I can’t believe that it has been over 3 months since I last wrote anything. I have been meaning to, but at the end of the day I just feel too tired to sit at the computer. It’s Sunday today, so I have no excuse!

In my last post, back in March, we were in the middle of “The Beast from the East”. Since then we’ve had “The Pest from the West”, a mini beast from the east, two heatwaves and most recently “Storm Hector”, which blew over a cherry tree in the gardens. The weather has been very curious to say the least.

Recently, it has been the lack of rain that has been giving me grief. Don’t get me wrong, I love hot, sunny days, even when I am working hard. It’s great to see more people venturing out to look around the gardens, be it staff, patients, or their families and friends. It gives me a brilliant excuse to stop for a bit and chat. The problem has been the lack of water. I have been very busy in the last three months. We were given 1,200 bedding plants. I have sown 500m² of wildflower seeds. I have planted up 350 shrubs and perennials. And I have sown large areas with grass seed. And then it stops raining for SIX weeks! Nothing, apart from a 2 minute shower. So I have been spending hours watering the seeded areas and all the plants, whilst neglecting my duties elsewhere. You have to prioritise your work and my priority was  to prevent all my hard work from being a waste of time.

One of the jobs was sowing the wildflower seeds in the new “Amberswood Garden”. Over winter I had spent a lot of time clearing weeds and preparing the ground.

I then contacted Emorsgate Seeds for advice on which seeds to buy. We decided in the end to get 80% perennial meadow mixture for clay soils and 20% wild grasses, with a bit of cornfield annual mix for some impact this year. When the seeds arrived I was surprised at how little there was. I was expecting a large sackful of seed. Instead there were two fairly small bags, to be sown at just 2 grams per m²! The seeds were really beautiful.

I split the seeds into ten equal amounts and mixed them with some compost before scattering over the area to be sown.

This was done two months ago. Since then the progress has been slow. I’m worried that some of the seeds germinated, but have since died because of the hot dry weather. There are a good number of plants growing on the humps around the edges, but not so much on the gravelly area. I will post an updated photo when there are some wild flowers to show you (hopefully soon)!

I have also been planting up around the extension that was built last year. John Harris from Harris Consulting designed the beds and planting scheme for us. I prepared the beds and then, with the help of some volunteers, planted up the 300+ plants. It’s been quite a job, especially with having to water them all. But they look great. I’ll post a few photos when they are more established.

There have been some lovely flowers since my last post. Here are a few of my favoutites.

The alliums have been lovely this year. We mostly have Allium ‘purple sensation’ – the fairly tall flower with the dense, deep purple flowerhead. Last year I bought some Allium ‘christophii’ bulbs, and I’m very pleased with the results.

I continue to be busy at work. In three weeks time we are being judged by the RHS as part of the Britain in Bloom competition. This is the first time we’ve entered, so I’m a touch apprehensive. Then on July 15th, the big event of the day is our NGS Open Garden (not the World Cup final). So I’m trying to get everything ready on time. If you can come to our Open Garden you’d be very welcome.

It’s good to be back blogging again. I’ll try not to leave it 3 months till the next entry!