Ch-ch-ch- changes
Mixture of purple poppies, wild flower mix and and Escholzia scattered and raked into the bare ground in the rear bed. Tray of zinnia and nicotiana planted in pots to see if they do better than their outdoor cousins. Planted dahlia Bishop of Llandaff in a pot in the west facing bed over the (probably dead anyway) Poundland kniphofia.
Mid-month cleared two large bagfuls of wild garlic for the butcher. Rebuilt a wigwam for the honeysuckle and trained it to grow up the legs and towards the ceonothus. Moved the verbena which would otherwise have been under the honeysuckle, to the front of the bed with the geum and heuchera.
Planted out the tomato seedlings. Three in the ground surrounded by wool pellets, two in pots on the table. Rosemary in pots seems, gulp, to be surviving the curse of Neu.
Successes
The big change from last May is the disappearance of the photinia – it’s a huge improvement in the garden, opening up one whole side so it can be seen properly from the house, and creating space for the pond. This month there are lots of new leaves on the water lily and growth on the sedge. The tadpoles are thriving and clearing the blanket weed very efficiently.
Hmms
Slugs stripped the dahlia of almost all its leaves as well as inflicting possibly terminal damage to the achillea in front of the echinops. Put the pot up on the table, surrounded the plant with wool pellets and picked off the slugs – it seems to be OK.
Weather
Cold, wet and overcast for all but a handful of days. Holiday in Italy was lovely but means seedlings in pots weren’t watered and were dead on my return.
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