Another summer is now drawing to a close and this one will certainly be remembered as the wettest for many years. You would not think that looking out of the window right now. Outside the sun is shining and the air is pleasantly warm. Perfect in fact for a doze in the sun and to dream of what might have been.
This rather damp summer has had its brighter moments however. I grow many plants in a variety of pots and containers, so watering has been done for me most of the time. Consequently, the plants in my garden have grown more or less stress free, which with my sandy soil is something of a rare event. Not only that, but many have performed better as a result.
Damper weather works wonders for Japanese anemones for example. These do enjoy soil, which retains moisture, and despite my best efforts usually droop a little after a few days of dry sunny weather. Strangely, almost all my Agapanthus in pots flowered much better this season, no idea why really, except to say all had a good feed of sulphate of potash early in the season but no supplementary watering. My clematis flowered as good as usual this wet summer as did the roses. However, growing roses on a sandy soil if far from easy. They really need a good clay soil and certainly one that does not dry out in the summer.
Cultivating many plants on a sandy soil does present its own set of problems. On the plus side it is quick to warm up in the summer, whereas a clay soil can remain quite cold until quite late in spring. A sandy soil has good drainage which is a comfort to less hardy plants in winter, but is essentially a hungry soil which needs feeding each season and building up with as much organic material as one can get hold of.
The summer of course is not quite over yet. I am enjoying some very welcome late summer sun in the garden at the moment. This has enabled me to get on with maintenance jobs in the garden. Chief amongst these has been more pruning of shrubs and trees. Relieving the gloom where it occurs does help enormously if you expect plants to flower. My elegant Prunus tree in the back garden has had to endure some hard pruning and now looks a lot better, the job however is still in progress. The pond lies beneath this particular tree and already more light is now getting through, which will benefit not only the pond and its plant and animal inhabitants, but also the surrounding vegetation.
