Anne McKeon
“Stand back and smell the roses†— a phrase often used to slow busy people but also a very apt phrase from now on in the garden. We all tend to live busy lives and in our rushing, often miss out on the beauty and scents of nature.
Our sense of scent is invaluable to us. We all know the indoor smells such as the aroma of a nice meal or a tray of cakes coming out of the oven or the perfume from scented candles or even the waft from polished furniture. All are scents common to most households. Step outdoors, however and there are whole array of different scents waiting to greet us.
The smells of summer are so distinct. In full bloom and full scent at present is my Rosa rugosa. This medium sized shrub rose can be planted in shrubberies or as part of a hedgerow. Outside my office window, my Moroccan Broom, Cytisus battanderii is proudly displaying its yellow blooms and wafting scents of pineapples. This climbing plant is vigorous and worthy of a home in any garden.
Aside from the scent of plants in the garden there are other scents to note. We are all very familiar with the smell of newly mown grass and hay or of wooden/rustic fences, freshly painted garden furniture, summer rain and so on. All of these perfumes announce in style, the arrival of the outdoor season.
For those of you less inclined to step outside, scent in the garden can be enjoyed through an open window. Use roses or honeysuckles around a bedroom window, (eg. Lonicera Halliana and Rosa Zepherine Drouhin ), aromatic herbs such as Peppermint or sage on a sill or fragrant lilies in a container. The options are endless.
I would encourage your to spend as much time outdoors this season. Enjoy nature. The housework will wait!
Happy Gardening !
Anne.
Garden Checklist
• Plant summer bedding plants in beds, borders, baskets and boxes, if you have not already done so. There are still some plants available.
• Sow wallflower seeds for next year.
• Prune shrubs that have completed flowering for this season. eg. Forsythia, Corylopsis, Berberis darwinii etc.
• Spray roses against greenfly and blackspot.
• Remove suckers from rose bushes.
• Clip hedges. No short back and sides please.
• Feed lawns and treat weeds in your lawn.
• Kill moss in lawns using lawn sand or a scarifier.
• Make softwood cuttings. These should be four inches to six inches long. Keep indoors in a mix of peat and sand until rooted.
• Remove side shoots from tomato plants.
• Feed tomato plants with every second or third watering.
• Feed cucumber plants with a liquid tomato food.
• Watch out for aphid attacks on peppers.
• Trim winter and spring flowering heathers, if you did not get around to it before now.
• Keep vegetable garden weed free. You won?t regret this.
• Stake and tie trees where required.
• Spray potatoes against blight.
