Gardening News Letter – August, By Jane Follis (Including recipe for all those courgettes!)

THIS continuing dry spell has prompted me to sit down and write a list of drought tolerant plants readily available in the UK.
This will not only help me with future planting plans, but it is also something I thought might be of interest to you. If you want a copy just contact me and I will forward it on to you. As I was going through the list I realised that certain plants we thought of as extremely tender only a few years ago, such as Pittosporum tenuifolium ?Silver Queen?, can now quite happily survive our winters; more indications perhaps of global warming.
I was also pleased to find that I already use the vast majority as a matter of course.
Having ripped my garden apart in late July I can now sit back and think what I might plant. I removed an enormous Viburnum tinus that had spread to at least three meters, two Choisya and a Euphorbia
wulfenii. The space these have left is amazing and I can?t wait to sit down and actually design something for my own space. Whilst working in the garden we found, to my horror, an adder basking under some old bricks and he wasn?t small!! I now very gingerly
walk up the path to my office wondering if he is lurking in the undergrowth.
August is the month when we designers think things go quiet.
Not so for me, I?m afraid. I still have lots of interesting projects on the go, including the possibility of two commercial jobs. I am also quite excited at the prospect of judging the ?New Homes
Garden Awards? on the 17th.

This competition was set up a few years ago to encourage developers, designers and landscapers to
all work together. I might even enter it next year. If you are interested the website is www.newhomesgardenawards.co.ik.

A U G U S T
SEASONAL RECIPE
PISTO MANCHEGO
Great if you have a glut of courgettes.
3 tbs of fruity olive oil 1 pepper cut into squares
1 medium onion, chopped 1 courgette cubed
5 cloves of garlic minced 1lb tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 tbs minced parsley salt and pepper
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saut