Keep your
Keep your
garden in full
bloom during
the scorching
summertime
GARDENERS who went on holiday confident friends and family would water, deadhead and harvest their crops in their absence must be feeling pretty smug.
But what about those of us who didn't have the luxury of a mate to water the garden while we were away? What about those who just didn't install an automatic irrigation system? Well, you now have to look at the mess that remains and consider what's worth saving and what isn't.
Annual bedding plants in containers and baskets are unlikely to recover fully in hot weather and if they've been left in the sun. It may be easier to start again.
Best of bunch in bid to survive
THESE cottage garden favourites add an element of height to planting schemes, their flower spikes reaching up to 1.5m (5ft).
Some may not survive over the winter, but the more reliable varieties include V. chaixii 'Gainsborough', which produces pale primrose-yellow flowers and 'Cotswold Queen', which has striking yellow flowers and terracotta eye.
Berries good enough to eat
DEEP blue berries can be added to summer pudding and other red fruit desserts.
Best planting time is late autumn to early spring, although container-grown bushes can be planted at any time.
Blueberries thrive in well-drained, moist acid soil in a sunny, sheltered position and will grow to around 1.5m (5ft) high.
You should get some fruits several years after planting, but by the fourth or fifth year you should get up to 5lbs of fruit a year from mid-summer to mid-autumn.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article