I been been away from The City Garden since the beginning of March with only four brief visits to The City Garden during the past four months. This Six on Saturday in The City Garden in July is therefore a rather sad story.
I have an automatic water system – not great, but better than nothing. However, the foxes had chewed and broken many of the heads over the past year and I just hadn’t got round to fixing it. This meant that in the past weeks, apart from the brief visits and a little rain, there has been no watering. I watched reports of the high temperatures with sadness, knowing I was going to lose my fern collection which is mainly in pots, or very shallow soil. Back in London for some much-needed chiropractic help I have been relieved, and surprised to see what has survived the very difficult conditions over the past four months.
Two states of grass
1.Molinia ‘Caerulia Transparent’ is happy and Anamanthele is flourishing, as is Carex Pendula. Miscanthus is ok but stunted, and the gardeners garters are being thuggish!
2.The Deschampsia ‘Cespitosa’ is not happy (I am not going to show you a truly unhappy plant) and the Hakonechloa ‘Aurea’ is only just hanging on in a pot, but ok in the ground as you can see from the photo above. Very sad when I look back a year.
Happyish plants
3.Lysimachia is ok, a little stunted, but basically ok.
4.The sedums look quite strong and are not falling over – do I perhaps over-water?
Survivors
5.To my surprise the hydrangeas in tubs have come through, sort of. And even Annabelle, in the shade under a tree has made it this far.
Annabelle 
Annabelle 
Small white hydrangea 
Red hydrangeas 
In the border
The sadness of the fern collection
6.As I expected the ferns have suffered. The Hollyoak Fern looks very unhappy; a mother-in-law’s-tongue fern has gone, but some of the others are clinging on.
And that is Six on Saturday in The City Garden in July. It is a story of mixed fortunes, but perhaps also a lesson about watering and how much, or how little, is actually needed. A topic for discussion with The Propagator and fellow gardeners?
Sedum is a desert plant, to the best of my knowledge. Therefore it has thrived by being left to its own devices.
I’m sure it was good to get back there, despite the mixed fortunes?
[…] The City Garden in late May is finally starting to take shape. It has been a tough time for the garden over the past two years but it is time to start talking about it again. And I am going to do this post for Six on Saturday, my first post in nearly two years! […]