August has brought a little rain.

Yes, there were 30 mm (1 inch) one day last week, and it's raining again right at this moment. Whoopee. It's really amazing you know, when one writes these regular pieces about gardening how the time seems to simply fly past. The local Newsletter from the Garden Centre tells me that spring is approaching fast and one should be looking at some sort of August Garden Check List. Things like plants drying out although it is wintertime should be investigated. I inspected the one large rhododendron we have the other day and found a rather large brown-red spot on some of the leaves. It looks as though it is a sunspot; at least that is what my garden centre manager tells us. The plant is in a fair amount of shade, but there will be some filtered sunlight during the summer months, which could explain the spots. There is another thing it could be, some sort of blight. I hope that is not the case. Just in the process of mulching again. I have a friend who is a tree doctor and he sometimes gets overloaded with mulch, he delivered a large load last Thursday. I'll tell you what, it's a very good way to keep fit, barrowing and shovelling mulch that is. I probably have about half the garden to mulch after which we should have a garden that will be, if not free of weeds, at least a lot easier to weed. I don't know about you all, I always put a couple of layers of waste paper underneath the mulch. This seems to keep the weeds from growing through the mulch. I did notice my neighbour had mulched without the waste paper. They have got grass and weeds growing through after only three weeks of placing the mulch. I think I mentioned before that I am re-organising some of the garden paths. This is another job I must finish before the summer arrives. Anyway, there are lots of different path designs - I am taking the time to walk around the neighbouring brick paving yards to get some new ideas. Some fruits and herbs we planted some years ago and are making good use of are: tomatoes, oranges, lemons, cumquats, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, and a bay-leaf tree. They have made the making of curries, and other delightful dishes a lot easier. My local garden centre tells me they have some Euonymus alatus compactus in stock. I believe this slow growing shrub is famous for its brilliant autumn foliage. It can be used as a hedge plant in full sun or shade. It seems it could be ideal for the new paved area I am constructing. Fully grown,it becomes a 2 m(6 foot) rounded shrub.

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