Sunday Gardening - August
- 3 days ago
- 1 min read
Sunday 1th August 2026
Castle Wood Rose Garden
An early start on Sunday was rewarded by near perfect conditions for working in a sun exposed site like Castle Wood Rose Garden. Nine of us started to dead head roses and cut down the flower stems of the Lambs Ears and London Pride that had finished flowering. We got a very impressive volume of material, as can be seen by the photo of the compost heap.
We originally thought it would be a quick job for so many of us: not for the first time, I was wrong. Removing the Lambs Ears showed many more roses that needed trimming to a potential budding point where a new flower stem will grow. By doing this, new flower growth is encouraged and the rose can keep it's compact shape.
Despite record heat and no significant rain for about two months the roses are still looking healthy. This is proof that all the work we did putting soil, compost / manure and a covering of chippings has been justified. We knew watering the beds would be practically impossible.
An advantage of the recent weather is that no grass can grow so no edging of the beds was needed. Also very few weeds could get going. Even the perennial bindweed was looking stressed.
When we do get some rain we should have a good show of flowers in September and additional flowers in smaller amounts into December.
Thank you to David for this session's leadership and blog.
