Deadhead

Whilst deadheading the lovely petunias, the thought occurred to me - I am so pleased how the garden is turning out this year.

I only look after a small space, and there isn’t much room here for large plants, but the colours of the pots and plants this year is really joyful.

I have some red salvia mixed with yellow and orange marigolds. Some pink and red geraniums (mainly as the scent of the geraniums reminds me of my grandmother’s garden - she grew red geraniums every summer!). Some purple Pom-pom flower plants, multicoloured white, blue, pink and purple petunias - some veined and some striped. Some ruffled pansies of all different colours, and some bright blue and white-pink-light blue mix trailing lobelia, which is very much enjoying the rain!

I’ve only got a few pots, and mainly concentrated in one area, but they are really growing well, and it looks so cheerful when pollinators, butterflies and animals come to visit.

The adhesive copper tape on planters has also done really well - my garden is usually full of slugs that love to munch the plants, but all the planters are copper-taped and the slug damage has been very minimal!

I was very much into gardening a few years ago - growing my own flowers and watching little shoots come through the earth is such a joy…then had a few years of very low effort when the garden was entirely taken over by ants and slugs and snails.

This year I remembered how nice it was to sit outside and read a book, or just watch butterflies and swifts dance about in the sky, so have been spending more time tending to the planters and keeping the garden tidy and flowerful. As I am also not going away over the summer period, this is fairly easy to maintain too, keeping an eye on the weather and watering the plants accordingly.