End of Month View – August 2017

I started doing an End of Month View in August 2016 having seen Helen Johnstone’s blog,  The Patient Gardener, on my reader. In August 2009 she invited bloggers to join her End of the Month View by adding a comment and link to their End of Month View.

This simple idea has certainly caught on with many bloggers contributing to a global End of Month View community each month. Recently demands on Helen’s time have meant she is reluctantly giving up her hosting of the End of Month View.

The idea is too good to let it disappear and I have offered to pick up the mantle of hosting the End of Month View. I am sure you will all join me in thanking Helen for hosting this over the last 8 years and wish her the very best for the future.

In the meantime please add your comments to my blog together with a link to your End of Month View. Also please add a link back to here at the end of your blog so that other readers can find their way to all the contributors to the End of Month View.
Thank you.

Glebe House Garden – End of the Month View – August 2017

The weather this August has very variable with lots of rain and grey overcast skies. Temperatures have ranged from very cool, cool enough to actually switch on the heating in our house, to record breaking temperatures at the end of the month. As always the best growing plants have been the weeds and the borders need to be patrolled frequently for specimen weeds which can suddenly appear!This is the view I often centre on in my EoMV, looking across our main lawn to the old kitchen garden wall.The same walls and border looking diagonally across the lawn.  And looking along the other diagonal. Originally the kitchen garden wall extended across the lawn to form a kitchen garden enclosed on three sides and open on the fourth where there was probably a hedge. The late summer border is starting to look very full with many of the herbaceous plants growing very tall and needing plenty of staking to prevent them falling across other smaller plants.At the corner of this bed is one of those lucky combinations of colour with the soft pink of Geranium sanguineum striatum, the dark red of Osteospermum ‘Tresco Purple’ and the red of Salvia ‘Cerro Potosi’. The white/pink osteospermum is a very hardy osteospermum my mother gave me but as we do not know the variety and so we call it Nancy’s osteospermum after my mother!The tall plant is Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’. This was only planted in April this year and has certainly grown well. However, “the jury is still out” on whether it stays. Yes the flowers are there but many are covered with the green leaves. Maybe the flowers will be more prominent later in September. We will have to wait to see.The star of the border continues to be Ricinus communis ‘Impala’ The leaves of which are absolutely fantastic. These are grown from seed and as such are only a few pence each.

To the right of this corner before the pond are a couple of blue flowered plants. Clematis ‘Wyevale’ at the back and Salvia ‘Phyllis Fancy’ towards the front and in the detail picture (with a red salvia photo bombing!). Salvia ‘Phyllis Fancy’ has been relatively hardy although I do take cuttings each year.Coreopsis ‘Redshift’ a new plant this year at the front of the corner bed. Lots of flowers but seems to flop very easily.I found this caterpillar making great speed across the lawn. It was about 3 inches long with two pairs of false eyes and a small horn on its tail. At first I was fooled and thought it was a snake! A bit of research identified it as probably an elephant hawk moth caterpillar.The other corner of the wall has a green oak pergola to provide a seating area and some shade. The rose growing up the pergola is Rosa ‘Blush Noisette’

Rosa ‘Blush Noisette’ 

The pergola has a number of grape vines that grow across the top to provide the shade. Grape vines grow at a rapid rate and in the summer some pruning of the new growth is require to achieve a dappled shade and also to encourage bunches of grapes to form.This year I could only prune half the vines back as a pigeon had decided to make a nest in the vine. This week two chicks hatched out and are doing well but the vine remains un-pruned.

Bishop of Llandaff

At this time of year the border to the left of the pergola contains mostly dahlias; Bishop of Llandaff and Bishop of Auckland. Although our dahlias started slowly the weather through August has given them all a real spurt of growth with Bishop of Llandaff  up to five feet high.Looking back from the pergola to the corner bed.

You can just see a rose on either side of the pond. These were planted this year and are Rosa Pink Gruss an Aachen, a small rose plant that seems to like the location.

Salvia involocruta bethellii

To the right of the pergola the outstanding plant is Salvia involocruta bethellii. This has proved to be very hardy. We cut it down to the ground each year but it produces huge plants with many flowers.The end of the wall on the right has a very sad looking Cotinus ‘Nottcutts Variety’. Normally it has very attractive dark coloured foliage but this year it seems to be dying! The foliage has gone dry and brown and is spreading through the shrub. Looks like this will be coming out soon.

2017 Gardening Hours
Week beginning August 19th	Total 2017 to-date	Average per week
32	703	21

A busy week in the garden, cutting out some of the “autumn” in the border, a lot of hedging and of course weeding.

All are welcome to join in with the End of Month View community. You can use it how you like all I ask is that you add a link to your post in the comment box below and if possible it would be great if you could link to this post from your post.