July

"We all leave traces of ourselves behind
and they remain,
like a strand of wool on a thorn."

- Monty Don

A few torrential downpours later, the grass is green once more

It's certainly proving to be a summer of extreme weather: the earlier heatwave ended in violent storms but all that extra water soon revived our plants and I found myself happily digging holes to plant out the rest of this year's seedlings - not something I'd normally recommend in July!

An attractive corner for a snooze

Hydrangeas thrive in damp places and the one in these pictures is now in its third year, rewarding us with a host of exquisite blooms which start out pure white and gradually turn pink with age.

It's the first of three types of Hydrangea paniculata, planted in the shadow of a high wall, which comes into flower in July - living up to its name 'Early Sensation'.

All of these tend to suffer from yellow leaves as they're putting up with heavy chalk soil, so we need to dose them with a solution of chelated iron (like Sequestrine) as soon as the first leaves appear. This normally restores their greenery in a few days, although a follow-up dose is sometimes required later on.

Our gravelled courtyard was awash with water each time it rained but fortunately the underlying chalk soon soaked it up like a sponge, helping to keep shrubs and trees - like the young olive here -  well hydrated during the many hot days to come.

Pots, though, still have to be watered regularly and it's important to do this with a watering can rather than a hose: not only is this gentler on plants but it allows you to gauge exactly how much you're giving each pot. Sprinkling with a hose can have a surprisingly superficial effect - just stick your finger in the soil afterwards to see how far that dampness has actually penetrated!

Lavenders and Verbena bonariensis
growing out of chalk and gravel

Every year we say we're going to cut down on the number of pots we have to keep watering - and every year we still end up with numerous containers, although some of our woody herbs are now planted directly into the chalk.

Shaping Lavender

Christina loves her lavenders, particularly when it comes to cutting them back after flowering ...

This is a job she relishes (using battery-fired shears or clippers these days) as the warm climate allows for them to be hard pruned to a nice tight sphere and there's little fear of them not being able to re-sprout from old wood.

If we leave their flower heads too long, they will easily seed themselves in the surrounding gravel.

Rosemary officinalis -
nearly as good as yew!

And Rosemary

This little column of rosemary has been grown from a cutting we made a couple of years ago.

It was taken from a sturdy bush we happened to walk past one day, notable for its dense habit and resinous leaves - great if you want to distil essential oil but it can make your hands very sticky.

Christina trims it to shape once or twice a year and it has now reached a full meter in height.

Lavender flowering freely along the driveway, with
remaining heads of Romneya coulteri on the right

Insects of all shapes and hues come to visit in July; the hotter it gets, the more varied and exotic they tend to be.

Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo)

The so-called 'beautiful demoiselle' is decidedly the most eye-catching of the damselflies that we find around here.

This vivid metallic blue-green denotes the male of the species, with the female being a less notable dark brown - yes, it was ever thus!

Whilst they haven't actually come into our garden, we do spot them along nearby water courses.

Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius)

Rather confusingly, the butterfly known as the Scarce Swallowtail is actually quite widespread in central and southern Europe.

Its main foodplants are blackthorn and cherry, both of which grow wild in these parts, and it's attracted to the flowers of Verbena bonariensis, buddleia and hydrangea in our garden (as seen here).

The other Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) is darker, with a short tail, and much less common. But both species are undeniably handsome, adding a welcome bit of decoration to our flowers.

Echinacea purpurea - good for bees, hoverflies
and elegant white spiders (Misumena vatia)

Nerine oleander - its flowers can be
picked but all parts are poisonous!

Talking of things exotic, our oleanders have been blooming profusely for the past month, none more so than this pink one which was a cheap supermarket purchase last year.

Luckily we had a mild winter and all three oleanders came through unscathed even though we didn't bother to protect them.  (Why go to the trouble of wrapping them up when fresh plants are relatively inexpensive?)

We did feed them with a bit of home-made seaweed juice earlier in the season, but this plant has done particularly well and I think it's probably a new, improved strain.

Despite the fact that it doesn't attract much insect-life, it does serve to remind us of happy holidays in Greece.

Nigella hispanica (from Chiltern Seeds)
Love-in-the-mist with an interesting twist

Colour Combinations

I've said before that too many blue flowers together can be tedious. Scattering touches of pink or white (echinacea, cosmos, achillea) can help to break them up in a soft, muted way.  Splashes of scarlet (geum) or orange (calendula) are even more striking and make blues and purples appear more intense.

Gentian blue Salvia patens with Calendula officinalis 'Indian Prince'
- both available from Chiltern Seeds

Salvia coccinea
the bi-coloured Texas Sage

Salvias have become an indispensible part of our summer borders as they provide fabulous blooms in a range of bright tones.

Many of the more colourful ones come from Mexico and are not always fully hardy in a severe winter, but you can always treat them as bedding plants and grow them afresh from seed in the spring.

This Salvia coccinea, for instance, was sown in March from seed gathered late last summer when we spotted it growing in a local park.

I was pleased that the pink and white flowers came true from seed (not always the case) and believe it's a variety called 'Coral Nymph', which can be invasive in certain climates. Here it has established very quickly so I'll keep an eye out!

Summer Reading

Being somewhat starved of English language books in our corner of France, I was pleased to come across a paperback by Monty Don at a recent brocante. 

It's called "The Road to Le Tholonet - A French Garden Journey" and I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in France and/or it's invaluable contribution to the history of horticulture.

I tended to think of Monty as a TV presenter first and gardener second, but this well-researched and entertaining assembly of meditations on gardens both vast and small, formal or avant-garde, has definitely made me think again!

In exploring the aesthetics and practicalities of gardening through the ages, he reveals as much about himself as he does of the French national character.

A cheerful Charentais courtyard garden