God I hope I've remembered that properly or that might sound a little off. :))My stupid (developer planted) catnip is also attracting all the cats and infuriating Moo, who sits on the windowsill looking out at them indignantly. I like it as it's pretty in summer and absolutely full of bees, and does well in that sunny dry spot, but there are maybe 20 or more plants of it all of which are really sprawling and it's ridiculous. I should set up a catnip toy business.
Anyway I'm planning to remove some plants and keep others so it can be mixed with other plants rather than just a massive strip of pure straggly catnip. Mulch chat: this time I've used a mix of well rotted manure and composted bark, but I think you can use ordinary compost (I don't have enough ready), leaf mould, strulch (I've been using this too but at this point I've forgotten the specific purpose I bought it for :lol:) etc. At this time of year I THINK you're mostly protecting the vulnerable from frost and giving them extra food but more broadly it helps keep in moisture, repress weeds and improve the soil. I am mainly heaping around my new and/or tender plants thickly, and trying not to heap it over where I've planted bulbs. Monty said recently that it's better to have a small thick layer than a large thin one. I added composted bark because I believe it to be good for soil structure which I need on the side part of the outside garden, and because it was on 4 for the price of 3 at the garden centre. :))
I think I am buying a tree.
I woke up yesterday with a tree solution to a difficult back of border spot (I want to block out where we're overlooked, but I don't want to cast too much shade or damage the garden walls with excitable tree roots) - a fastigate liquidambar. I have only learnt this word yesterday - it means it's a sort of dwarf that still gets very tall but only gets 1-2 metres wide (reports vary so I'm erring on the larger side). I need to clear out some pointless shrubs the developers left (I wanted to give them a chance to see if they did anything interesting or showed signs of getting tall enough to work at the back of the border, and mostly the answer is no, though there's a couple of good ones that can stay/move position). My main obstacle is the traffic jam of waste material and the fortnightly brown bin pick up. 
Perfectly remembered. 
sounds lovely. I've got some huge lime green gladioli next to my black sambucus and I like that against it. I like green flowers actually and have some green tulips hopefully popping up in spring time. 
