In a normal year, I would notice my balcony plants getting a bit tired of it all by the end of September. The same goes for Hunky Dory, a gentle decline, a winding down towards full-blown autumn.
This year however, both have plants already simply giving up!
That grass is brown (although the roots should be alive...I hope!), the flowers are all spent, the ornamental grasses are yellow. The plants in the shade of the Pinus are barely hanging on.
The only plant still going strong in this part of my garden is the Wild Carrot. It must be because I give it peptalks. Even the 'weed' Aegopodium podagraria is looking distinctly unhappy.
The only part of the garden that seems to be hanging on, sort of, is the pink bed.
This Chinese Lantern should be blooming in mid-September at the earliest. Oh well, no use keeping on about it, 2026 has been the hottest, most frustrating gardening year of my life.
My balcony roses are doing okay, as they get mollycoddled by me, I should admit. Daily watering, daily deadheading, daily talking to's.
The Erigeron likes it dry, so that is doing fine, as is the English grass. But that Physocarpus opul. Diablo at the right, is struggling! We've had a terrible mistral-like wind for days (hot, force 5) which has dried it out despite my watering, and it has lost half of its leaves.
That Streptocarpus has tripled in size, but has almost stopped flowering. I have to bring it indoors in October for the winter, it is a houseplant really, but where on earth will I put it? It is huge. That is the thing with putting houseplants outside for a summer holiday...they like it so much that they grow like mad.
The Last Cucumber. They have all been fat and short. But thankfully they taste okay, unlike the Tomatoes - I have plenty of them, but they are only suitable for sauce, and then need loads of herbs to give them some taste.
Actually, this grass along the lake bank does not look so bad! Not lush, but not the brown stuff where I necessarily have my Puck do a quick wee either. We just got in from such a wee, 35°C would you believe, and my poor old dog was suffering. But she is used to go around 14.00, so go she must! I take her in the shade of the Summer Oaks around the corner, but so do all the other dog walkers, so it has turned into Poo Avenue.
She would feel better if she swam to cool off, but she is not a swimmer. Actually, there is blue-green algae in the lake, and people and dogs are warned not to swim in it, as the algae not only turn you green and make you smell like a three days dead fish, but they can actually make you very ill.
So she suffers in silence, and I give her the occasional ice cube, and turn the fan on for her.
Right. From a sweltering Dutch Delta I'll say bye bye. Hopefully the rain that they keep promising us, but so far never arrived, will come this weekend. Wish us luck?
Have a good week, wherever you are.
Renée Grashoff
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