Garden Diary – Heatwaves to fleeces, roses and DIY!

Well, that’s the end of May, and what a funny weather month it’s been! I think we’ve had every weather type accept snow.

At least we’ve ended on a hot note. It’s a long time since we’ve had a bank holiday as warm as that, great for all the families on half term!

Unfortunately we spent the whole weekend inside, as we’ve finally had our new kitchen delivered and we were attempting to work out what went where!

As it happens, it was far too hot to be gardening anyway, accept of course for the seemingly endless watering. I don’t mind normal watering every few days, but the greenhouse needed it twice a day which got a bit boring!

Not helped by the primary school I attended instilling into us, ‘never waste water!’ We even had signs above every sink saying, ‘plug it’.

It’s had a lasting effect on me, meaning I always feel guilty as I stand there with the hosepipe. Even though I’m keeping plants alive, and the edible ones are keeping me alive.

The warmth has started the roses blooming and the scent off my David Austin rose ‘Gabriel oak’ is divine. It’s lived in a pot since I bought it a few years ago, but finally it’s got a home in my new flower border. It’s already looking 10 times happier than it’s been in the container.

We have a greenhouse and garden full of bees now, they have been particularly loving the flowering shrubs. I think people sometimes forget about shrubs when thinking of providing for the pollinators, but they don’t mind where they get their nectar from.

I spied a bit of pink inside the bushy grass of ‘Karl Foerster’, on investigation I discovered there was a lovely pink aquilegia right in the middle. They do seed themselves everywhere but I don’t know how it got in there and goodness knows how I’m going to get it out.

One of the cauliflowers that I planted last autumn, suddenly decided to produce a lovely looking vegetable last week. All the others had just bolted ages ago and I’d given up hope of getting one. Just shows!

The yellow pom-poms known as Billy buttons that I’d sown last year also started to flower, and guess where I saw lots of them? On the coverage of the Chelsea flower show. How on trend am I?

On Friday it was pleasant enough to get some gardening done, but it went quite cool in the afternoon which was typical as we had friends coming round that night. We did tough it out and eat outside, but with fleeces on lol.

By Saturday it was warm again, but not to worry as we were still stuck inside, scratching our heads looking at those kitchen cabinets that weren’t going to attach themselves to the walls!

Monday 25th May 2026

I hope you’re all managing to stay cool 😎 💕🌸🌿🩷🌿

The garden apprentice & I are busy fitting our new kitchen. Would prefer to be gardening, but it’s too hot anyway 🥵

Happy bank holiday Monday #MagentaMonday #DIY #newkitchenatlast

Tuesday 26th May 2026

And finally we have a cooler breeze tonight 🙏

#tuesdayblue #bloomscrollibg #iris

Wednesday 27th May 2026

David Austin’s ‘Gabriel oak’ has bloomed over night 🌿🩷🌿

A little cooler this morning 😊

#RoseWednesday

Thursday 28th May 2026

When you are trying to cater for the bees in your garden, remember flowering shrubs. They love the flowers of this Physocarpus & so do I 😊🌿🤍🐝 #insectthursday

#bees #pollinators #shrubs

Saturday 30th May 2026

It’s certainly been a week of blue skies 💙🌿

Minimal gardening 🥵, lots of watering 💦 & eating outside 🏖️

#sixonsaturday

Sunday 31st May 2926

My first perfect cauliflower 🤗🤗🤗🥬 It looks too good to eat!

#homegrown #growyourown #cauliflower #kitchengarden

May has thrown frost, thunderstorms, hailstones, wind & finally a heatwave at the garden. And all our worrying is in vain, as she blooms away 🌿🧡🌸💜💕🌿 #flowersonsunday #bloomscrolling #gardening

I always like to know the correct name of a plant, in this case Craspedia globosa. But I do love their common names & this one is particularly good, Billy Buttons 🌼🌼🌼🌼
I hope you’ve all had a good Sunday, it’s been much better gardening weather😊 #sundayyellow #bloomscrolling