Summer heatwave garden 2013

Lovely photos, the penstomen, the heuchera and the sempervivums are my faves. I'm glad of the rainfall and the drop in temperatures too. I don't have a hosepipe and carrying a watering can back and to was tiring!

It makes 2 of us Dorjac. When I suffered from the extreme heat the last 2 weeks and everybody else seemed to enjoy it, I felt I was from another planet. Good for me and you it is fresh and below 25 celsius now, although the temperature will rise again on Thurday and Friday but only for 2 days. Your garden is beautiful.
Keep well.

Hi Dorjac
Nice to hear how you are helping gthe garden survive the heatwave. I wish I had a pear tree with a bumper crop!
Your Penstemon is nice colours and I like the Triffid because seeing change over the seasons is the exciting bit!

Nice to see your garden surviving so well in the recent hot weather. I'm glad the lower temperatures agree better with you.

Glad to read you've enjoyed the much needed rain Dorjac. Your garden is looking good and obviously a credit to all your effort in making sure the plants are receiving water. I'm not on a meter but I suspect if I was, I would do exactly as you, I couldn't watch it wall suffer!

That is a great triffid. I have a Giant Veronicastrum too.....I love it and would interested to see your adjustable support.

A lovely selection of plants there,Dorjac..I agree,the heat has been pretty unbearable at times..and we are on a water meter too..I'm not even going to think about it! luckily,both water butts are full again after the deluge..
I love your blue pot,it's a lovely shape..:o)...

I got taken to a huge garden centre and spotted the support on the way out Linda. It is 6 foot plastic green canes with hoops that slide up as the plant grows. It was £10 and well worth the money. It folds flat for storage. The packaging was very sparse and no website mentioned. So I can't be much help. I am glad I bought this gizmo

Glad to see that so much is thriving, Dorjac, or at least hanging on with TLC from you.

love those "disney castles", can see why you call them that!

What kind of pear is that? the bush/tree/shrub doesn't look very big, unless you took the pic from up a ladder!

Hi Fran too dark now to see the pear's name. Maybe Concorde, on limiting rootstock. So I'm not on a cherry picker! The foxes have denned under next door's garden shed while they were away in America for 3 weeks. Now they are charging around both our gardens like they own the place. Next door but one have just gone to Oz then to live in America for 2 years while he does a lucrative contract job. So the happy foxy couple might like to scratch out another pad under their shed. I bet they have another go at our 2 'sheds'. Tenants are said to be moving in soon. Our neighbour has been busy with chicken wire and Jeyes fluid. Anyone want 2 frisky foxes?

Everything looks healthy Dorjac. Your pear tree has a lot of pears on for it's size. We have no apples at all on our espalier apple trees. I have been watering with the can and resorted to the hose in the end because of carrying the water everywhere, plus the fact our water butts ran out. I just gave the flowerbeds enough to keep them going over the hot spell last thing at night. At least the water butts are full again now. Does that garden a couple of doors up from you run wild then Dorjac? whilst the couple who own it are abroad.

Hi Lindak next door tell me they will have a tenant lined up but formalities still to go through. They had to leave to visit Oz relatives. They look oriental. Then he has a hush hush type job on contract in USA. Hopefully the tenants will see to the garden. Next door lifted the fence panel up to dig down behind their own garden shed and put chicken wire down to try and stop them denning under our their shed. They dug a hole in the border next to our shed overnight but met our anti fox measures taken years ago. Now I have added a large pot with a broken rim to the defences Our gardens are cultivated and quite small, so foxes, however pretty and playful, are not welcome. The pear trees each have a 2 litre coke bottle planted near to roots, regularly replenished. Might plant a Heuchera in the pot to weigh it down. By the way the pears were thinned! It never gets easier as one ages. Lugging big pots not my idea of fun.

Good Morning Dorjac
Just logged in and saw your pics--brilliant!
The single Petunia is amazing--what the heck did you feed it with!--sure beats the porridge here in Central Scotland! The Penstemon is fabulous too !
Point of interest, -where did you get the adjustable stake?--Ive just been using canes and twine and not always too successful.
Great pics--keep it up
Ian H

lol Dorjac, a ocuple of foxes might fit in round here - they might at least make the squirrels a bit less cocky! but then, if there were a niche for foxes locally, it would alreadu have been filled

Lovely blog and photo's of your plants are brilliant, I think 70-75 is just about right temperature we have had rain all day so far today in Wales lovely for the garden but I am missing the sun already .

