It’s hot and my garden looks as if it has been napalmed. All the plants are suffering from heat exhaustion and the whole thing presents a bizzare nightmarish picture of a wasted landscape occupied by chickens pecking over the bones of what was once a garden with the occasional lizard scurrying by.
Still never mind, there is always something to be doing, so let’s get on with the gardening.
2nd September 2026. Things I have doing lately in the garden.
- Deadheading like a champion
- Mulching with pine needles
- Dealing with my lawn
- Loosening compost in my pots
- Mourning my pomegranates
Deadheading like a champion. We are now entering peak deadheading season, so if you want your plants to keep flowering for the rest of the summer then you need to get out every day and deadhead spent flowers. Deadheading spent flowers isn’t just about keeping things tidy, it’s about forcing plants to keep on flowering.
All plants exist solely to go to seed. Left to their own devices they will flower once, produce seed and then just stop flowering. By deadheading you are stopping the plant fulfilling its primary function and it will immediately try again with another flower. The more you deadhead, the more flowers you get. The photo below shows the start of the big deadhead.
At its simplest deadheading is very simple you just cut off the dead flowers. However, don’t cut just under the spent flower, instead slide your secateurs down the flower stem till you meet the next set of leaves and cut just above there. By doing this you are not leaving a length of dead stem that could invite virus and pathogens into your plant. The technique is shown in the photos below.
In addition to my normal deadheading I have had to make a drastic decision concerning my Petunias. Normally Petunias will reliably flower all summer and through to next Spring with just a bit of deadheading and tidying up. However, the heat this year has made them bolt and they have become leggy and straggly. I took the decision that they would not make it through the year unless I took drastic action. This meant cutting them right back, giving them a feed and hoping they will come back in the Autumn. The photos below show the Petunias haircut.
Mulching with pine needles. In the incredible heat we have had this summer I have been manfully attempting to mulch around plants that were suffering. Mulching as you know seals in moisture and protects your plants roots from the worst of the heat. Up to now I have been using compost and bark chippings but have always had a prejudice about using pine needles as I believed that they would overly acidify my soil. However, after a bit of basic research, I have been an idiot, it is not in fact true. Whilst pine needles may add a little bit of acidity it is nothing to worry about.
My research has changed my whole approach to pine needle mulch. Especially as I have a whole forest of pine needles in the wild wood part of my garden as can be seen in the photo below.
Armed with my new abundance of pine needle mulch I have been cheerfully stuffing it under and around my perennials. I have had such fun I will probably mix various amounts into my winter compost top dressing. See photos below.
Dealing with my lawn. I assume most of you won’t have lawns; mind you neither technically do I. My lawn now resembles the Kalahari desert only with chickens instead of camels. The photo below is worth a thousand words.
Yes, I know, I can hear you tutting serves him right for having a lawn in Spain. The alternative, as suggested by Cruella (my wife) is that I should turn it into a chicken theme park. She already has a business plan and envisages making lots of money from inviting other chicken owners to bring their girls for a day out. She has even thought of a name “Chicken World” and some rides:
- The Chicken Run – a fast roller coaster
- Cluck & Roll – spinning coaster
- The Eggstreme – terrifying drop ride
- The Hen Hang-Up – giant swinging ride
- Flight of the Chicken – flying ride
- The Rooster Rocket – high-speed launch ride
- Wing & Scream – scary roller coaster
- The Great Eggscape – escape-themed dark ride
- Feather Fury – spinning thrill ride
- The Coop Loop – looping coaster
But putting all this silliness aside, if you have a lawn you don’t need to do too much till the winter scarify. But in the meantime, keep your lawn tidy with the tiniest of trims and give it a feed. See photos below.
Loosening compost in my pots. It has been a long hot summer and if you look into your pots you will see that the compost has shrunk away from the edges of the pot and become compacted. If you leave it like this, then when you water the water will just run down the inside of the pot and exit through your drain holes leaving your plant roots completely untouched.
To overcome this and save your plants, take a cane and push it into your pot at various points and wiggle it around. This serves two purposes. Firstly, it loosens your soil and eases the compaction. Secondly, it provides vectors that allows the water to flow into your soil. This extremely complicated process is shown in the photos below.
Mourning my pomegranates. In my last blog post I talked about netting figs etc and how important it was before the fruit got ripe. I explained that the birds soon recognise exactly when the fruit can be eaten.
Despite my warnings I have been devastated by the loss of my meagre pomegranate crop. I only have one pomegranate tree and that self seeded in my hedges. Despite not being the planter of the tree, I have assiduously cared for it over the years and it has rewarded me with 5 or 6 pomegranates a year. Well not this year, I failed to take my own advice and didn’t notice the fruit becoming ripe. The result is the devastation below.
Spanish Garden 