale comes into its own now with the lovely white flowers that usually trail over a support and perfume the air on summer evenings. Another evening perfumed flower that shares its scent with us at this time is Cestrum nocturnum (see Plant of the Month) locally known as the Lady of the Night or even Pakistani Nights, although it came originally from the West Indies!
It may be a struggle to keep the garden going this month but worth it in the end. Unless you want a cacti or succulent garden, both of which don’t mind the heat and lack of rain, you are, like me, going to rethink any new plantings if this is a foretaste of the weather pattern in years to come.
Plant of the Month Cestrum nocturnum
This interesting late-summer flowering plant belongs to the Nightshade family. Its vegetable bedmates are tomatoes, aubergines, potatoes, peppers and tobacco. Nightshades are unique because they contain trace amounts of alkaloids like Morphine and Strychnine but the only things that I can find that are really worry-some to eat are green potatoes.
Cestrum is at its best in the warm evenings and nights this month, when the heavy perfume permeates the evening air. Some people are allergic to the perfume, so be mindful of this before planting one. It is an interesting evergreen shrub with glossy leaves and tubular pale-yellow flowers that open up in the evenings and share their perfume. This plant likes to grow in a sunny spot in light sandy soil and be fed regularly with fertiliser, although it should only be watered when the soil has dried out. Being a tropical plant, it may need to be protected in cold weather, so it is best grown in gardens that don’t suffer from cold winters. Because of its nightly flowering it is usually pollinated by moths or in more tropical places, humming birds. Propagation is usually from non-flowering green shoots when they appear.
