This Week In The Garden – Six On Saturday, 11 July 2026

I’m super late with this, it’s been 2 weeks since my last garden update. Things are still struggling out there in the heatwave though, but there are some things happening that I want to document and share here. It’s an exciting time too because my large planters have finally arrived, as have the trellises, so soon I will be able to plant up my whole garden. I cannot wait!

1. New Planters And Trellises

Before moving to this house at the beginning of the year, I had already planned my balcony garden and was super excited to finally have some growing space again after many years without.

Unfortunately things didn’t quite do to plan and my seeds were started a whole month later than I had wanted to. Then the order for the planters and trellises was delayed and so all my plants, including berry bushes, were left in their tiny nursery pots until now. In the heat of summer.

Fortunately this week the last of the supplies have arrived and I can very likely get my planters and trellises set up, cleaned, varnished and filled by next week-end. I rely on help from my loved ones to do these jobs as I am not able to do much heavy lifting in my condition (ME/CFS). That means waiting for their availability to get things done.

I am very grateful for all the heavy lifting they do. I couldn’t live the way I do without their help.

So as things arrived this week, we’ve started working on the planters. So far we have added little feet to raise the planters slightly. They lift the planters off the tiles just enough so that the wood hopefully never sits in drained water or rain, and air can flow under the planters freely to avoid any buildup of moisture or mold.

This weekend we also put up trellises and started on the varnishing process to protect the wood (hence the delay publishing this post). These were a huge investment, so I want to protect them so they last as long as possible.

I’m hoping to finish up the varnishing this week so that next weekend they can be filled up with a good mix of potting soil and ammendments and the planting can begin! Although it’s completely the wrong time of year to be transplanting things, I am sure they will be happier in fresh soil and more space. Better than roots cooking and drying out in tiny pots.

2. Peppers Are Flowering

I’m so happy to see more pepper plants in bloom. I cannot wait to try some of these varieties. These two are Chinese 5 Colour, with purple blooms, and Sugar Rush, which has white blooms. They’ve already set more since taking these photos!

I just hope I didn’t misunderstand the heat levels and these are actually edible, otherwise they’ll be gifted or just be ornamental. They are the most healthy and beautiful plants I have in this heat currently.

I’ve actaully planted all the spares, which are much smaller since they were in teeny tiny pots, into the Greenstalk tower. I’m hoping they will grow to provide some shade for some of the leafy greens and the strawberries which seem to be burning in the sun.

3. Funky Strawberries

I’m not sure what’s happened to my strawberry plants. The first few fruit were the proper shape and quite tasty, but now they’re all funky shapes. They’re also 6 different varieties, yet all of them are turning out funky. Any ideas what could be causing this? I should probably do some research… I’m not sure if it comes accross in the pictures, but they seem faceted, split into segments.

They also seem to be getting sunburnt. Each plant, being a different variety, seems to be affected slightly differently, but they all have their leaves turning brown and crispy to some degree. I’m not sure I’ll be harvesting any berries anytime soon. Maybe this year I should cut off all the blooms and berries and just let them focus on surviving and getting stronger roots.

4. Cherry Tree Losing Leaves

Unfortunately the cherry tree is losing its leaves at an alarming rate. There is just one little bunch of healthy leaves left. I think I have diagnosed the issue to be cherry leaf spot. (see the featured image up top for a close up)

From my research, this is a fungal infection that arrives on the wind in the cooler humid season (definitely our spring this year, when I got the young sapling) before taking hold and spreading throughout the summer.

I’ve been spraying it with an organic fungicide. Unfortunately for the wasps that like to drink the nectar from the nectary glands everyday. I’m hoping I can save the tree and it is able to recover and come back stronger next season.

5. Dahlias Resprouting And Budding

I’m super excited to have quite a few Dahlia buds on one of my plants. I have 5 Dahlias, 3 of which were cut back to the ground thanks to an awful spider mite infestation. They are resprouting, but I don’t know that they will have time to set flowers this season.

By cutting back the Dahlias I also discovered that at least one Hellebore had survived too! I was convinced I’d lost them all in the spring! This one has purple flowers, I hope it will bloom next spring.

One of the remaining Dahlias is very lush (forgot to take a picture), it was the least affected by mites, but has not set any buds yet. While the other, which is still slightly affected by mites, has set quite a few little buds.

I couldn’t bring myself to cut off the buds, so I removed most of the affected plant and left a couple of scraggly bits to hopefully support the blooms. I spray the Dahlias regularly too. Trying to keep the mites from respawning on the new sprouts.

6. Prolific Lemon Basil

One of the other plants that is doing really well for me in this heat and humidity is the basil.

The basils have been the one thing in the garden that I have been able to consistently harvest. Oddly though, the ones in the acidic soil with the blueberries are doing way better than any of the basils in any other container.

This garden keeps making me scratch my head in confusion and curiosity. I just keep adding to the list of things I need to look into or learn.

Link-up: Six On Saturday | Senior Salon Pit Stop |