Not been out for a car trip for a month due to heatwave. We went out today for lunch at our favourite airfield NAAFI. Then a short call into a garden centre Kidsgran. It rained on the way to lunch. Gave me a chance to get a months gunk off the windscreen with rain water. Bought geranium Rozanne. Dreamy blue. A bit hunky as geraniums go. Getting rather warm again as we got back home.

Sounds good Dorjac.

Some lovely plants Dorjak...It's a very pretty Penstemon!
It has been very hot here in Essex ,hasn't it? a bit of a struggle for me to work in at times(I look after othe r's gardens) Have you found that a lot of plants, particularly the flowering shrubs have finished a lot quicker this year..I assumed it was due to the dry/heat! My Hypericum and lots of my customers' Spireas etc etc, were late coming and then finished very quickly!

Very true about Spireas Paul I have 4 of them and they hardly seemed to flower properly but the Hypericum was ablaze with yellow for quite a long time. It has now been drastically pruned back off the path and left long at the back and top to leave some green on it in this stressful summer. I feel concern for anyone working outside in Essex area these last weeks. I would not like it. I think I'd be dead by now! I remember 1976....on record as about same temps. I had to use my bike instead of a mini to do community visits for about 6 weeks.

Yes...steaming hot1976....I was working in London and had to come part way home on tube many times due to problems and IRA attack on trains etc....It was horrible all those sweaty body's crammed together!!!

Hi Dorjac, just trying to catch up again! I have been lugging washing up water and shower water around the garden to keep the pots and plants going - like you I was glad to see some rain but, once again, the butts are emptying fast. I do like you new blue pot, lovely shape. I had to laugh at your 'triffid' - a plant that wants to stand out from the crowd :)

Happy to hear from you Gee. I got well sorted chucking waste water on an ailing Pyracantha on Sunday. I thought I had stepped over a low rail along the border. My right toe just tipped the top of it. I went forward,the bowl shot out of my hands. I landed on my right knee on the soil and a Choisya shrub to my right slowed my descent and no harm done. I got drenched. The plastic bowl disintegrated at one end. So be warned all ye who sally forth to recycle the houshold waste water.....take more care than I did. I should do a risk assessment first. Get the clipboards out.

We've had quite heavy rain on and off, often with accompanying light-show (once, thunder but no lightning, which was very odd - first peal I thought was an explosion, as there was no flash beforehand!)

There would have been enough rain to fill a water butt, if I had one - did promise myself that when I got a garden, I'd get composter and water butt; got the composter, but there's no downpipes to plug a water butt in to, no idea how the rain gets off the roof!

Oh dear, Dorjac, glad you weren't hurt, you were very lucky to get away with just a shower! I have slopped water all over myself several times as I've gone down the steps and each time I think 'I should have emptied a little bit'. Much cooler here today but very pleasant. I am still trying to organise where my wheelie bins are going but am slowly getting there. I've even ended up with more room for potted plants :)

I wonder if you are in a terraced property, Fran, and perhaps there are only downpipes on alternate properties?

I was lucky not to get hurt. Yesterday Fran we had some torrential rain for quite a while. Only some gentle rumbles of thunder. Shame no down pipe Fran....so no butt. Today the weather has been perfect. My Kniphofia Caulescens have decided to put on a spurt of growth. They look as if they might be a bit intimidatingly large. Still i wanted a plant with attitude, and they look the part so far. They are in the dry garden at Hyde Hall. Hopefully they might overcome the tendency of Japanese anemone to persist in growing there. Wait and see.

ooh, heck, Dorjac, it's a bit early to start training for gymnastics fpr tje mext Olympics! Very glad to hear you' weren't hurt, but it must have shaken you a bit. And hope the soaking didn't have any after-effects. (Can't believe I didn't see that bit of your post, I really need to get my eyes tested. Or clean my specs @-@¬)

I live in a 7-storey over-50s block, Gee, so I can see a bit of the wall all the way up - obviously, I can see wider the higher I look. No downpipes in view anywhere. They might be spaced, and I just heppen to live in the space between. sigh.

Some more recent flats builds don't have outside down pipes. A couple of recent flats builds near to us seem not to have downpipes on the outside of the walls. They don't have substantial balconies either. These seem to be on older places, maybe over shops, and you can have a sort of garden as you do. All I have Fran is a red mark on my leg and a slightly tender patch beside my right knee. The pyracantha is thriving and the choisya that I half flattened is sulking.

this is a 60s block, I think - had to find the build date for the home insurance. No balconies, either.

Glad you didn't come to too much harm. It's so easy to misjudge a step, only takes a split second's distraction. I'm sure the
choisya will recover in time.