My father’s garden was one filled with beautiful flowers with scents to lure the bees. He grew mainly small flowers, except for his beloved roses which he mulched with seaweed.
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I remember some of the old-fashioned names of his flowers – there were granny’s bonnets, snapdragons, baby’s tears and columbines.
All his plants flourished, masses of them packed into small beds usually bordered by rocks.
He never gave any thought to garden design or colour charts. His was an untidy garden by modern standards yet I remember it with such fondness.
If it looks and feels right, then it is right.
My father loved simple pleasures such as the smell of crushed ornamental currant leaves after a spring shower.
He loved his flowers personally and grew them for himself and nobody else. He was more interested in getting the plants to thrive rather than have them fit into some clinical design.
Whatever happened to such gardens, to our old world flowers, to us as gardeners? At times I sense that we appear to have lost our sense of wonder and like sheep we feel obliged to follow the latest trends.
My father taught me the most valuable lesson of all about garden design – if it looks and feels right, then it is right.
Sunny smiles
Sunflowers turn their smiley faces to follow the sun during the day and brighten up our summer gardens with their vibrant colours that come in shades of yellow, bronze, cream and red.
Their nutritional seeds attract birds and beneficial insects.
These stunning ornamental plants do best in a sheltered, sunny position in fertile, moist, well-drained soil and take about 12 weeks to flower.
Don’t plant sunflowers near potatoes as the leaves and stems emit substances that inhibit the growth of potatoes.
Time to tidy
Summer pruning of peaches and nectarines can be done now. Kiwi fruit can also have a trim. Geraniums and lavenders, if trimmed occasionally, continue to produce masses of flowers.
Prune modern roses lightly to remove spent blooms and any diseased and twiggy growth. This trim should encourage more autumn flowers.
Spray stone fruit to control brown rot.
Lemons mature at various times according to variety and can be harvested over a long period.
Pick lemons when the fruit is turning from green to yellow, taking care to leave a small stub of stem attached.
This regular harvesting maintains tree health and promotes better cropping.