Petrovska

I always feel August is that last great month of Summer in the garden although also a turning point downhill but with some lovely days of Autumn to look forward to .

In my view there is no better place than Ireland in August with our temperate climate , no searing heat and we might even have a heat wave with 22 degrees !

A feature of a wild garden like ours at Old Spa Road is the wild flower explosion in late July / August and a favourite of mine is the purple loose strife , Lythrum salicaria , which loves wet ground especially along the banks of streams and can spread to the point of being invasive … a single plant can produce almost three million seeds which overwinter in the ground and then take off in early spring if the conditions suit them .

The wild perennial loose strife can grow up to two metres high and has a strong structure that looks good even when not in flower  but in flower it is a magnificent plant .

It is a medicinal plant loved by the Celts and in medieval times was used in the treatment of dysentery but the name derives from it’s use ground up as a treatment of mental tension and stress .

Purple loose strife , a commercial hybrid perennial , is sold in the garden centres and will tolerate dry ground … I bought a specimen thinking this would be an improvement on the wild plant and while we could sell the wild version so many do we have , the bought one lasted a season and died !

Our cat , Tutti Frutti , goes everywhere with us in the garden , she is Snezana’s cat and they have a special relationship but in the garden she stays always with me and probably thinks she is my protector out there against all those wild animals in the woods !

Of course like all cats she is a hunter and will take any bird or mouse that crosses her path and while we don’t begrudge her any amount of mice it is very upsetting to see her take a bird and normally by the time you can get to the victim it is too late  … not today though as I was just in time to recue a small water hen duckling as the cat ran past me with it in her mouth … took three attempts to get her to let go but in the end the duckling ran free back to her mother who was clucking away furiously in the water … amazing to see how the duckling during the three times the cat grabbed her went totally limp and then sprang into life as soon as soon as the cat let her drop  … to all intents dead in the cat’s mouth then once the grip was loosened as the cat was distracted by me the little duckling legged it into the water … survival mode in the duckling’s DNA .

Colour in the garden in August

A favourite small tree of mine has always been the weeping purple willow which when mature sprawls over a sizeable area with beautiful downey small leaves , terrific architectural impact and looks great as a stand alone tree .

It is a grafted tree onto a common willow stock and comes in several sizes and you can pick the height from dwarf to over six feet and will thicken up after several years in the ground BUT it has one huge problem in that it suckers prolifically from the grafted stem .

If you are new to the tree  after a year of two you will be confronted by strong vigorous growth that can shoot up to six feet and you think wow this is great … not so as this is the root stock suckering and if you don’t rip these out immediately they will take over the entire tree ,

I have three purple willows lining a path in the Lower Field and at least three times during the growing season I have to cut out a huge amount of suckering branches of the common willow … today was a day of pruning and when I say rip out the suckers I actually mean rip them out as a nice clean pruning cut only encourages new growth but if you rip them off roughly it retards future growth by the suckers and today I took fifty five five foot suckers out of one tree … another month and I could have lost the tree … can’t be too careful with weeping purple willow .

Sanna cutting the Lower Wood

I planted the Lower Wood area twenty four years ago when we first bought the property and when it was just a bare water logged area  … the first planting was of 300 rooted willow slips in December 2000 interspersed with common native silver birch whips and this has now matured into a shaded small wood and the wet conditions has meant that wild astilbe and iris have flooded in and carpeted the ground under the tree canopy … the soil is good but wet and perfect for willows and birch and much to our delight native oak is also flourishing and self  seeding .

I have never been good at cutting back trees or shrubs and although the area was crying out for a good trim I have shied away from the task … Snezana of course has never been shy of cutting anything back and she tackled the area in August and I must say once she took the first step I have waded in to help and I really like the open spaces she has created and throughout the winter I will transfer some oak into the new gaps .

Clearing up operations are my area of responsibility

Two perennials at their best in August , both voracious self seeders that are never a problem are alchemis mollis and buddleia and both prefer rocky stony ground .

In Spring we topped up the entire gravel area of the Back Garden with new gravel and wihout fail all the alchemis mollis plants already established in the ground pushed their way through . The buddleia is a small shrub  which was once a main stay of gardens in the 1970’s and 80’s but now you hardly ever see it for sale … has long arching branches covered in downey cream leaves and has long blue flower spires in August … there is a commercial buddleia with black flowers called Black Knight but like all commercial plants it is not nearly as vigorous as the wilder cousin and is fairly short lived .

Buddleia is easy to maintain and you just cut back each branch in Spring to about a foot from the base and if you stick a pencil thick cutting about a foot long into soil it will take and you have a new buddleia  …a good back of border shrub and the buddleia flowers are loved by butterflies and every time you approach the shrub in August a mass of butterlies rise up  .

I love alchemis mollis , a plant grown by our great grand mothers in cottage gardens throughout Ireland and the UK … all year round green leaves that collect glistening dew and rain water droplets followed by yellow flower clusters in July and August .

The Water Garden , August 2024

We had a visit to the garden in August from the Limerick branch of the University of the Third Age , a self help organisation that caters mainly for the retired age bracket and organises lectures , garden tours etc. for it’s members .

I am always complaining about the high heat on the Croatian coast during recent years and of course this increases the risk of forest fires and most years these are easily contained by the excellent Croatian Fire Service … every few years there is a huge fire which is not so easily contained and which does massive damage to olive trees , forestries and wild life .

One of these broke out in our area at the end of July and came within a kilometre of our village during the two day fight to control it by the Podgora Fire Service who were heroes all in a titanic struggle .

Luckily no loss of life or damage to property but thousands of olive tees have burned down and the landscape is like Armageddon … a sharp reminder that nature has to be minded … no arson involved this time just one stupid act by a bee keeper who threw burning coals into grass and thought he had doused them with an inadequate few buckets of water .

I worked and lived in the Balkans during a fifteen year foreign service career with the EU and I am often asked which was my favourite country from Slovenia ,Macedonia , Croatia , Bosnia, Kosovo , Serbia , Montenegro and like old girl friends you always remember the first and the two years I worked in Macedonia is where I have the fondest memories and it has and always will have a special place in my heart … to my friends in Gornja Podgora I just need to say that Snezana who is Macedonian herself was looking over my shoulder as I wrote this ?!!

Naturally when I first came across a perennial in Clonmel Garden Centre with the name Knautia Macedonia and which grows as a wild flower across the Balkan mountains it just had to have a place in our garden … evergreen sprawling foliage that looks like a weed but with beautiful flowers over the entire summer .

Front Garden Colour August 2024

A few years ago one morning I opened the back door to be confronted by this guy , a large dangerous looking billy goat and while I got a bit of a fright the billy goat didn’t seem in the least bit put out … we had a bit of a stand off and when I realised he wasen’t going to charge me I said the first thing that came into my mind … well the second thing as my first thought was Holy F..k … so I said here puss puss and extended my hand to him … yes I know puss puss where did that come from … anyway he trotted over to me chin extended to be rubbed  … very friendly and obviously used to human contact so between myself and my neighbours , the Faheys , we kept him for a few weeks until he started to eat all the shrubs so we found a local farmer who kept horses and the billy goat lived happily amongst the horses for the next few years as apparently horses and goats get on very well .

Watch this space ! The Front Garden pond area , August 2024

Nothing lasts forever and nor does the lining of a pond and our front garden pond started leaking water recently and the story of how we dealt with it is an ongoing story and will be revealed next month .