This month in the garden - what to do, what is in flower, where to go for inspiration.

Apologies for no newsletter from the garden in June - I was knocked over by our dog about a month ago. I damaged my right wrist and then spent several weeks with it in plaster. Even holding a pencil was impossible, although I did devise a means of dead heading roses. Nevertheless, I was virtually immobilised for one of the busiest months of the garden year and could only watch as Mother Nature took over. Happily I agreed with a lot of what she did and even found little seedlings appearing where I had been unable to weed around the base of plants. I will keep these in place until the early autumn and then find a permanent home for them somewhere else. Note to self - we are wrong to imagine we can conquer nature and must work with it rather than fight against it.

However - the end of June did see me transplanting seedlings and cuttings which should have gone out at least a month ago. The rain of late June was a blessing as it has helped their early days in the open ground. Too late really to subject them to the stress of summer in the garden, but I felt they would fare better there than in the tiny pots which had become much too small.

The most exciting event since the last newsletter has been the arrival of three little bantam chicks. They hatched over the Jubilee weekend and so we called them George, Charlotte and Louis. Who knows what sex they will turn out to be, of course, but the three names are very gender flexible - and could easily be modified to Georgina, Charles and Louise, should circumstances require it. Louis/Louise, who is the smallest of them, is in character and is the naughtiest of the lot - given the slightest opportunity he/she will escape from the cage and run around outside it, to mother hen's great distress.

Here she is, with her three enfants a few days after hatching:

July in the garden is usually all about keeping things going  when the weather gets hot. This year it all seems to have started early and in the ornamental garden both flowers and shrubs are very advanced, our garlic is already harvested (and the bulbs are small) and the tomatoes have recovered completely from the frosts of late April. I can see that irrigation will be an even more important task than usual this year. The water table is low and, even after the recent rain, if you dig down the ground is dry -  I fear that hose pipe bans are on the horizon. There is a national website which informs you which areas of France are affected by water restrictions. If you want to check whether you are affected you can find out here:

Meanwhile, if you want to check out what to do in the garden in July you can read this  month's "to-do" list here:

A little light summer reading, should you have the time:

July and August are not the busiest months of the year in the garden and I always spend a little time looking at plant and bulb catalogues as I try to visualise what I would like to grow in the garden over the next year. If you are looking for specific bulbs, seeds or plants it is often worth getting your order in before September as the best things can sell out quickly, so here are links to some of my favourite websites. They will all supply to France, which is something which caused me a few problems in the immediate aftermath of Brexit as plant passports became so expensive and complex for growers to obtain that many will no longer export to the EU.

Seedaholic has a fantastic range of seeds - both edibles and ornamentals. I will be placing my first order within the next fortnight, so they are untested but full of promise.

I placed my first order with Farmer Gracy last autumn and was not disappointed - they had a great range of alliums and fritillarias, all of which arrived in good condition and which flowered well. Their popular tulips had sold out, so this year I will order early; they are currently offering Earlybird discounts of 10% on the website.

A good all round website for perennials (although they also do seeds amongst other things) is Promesse de Fleurs. I have used them for years and they have always proved reliable. They also have a very informative blog (in French).

Now is the moment to plant new bearded irises - they are dormant in the summer months. Cayeux is a long established French iris specialist and many old and new popular varieties of iris were bred by them. If you are looking for new irises for your garden there is no better place to start. This is a link to their English language web site:

Finally - autumn is the time to plant your bare rooted roses. They are cheaper than roses in pots and establish more easily as they have all winter to settle themselves in before the growing season begins. To me the name David Austin is synonymous with roses. They have a European website which you can access via the button below.

My plant of the month 

..........This month is Agapanthus, also known as African lily as they come from South Africa. They have spectacular flowers in shades of blue through to white each July followed by statuesque seed heads for the next couple of months.

We visited South Africa about 5 years ago and to see agapanthus growing wild amongst the fynbos of the Western Cape was spectacular.  I already knew the plant quite well as I had designed a garden in Portugal in the 1980s and had a problem filling a raised bed around the base of a carob tree. Whatever we put in that bed failed to thrive as the tree inevitably took all of the goodness from the soil. Knowing that agapanthus is happy when its roots are restricted I gambled that it would be content competing for space with the carob - and was proved right. The agapanthus thrived (and so did the tree). However, until more recently I have never been confident planting them in the ground in an area where there is likely to be frosts.

My agapanthus plants have always been in pots which are overwintered under cover. This does not have to be the case and this year I have planted some in a mixed border on the south east side of the house - so reasonably sheltered but not frost free. The trick is to be selective as to which type of agapanthus you plant in the ground as they broadly divide into two types. The broad leaved ones are evergreen - they keep their leaves all winter - and are tender. You must shelter these from frost. I keep these in pots and bring them under cover in the late autumn. The narrower leaved types lose their leaves in the winter and are hardier than their broad leaved cousins. These are the ones which I have planted in the border. I also have some narrow leaved ones in pots and because the roots of plants in pots are vulnerable to frost I do bring these under cover when the weather gets cold. 

New agapanthus species are being developed currently and breeders are aiming at improving hardiness - for example Promesse de Fleures (see above) are currently advertising one called Navy Blue which they say is hardy down to -10C. I will certainly be trialling this.

As I mentioned earlier they love to be restricted and flower more generously when they are in a cramped pot. I usually end up leaving them in a pot until they start to climb out of it of their own accord - and can break the pot while trying to extract the plant. If you do decide to divide them  (which you do at the end of winter) they can be reluctant to flower the first year after division, so as in all things gardening, patience is required.

The photo above is of agapanthus growing wild near the Silvermine reservoir in Western Cape, South Africa. 

Below is a photograph of two of my agapanthus pots. One contains broad leaved and frost tender plants which retain their leaves all winter(I bought them in Portugal). The plants in the other pot are narrower leaved and die back each winter. These are hardier and could be planted in a sunny, sheltered spot in the garden.

I hope you enjoy what looks like being a hot and sunny July.

Sue

Editor