THE GOLDEN DAYS OF SUMMER (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

THE GOLDEN DAYS OF SUMMER

7:59pm Sunday 3rd July 2011

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This month is the height of the summer season when our gardens reach their peak and we can take time to look around and enjoy our successes and hopefully learn from our mistakes – and however experienced the gardener there are always a few of these.

A friend had an open garden evening over the weekend and a group of just over of twenty got together to enjoy someone else’s hard work and ideas. We were able to eat outside whilst indulging in some garden chat but despite the sunshine earlier we were all looking for warm jackets and fleeces by eight o’clock. On the whole gardeners are friendly people and generous with their produce. This morning some near neighbours with a productive vegetable garden called round with some freshly picked Swiss chard, broad beans and new potatoes – delicious. I have picked my first courgettes - this year I have tried a yellow variety and they looked really pretty sliced into a salad. The tomatoes are forming and the cucumbers are coming on rapidly – there is so much to look forward to.

With the promise of more hot days it is important to keep checking the level of your pond as water evaporates very quickly in the heat and it may well need topping up. Use just a few aquatic fertiliser pellets to treat any plant baskets that need feeding and, at the same time, divide any plants that are overgrown. Congested oxygenating weeds should be thinned out and remember to feed your fish regularly. Use a hose-end sprinkler to help aerate the pond. Do this really gently as strong jets of water can distress fish and at the same time muddy the water by churning up any sediment.

With all of our attention taken up outside it’s all too easy to overlook the needs of the plants indoors and in the conservatory. They too depend on us and need regular watering as well as misting in really hot weather. Use cool, boiled water to avoid ugly lime spots.

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