It is June! June, June, June, June, June ...

Well, May was a bit of a wash out, wasn’t it? The wettest May for years and the coldest, although we didn’t get the degree of frost that elsewhere suffered and have come out unscathed. I had a huge backlog of planting in the greenhouse, and we spent much of the time carting trays of plants in and out to get them acclimatised. When the weather finally calmed down I had a mammoth planting out job. I planted perennials I'd grown from seed, plus bits and pieces I'd ordered to fill up the gaps. The border we instated in the Spring still has some visible soil but once the plants get going there will be very little. There are still one of two pots wating to go in the ground but I am waiting for them to grow on j ust a little bit more so as not to be such a tasty offering for the slugs.

We weren’t daunted by the weather though and as promised, the under gardener built a fabulous pergola along the back of the house. It went up much quicker than expected. he designed and built it from scratch, costing around £350, a fraction of the cost of a ready built one half that size. I wasn’t sure how it would look. I worried it would be too big, too ‘in-your-face’ but it is lovely and already looks as if it has been there forever. It will blend in even more once the wood  has weathered a bit and the climbers have wound their way to the top.

We already had a montana growing up the house, most of it sneaking through the fence to next door where it is sunnier but we have tempted some of it back and along the top where it will get all the sun it needs. On the left of the kitchen window are two more clematis: Multi Blue and Piilu but they are young yet so we will have to wait a while for those. We also planted a couple more along the front in tall pots; Cragside and Markhams’ Pink, as well as a Rubens that I was given, planted along the fence on the left hand side. Two roses, Paul’s Himalayan Musk on the sunnier side and American Pillar in the dappled shady side. The jungle plants are all in place beneath, although they are not yet particularly jungly, they soon will be. 

I only managed to safely overwinter one banana maurelli, and the Cavendish is looking very sad. I’ve some babies coming along to take over though.

We took the decision to take part in No Mow May and let the grass grow longer. We liked the result, it took me back to my childhood to see the daisies and buttercups but we didn’t quite make it through the month and had to mow once. The very edges of the lawn that had the advantage of that lovely mulch we spread in the spring, grew lank and lush and began tangling up the planting. We still intend to let the middle grow a bit longer than before but will keep the edges short so as not to spoil the look of the borders.

Elsewhere in the garden, everything is coming up roses. I have never seen it looking so lovely in the five years we've been here. Gardening is hard work and culminates in just a few precious moments of absolute perfection, when you pause and look around and realise you wouldn’t change a thing. That is what the blood, sweat and tears are all about. I took this month’s video during one of those moments. It might get better, or it might be blown to smithereens by a sudden storm. At least I had a few days of perfection so let the winds blow.

We’ve done the hard graft for this year, from now on it is just a matter of maintenance and enjoying the fragrance and beauty of the things we love to grow. I plan to take lots of cutting this year, I’ve invested in a cutting propagator as suggested by Ken Black in his clematis You tube video channel (that I highly recommend.) The cuttings are grown without soil, the stems continually misted with water and he says his success rate has increased considerably. I hope mine does too.

Don't forget to take our monthly stroll around the garden and if you enjoy it click like or subscribe to my channel.  https://youtu.be/U7mH1L7bFKw

So, until next time, enjoy your own garden in June!