Front garden watch: lovely lavender

Feels like I’m fighting a losing battle to keep the plants in the street planters alive at the moment. 

Yet the other night, while I was watering, a bumblebee landed in a straggly hollyhock flower, a two-spot ladybird crawled up my arm, a spider appeared from the lavender.

It’s a struggling eco-system but it’s still going. 

So I keep going. Eight watering cans worth every few nights. Things are toughing it out even if they’re not looking particularly great. 

One plant that is doing better than most is lavender. As I was walking up to the library today, I noticed that many front gardens have a patch of lavender and it's supporting dozens of bees and butterflies. On one patch in Mattison, I lost count of them. 

So, if hot summers in London are to become the norm, maybe we all need to get some lavender planted in those sunny front gardens.

By the way, if you have any street planters, tree pit gardens or young trees near you, please tip some water on them from time to time.

You can use grey water from your washing up or a bath.