Six on Saturday 27 June 2020

Swifts, house-martins, and swallows are flying overhead by day and by night we have several species of bats, all seen whilst pending hours outside in the garden to try and keep cool. Mostly it is to escape the news and radio.  Inside I am reading blogs and gardening tips...a lovely pastime is reading The Props posts, and other joining in like me each Saturday. 

(1) Watching ants and their antics in the garden: a short video published on the Hardy plant Society web site.  Myrmechochory  has been going on in the garden here, I'm observed ants carrying seeds across the gravel garden.  Cyclamen will be coming up in strange places next year I am sure. I am sure the ants are farming the greenfly on the runner beans, now in flower, from the tubers which overwintered in the ground.

(2) Garlic Harvest: This week it was time to harvest the garlic. A quick wash to remove the soil, or the roots would take too long to dry,  and now these beauties are hanging up in the shade with good air circulation.  Since I grew this lot from five fat cloves from a head I bought last year. I shall grow some next year from the largest and best head. Some of what I thought were fat single cloves grew two shoots, giving eight heads in total. I may have harvested these a couple of weeks too early though, but they were starting to be overwhelmed by the Pattipan plants. There are lots of tips on the Isle of Wight site on growing garlic.

Garlic harvest 

Lettuce Royal Oakleaf

(3) I'm growing two types of lettuce in the garden at present.  I just love lettuce and salad, so this has saved many trips and supermarket plastic bags.  I harvest the leaves from the bottom, enough for each day, early in the morning, before it gets hot, and wash and pack it away in the fridge for later.  This variety of lettuce is said to be "heat-resistant, long-standing leaf ... produces large rosettes (indistinct heads) of oakleaf-shaped, dark-green leaves with thick midribs. Its tender leaves resist turning bitter even in hot temperatures" It is living up to its name.  Mr S likes smaller portions of lettuce!

(4) First flowering of Alstromeria.  This one came from the grounds of local Almhouses, and the gifter had never seen it in bloom.  I don't have many yellows in the garden, but it is a little pool of mango sweetness. At first I was a little disappointed, but they have grown on me.  

(5) Eryngium bourgatii with its silver marked leaves is just coming into flower.  The blues will get stronger.  The whole plant disappears completely during the winter.  During winter and early spring, before it emerges, crocus cover the area.  This year I waited in trepidation to see if it would emerge.  The plant has bulked out nicely from its small origins, and it was relief to see the first deeply lobbed silver veined leaves emerge.  At its feet is a creeping thyme now in flower and just in front, more sun loving plants. It survived the very wet winter pretty well.

Eryngium bourgatii

(6) At its feet, Origanum Kent Beauty is starting to show her pretty hop like bracts. This is one of Elizabeth Strangman’s lovely hybrids.   From the stems pairs of  bracts are turning pink, as they mature.  Origanum Kent Beauty is small compact plant with flowering stems growing and floating close to the ground.  Collection a few of the types of origanums is fun and not expensive, and as the plants thrive in the dryish conditions, its not surprising that I am acquiring a few more beyond the Golden Marjoram that I have been growing for years. They do need good winter drainage, and if that is not possible, a good idea is to grow them in free draining compost in pots.

Origanum Kent Beauty

I learned this week on a walk on the top of the Mendip hills close by, wild marjorams can be found growing on the limestone thin soils. I happened to have a clump grow up in the very dry 'turf' in the front garden, some of which was saved, when I decided to remove all the turf from the garden.

 I am trying to compile information on Origanums, for now trailing through the internet.  If any one would like to share any stories, links etc I would be delighted to hear from you.