A View from the Potting Shed

Will it be flaming June in 2021? Will we be basking on the beaches? Or will the weather try to spoil our fun? According to the Met Office, winter 20/21 as a whole, and despite that -23º in Braemar, was not far from average. But surely the same cannot be said about the spring, especially the exceptionally cold April that brought air frost somewhere in the UK every single morning of the month. Those chilly nights continued into May, bad news for gardeners, especially those in the frozen north.

We are lucky to be beside the seaside, which saves us from the lowest temperatures, but those vicious north winds have caused some damage, and young shoots may have been nipped by the frost. Let’s hope June will be kind.

wh at to do JoBS To Do iN JUNE

3 Cut back foliage on Iris unguicularis (Algerian winter iris). Lift and divide congested clumps of Iris germanica (bearded iris) after flowering. 3 Cut back Weigela immediately after it has flowered. Each year take out a couple of stems entirely to the ground.

Deutzia responds well to the same treatment. 3 Keep onions weeded as they hate competition. 3 Plant outdoor tomatoes now. They do best in a sunny, sheltered site against a south facing wall.

members’ Notice

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In Victorian and Edwardian times magnificent herbaceous borders were found in country house gardens throughout the UK. These borders relied predominantly on herbaceous perennials, plants that die back to a rootstock each winter before bursting back into life again in spring and flowering throughout the summer. Nymans Garden in West Sussex has splendid examples that were planted in Edwardian times giving maximum colour impact in the spring and summer when the family were in residence. Nyman’s ‘summer borders’ are now a layered mix of those herbaceous perennials with added grasses and blocks of annuals for extra colour and interest. They are big and bold, but you could have a scaled down version.

Choose several hardy perennials for the backbone of your border; the design should aim to provide interest from April to October e.g. achilleas, asters, astrantias, delphiniums, euphorbias, heleniums, lupins, peonies and phlox, while hardy geraniums come in dozens of varieties. One of my favourite perennials is penstemon, a long flowering bee-loving plant in shades of pink, mauve and purple. Bulbs, grasses and annuals can be added to the scheme to produce a crammed mixed border – no room for weeds!

To maintain the border, clumps of congested perennials are lifted and divided in autumn, followed by a good mulch of manure to keep the soil fertile. Winter interest is created by leaving some stems and seedheads intact until new shoots start to emerge in early spring. Grasses especially can look good in winter.

Establishing a stunning herbaceous or mixed border requires lots of patience, loads of manure, and plenty of plants, and don’t forget plants supports. It’s a big project but the bees will love you, and that wow factor will be worth it.

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