Summer Garden Blog 2026

Formal Flower Garden in July. 

 Persicaria affinis in full bloom in our Spiral beds with Vinery in the background. 

 

Thankfully, the recent heatwave did not affect us too badly. Our natural rainwater supply from the lake on the top of the mountain secured the well needed daily irrigation. It takes a couple of hours each day to water all parts of the six acre Walled Garden and is mainly done when the garden is closed in the early mornings or late evenings. 

Watering the Herb Garden in the evening. 

The Herbaceous Border is also at its peak and regular dead heading is one of the essential weekly tasks, mainly done by our garden students. The first flush of strong colours is replaced by tones of pinks, yellows, oranges, blues and whites. Lilies, Inulas, Chrysanthemums, Echinops, Crinums and Watsonias are only a few of our extensive selection of heritage herbaceous plants. A complete plant guide from the north herbaceous border is available on our webpage or can be downloaded from a QR code at the border. This list is getting updated accordingly to all changes in the border once a year. 

Our double Herbaceous Border in full extend. 

 

Lilies, Hosta’s and Daylilies. 

 

Acanthus and Tanacetum. 

The summer bedding is holding up well so far. We lost a couple of bedding after the wet spring but overall, the beds are filled with a ray of annuals and perennials. We are trying out a couple of new and more reliable heritage plants every year and often it is a trial-and-error scenario, and we will only know the success rate after a couple of seasons. One of the more successful permanent plants is the Origanum, which normally grows in our Herb Garden. We replaced the annual edging planting scheme in our ‘Snake Beds’ with this low growing and summer flowering compact Oregano (Origanum vulgare ‘Compactum’). It is now growing its second year and developed a dense, pink flowering carpet. The growing rate is nearly too successful since we had to divide the plants already. The Kylemore Kitchen is happy with an endless supply of savoury oregano! 

Origanum vulgare 'Compactum' in full bloom. 

The runner and French beans enjoyed the recent heat and produce rapidly beans of all shades. Our grand lady of the runner beans would be ‘Painted Lady’, an exceptionally reliable heritage variety, dating back to the 17th century. All parts of this bean are attractive and can also be used in between flower borders as a showstopper. The pods should be harvested small enough since they can be quite stringy otherwise. We will let the last ones grow on until fully grown for the seed harvest. 

Runner beans ‘Painted Lady’. 

We also covered the brassicas, like cabbages and kales, with a netting once again to prevent the white caterpillar laying eggs on the leaves.  

Netting the Brassicas. 

The onions and shallots are also ready to be harvested, and we started today to lay them out on the ridges for drying off before storing them until the vegetable sale next week. They have a nice size this year, a bit better than the last season. These ridges were covered with old hay to prevent the weed growth between the onions, shallots and garlic. These crops are not covering the open ground enough and weeds have a better chance to grow. Also, the layer of hay retained the moisture in the ground a lot longer during the dry spell. 

Onion harvest. 

We just finished the restoration of the historic windows in our Head Gardener House. A Heritage Grant enabled us to bring these old windows back to their original splendour and function. The African Lily is playing its own part in highlighting these features and contrasting well with the Victorian Green of the windows. 

Restored windows and African Lilies at the Head Gardener House. 

The Yuccas in our subtropical border leading up to the Head Gardener House are in full bloom, too. The creamy-white cup or bell-shaped flowers are always a showstopper and bring an interesting contrast to the many shades of green in the border. 

Flowering Yucca in the subtropical Head Gardener Border. 

 

Cut flowers always played an important part in Victorian Gardens. We grow an extensive selection of heritage flowers to be used in bouquets in several buildings in Kylemore like the Teahouse, the Head Gardener House, the Castle or the Visitor Centre. 

Cut flowers growing along the west wall. 

Cut flower arrangements ready to go to the Teahouse. 

This coming month will be busy with the harvest of vegetables, seeds and flowers. Soon it will be time to think about the coming spring season; the first bulb orders went out already!  

Your Head Gardener 

Anja Gohlke