The summer sun shone round me.

The summer sun shone round me.

The summer sun shone round me,

 The folded valley lay

In a stream of sun and odour,

That sultry summer day.

The tall trees stood in the sunlight

As still as still could be,

But the deep grass sighed and rustled

And bowed and beckoned me.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Blue Rinse and Rollers or improving your nepeta.

I have always been smitten with the billowing knee high allée of nepeta seen in English gardens and it seems wholly suitable to repeat the effect here in our dry summers. 

 I have a two walled and paved walkways around the house where rose grow that need a dense hedging to create more definition and mid-summer interest in the peak of our searing sun conditions. Last year I planted what should have been “Six Hills Giant” which I had hopped should be more upright. The bees have loved it but I am not impressed.

Trawling through an old copy of English Garden magazine I read a great idea (sorry didn’t note who she was!) which was to roll tubes of chicken wire and let the nepeta grow through. What a great solution – I’m rushing out to try it straight away as they have just had a haircut and I hope to get a second magazine worthy display.