Monday 15 June 2026 to Sunday 12 July 2026

Haven’t managed to keep these notes up to date, so this is more of a picture dump than notes! My excuse is being away or out on a couple of Sundays but I did just forget one of the weeks.

Various things have started to flower in earnest, above is a chunk of the flowerbed I re-planted this year with one of the rudbeckias from Nicola taking centre stage. The Echincea purpurea “White Swan” is also blooming well.

I did manage to get a bit of weeding done while the water main was being replaced, but totally failed to mow the lawn before it dried out completely so there’s a few drought tolerant weeds growing well there and lots of stalks of grass seeds. A job for when the rain comes back a bit tho as I’m not sure running the lawnmower over what’s basically straw will do it any good.

The hollyhocks I bought are starting to flower. One of the four isn’t doing well, I’m hoping if it just limps along this year then it may come back stronger next year, but the other three are looking good. Not as many flowers as I’d expect coz I’ve left them unwatered across a couple of hot weekends and so they’ve got dead buds at various points.

Before the water main was done I moved a couple of things out of the front garden. The hydrangea below is permanently moved, as it was being swallowed up by the fuchsia (which has been hacked about by both water & gas people but it’s pretty robust). Thankfully looks like the hydrangea has survived well and I’m hoping next year it’ll start filling back out a bit.

I did also move a gazania, which was an annual that has survived for a few years now. It looks like it’s doing ok in the pot and I’ll stick it back in the ground once the hole in my garden is filled in – fingers crossed it makes it.

More established bits of the garden are doing well as well, including the Japanese anemone which is now in full bloom.

I’m also beginning to get tomatoes on this year’s tomato plants from Nicola – definitely three different varieties as the little green tomatoes look different on each. Not as many coming up yet as in some years, not sure if that’s just coz it’s early or if it’s also the combination of the heatwave & my rather more sporadic watering than usual.