Love your garden this summer

As gardens begin to burst with life, Peter Dowdall says it’s a great time to source new varieties of perennials

IT’S that time of the year again isn’t it? The time when that area outside your house which has lain idle for so long, comes to life once more. Whilst winter is a productive time for us gardeners, what with dividing perennials, moving established plants, double digging herbaceous borders and mulching the vegetable beds with farm yard manure and seaweed, for many the garden lies forgotten during the bleak winter months.

But at this time of year and with the recent spell of good weather, the garden once more comes to the foreground and is once again a vibrant and happening living space. Kids and adults playing, gardening, mowing grass, cutting back overgrown shrubs, dining outside, having friends over for some outdoor drinks and post communion and confirmation parties. Areas that haven’t been cleaned or even looked at since last summer’s fun was abruptly called to a halt, are now being swept and scoured. Visits to garden centres are happening all around the country to make our outdoor living rooms a place of beauty once more.

And for those wiser heads who have long since tired of the perennial task of annuals and who yearn for more elegance and less showmanship, then there are the herbaceous and evergreen perennials to purchase.

Time now to source those varieties that have eluded us thus far and for me this year I have already added to my heucheras with the stunningly garbed, ‘Delta Dawn’. More subtle colouring than many of the others with the large soft leaves being pale brown with a yellow edging.

Also, Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ has found its way into my patch, low growing and with fern-like foliage, it bears very little resemblance to its larger-growing family members like ‘Charity’ and ‘Winter Sun’.

The leaves are soft and not thorny and the panicles of yellow flowers are produced from August to November, earlier than the other Mahonias. Winner of best new plant at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show, I cannot speak yet about ‘Soft Caress’ with any degree of experience but like with all gardening acquisitions, it will be trial and error once more — another voyage of discovery.

If only we could be sure of our climate — the main problem is the unpredictability. I have just returned from a beautiful few days spent on the Dingle peninsula and once again my love affair with the Irish countryside and landscape has been rekindled for very few places in the world can compete with West Cork and Kerry in the sunshine.

I could have travelled the same route, of course, and not been able to see the road in front of me — it really is the luck of the draw. We got to really enjoy living outdoors last summer and who knows what this summer will bring?

But always look upon the garden as a living space and often far larger living space than what you have indoors. It can be easy to keep it looking well, a small bit of work and some low maintenance tips and plant suggestions from your local garden centre will keep it in good shape for 12 months of the year.

But I hope you get the bug like I did many years ago and forget about low maintenance, for truly few plants are high maintenance and think more ‘What do I like?’ and ‘Would that work in my garden?’. Let me finish by suggesting one group of plants that are well worth a place — argyranthemums. Daisy-like flowers are produced in sheer abundance right into the late autumn/ winter. Simply dead head and feed regularly to ensure constant flowering and see how they will brighten up even the dullest of spaces.

THE CHELSEA CHOP

Time now for the ‘Chelsea Chop’ to get best results from your late summer performers. Plants like Lupin, Delphiniums, Verbascum and many herbaceous perennials that may have already produced a first flush of flowers, or are preparing their display for later in the season, will all benefit now from a severe haircut.

Cutting back much of the early season’s growth and, where applicable early flowers, will strengthen the plant and stop them from getting ‘leggy’ and falling about.

A short back and sides now will lead to good, strong dense growth being produced very quickly, post chop, and you will be admiring these beauties well into the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’.

The name for this rather dramatic approach refers to the Chelsea Flower Show time of the year and this ‘Chelsea Chop’ should certainly be carried out before the Flower Show which takes place in the third week of May.