June 21 is Midsummer’s Day, the longest day of the year but it feels far too soon to be thinking of days shortening.

This is the glorious month that we can work or play outside late into the light evenings and start again early in the bright morning as dusk quickens to dawn in just a couple of hours.

It gives me a hyperactivity unknown in other months as it feels like it’s permanently light so what am I waiting for, I should be getting on.

Growth in the garden is just as energetic and it’s hard to do everything that seems to need doing. The best advice I’ve had for this fevered time is to simply do what I can, to keep enjoyment to the fore and to remember that nature is the one in control.

We can do what we can to help mitigate risk to our precious plants by companion planting, being attentive to feed and water requirements and reducing the competition for nutrients that weeds present but when all’s said and done, plants want to grow.

Despite the practical busy-ness that we occupy ourselves with this month, I also find myself feeling more childlike and a little on the fey side. Maybe it’s the heady scents and kaleidoscope of colours of the flowers in the many shades of so many hours of light and half-light.

I think, too, that it’s a combination of seeing the familiar flowers that dress Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies and the ethereal fairies from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

June is month full of magic, thanks to Mother Nature.

Happy growing,

Lisa

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