Summer

Welcome readers to the first installment of my gardening blog

If any of you are like me, then summer is not your favorite season.

Echeveria elegans

The blaring light, the humidity, hot cars and lack of sleep. I often resort to starting work quite early and finish when the heat gets too much for me.

It's not a great time for gardens either. The soil bakes and cracks appear overnight and who'd be a plant? Standing there all day at the mercy of the sun and elements, unable to sit it out under the shade of a nearby tree or the eaves of a house.

Its amazing how some plants can survive. Succulents cope seemingly not even aware that conditions are tortuous.  Cotyledon orbiculata, Kalanchoe thyrsiflora and Echeveria elegans just sit there in the garden looking beautiful, adding their structure, powdery foliage and soft cooling hues without blinking an eye. True troopers.

Cotyledon orbiculata

Others like Artemisia absinthum, Berberis thunbergii 'Rose Glow', add beautiful contrast to the garden without being gaudy and adding further glare. Both of these plants are extremely tough, low maintenance and require little if any water once established.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is a real favourite of mine. I try and put a drift of these hardy, pretty plants in all my designs. I find them rewarding for the novice gardener and seasoned plant enthusiast alike. I love the seasonal variations of this plant; the sweet rosettes of new growth in spring, the 'reaching for the stars' summer growth, the flowering glory of late summer/autumn and the skeletal stems of winter all covered in dew and spider webs glistening in the winter sun -a personal favourite time of year for these plants.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

No matter what your favoured season is I hope you get to sit under the branches of a shady tree or on your back verandah and stay cool and enjoy the fruits of your labour and enjoy the view.

Lee