Tips for July

Thoroughly water vunerable plants, then mulch round them to keep moisture at their roots.

Feed roses etc with a general fertiliser such as phostrogen, and continue to deadhead spent flowers.

Top up pools as water evaporates. Keep pumps in good condition.

Work with the hot weather and hoe regularly.

Continue watering and harvesting veg and fruit in the kitchen garden.

The Fish, The Birds and The Bees

At the end of last month I mentioned that we had yet to see any warm weather. Well, it is here with a vengeance, and has caused a serious problem with the garden lake as the carp began to suffer in the heat. Even the eels, which are normally very tough, were struggling to breathe. A large pump was hired to recirculate the water. After losing some of our larger carp we called in the local Fire Brigade with their more efficient hoses and pumps. They kindly aerated the lake for several hours and thankfully the carp are recovering.

The white peahen started laying last month. After last year's failure the new gamekeeper has removed 3 eggs to incubate. The peahen doesn't seem terribly interested in raising her own family.

Continuing on the theme of nature, we had a large swarm of bees suddenly appear and take up residence near the Fountain Beds, which was a bit of a suprise. Thankfully, this proved less of a problem than the carp as, whilst we were phoning various people to see if someone would take them away, the bees decided they didn't like the view and chose to move on.

We are expecting a good show of lilies down the Long Walk, including a mix of lilium monadelphum (See pic) and lilium martagon. We treated a possible outbreak of lily disease last spring and it looks as if we have caught it in time.

In the middle of June I was in Vienna helping my daughter bring back her student stuff after a year abroad. Whilst there I had a call to say that BBC Gardeners' World would be showing our paeony piece filmed last year, on June 23rd, and our local radio station would like to record an interview! I had to pass on the radio opportunity as at the time I was battling with grossly overweight luggage at Bratislava Airport. Still, apparently it was a good programme.

And finally, greetings to our international diary readers: Nancy and Tom in Maryland, USA, and Mary and Paul in Alberta, Canada. We are always delighted to hear from people who read this diary entry on a regular basis. Do let us know if you are one of those people by emailing hb@spetchleygardens.co.uk.