The Biking Gardener

The heat and sun of this summer ‘did for’ lots of plants in the garden but it did suit some other plants.

With apologies to Kermit.

Each year I try to grow something new or to revisit something I have not grown for a while.

I was delighted to be able to get my hands on Grewia occidentalis this year: it has been a good few years since I last grew it.

A wasp drinking on recently watered chicory plants No I have not gone mad.

This year some of my plants were a bit neglected while others got my attention and love.

As if this summer has not been enough of a trial with high temperatures and lack of water, a pest that I have not had to worry about for more than a decade, has appeared in the greenhouse.

I like hardy euphorbias and have added a few more to the garden this year because most of the few I have planted in the past have coped well and provide some spectacular colour, most in shades of citrus yellow and green.

No I didn’t know there was one either till the other day.

In my worklife, answering various gardening questions, one thing I can be certain of is that every summer there will be several queries from astonished people with a dahlia plant that has suddenly produced a flower of a different colour, or, more often, w…