July 2024 – it’ s all a bit meh

Ch ch ch changes

Not much has been added or moved this month – I’ve been too busy doing other things. It has been too wet to be inviting. All the toadlets have disappeared from the pond and tiny little toads are occasionally visible in the creeping jenny.

Successes

The dahlia is triumphantly recovered from the slugs and flowering – lots of buds, although the flowers only last a day or so. The crocosmia are a splash of orange in front of the echinops but mainly yellow and white are the predominant colours. The hydrangeas are fantastic, there are acanthus spikes still visible in the back bed and the nandina have sprays of tiny white flowers. The loosestrife and corydalis still doing their thing closer to the patio. The dandelions (which I learn are actually hawkbits) in the lawn are lovely.

The teasel is now at my head height and producing spiky flower heads. The valerian planted at the end of June in the side beds seems to be slug-resistant and is establishing itself. The campion rescued from the lawn last year is flowering under the ceanothus and will hopefully spread this year. The Japanese anemones are putting up lots of buds. There have been flowers on the water lily, the sedge and the grasses have both grown, though I feel there’s more I could do with it (one bonus – it is a spectacular slug-trap)

Hmmms

The honeysuckle is getting long but so far no flowers (although it’s miraculous that it has survived!) There was one flower on the guelder rose, so now there’s one solitary little berry. There is green growth on the honey bush but no flowers at all for the second year.

A few day lilies have flowered, but not profusely and there is no sign of the heleniums which don’t seem to like the east facing bed. The achillea is also flowering but only very few stems have survived the slugs. The hebe is hating the weather and is dying back in stages, although there is still lots of new green growth.

Comparing this July to last year it’s amazing how much that did well last year was just massacred by slugs in the spring. This year there have been no shasta daisies, cosmos, bell flowers or hyssop and last year’s big picture shows much more yellow from the achillea than this. Last year’s fennel was over 6 foot tall and flowering majestically, this year’s is more like 4 foot and although flowers are visible it’s nothing like it was – the slugs got at it early on in and it has never really recovered.

Weather

It feels like it rained 4 days out of 7. Noticeable shortage of insect life, few bees or butterflies.

June 24 – Slug Life

Ch-ch-changes

Moved the cold frame to give storage space for the bike. Looks much tidier. Pack of nicotiana from Columbia Road planted in front of the fatsia. Re-potted the mint and tarragon into slightly bigger pots. Moved clumps of black grass from the east bed where it was being engulfed by woodfruff, to the opposite side – something the slugs won’t like?

Successes

Yellow everywhere from the dandelions in the lawn and the corydalis and loosestrife. Flowers on the Alchemilla coming up. Hydrangeas and feverfew performing beautifully. Heuchera still going. Growth on the crocosmia much sturdier than last year. 

Tadpoles flourishing in the pond, by late June tiny toadlets visible on the ground, hiding among the creeping jenny. I hope they grow fast and start eating slugs.

Flowers on the epimedium, though that will be better next year when it has properly established. Fatsia putting out lots of new leaves. Fuchsia growing better than last year, but doesn’t have height it had before when it was in the west facing bed.

Dahlia recovering strongly from slug attacks. One of the tomato plants in the ground is doing well, one has already been devoured by slugs. Growth on everything else is rampant and lovely, even the rose which I thought I’d killed off last year.

The back bed is lush – flowers coming on the hydrangea, flowers on the acanthus – although leaves suffering from mildew – maybe from microclimate caused by overhanging lime trees? Good growth on the Nandina

Possibility that the gladiolus bulbs planted last year which did nothing may be coming up by the cordyline – there’s deffo something there! Verbena bonariensis self-seeded from last year’s plants by the echinops doing well. Growth at the base of the cordyline, first spotted this time last year, is strong and healthy.

Lemon verbena moved last month is thriving.

Hmmms

No sign of the seeds scattered to the ground so far, although some of the Nigella planted last year have self-seeded in the west-facing bed.

Slugs have killed the clumps of shasta daisies I tried to split up and replant – despite being surrounded by wool pellets. I will never know if I did it right! Tray of Cosmos seedlings disappeared overnight, so no repeat this year of last years biggest summer success.

Astilbe has small flowers but not thriving as I would expect given all the rain it’s had. It’s now a very old plant – time to replace?

Verbascum in west bed has flowered but only got to about a foot high – not the towering spire I was hoping for.

Weather

Torrential rain interspersed with sunshine but few days have felt tempting to be in the garden.

