On Thursday evening we sat in the garden and watched, through a big dark cloud, a very partial partial eclipse of the sun. The cloud, though, created quite a light show. While this was going on, I took a photo of one of our sunflowers, basking in the unearthly glow.

In fact this crop of self-grown, mostly unattended sunflowers has positively thrived during the long heatwave. I have been removing the dead flowers and putting the heads along the edge of the borders, just in case any wildlife wishes to eat the seeds. I must have done this last year with the ones I grew intentionally. Which explains how this year’s lot came to be. So: who knows what will happen next year – a sunflower forest?

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Thriver and SoS no. 2 is the Rudbeckia Herbstsonne. It is growing in the top of a boundary wall beside next door’s garage. The wall is basically a raised bed, and there is probably quite a depth of soil inside it. I never did get to the bottom of it. When we moved into The Gables three years ago it was choked with Hypericum Hidcote that had turned itself into the plant world’s version of chain-link fencing, intermeshed with brambles,  and several well grown ash tree saplings. It took a marathon of digging to extract everything.

It is a rather odd spot for gardening. The wall runs from the road to our back garden, aligned east-west. I planted the Rudbeckia at the westerly end, thinking to screen the visibility gap between us and next door. And it works! I’ve not watered it all summer and here it is, complete with Red Admiral butterfly.

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Thriver no, 3 is a neat little grass in the front border – Festuca glauca Intense Blue. This bed has had some water, but not much. I like its fountain looks and the way the grass reflects the light (which makes it hard to photograph.)

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Number 4 is offered as proof of existence – or maybe circumstantial evidence at best. Here we have raindrops on sorrel leaves. At some point between Thursday night and Friday morning we had a spatter of rain. It fell on various surfaces but none apparently on the soil, which then and now remains dry as dust. The promised rainstorm for Friday afternoon did not happen.

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No. 5 is the kind of infestation that comes with stressed plants and stressful conditions. The ants have set up aphid factories all over the garden, but especially in unsightly encrustations along the stems of otherwise lovely claret cosmos. The Dyer’s Chamomile is also a desirable location, as is the Montbretia. I’ve tried spraying with slightly soapy water, and gently wiping off by hand, but one ends up causing more damage to the flowers as well creating blackfly soup. And anyway, the ants only come and set up business again as soon as my back is turned.

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But back to the good garden moments this week – a new blue butterfly spotted on the Korean Mint (Agastache). It’s a male Common Blue, wingspan about 3 cm. Exquisite.

 

Copyright Tish Farrell 2026

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Six on Saturday: The hot dry weeks may be taking their toll, but there are still some wonderful plants in Jim’s Cornish garden