Everything you need to grow...
Hot off the trowel
Gardens to Gander
It is now June, which is probably one of the loveliest times of the year, so make sure you get out to see as many gardens as you can.
West Dean Gardens open Mon-Fri 09.30am - 5.00pm.
Sat-Sun 09.00am - 5.00pm
The National Garden Scheme (NGS)
Look on their website and find a garden near you to visit.
Woolbeding Gardens.
The gardens open again on Thursdays and Fridays only as from 24th April. Pre-booking is required for everyone.
Insector Clueso!
The Asian Hornet has arrived in the UK, and hundreds of nests have been destroyed. However, it looks as though they have been the tip of the iceberg. They are avaricious insects that target most of our pollinators.
Our honey bees are at serious risk of their hives being invaded and the colonies being wiped out. These predators are smaller than the European Hornet, which is not a threat. The Asian Hornet can be identified by its yellow leg ends and a wide orange band towards the rear of its abdomen.
If you see one, please report it using the iPhone and Android ‘Asian Hornet Watch’ app. Alternatively, email: alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk
please include a photo if you can do so safely.
Weeders Digest
Wall & Water Gardens - Gertrude Jekyll
When a fellow garden club member recently acquired their new property — with a delightfully walled serene lily pond garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll — it seemed like the perfect time to return to Jekyll’s own wisdom on water in the garden.
Wall & Water Gardens is a timeless classic, written by one of the greatest garden designers of the English tradition. In its pages, Jekyll shares practical yet poetic guidance on designing dry-walled terraces, rock-gardens, stream gardens, ponds and marshy water features — and crucially, on selecting the right plants for water, marsh and alpine settings.
We recommend this book to anyone who loves the elegant marriage of stone, water and planting — If you’re curious about what kinds of aquatic or moisture-loving plants to try or how to balance structure and wildness around water, Jekyll’s book is still a deeply relevant, inspiring guide.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wall-Water-Gardens-Gertrude-Jekyll/dp/0881430021
Top gardening jobs for June
June is the peak of the growing season so make the most of the weather.
Top gardening jobs this month
1. Position summer hanging baskets and containers outside.
2. Be water wise, especially in drought affected areas.
3. Pinch out side shoots on tomatoes.
4. Harvest lettuce, radish, other early salads and potatoes.
5. Hoe borders regularly to keep down weeds.
6. Mow lawns once a week (consider leaving some areas uncut for wildlife).
7. Plant out summer bedding.
8. Stake tall or floppy plants.
9. Prune spring-flowering shrubs.
10. Shade greenhouses to keep them cool and prevent scorch.
Musings
‘In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers
explode, and every sunset is different’.
John Steinbeck
‘What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young
summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months,
and with yet no sign to remind one that it’s fresh young
beauty will ever fade’.
Gertrude Jekyll
‘The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun,
heart with nature’.
Alfred Austin
‘In June, as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a
single day. No man can heed all these anniversaries; no man can
ignore all of them’.
Aldo Leopold
‘The garden in June is a green world of promise fulfilled, where
every seed has found it’s voice’.
Unknown
‘The garden in June is a grand tapestry of colour, woven by the
gentle hands of spring’.
Unknown
‘If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance’.
Bern Williams
‘The summer solstice brings the longest days, giving us more hours to lose ourselves in the dirt’.
Unknown
‘The green, green June is on the hills,
The world is all in flower,
And every little bird that sings
Has built a happy bower’.
Charles Hanson Towne
And finally……….
The garden is a soft place to land when the world feels heavy.
