Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2008 | Page 80

life GARDENING Sally studied horticulture at Duchy College, Cornwall (Bsc (Hons) Horticulture) before breaking into gardening journalism. Long live the summer Sally Charrett If you have a question for Sally need some advice or even a suggestion for an article then please email: [email protected] At this time of year it can feel like the curtain is coming down on the showstopping display your garden has put on all summer. But don’t despair, there’s still plenty of time for an encore, says garden writer Sally Charrett, who is also getting hot and passionate in the veg garden. As the sultry August sun slowly bakes summer-flowering plants to a crisp, late summer saviours can add fresh splashes of colour to the fading garden canvas. Top performers include: perennial asters with their dense clusters of daisy-like blooms, which can carry on flowering until mid-December, the big bold, flower power blooms of Echinacea, and penstemons, which offer a quick-fix to gappy September borders. Wait until the spring to prune penstemons, as hardiness 80 is a problem with most cultivars, and pest control too. Whilst and add grit to your soil when enjoying a cup of tea, cast your planting, as they don’t like the eye around the borders and note winter wet. It’s worth increasing down where the gaps are. This is your stock of this invaluable plant easier to do now than later when by taking semi-ripe cuttings at plants have died back. Dividing this time too (see top jobs for the summer-flowering perennials month). Sedums are another late in your garden is a great way to doer – their attractive flat heads increase your stock that is also of starry pink to red flowers are kind on the pocket. nectar heaven to the bees. Try Tease apart small, fibrous-rooted planting Sedum ‘Herbstfreude’ plants such as Heuchera, and with Penstemon ‘Sour Grapes’ use two forks to split more and a grass such as the fluffy, meaty-rooted plants such as hardy bleach-blond Stipa tenuissima. There are a couple of gardening tricks of the trade that will keep your flower garden going for longer. Removing dead flowerheads (cut back to a leaf joint) prevents the plant going to seed and it will produce a new flush of flowers. Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower) Keep up with the is a magnet to bees and butterflies watering, feeding, www.wightfrog.com/islandlife