Top Summer Garden Plants
Gardening in Britain can be a frustrating occupation. There are those hardy perennials such as roses that keep returning year after year, but finding garden plants that will tolerate the extremes of both winter frosts and summer droughts yet reliably produce beautiful flowers to cheer us can be a bit of a challenge. Plus any sharp frosts and hosepipe bans will always throw a curve ball at any of our horticultural aspirations.
During droughts, look for Mediterranean garden plants with silver leaves and a strong scent, like lavender or rosemary. The oil on the leaves creates a sun screen to reduce water loss, they have deep roots which tap into reserves during summer and do most of their growing during the winter.
Lavender produces sweet smelling mauve flowers right through the summer months which attracts bees and rosemary's aromatic leaves are wonderful with roast lamb plus it produces an attractive bush and a pretty small light mauve flower.
Some plants are able to store water in their stems, bulbs and leaves, whilst others have tap roots that efficiently tap into any moisture that is around. Lupins are sensibly tall plants that provide pretty blue flowers plus good architectural planting. More exotic flowers such as dahlias which are not that native to Britain have adapted quite well and produce large balls of colour from white, light yellow, coral pink, mauve, orange through to deep red, and poppies will make an attractive splash of red colour across any town or country garden.
Gardening with basic garden tools like a good fork to aerate the soil and a hoe to attack those nasty weeds will help to create a canopy of leaf cover which again helps to regulate water loss during a drought. Plus water well both morning and evening if there is no ban. Also a covering of gravel can help to filter difficult rain and protect plants and seeds in the winter and helps to conserve water in the summer.
There are a few options when trying to grow and maintain summer plants, if you're an impatient gardener and want beautiful flowers in your garden straight away why not opt for plug plants. If you are that type of individual who likes see the progress of their gardening, then why not plant some garden bulbs of some beautiful summer tulips.
This article was written on behalf Gardening Direct. For more information see - Seeds Garden Bulbs
