July Update

I can't believe it's over a month since I last posted. I have been musing about the success or otherwise of the garden, and it might be useful to write some of the musings down - not least for future reference when I am thinking about what to do next year.

The roses did well, despite some greenfly, and were all gorgeous for several weeks. The arbour is still in bits in the garage (too much rain, too little time) and so the climbing rose and the honeysuckle are still in their pots on the patio awaiting developments. The scent was amazing - every bit as good as promised in the David Austin catalogue.

Tomatoes needed more effort than I have been able to provide this year, although they are not dead yet and the Tiny Tim does have some fruits. Next year - start the toms off later, in a mini-greenhouse, and pot them up into larger pots earlier to improve water retention.

My back and shoulder problems have been a major issue this summer, and as a result nowhere near as much weeding, tidying and general maintenance has been done as should have been. If it hadn't been for the raised beds, this would probably have scuppered veg production, but fortunately the raised beds are easier to weed, and also don't seem to get weedy in the same way as traditional beds. The patio badly needs weeding between the paviours, but it doesn't help that it has been raining pretty much solidly for 2-3 weeks now, and also weeding with the gas wand is Matthew's job and he 'hasn't got round to it'. The grass needs mowing too, but there it's a combination of apathy, rain and the drudgery of first clearing molehills off it - fewer than before the ultrasonic gadget, but still an occasional irritating feature.

For next year I will definitely buy a mini-greenhouse - one of those jobs with shelves and a plastic zip-up tent. Veg and flowers I started off indoors just got leggy and pale and keeled over - too little light in this house. The veg I sowed direct into the raised beds has all performed well, although very slowly (I think everyone is finding their timings out this year). We have had the first few meals of broad beans (tender and fresh and lovely), but the pak choi has been less successful as it proved very popular with the slugs - we don't have many in this garden, but they all converged on the only brassica crop! We did get a few stir-fries out of the crop, but it was a bit disappointing. I think I did sow them too thickly, which helped make it easy for the slugs to hide. For next year - rotate to the next raised bed, and sow more thinly. The broad beans have done well, and staggering the sowing has proved to be a good idea - it looks like we will have a long supply, although not in huge quantities because I only have 1.5 square metres of them! (which actually is half of the active beds - the fourth bed is Matthew's asparagus) The chard has done well - will sow more in a few weeks, to last into the autumn. It's delicious! I should have sown successional salad leaves - the first lot were great, but then my back went, and I just didn't keep up with it, so that has been a pity - we have bought a lot more bags of salad leaves this summer than I had wanted to.

The sweet peas were not a success - poor germination, and suffering from the lack of light indoors. Next year will sow later and in situ outdoors, or at least in mini-greenhouse. Have really missed them this summer. The ordinary peas did badly indoors too, so next year will try them in situ as I did with the broad beans.

The dwarf buddleia are finally in bud, one plant proved to be much more vigorous than the other, but both now have evidence of impending bloom, which the butterflies will like. Generally, though, ornamentals haven't really happened this year, because of my back it just hasn't been possible to do any planting and I haven't liked to sow things I won't be able to plant out. Fortunately all the seeds I have will still be in date next year, so I will give it a better shot then. Just waiting for the bulb catalogues to appear to order some tulips and daffs for pots, so at least we have some spring colour to look forward to.

The Wild Bank is in need of a cut, but this will be a bit problematic with my back/shoulder in the condition it's in, and Matthew can't be safely let loose on it or he'll cut down everything, including what I want to keep! He did mutter about getting a strimmer for the job, which made me pale somewhat...the dogwoods have all but vanished into the long grass, and I do need to liberate them and clear the ground around them again, and maybe put some bark down this time.

The trees are all doing ok, and survived the storms - it was worrying, watching them whipping around in the wind, but they seem to have come through it and not loosened noticeably. The new foliage is lovely.

So, next year - mini-greenhouse, more salad veg, sweet peas and other ornamentals, keep on top of the maintenance. More widely spaced pak choi, more chard if poss, peas in situ. Toms, with more dedication! Broad beans as per this year. And try not to have my back go on me at a critical time in the gardening year in 2011...