THE NOT SO LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

THE NOT SO LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER

11:11pm Sunday 26th June 2011

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The hot weather has returned and with it all the responsibilities of frequent and careful watering. Be careful to watch the progress of newly planted shrubs and climbers, especially if they have been planted near walls and trees as this makes them particularly susceptible to drought. To help preserve essential moisture try spreading a 5-8cm mulch of well-rotted garden compost or bark chippings – your plants will love you for it.

The forecast of a heat wave this weekend sent me off to the local garden centre to buy annuals for the few remaining empty pots. Just for once I was completely open-minded about what to buy and after looking round for a few minutes spotted some trays of mixed verbena and knew immediately that they would be perfect. A tray of twenty-four sturdy young plants was £5 and at the check-out I was offered a tray of mixed lobelia for £1, a real bargain. I took them straight home and planted up the empty pots and with so many plants I had to search around for a couple more – I felt that my investment of £6 will pay dividends over the coming weeks.

Unfortunately pests too enjoy the warmer weather and on the plus side this is when encouraging the local beneficial wildlife into our gardens really pays off. However on the minus side our friends quite often enjoy our crops, such as strawberries, just as much as we do. A fruit cage is the ideal solution to keep out birds but if you don’t have room or the means an efficient temporary structure can be made using canes and black netting. One way to protect soft fruit is to peg lines of black cotton between the rows. The codling moth is a menace to apples and a simple and easy way of dealing with this problem is to set special traps to protect the new crop. These are particularly sneaky and work by trapping the male moths onto a sticky surface. This puts them out of action which means the females do not produce fertile eggs that would hatch into destructive grubs.

Last night we went to an evening barbecue with friends who had taken the opportunity of the hot weather to invite a few people round to make the most of it. After supper as we sat outside chatting in the quiet of the late evening, enjoying a glass of wine, I thought this is what gardens are all about – enjoyment.

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