May 24 – the sun’ll come out tomorrow?

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.

April 24


Ch ch ch changes

Planted a Kniphofia, a poppy and some ranunculus from Poundland in the bed in front of the honeyberry. It has been so cold and wet I think all had died in the packets before I had a chance to plant them but hope springs eternal even if they have not – no signs of life by the end of the month.

Planted a teasel in the west facing bed behind the echinops. Hopefully it will fill out the gap and be visible in late summer. Put an epimedium in the gap in front of the lily of the valley, which is both flowering and being decimated by slugs. Potted up some ginger mint and put it in the pot- holder on the wall by the back door. Tomato plant and morning glory seedlings planted in pots and all have germinated – waiting til it feels less like November so they can be planted out.

Successes

April 13 saw the first signs of the tadpoles wriggling in the pond.

Flowers on the ceanothus, pyracantha and heucheras; alliums coming out; buds on the guelder rose, the geum and the pinks who seem to like their temporary home in the east facing bed and can stay there. One of last year’s Verbascums is showing green growth, the others are still invisible, but the anemones in that corner are showing well and there’s new growth on the lavender. The campions I moved to make space for the pond are now clearly visible in the corner in front of the ceanothus. Flower spikes on the acanthus, good strong growth on the nandina. The back bed is a sea of green – from the Burncoose skimmia and hydrangea which are both looking good, but mainly from self-seeding violets, feverfew and celandines.

Hmms

Bought but not potted some rosemary. Clue to why I have been so unsuccessful, according to the man at the plant fair is that I need to plant it in a pot in full sunlight and with 70% grit/compost to make good drainage. Sadly I have no grit, and no-one seems to want to deliver any to me, so the rosemary is at 6 May still in its original pot and dying.

Weather

Apparently we have endured the wettest 8 month spell on record. By the end of the month it was still generally too cold and wet to want to go outside. Padded Iceland-coat weather. No deterrent to the slugs and snails which are EVERYWHERE.

This time last year

The biggest difference in the garden since I started keeping these records is the loss of the tree. The extra light has already super-charged the growth of the anemones and the euphorbia which are bigger than they were this time last year. The fuchsia which I moved last year is surviving and has lots of leaves on it already, although it didn’t flower well last year – let’s see if this year is different. The foxgloves I put in in April 23 couldn’t withstand the slugs, only one of them did anything and I am loathe to repeat the experiment even though this should be a good garden for them, with lots of shade.

March 2024

At the point in the year where this all started, so can start doing some comparisons of progress next month, but here’s the final piece in the 2023/4 cycle

Ch ch ch changes

Trees in front garden pollarded March 20, so will wait to see what happens. Hawthorn and laurel hedges in the front garden are luscious, flowering and green. Dogwoods cut back by the end of the month, leaving a few longer stems as a framework to support the allium leaves. Split up clump of Shasta daisies and planted clumps of varying sizes and likelihood of survival along the west facing bed. Planted a tray of morning glory seeds and tomatoes (hope over experience, although shoots did appear within a week on both).

Successes

Euphorbias marching down the east facing bed, glowing acidly in the shade. Odd to look at them and think that the parent clump started off where the dogwoods are now.  One of the verbascums coming into leaf, Leaves on the fuchsia. First sight of the lily of the valley at the beginning of the month which had put on lots of growth by the end. The wild garlic is back in profusion. Plants put into the west-facing bed as a stop gap when the pond was put in all seem to have established, so that bed now has the pinks, a clump of Japanese anemones and the beginnings of a patch of sweet woodruff. The heucheras planted at the front edge of the main west-facing bed are doing well with flower spikes on the red one. The geum in that bed is putting on growth really fast.

March 20 Equinox: So much fresh green growth in the garden. Growth on both hydrangeas, the honeyberry, honeysuckle and guelder rose. Astilbe seems to have put on 4 inches of growth overnight. Everything looks fabulously full of promise for the spring. Pond-ful of toad spawn. Everything feels supercharged with energy and promise.

Hmmms

Main disappointment has been the daffodils – there have been two flowers, one of which was demolished by slugs, others came up blind (Monty Don has had the same problem apparently, so not feeling too bad about it. He blames the weather in the autumn, so so shall I). Will remove the bulbs in the pot with the birch tree when I top dress it. Forsythia also disappointing, some flowers but not as many as last year.

Weather

It rained and rained and rained, and then it rained some more.

