Paying the price

We’ve paid the price again for having a few days away from the garden.  The lawns are now meadows, the weeds are appearing everywhere, and the perennials in the flower garden are still heading skywards.  In previous years after a holiday in August the lawns are brown and a lack of water has usually put a stop to any growth but this year with a combination of moisture and warmth things just haven’t stopped growing.

Perennials are taller than we’ve ever known. Our delphiniums with stems like tree trunks reached nearly 7 feet high, while our dahlias are at shoulder height, and Helenium well over six feet tall.  Geranium ‘Rozanne’ which was at waist height a few weeks ago has thankfully started to put its energy into flowers, and the Euphorbia palustris that we cut to the ground and relocated about three weeks ago is now already eighteen inches high; don’t believe it when you’re told you can’t move perennials in mid summer!!

Several passes of the mower were required to tame the flower garden lawns, and the orchard grass was so thick that the mower demanded a rest and a few minutes in the shade of the sycamores before it would go on any further.  Recent strong winds and persistent heavy showers have caused havoc with many of the larger plants in the borders so tomorrow we’ll be back out, string and canes in hand, cutting back, deadheading, and re-staking the late flowering performers that with some care and attention will take us right through into late summer.

Clothes in action today:  Men's Rosemoor Gardening Henley