A quiet walk around the garden doesnt have to be long or energetic but, done frequently with a thoughtful eye, it can blend relaxation therapy with creative dreams and casual trouble-shooting of problems that are just starting.
Deadheading is one example. Picking off a few dead rose blooms every time you pass a rose bush encourages certain kinds such as Bonica or Rosa chinensis to rebloom yet its very little deadheading in any one walk.
Some roses such as the Flower Carpet series are self-cleaning which means the petals drop without help. Tidy gardeners may clean up the petals but in hot summer days fallen petals wither fast anyway.
The heritage roses can be dead-headed but almost all wont bloom again. The Gallica roses are especially interesting. If the blooms are picked and dried some retain most of their colour and all of their scent.
Weeding can be very casual in hot summers. Weeds without flower heads can be pulled and left in place to wither. A couple of days and they will have dried to almost nothing.
People who have left seed heads to develop on plants they plan to propagate can do easy seed collecting by walking around with a bucket containing a few brown paper bags, pruners and a pencil to label what youre collecting. Its a good use for recycled bags.
This works well for poppy seed, Nigella, Siberian irises, dill, parsley corn salad and arugula seed. Seed of lilies, allium, camas, hardy agapanthus, dianthus and many more can be collected simply by waiting till seed heads are dry on the stalk, cutting them and upending the seed-heads in a paper bag and shaking.
Not all the seeds shake loose but if you have chosen a big sheaf of dry seedheads, youll get lots of seed anyway. If you dont want accidental seedlings in your compost, the half-empty seed heads can go to the local green waste program.
Not all seeds come through the lower temperatures of home composting but some do. Thats why seed heads of weeds and lethally poisonous plants such as hellebores and aconitum should never be composted.
When fall rains begin, scattering home-collected seed in places where youd like more of the original plants is an easy puttering activity. Seed that is best scattered in spring should spend winter in a refrigerator or some other cool place.
Snipping herbs for drying is another pleasant way of spending an early evening walk during hot summer days. Past generations of gardeners would hang herb bunches in kitchens where hazards included spiders and dust. Putting drying herbs within paper bags protects them but lacks that old-time ambience.
Nowadays, people freeze herbs or oven-dry at a low temperature. Microwaving is said to work if a few herb stems are put inside a fold of wax paper. But quantities have to be small and fire can be a hazard.
Checking for pests and diseases, removing or treating diseased or badly infested plants and snipping off suspicious leaves and twigs can combine puttering and heading off trouble before it gets really started.
But often you see the problem and the remedy on the same plant for instance aphids and ladybugs. Sometimes watching and waiting turns out to be the right approach after all.
Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions. Send them to her via [email protected].
