Trowel and Error

[absley]

I love looking up all your plant recommendations, Goat; and the side of the house planting is looking fabulous. I think it looks like you have a lot going on in those beds, Disco. So nice to see your green tulips too. Any lucky with the peonies, Del?

I've had a pleasingly productive weekend - a lot of my seeds are finally growing, more veggies are in the ground and I roped D into doing tree/ shrub pruning and maintenance tasks with me, having grilled my tree surgeon (he loves to chat so I lured him into popping by with homemade rhubarb jam - he came for a cuppa two days in a row and I got all his advice, plus a bit too much car chat :lol:). I also received some new geums which I had ordered.

I think we now have a week of rain forecast,so I'm expecting much slug & snail carnage.

[Derek Nimmo]

One of the deep pink ones opened yesterday The light pink ones remain in huge tightly clenched balls , as they have done for the past month or so

I must have a strange back garden weather bubble as I keep walking past other people's gardens and seeing them in full bloom. Oh well, nothing like antici..... pation.

Im going to have to look into a tree surgeon too I think - I have some towering black walnut trees that have grown beyond George's reach. Does it cost an arm and several legs Abs?

[Cerise]

My buds dried up and dropped off! It’s still new though so I’ll give it a chance to develop.

[absley]

Oh Cerise! :cry: I have that with one of mine too.

Hurrah though, Del! At last... and slowly... :))

I think my guy has an hourly rate, which I can't remember, sorry - I can ask D though. Hopefully a good prune should last you a number of years so it's not a recurring expense.

[Derek Nimmo]

Oh no Cerise! How disappointing.

Ta, I think they're going to need a proper crane thing to get at them but yes, the plan is to cut brutally so it doesn't need to be done again for ages :fc:

[absley]

Ah, prob be a bigger job than mine - my neighbours have poplars which they get pollarded regularly, I can ask them about cost? It's the same guy, but I don't think he uses heavy equipment as there isn't really space.

[Derek Nimmo]

That's very kind of you but I've just remembered that my neighbour mentioned to me that she's used the same company for years (on the huge magnolia grandiflora that never flowers and she hates - as do I, as it sheds leaves over my side too like a bastard) but can't get rid of it as it was a gift to her Mother so it's of great sentimental value.

Anyway! If they're good and local, I'll probably give them a whirl. After nesting season though obviously.

[Disco]

It's only an annual but I'm thinking about something like malope trifida vulcan for a dramatic pop of colour - it has a lime green centre too to tie in. You can get a pack of seed for pence and sow it direct around now. It grows fast and should give you flowers for months.

Thanks Goat! I will get some of these seeds too.

There is a house I walk past that has all types of flowers, shrubs, veg, fruit seedlings for sale for a donation to the local hospice so I intend on remembering to bring cash out when I next go nearby to grab a carrier bag of plants.

I love looking up all your plant recommendations, Goat; and the side of the house planting is looking fabulous. I think it looks like you have a lot going on in those beds, Disco. So nice to see your green tulips too. Any lucky with the peonies, Del?

My beds look at their most full now but as so many plants are deciduos it looks so bare in winter but with all my recent evergreen giveaways and purchases I think it will look okish this year. Homemade rhubarb jam

Del, as I read your about your microclimare garden I was just that very second before thinking the same about mine! My garden is always behind all others nearby.

My peonies seem to remain balls and fall off if I don't water them - even if it's been relatively wet - and one peony has never bloomed in 13 years.

There are so many slugs this year. I'm going to make a porridge trap for them.

[emma_p]

Whatever you do, don't pick up slugs with your bare hands. I made that mistake last night :cry:

[Disco]

Ew, horrible. There are some gross fat ones around.

[Mountain Goat]

I am loving your wholesome bribery with rhubarb jam abs

I have picked up a few slugs with my bare hands this year. The tiny sort that I can make myself believe are just baby worms, not big fat ones which make my skin crawl.

SO MUCH is in bud at the moment, suddenly, I am desperate for it to all come out as I've had such a quiet patch (in the back) with lots of green but not much else. I have some snapdragons starting to open, they must have self seeded last year and have not come true as they seem to be white; I didn't have any white ones last year. I love white flowers so I'm happy with that. Plus the (white) hydrangeas are about to open too, plus dark blue/purple salvias so I think the colours will have organised themselves nicely. The big colours should chime in a bit later.

And I should have a courgette ready in a few days....

I've potted up all my tomatoes and peppers into big pots, they just need the other stuff to leave the greenhouse so I can take the shelving out and give them the height they need. The other stuff blocking their headroom is stuck in a hardening off traffic jam and will not be moving for a while.

[Mountain Goat]

I am suddenly obsessed with these:

https://www.sarahraven.com/products/dia ... reen-wicky

And also foxgloves (thanks to Chelsea and also to my neighbour who has some lovely ones). (I have ordered both, I've sat on the idea for at least a day, it's valid :)) )

[Disco]

That's lovely!

[Mountain Goat]

It's so pleasing to me, the funny little thing. I will put it with floaty white in a pot, and dark red in a border.

[Disco]

Gorgeous.

[absley]

Bloody slugs and snails, they're working their way through my courgettes and borlottis. :mad:

[baargain]

The slugs are killing me. They've eaten 45 lettuces, 20 beans, 6 rows of peas, half my celery, carrots, all my new hostas and are trying to flatten my dahlias. I've not known a year like it. Thankfully the allotment seems safer, but the garden is getting HAMMERED.

[Mountain Goat]

Nooo. I found two in my lettuces last night, but have not really had a good go on my main veg yet.

Oh, I bought this recently: https://www.envii.co.uk/garden/feed-protect/

It's supposed to work by slightly altering the taste of the plant so the slugs don't fancy it anymore (in a way that is not detectable to humans). I have only used it one week so far so can't say if it works or not yet (on two dahlias that were getting eaten, one has since shot up, the other hasn't - no idea if any of this is anything to do with the slug stuff). I also can't remember where I read about it but I think it must have been recommended by someone credible for me to have bothered. Though who's to say whether humans can tell the difference on veg or not, maybe some of us have palates very similar to slugs. :lol:

[Mountain Goat]

Oh my god Baa! I've seen this all over Insta.

[baargain]

The fuckers were just mowing over any dahlia shoots! I could see the cut stems at ground level! I've put copper scourers around my dahlias and covered them in eggshells, and it seems to have helped a bit. My friend gave me wool packing material, so I think I'll use that around my next bean plants.