Well June has been a relatively cool month here in the garden. A late frost damaged the young growth on the apple trees, fortunately after the blossom has finished so it shouldn’t affect the crop, but it doesn’t look nice.

Cooler temperatures have hampered growth in the vegetable gardens with runner beans and peas being particularly slow, not helped by the periods of dry weather we had too. Conversely the self set Nasturtiums which provide a lot of the summer colour in there have grown insanely. We have already cut them back three times and they are still 3 feet tall in places and have even out-competed the self sowing English Marigolds in most places.

The vegetable gardens with Sweet Williams in the foreground.

The rain, which we wished for, came in buckets and did damage the rose display, but they are recovering and the scent in the garden is divine. We have also spent huge amounts of time staking and cutting back in the Walled Garden as the downpours collapsed shrubs and perennials alike. The rush of growth we had once the rains came was soft and even the perennials we didn’t stake last year are now tied up.

To give an example the rose arch by the cottage after rain induced growth and after pruning so you could get through the arch.

The Meconopsis sheldonii or Himalayan Blue Poppy have finally found a place in the garden which they may decide to be happy in, either way we had our first flowers this year and they were stunning.

We have made a significant amount of progress with the hard landscaping in the garden repairing the cracks in the walls (you can’t have a Walled Garden without them!). The Gardener’s Cottage now has a full complement of drainpipes and guttering for the first time in living memory and the cement which reduces the moisture coming through the walls has been repaired. Hopefully we will not be sweeping water out through the cottage door on wet days anymore!

Also a big thankyou to Rentokil for a big discount on treating the well established woodworm within the Gardener’s cottage, it is much appreciated.

The Rentokil team with Nick Foot (far right) The Ty Glyn Davis Trust’s Treasurer.

We are trying to get the garden in the shape we want it to be in for the upcoming National Gardens Scheme open day, Sunday July 17th 1-5pm. If you would like to come and help us in the gardens please get in touch by emailing me at tyglyngardener@yahoo.co.uk We are holding our NGS day earlier for a change in the plants that you will see in the garden. As previously there will be an admission charge to the garden for this day (for charity), refreshments will be served in the garden and plants will be for sale too. Come and join us and bring the sunshine with you!

Cilla, our longest serving volunteer trimming back and removing finished Forget-me-nots in the terrace beds.

Weigela and Veronica ‘Crater Lake Blue’ on the terrace

We are still looking to recruit more ‘Friends of the Ty Glyn Davis Trust’ too to help with events, fundraising and maintenance. To help us understand what our visitors like and dislike about the garden we are also asking people to complete a questionnaire, available by email from the above address.

A disgruntled fledging after the brambles on the outside of the walls had to be cleared to let the builders in.

The garden is always full of wildlife, I dug up this newt in a border last week.

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Rosa mundi and giant heads of Allium christophii under the Colonel’s memorial Walnut Tree in the garden.

Hope the weather improves in time for our NGS day, look forward to seeing you there.