Summer is all about colours and flowers! Flowering plants are typically divided into two types – perennials which typically come back in pretty much the same place every year and annuals which tend to self seed and move around the garden. Like all classification it’s more complicated than this and lots of things don’t fit neatly into these categories like biennuals which are like annuals but last two years!

Perennials are typically clump forming with multiple flower heads per plant. Classic examples of these are geraniums, oxeye daisies and geums. Annuals are flowers like poppies, marigolds and sunflowers. They tend to be less reliable but a lot less work. Once you have these in you garden they will generally come back again next year where the seeds have managed to germinate. Which is why I was so happy to see poppies at Station South and looking forward to seeing more in the years to come.

If you want to make sure you get more flowers now is a great time to do some deadheading. This best done by snipping the flower head right back to just above a leaf node. Other smaller flowers like pansies can just be pinched out with your fingers. Doing this can be time consuming but it’s a nice easy relaxing gardening job that keeps the garden looking colourful as long as possible. Towards the end of summer its best to stop deadheading (especially annuals) and leave some flowers to produce seeds which can be left for birds, collected or left to self seed. This is why I like to have a seed swap at the end of summer so we can share all the lovely collected seeds!

As well as our regular Thursday morning volunteering sessions there are a couple of exciting events this month! On the 11th July we have Station Summer Feast where the kitchen will be cooking us a lunch from produce grown in the garden. So many people ask me if we use garden produce in the kitchen and unfortunately we can’t grow things in large or reliable quantities so I’m really pleased to do a one off event! If you would like to come, please book on using the eventbrite link.

We also have our July gardening social session which will be about growing and using herbs. Herbs are probably the easiest and most reliable thing to grow in your garden particularly if you only have a small space as they grow well in containers. Buying herbs from supermarkets is also incredibly expensive for a very small amount so growing your own is extra satisyfing.

I hope to see you in the garden soon!

Augusta (she/ her)