It rained a lot. We had 28mm of rain in an hour, and the road off the farm was a solid sheet of water when we went out, then it rained gently through most of the beekeepers' barbecue. Fortunately we have a pair of marquees, which are more or less waterproof. I'm very impressed by the way the organisers managed to almost stop them leaking through the join between the two.
One advantage of gardening on extremely free draining soil is that you can get on it the day after 30mm of rain has fallen. It doesn't squelch, or churn to mud, but just feels pleasantly damp, and I don't worry about my weight destroying the soil structure because I don't think it has any. I started pulling out the annual poppies. Some are still producing a few flowers, some have already died and gone brown. The overall effect is no longer pretty and they are all going on the bonfire, since if they go on the compost heap poppies will spring up in every border I mulch with the compost. While they are nice it would get monotonous to have them everywhere, besides which they are smothering plants when young and don't always make good neighbours for more permanent things.
The seed-raised Albizia julibrissin I planted out in the gravel and thought had died in the winter is shooting from the base. I'd imagined it as a single stemmed tree hovering over the lavender rather than a multi-stemmed flowering shrub, and don't even know how large it has to be in order to flower, so some formative pruning will probably be needed in due course, but for now I'll just be grateful that it's still alive. The ferny divided leaves are pretty, but I would like the fluffy pink flowers as well. I have a second plant that I kept in a pot, as an insurance policy.
Half the stems of the ginger scented rosemary have died. I cut them off, and the remainder of the plant may yet get going, but I'm always rather suspicious of rosemary once it starts dying back. Once one branch dies another seems to follow, reminding me of the fund manager's adage to sell on the first profits warning, since there's generally going to be a second one.
The lemon scented verbena, Aloysia triphylla, is doing very well. This has long slender leaves with a powerful scent of lemons. It is moderately tender, but came through the two cold nights in February. I had to cut it back fairly hard, but I'd reckon to do that anyway. It used to live in a container and go inside for the winter, but it never honestly looked all that happy in the pot, and makes a much nicer and more vigorous looking plant grown in the ground. A fig tree that was also starting to languish in its pot has likewise found a new lease of life planted out in the garden, though not in the gravel but tucked into a narrow bed at the base of a wall. It hated the cold weather and I wondered if I'd lost it, but now the leaves are twice the size they were last year and it is throwing out new shoots with abandon. Customers at work often want something to go permanently in a pot, and it's always a tricky question, especially if they want to leave it outdoors through the winter. So many plants seem happier in the ground, long term, and I say that as someone who rarely goes away from home and is fairly organised about watering pots. Anyway, the Aloysia is very nice, and I recommend one, if you like the smell of lemon and have a warmish spot with decent drainage. You can use it to make herbal tea, though I haven't.
The Agapanthus are getting going. I bought my original plants as Headbourne Hybrids, though I don't think that name has much validity any more. They have seeded themselves generously in the gravel, and have proved totally hardy through the recent hard winters, though they do have very good drainage where they are and I wouldn't vouch for them doing the same on clay. The flowers come in a range of blues from fairly light to darkish, and all are pretty. I have some fancier ones in pots, which go in to the greenhouse for the winter, but the naturalising ones in the ground honestly put on as good a display, probably better, and are very little trouble, beyond weeding the gravel. Agapanthus foliage isn't up to much as a weed smotherer. The hardier forms are totally deciduous.
The small leafed form of myrtle has finally started to look less frost nipped, but isn't yet making masses of new growth. I think it has found the English summer to date a poor substitute for a Mediterranean hillside. The Teucrium fruticans is doing slightly better, but not much, and the leaves of the Acca sellowiana still have a rather pinched and closed appearance, though it has managed to produce about three flowers. It is having to pretend it is in the uplands of Southern Brazil or Eastern Paraguay, poor thing, which must seem even less likely than being in the Med. The olive tree has finally come out of its massive sulk and started to make new growth. Still, the forecast for next week is for sunshine and heat, so that might encourage them all.
I let the chickens out for a run some time after four, and things passed almost without incident. They kept out of the dahlias, but one of the hens did fall in the pond. I was going to rescue her when she flapped her way out by herself, shrieking dreadfully. Hens cannot swim exactly, but they are moderately buoyant. The water lilies are quite congested so perhaps she tried to stand on a leaf.
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