This Month in the Garden

Plant and Vegetable for August

Plant

Eryngium    -    Sea Holly

The bold flower heads of these thistle like flowers give interest and stature to a late summer border.  They are adored by bees and butterflies which puts them high on many peoples list.

It is the thorny bracts and upper stems that are usually brightly coloured, for this reason they make excellent dried flowers.

Good companions are pink geraniums or any dry loving plants.

Vegetable

Courgettes

Courgettes are always waited for with eager anticipation which is usually followed a couple of weeks later by a feeling of doom as another is ready for the already overflowing fridge.

I have a whole host of recipes to use courgettes some savoury including a courgette pickle and an oven-baked risotto, and some sweet such as raisin and courgette muffins and a chocolate courgette cake, even so though even I sometimes wonder what to do with them!

We start our courgette seed in an old margarine tub in March, put the seed on damp kitchen roll, put the lid on and leave it to sprout in a warm place.  Once sprouted plant into modules and then keep potting into larger pots until it is put outside in its final resting place after the risk of frost has past (early June).

Courgettes are an ideal vegetable to put into containers however you will need to water well especially once they start producing as they take lots of water particularly in hot weather.  They will also require feeding once they are producing, use a tomato fertiliser once a week.