Summer plants

It must be summer. There is now basil in the hanging pots.

Have I mentioned the genius of this? Probably, but here goes again.

For a couple of years my attempts to include basil in the pots of herbs by the kitchen door were thwarted by the fact that basil is apparently the tastiest thing on earth for slugs. Many a summer’s morning of going outside to find nothing in the basil pots but slug slime. Ugh. Then a solution occurred to me: using hanging pots with wire the slugs cannot navigate. I mentioned this a few years ago to a woman in the garden shop who was complaining about the basil/slug problem. “Genius!” she proclaimed. I don’t know about that and I’m sure I’m not the first person to figure this out, but it works.

Now the only deck vegetation question is: What the hell is up with these petunias?

Purchased in one of those tiny six packs, these were supposed to produce pink flowers. They’ve trebled in size since planting in the window box, but so far show no sign of producing a single flower. I don’t need more green outside. I’ve got plenty of green. What I need is some summer colour. What the fuck?

Well, no complaints on the front about the starry night petunias I bought at the same time for the hanging pots.

New to the deck this summer: salvias.

When I was visiting my cousin in England in 2022, I was struck by the number of bees attracted to this shrub, so I asked him what it was. It was called a hot lips salvia. As I wrote last summer, I wasn’t all that taken by the white and red flowers, but I was excited to discover that there were also vibrant purple and red versions. Unfortunately neither of these (or any other salvias) were available at either of the island garden shops. So, a little while ago, when I heard a friend who was in Vancouver was planning a trip to a big garden store while she was there, I asked her to have a look for me. She came back with both purple and red.

Amongst the many things I did not know about salvias is the fact that some are annuals, others are perennials. I thought they were all the latter. The red ones are definitely annuals. There were no tags on the purple ones, so they could be either. Guess I’ll find out next year which it is.

Meanwhile, I hope the bees enjoy them. Apparently hummingbirds also love them. Bonus.