Successional sowing and cutbacks – tips for late June

Oh, we Southerners have had some appalling heat this week!

Working in the garden has only been possible at the crack of dawn or very late in the day when the blazing sun has mercifully started to set. But there are still tasks to do, such as sowing salads, cutting back early flowerers and checking for lily beetles…

Salads all summer

Have you got some nice juicy leaves available to fill bowls with fresh salads to go with your summer lunches?  I hope so. The great problem, I find, with sowing and growing your own salad stuff is that it all comes at once!  You sow some lettuce seeds they come up nicely, you prick them out into modules and grow them on then plant them out into the veg garden (or containers, in my case (we have a BIG rabbit problem 🐇…). And then suddenly you’ve a dozen lettuces perfect for eating in the same week and will have none by the time a couple more weeks have elapsed!

There is a solution but it asks for a methodical approach.  Sow just a few seeds, and as soon as they show above the soil, sow a few more. When those seedlings have emerged, sow a few more. I’m sure you get the picture – successional sowing like this will give you successional harvests to keep you in salads all summer long and into the autumn.

Here’s another idea which is a particularly genius wheeze if you are short of space – how about buying some pre-mixed salad leaf seeds and successionally sowing them as above, but cutting them when they are just 12cm (5”) high to use as ‘mini-salads’.  The ‘cut-and-come-again’ lettuces are ideal for this, and you will find that they will re-sprout three or four times after you’ve taken your initial harvest. Or perhaps you could make your own mix of salad seeds using the ones you like best, like rocket, spinach, mizuna or corn salad!

Profit from cutbacks

Lots of plants, like us, have really suffered in the searing temperatures this week.  Generally those of us who use mulch a lot have realised its value a thousandfold in its ability to protect plant roots from withering.  Quite a few of my late spring/early summer plants have done their flowery thing already, and this blazing heat has hastened their descent into droopy indolence. Well, we’ll not be having any of that, thank you very much.  Especially not from my beloved hardy geraniums.  

It’s time to harden your heart and cut them back hard to the ground, flowered stems, leaves and all. Give the roots a really good soaking and add some liquid fertiliser to the water if you have some, because hardy geraniums appreciate some good nutrition particularly if they are being asked to go above and beyond. 

A little warning – they will look terrible for two or three weeks.  But then new shoots will start appearing and before you know it, you will have an attractive mound of fresh geranium leaves to admire for the rest of the summer.  And if you are lucky, they will flower again.  I’ve done this with G. ‘Johnsons Blue’ and ‘Wargrave Pink’ and I’m sure many other varieties will perform this trick too if given a little TLC now.

There are other perennials to try as well – delphiniums, Nepeta (catmint), Achillea and Salvia will all respond well to some tidying and pruning in mid-summer to keep the blooms coming until September or even later.

Seeds of glory

You may have noticed that we three sisters, much as we love each other, enjoy some some serious rivalry in the gardening department. You may also remember that back in March we were telling you about what seeds we were going to germinate this year, and Laura (who likes to challenge herself with all the weird stuff) was extremely sniffy about my choices of Cosmos ‘Fondant Fancy’, the annual climber ‘ Tropaeolum peregrinum’, and particularly Petunia ‘Red Velour’.  Commonplace they may be, but they are popular plant species for a reason, and now in June they are outperforming almost everything else 🌸

My point is that you may think that all that seed-sowing, growing on, planting out shenanigans is not for you; you’d rather just buy a tray of bedding at the local garden centre and have done with it.  But with things like cosmos and petunias, it’s truly easy, and the satisfaction is IMMENSE.  

There is absolutely no need to get foxed by all the horti-talk (Oooh, I’m quite pleased with that word: horti-talk, haughty-talk) about seeds that take three years to germinate, etc. etc.  Simple commonly-grown annuals like these will bring you so much joy.  And that’s a prize worth cherishing in these frenetic times.

Gardening shorts

• Keep checking over your lilies for red lily beetles. Pick them off and squash them before they lay eggs if you can.  Their wretched grubs sit in their own excrement and make a horrible mess of the foliage in a matter of a few days if allowed to.

• We’ve got a couple of newly-planted little trees, and though I don’t water anything else in the garden apart from what’s in pots or the greenhouse, I have tried to be ‘en pointe’ about watering these two little beauties.  In the heatwave, young trees simply haven’t managed to thrust their roots down deep enough yet to sustain the top-growth, and will need plenty of water for their first two years after planting.  

• My chilli plants wilted in the heat of the greenhouse this week – they revived with a good long drink and a move to a more shaded corner, thank heavens. Do make sure that your greenhouse shading is adequate for the hottest days, keep the ventilation as good as you can, and bring down the temperature by sprinkling water on the floor.

• In the light of this week’s very intense weather, we’ve put together a list of plants with excellent drought-tolerance, together with where to buy them. Do have a look – could your garden could benefit from a few of these adaptable plants?

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Unlike some other daylilies this one holds its pale yellow fragrant flowers well above the foliage. And unlike many of the genus, the balance between flowers and foliage is good, with the narrow leaves less overwhelming. A worthy candidate for Louise’s Great Plant this Month:

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Evenings of quiet contemplation as the heat lifts are definitely one of life’s most pleasurable experiences. What could be more lovely than the delicate scent of geranium leaf or citronella to complete this sensuous treat? You can buy either of these scented tea lights in our shop here 😃

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