August antics include; scorched soil, fantastical fragrance, fun-sized frogs, luscious lollies, and the joy of sharing food with strangers

Gardening tips for August

Garden grief in a time of drought and heatwaves

What a year of weather extremes it’s been here in the UK. The early months were dominated by very heavy rainfall, and now England and Wales have had five heatwaves and are largely in official drought conditions.

And I don’t know about you, but this is weighing heavily on me. Even though I’m very lucky to have escaped the worst of it here in Scotland.

So, if you feel bereft when you look at parched parks, failed crops and scorched gardens, please know you’re not alone.

If your garden is struggling under these awful conditions, and if you’ve lost plants you’ve nurtured for years, it’s understandable to feel grief. It’s not an over-reaction.

Gardens are living, evolving entities, and if they’re damaged or dying, then it hurts.

We will have to start gardening differently here in the UK. And I have ideas about how we can manage that. Let me know when you feel ready to hear them.

But there is always hope.

How about taking a peek at the Beth Chatto garden website? Beth was one of the first plantspeople in the UK to design gardens around the principle of ‘right plant, right place’. Dry gardens were a particular speciality for her, and I think we can learn much about adapting our gardens using her ideas as inspiration.

Fragrant musings from the library of scent: Dead Air by Oddity

A cocktail bar in another world. 

Humid air rises over a super salty sea. Succulent pale green plants wave bendy tendrils from pewter grey rocks. Freshly cracked coconuts weep milky tears into a waiting glass. 

Fronds of fennel scattered everywhere. 

Wisps of savoury smoke waft over the most succulent apricots and peaches, rotating themselves over burning coals. Brown sugar crackles. Singed herbs sigh.

You sip in delight.

Nature notes for August

Tiny frogs, the size of my thumbnail, scamper from one side of the woodland path to the other,

streaked like tiger’s eye jewels,

glistening in the damp

under brambles heavy with ripening blackberries, obsidian orbs full of spiced juice, the warm air heady with their fragrance

honeysuckle trumpets sing their seductive scent; cream, nutmeg and clove.

Make your own lollies

Shop bought ice lollies and ice creams are all well and good, but if you’re eating them often, it gets expensive. Making your own is easier than you’d ever believe. I bought these squeezable silicon moulds from Lakeland Plastics; you can fill them with whatever you fancy, pop the lid on and after a few hours in the freezer, sigh with pleasure at their icy joy.

In the photo above, I’ve simply combined Greek yoghurt with a handful of fresh raspberries, squished them about a bit, spooned the mixture into the mould and popped them in the freezer. How easy is that? 

You could try banana and honey, or cubes of mango with a squeeze of lime. Switching the yoghurt for a tin of Ambrosia custard (possibly only British readers will know this brand) will make for a creamier treat, which could be adorned with sprinkles or toffee chunks for a decadent delight.

Have a play and see what you can create!

Simple wellbeing tip

Easy chocolate chip cookies to eat and to share

I’ve recently joined a Gaelic group, where speakers of all abilities come together to chat. Or in my case, listen, because I’m not great at speaking Gaelic. I’m not too bad at understanding it, if spoken slowly, but speaking and writing are SO much harder.

The lovely chap who set up the group is an enthusiastic cook, and we usually chat around mouthfuls of his delicious cheesecake, fruit loaf and biscuits. But after devouring his concoctions eagerly week after week, I realised no-one else was contributing to the tea table.

So, I thought I’d make something crowd pleasing and take it along for our next meeting.

And, d’you know, I’d quite forgotten how lovely it is to offer your own cooking to people you don’t know well. It feels subtly different from cooking for loved ones. Maybe it’s the feeling of building community and the trust that walks alongside.

Anyway, I really enjoyed baking for my new friends. They seemed to like the biscuits too. And the main man looked more than a little relieved that he wasn’t going to be the sole provider of snacks for a bunch of greedy Gaels.

On the blog:

9 simple ways to survive a heatwave

⭐ As ever, all wibbly words and photos are by me, Rowan Ambrose, with not even the tiniest smidgen of AI. The perfume was bought by me too. Thanks for spending this time with me! ⭐