Daily Mirror - 17.08.2019

mirror.co.uk SATURDAY 17.08.2019 DAILY MIRROR^45

DM1ST

PLA NT of the week

Persicaria Fat

Domino

Some persicarias, formerly known

as polygonum, can be invasive

thugs, bullying other plants out of

existence. ‘Fat Domino’ is a better

behaved member of this family and

well worth growing for its profuse

dark red flowers.

An easy to grow variety, it will

clump out but at a manageable rate.

Liking most soils, preferably moist, it

will do well in sun or partial shade and flowers from June to

October. Grow this wildlife-friendly plant with other late flowering

perennials such as sanguisorbas, rudbeckias and echinaceas.

GARDEN with DIARMUID GAVIN

[email protected]

Weekend, Daily Mirror,

One Canada Square,

London E14 5AP

Sorry, Diarmuid cannot

reply personally

equally renowned at home. The Irish

National Botanic Gardens have installed

talented gardener Seamus O’Brien to

transform their satellite arboretum garden

in Kilmacurragh, which was visited and

much admired by Prince Charles on his

recent Irish trip.

We ended up in one location

which would provide many

lessons for us gardeners who

love colour. Patthana is a small

garden in the village of Kiltegan,

not too far from where the BBC

drama Ballykissangel was shot.

Acclaimed artist TJ Maher

uses his painter’s eye to create

mid and late-summer pictures

employing colourful herbaceous

perennials. Over the past decade

TJ has assembled a carefully

selected orchestra of plants to

sing out as other gardens begin to fade.

In mid-August the garden was bursting

with joyful exuberance and will continue

through to the end of September.

Highlights for me included the very tall

snapdragons in delicious warm orange

and pink colours towering at the back of

borders. These are Potomac Dark Orange,

available from chilternseeds.co.uk.

They combined beautifully

with the primrose yellow

verbascums and burnt orange

heleniums. In the central bed

there were clouds of light purple

Thalictrum ‘Splendide’,

Sanguisorba ‘Lilac Squirrel’

heavy with pink feathery

blossoms, and a violet phlox

emitting its beautiful scent,

along with hosts of cheerful

cosmos daisies.

The colour extravaganza

continued with rich pink dahlias,

coleus with flame-coloured

foliage in pots which will be easily lifted

indoors for winter, and some spicy orange

Tagetes such as ‘Cinnabar’. Old reliables

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and ‘Anne Thompson’

scrambled through any available gaps.

Other plants TJ uses and recommends

for this time of year are Eupatorium,

Sedum and Verbena bonariensis, great for

butterflies, Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’,

Veronicastrum and Nicotiana alata. Many

of these will keep going strong until the

end of September.

It’s not just about perennials, though.

There are many interesting foliage plants

such as the giant Tetrapanax to greet you

in the courtyard entrance, as well as

fatsias, trochodendron and aralia.

TJ’s gardening philosophy is one of

respect for nature, eschewing chemical

interventions, and encouraging birds, bees

and butterflies to make themselves at

home. All this combines to make Patthana

a garden which is at once exciting and

serene, and a masterclass for us all in late

summer planting.

■ To find out more, visit

patthanagardenireland.com

LATE SHOW

ORANGE CRUSH

Heleniums glow

in the late

summer sun

Burnt

orange

heleniums

and violet

phlox

mixed

with pink

dahlias

■ You can increase your stock of

border carnations by layering –

choose a healthy side shoot that

isn’t flowering, bend it over

without snapping the stem and

peg it firmly into the

ground with some wire.

Cover the stem with

soil and water in.

■ Divide overcrowded

bearded irises to

improve vigour for

next year.

■ Cyclamen corms that you

have been storing can be started

into growth in the greenhouse.

■ Having trouble with earwigs on

your dahlias? Make traps with

pots stuffed with shredded paper

and remove earwigs daily.

■ Prune climbing and rambling

roses if they have finished

flowering.

■ Conifer and evergreen

hedges can have a final

trim to tidy up before

autumn slows growth.

■ A high phosphate

feed for the lawn will

help encourage strong

root growth, which will

strengthen it for the winter.

■ Colchicum, sternbergia and

autumn crocus should be planted

in the ground as soon as they are

available in the garden centre.

JOBS for the week

Is your garden

TOP of the PLOTS?

Our great competition to find

the nation’s best garden returns

and we can’t wait to see which

of our your Edens are Top of the

Plots.

We are searching the country

for Britain’s best gardens, and

we are keen to understand the

reasons they were created too.

What inspired you to go out to

dig and plant? Is your garden a

haven for wildlife, a colourful

collection of the brightest and

best? Is it a personal sanctuary?

Why did you make it and who

helped you? What effect does it

have on family and friends?

Our 2019 categories are:

„ Garden of the Year

„ Small Garden of the Year

(including window boxes/

planters)

And if you are judged to be our winner, you will get a great

£500 cash prize!

HOW TO ENTER

Post entries by August 31, 2019, to: Top of the Plots,

Daily Mirror, One Canada Square, E14 5AP or email to

weekend@mirror. co.uk and attach photos. You must include a

daytime phone and your full name and address.

TERMS & CONDITIONS: Open to anyone who is a UK resident except employees of Reach plc,

group companies and their immediate families. Entrants must be 16 or over and must submit photos

taken this year. Send us up to five pics of your garden plus no more than 150 words of background

info. Entries must be received by Saturday, August 31, 2019. Entries after this date will not be

accepted. Winner will be selected by our judging panel and will be notified by Friday, September 6,

2019. By entering, readers agree to the publication of their submitted pictures plus name within the
      Daily Mirror, at the editor’s discretion. All data shared by entering this competition will be used for
      administration only. Reach plc and members of its group will not use your data for any marketing
      purposes. We take data protection very seriously, and your data will not be shared with any third
      parties. Standard Reach plc competition terms apply and can be found at mirror.co.uk/rules.

2017 WINNER The community

garden created from an alleyway

behind three streets of houses

in Fairfield, Liverpool