Escape

Grey skies, rain, even a few flashes of lightning thrown in. Yes, that's more like it. You can have too much of a good thing, ie hot weather.

We're half way through the summer and l'm in the middle of tidying those plants which have finished flowering, although some of them will have a second burst of colour later in the season.

 l've cut off the dead flower spikes of the lavender and already 'Royal Blue' is forming some new buds, as is the younger of my two 'Hidcotes.'

Geranium 'Wargrave Pink' was trimmed back quite hard within a few inches of the ground just three weeks ago and at first looked very bare and sorry for itself but now has a lush green carpet of new leaves and hopefully some more flowers soon. lt's worth doing with this variety as it can become straggly otherwise.

Anemone Japonica is at it's loveliest with a succession of pale mauvey pink blooms. The individual flowers do not last very long but if they are nipped off as soon as the petals drop they will produce more. They appreciate being kept fed and watered regularly and will repay the extra attention.

The biggest casualty of the hot spell seems to be my lawn. lt's yellow with black patches of dead moss. Not a good colour combination for your lawn. Raking out moss has to be one of the most back -breaking jobs in the garden. Guaranteed to burn off the calories, it's better than a work-out at the gym. l don't tackle it all at once, l pace myself, around fifteen minutes is enough. l rake a small area of moss at a time, then gather it up and bin it. Avoid spreading it around the lawn onto healthy areas.