In the Garden – June

What a difference a day of heavy rain makes; trees bursting into leaf, the lawn needing a mow and the fruit trees and bushes looking promising. Even the never-ending frosts seem to have gone at last.

Our garden is full of colour – yellow dandelions and white daisies which have been visited every day by several goldfinches, carefully extracting dandelion seeds from the heads. (I have decided to let most of the garden revert to meadow to encourage birds, bees and butterflies and already have a young hare visiting regularly).

I was thrilled to spot a mistle thrush nest low down in the fork of a tree near the greenhouse. She laid 4 pretty blue speckled eggs, which on 9th May hatched into 4 rather ugly looking babies with just a fluffy feather on their heads. By 12th May they had grown larger and sported more feathers, but early on 13th they were predated, probably by magpies or jackdaws. I just hope the hen builds a new nest in a less obvious place. Ή Now is a good time to shade the greenhouse, you can use greenhouse paint which is a lot cheaper than buying mesh screen. Ή Stake plants that will grow taller during the summer, you can use bamboo canes tied together with twine, or even some long twigs. Ή Check your garden tools, giving them a good clean and oil; you may find some old ones in the shed which you don’t use any more and which can be re-cycled to first-time gardeners. Ή Plant out courgettes, sweetcorn, aubergines etc if all risk of frost has gone. Ή Regularly pinch out side shoots on cordon tomatoes and make sure the main stem is well supported. Ή Start summer pruning of gooseberries, shortening the current season’s growth back to five leaves; prune out and dispose of any shoots affected by gooseberry mildew.

By the time you read this, we will have had our annual plant and cake sale; I would like to thank David Findley for offering to transport my heavy containers of plants to the churchyard, a very welcome gesture.

CK