January and February 2024: Still not much doing

Not much to do and not much to look at. A tour round the garden on New Year’s day showed the first sight of spring bulbs coming through, buds on the forsythia, honey bush and guelder rose, and the ahonia continuing to do well. The acanthus in the back bed have lots of leaves, so maybe will flower this year although they have had to be cut back or they will crowd out the nandinas. Dogwoods as always are giving colour and structure to the mid-winter murk and the wild garlic is starting to come back in the west-facing bed.

Come February there was the first Hellebore and yellow crocuses in the bed in front of the lilac. Bulbs coming up strongly through the dogwoods , although so far only two actual daffodil flowers (one of which has been destroyed by – presumably – hungry slugs, which are also attacking the shoots of the day lilies in the bed around the forsythia.) Lots of fresh green leaves on the lilac which doesn’t seem to have suffered much from its drastic prune last May- shape is better with lots of strong vertical shoots.

Apart from one short, very cold snap, it’s been a mild winter so far. But it has rained. My God has it rained.

Gardening year 2023

So that was (most of) 2023. The pictures show a surprising lack of change over the year – the shrubs fill out and then die back, but there wasn’t much in the way of colour (although this angle doesn’t show the heleniums or the Japanese anemones in all their glory. This is a hard garden to capture from one angle , although the idea of doing a comparison through the year kind of works). So in 2024 I need much more colour, to compensate for the lack of height that the photinia provided on the east-facing bed and to finally do something about the state of the lawn (possibly by getting rid of it). This will also be a year of working out what to do with the pond…

Looking back at the individual entries for the year it does feel as though there were lots of successes but, as always, lots to improve. So this year I want to:

  • Plant more seeds and be more successful with seedlings. The cosmos, one solitary zinnia and a couple of verbena bonariensis were all that came up this year. Things can only get better!
  • Fill in the gaps in the west-facing beds. They should be prime real estate in this garden, but not working properly yet.
  • Do something about the state of the soil in the beds on each side of the lawn.

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November and December – not much doing

As the title suggests, not much was done, though not much needed to be done bar cutting back the most obviously dead stuff and pretending that the rest was left “to provide shelter for wildlife”. Garden feels well and truly asleep, though there has been good colour thanks to the berberis in late November/early December, the mahonia and the dogwoods. Probably says it all that the only image I have of the garden in November was taken from inside the house.

October – all work and no gardening

Ch-ch-ch- changes

Moved the sarcoccoca to the back of the pond, planted a chrysanthemum in a pot by the pond and six large cyclamen around the front. It looks much less bleak. A basket of grasses in the pond looks good and offers a way for the frogs to get out of the water. Was worried they were trapped, now wondering if they will ever come back.

Removed the dahlia mignon from the corner by the cold frame – it was still flowering, oh the guilt! Replaced it with a fatsia japonica which will hopefully fill that space. Took the sage from its pot and planted it by the clump of Shasta daisies but I think it’s dead or at least dying. Moved the rudbeckia to the gap where the sarcococca used to be. It might work with the Heleniums if/when they come back next year, but the soil in that bed is like dust so it might be the end of it. Still buds coming on the cosmos

Planted 26 pushkina ibanorica bulbs: ten around the front of the pond, ten on the West- facing bed opposite and the remainder in the patch under the Bay.

By the end of the month the pond had a small waterlily and a small pot of sedge. Other than skimming off the dead leaves I am going to leave it now until the spring. Gardener’s World tells me water hawthorn will like the shaded nature of my pond where the waterlily might not, and that a fibre optic plant –  scirpus cernuus – will do well semi-submerged – to remember for next year!

Moved the rosemary to the edge of the pond, latest move in the ceaseless quest to find the bit of the garden where rosemary will grow for me. Took the oregano and thyme out of the pot on the patio and planted it out to in front of the cordyline to see if they will overwinter there where there’s more sun. Still flowers on the erigeron and the gaura and buds on the fuchsia.  Lemon verbena still growing beautifully. Alchemilla still green.

Hmmms

Took out the autumn fruiting raspberry which has never done well. Hydrangeas have been disappointing – no flowers on either of them. Guelder rose is hopefully just getting established, but no sign of flowers or fruit. Sedums were good for a short period but seemed to be over very quickly.

Weather

Start of the month it was warm and sunny with temperatures up to 25 degrees – unnatural. Weather has been wetter since then but not what you’d call cold. The trees haven’t really started changing colour yet.