Five extraordinary roses, a tiny garden full of clever ideas, a mystery solved and some exciting news…
Summer Special: Part One
Memories of long hot summers always seem sepia-tinted, however long ago they were. Even summers of a few years ago seem as distant as the summers in The Go-Between, The Great Gatsby, Atonement and The Enchanted April.
During those distant faraway summers, there was nothing like the excitement of the summer specials, those fun-filled, jam-packed, chunky editions of your favourite comic which would appear at the local newsagents. Their arrival signalled the end of term and the beginning of the holidays. How much did I look forward to this moment, which meant hours of extra entertainment which you just knew would be good.
Their arrival also signalled the end of term and the beginning of the holidays, and inspired by this joy, there’s a Gardening Mind summer special each year. This year’s was looking HUGE, so I’ve broken it down into two parts - one for this weekend and one coming in August.
So without further ado, happy summer Part 1!
If you’re landing here at The Gardening Mind for the first time, welcome - I’m delighted you’ve found us. There’s lots going on here - garden design ideas, easy gardening how-tos, plant recommendations, general garden chat, border planting design tips and tricks, zoom get-togethers and lots more. If you’d like to join in, I’d absolutely love it.
We have over 39,000 subscribers in 180 countries, and we are a group of people who love gardens! We’re the most popular garden Substack IN THE WORLD, and I’d love you to join us.
Are you someone who has never gardened before but who is tempted? I would be just so happy if you decided to join us: we’ve had so many complete beginners join us over the last five years, and those beginners have over time sown their first seed, harvested their first salad leaves, and are here now forming this community of garden lovers. I want you to feel confident enough to have a go, maybe even to ask questions, and to feel that amazing feeling you get when you go outside and see your very first seedling poking its way curiously out of the soil. There isn’t anything quite like it.
If you haven’t quite decided what style of garden you like, or want, but you want to do something to your garden, there are lots of previous posts to read through which I think you’ll find helpful. Here’s THE INDEX to everything.
There’s the Small Garden Design course to follow, Garden Design Case Studies and Garden Dilemmas. There are sections on City Gardens, Planting Design, Country Gardens, and Wildlife Gardening. You’ll find lots of ‘before and after’ garden design case study examples, too, which I’m hoping will help show you what’s possible.
I’m a skimmer when it comes to reading, dotting about and then going back, and I think if I were receiving this article for the first time, I’d probably head straight for The Tiny Garden Design case study. After that, I might have a look at the plant combinations, and only then would I start reading about each plant in detail. I’d love to know, when you see what’s coming up each week, whether you head straight for that item, or do you read the whole thing?
If you’re like me, you might want to head straight to those links. Here’s what’s coming this week, with links to help you jump forward if you’d like to. But you have have to promise me you’ll read the other bits too later!
Planting suggestions for these roses
There’s a summer container idea
Discounts on plants and garden stuff
The first big NEWS of a couple of big bits of news - and there’s some more news coming next week
In case you missed it, here’s this week’s free-to-read Cultivated
And do remember, if you’re buying any of the plants and products below, the Crocus discounts on plants and products are here.
Let’s go!
I have for you a Bumper Edition of the Rose Diaries, as there are five roses that are just loving it hot and dry right now in my own garden. They’ve been neglected and ignored , and they’ve been totally happy in the winter wet, and yet are still wonderful and deserve a proper celebration, along with planting suggestions to make them work either individually or all together.