Summer notes: July

July's highlights in the garden

July starts with mild, sunny days - blue skies streaked with evanescent clouds turning into fluffy, spun sugar puffs, gently floating in the breeze.

The smell of honeysuckle and roses permeates the garden.

Bees gather on lavender stems, swallows merrily swoop around chasing insects, and butterflies flit from flower to flower, clustering around  buddleia,  verbena bonariensis, echinacea, and nepeta.

Around the pond, the marginal plants are growing surprisingly well.

Stipa tenuifolia and gaura sway in the breeze, hydrangea paniculata, miscanthus, and cornus alba show new growth, and all the sanguisorbas delight me with their lush leaves and delicate, fluffy spikes bobbing from thin long stems. 

Deadheading roses is almost a daily job, but I don't mind - I love walking among roses and picking the best ones to make scented bouquets. 
Sweet peas keep blooming and blooming, and I have a fresh posy every day. After a slow start, they're going wild, and the carpenter bees love them.

One day I wake up to an unseasonable misty morning, followed by a couple of welcome showers that save me from watering, and leave the garden sparkling with raindrops. 

Just when I'm starting to think that this year we're getting a mild summer, July ends with a heatwave - a few days with temperatures over 35°C (95°F), hot nights, and about 90% humidity so that it actually feels over 40°C (104F). 

The air feels like hot soup, and the upstair bedrooms heat up way too much for my liking. I sleep on the sofa downstairs, trying to focus on the coming cooler days.

Whilst I write these notes, I'm getting mentally prepared for another heatwave forecasted for this weekend - I'll be hibernating indoors, stepping out only in the early morning to pick veggies for our meals.

I'll leave you with my second YouTube video - click the image below to see my garden in July, I hope you enjoy it :)