Writing about six things from the garden at the end of July 2024 - SOS

It is not 'save our souls' but Six on Saturday, which is a short name for six plants or other things from the garden which anyone may care to write about, and then link together in the comments section of Jim's  'Garden Ruminations' weekly blog.  

My garden is definitely towards the stage of cleaning and maintenance this week. I've been saving up spent water after hand washing etc, to scrub down the large concrete slabs in the shady alley which tend to get covered later in the year in a slippery film of algae.  Some may use chemicals or power machines, but I am fairly content with my methods. Does that count as the first, I would say not especially as I do not have before and after photos...let me start with a nice thing:

1. Alstromeria Indian Summer just keeps on giving, and there has been plenty of stems to arrange in the house and also to include in posies to give away.

2.  The not so nice thing is that I have started to demolish the Plum 'Mirabelle de Nancy' that I planted just a few years ago.  Mine is a small garden, and I have decided that if something is constantly fighting bugs and looking miserable for a good part of the year, and does not please, in this instance yielding very little fruit which is then eaten by the many squirrels then it is for the chop. The last harvest was 2021 with about seven or eight miniature plums!  For now I have just cut off  the sticky blackened top growth and the rest will be demolished as I have the energy to do so. I shall have to consider what I plant in its place.  

3.  I bought this plant when I went to visit Beth Chatto's garden in 2021, and for some reason had been calling it Turkey tanglefoot! I was checking The Chatto website and realised that I was so wrong and yes you can have a good laugh.  It is Phyla nodiflora, Turkey tangle frogfruit, a creeping vervain.  It is starting to stretch our  taking over part of the gravel garden.

Turkey tangle frogfruit

4. Another plant much favoured by Beth Chatto is the Ballota now known as Pseudodictamnus. I have a couple of clumps growing in the front garden, which this week I am starting to trim back. This is a picture from 2023 at about the same time of year.

Last year my gardening club met at Maggie and Anthony Langdon's home for a garden visit and summer tea, and I noticed they had a different form of Pseudodictamnus.  I asked the name and at the time I was simply given the name Pseudodictamnus from Beth Chatto.  I had begged some cuttings and thankfully they took even just pushed into a spare bit of soil,  Today I was cutting back the front garden plant and felt sure they were not the same. I placed a stem from each on the garden table, took pictures and then went on the hunt....

Pseudodictamnus mediterraneus and P. acetabulosus side by side

On the right is the Pseudodictamnus mediterraneus and on the left is P. acetabulosus which I acquired as cuttings last year.  I've noticed that Beth Chatto also has a finer or smaller form, and I have an inkling that I shall be yearning after that one!

5.  The first of the beetroot were picked this week, cooked, eaten and enjoyed!

6. Origanum 'Emma Stanley' survived the wet winter and there are two plants, which I am toying with propagating again by taking some fresh cuttings from the small growths once they have grown a little. I think cutting off the flowering stems will encourage the new growth.  The plants are not as strong as I would like them to be, maybe they had a struggle with the wet.  

Origanum 'Emma Stanley'

I already have two chrysanthemums that are in flower but I'm saving them for another week.....