End of the Month Review June 2011

It's that time of the month already? Where does all the time go and where's the warmer weather?
I was looking back on the end of May post and I said something about warmer weather then. The last view days have been sunny and about 18C. Gosh I can feel a "heatwave" coming on....
In the south of England they have been sweltering in about 33C last week and we were on about 13C.  The poor sweetcorn even with fleece at night it won't be warm enough to get a decent crop. Luckily we also planted some in the greenhouse.

Looking at the photos of the flower garden it hasn't changed much since last month. It's filled out a bit more here and there. And some replanting has been done after winter losses.

Some of my favourite plants are putting on a show. The froth of white flowers seems to go on for two or three weeks and are then followed by small  pea like seed heads which take us right through to the autumn.

 The architectural serrated leaves of the melianthus major are finally growing to a decent size and make an interesting contrast with the miscathus on the left and plummy leaves of anthricus sylvestris (Cow parsley) beyond.

 The Tree Ferns (Dicksonia Antartica)  are almost back to their former glory and are complemented by some spikey plantings and One Of Frances Pelly's "Noust"  bronze.

Other plants in flower are the cirsium rivulare

The Philadelphus "Belle Etoile"

Cerinthe Major  (grown from seed every year to fill any gaps at the front of the border)

And lastly the  wonderful but short lived papaver somniferum (opium poppies)in a range of deep pinks and plums.

  The veg garden is full of goodies, although some of the greens have bolted due to the lack of water and variation in temperatures. This is the time I need to keep on sowing salad crops, beetroots etc but it always seems to get away from me in the next few weeks. Still there's enough food here for two (and visitors).

  The tomatillo plants are looking very healthy and need to be hardened off for planting out. One slight probalem is that I've run out of space. The seeds were so late in coming that I put another crop in it's place.

And the strawberries go on and on......

Thanks to Helen at The Patient Gardener for hosting the Monthly Review.