Trowel and Error

[Derek Nimmo]

All hail the recalcitrant peonies, they'd definitely sit languidly at the back of the classroom, just looking in their mirrors to check they're still beautiful every five minutes.

So true! I'm on the train home and if I've missed a day of blooms, I'll be fuming.

Everyone should get a Chilean potato tree! I inherited a mature one (but have also planted a couple of little 'uns) as they flower from May til the end of the summer. Very well-behaved plants.

[Luna]

I think we have one Del. So pretty.

[Disco]

My peonies are also in bud but that is normal for my garden this time of the year.

My lawnmower has broken so I've been cutting the lawn with sciassors. It's taking quite some time.

[Disco]

Is anyone able to id this please?

[Derek Nimmo]

Google lens says columbine.

[Derek Nimmo]

I think we have one Del. So pretty.

I've got one biiig one next to one baby one (yes, that bed is very bare - operation "fill 'er up' will commence this weekend).

Dics, I do hope your lawn is the size of a postage stamp!

[Disco]

Google lens says columbine.

Thanks! Oh so it IS an aquilegia then! I thought it might be but the leaves are diffirent to my aquilegias.

[Disco]

Dics, I do hope your lawn is the size of a postage stamp!

I wish. It's about 45' x 15' so it's taking me some time.

[Princess Morripov]

I should send A round, Ruby’s fave time of year is when I send her a picture of him trimming the edges of the lawn with scissors to announce lawn cutting season is a go!

We have been on our annual scoot to get some new plants for the pots in the back garden. We got two Olive trees, and I’ve got 4 new pieris (different to ones we already have) and a couple of flamingo bushes.

Pieris have proven to be super hardy where we are (it can get quite windy over winter as we are quite exposed). I wanted some flamingo trees but I read they are not happy in pots and the one we put in the bed in the front did not survive so hopefully the little bushes in pots will be good.

We’ve got some other plants in pots that need repotting etc so hopefully we can get them all sorted at the weekend. I think it will involve me getting A to move the pots to 34 different positions before I agree that the first spot was fine so I’m sure that will be enjoyable for us all

[Luna]

I think we have one Del. So pretty.

I've got one biiig one next to one baby one (yes, that bed is very bare - operation "fill 'er up' will commence this weekend).

Dics, I do hope your lawn is the size of a postage stamp!

Go to Big Plant nursery! It’s totally fabulous with a great tea room as well.

https://www.bigplantnursery.co.uk/

[absley]

We had a potato tree in our old house, really lovely, you're lucky, Del. They'd paired it with a passion fruit climber on the fence behind, which worked really well with all the purple flowers.

A couple of my peonies have opened but the beautiful coral one that has only had one flower (last year) was a mangled mess, which was so sad to see. Foxgloves coming out here to, but they're so short and stumpy compared to last year.

I had a strawberry from the garden yesterday! They're quite demanding with watering too, I've learnt.

Eta, oh, yes, Jo Thompson's garden is fabulous. Have you seen the planting list, it's on her website.

[Epponnee Rae]

I love the idea of a potato tree and passion flower together. Another one to bank for the future dream garden.

There’s a not entirely harmonious mix of wild-ish flowers, an attempt at a veg bed and stuff in pots going on here. We’ve had loads of aquilegia pop up, and two of the lupins we planted last year have some back and are just starting to flower

We’re attempting to grow sweetcorn, beans (French and accidental runner), courgettes, mini cukes, tomatoes, radishes and some salad leaves. A mix of starts and seeds. Plus many pots and self seeded strawberries and herbs. The seedlings are really only just getting going so it’ll be a while before we see if they’re successful though the beans are doing very little. The starts are already fruiting and there’s loads of strawberry flowers and emerging fruit. Nothing ripe yet! I need to thin my radishes as I wasn’t expecting them all to germinate. I just sowed another trough as well!

We’ve started the pest battle though, discovering a load of ants busily farming aphids on the cucumbers and also infesting the cornflowers, stopping those from flowering at all! Also powdery mildew on the courgettes which is really annoying.

[Mountain Goat]

That sounds great Epp! Is the powdery mildew on the bottom leaves? I'd just cut them off (at least any below the point where it's flowering, Baaa said this to me last year), it will improve the airflow as well as being less generally manky.

My roses have a few aphids but are fine to just rub off, my euphorbia out the front is riddled though.

A strawberry already abs! I had two (2) radishes on Monday. Big time crop harvesting. My courgettes are covered in flowers but are still in small nursery pots, I'm waiting for the garlic to be ready so they can go in the raised bed and the garlic is not having it. May, the packet said. It's nearly the end of May.

I have PORED over the Jo Thompson planting list. I do have a fair few of the (exact) same plants (the darker shades mainly) but mine are paired with contrasting colours and hers with toning colours and I like hers so much more.

I also trimmed the lawn with scissors the other week. Not all of it, the edges. It was the same weekend I manually brushed all the carpets (which looked brand new afterwards). I hated myself that weekend.

Exposed is tricky Pov, glad the pieris is happy there.

That potato tree is gorgeous Del! What are you planting in the empty spots?

I'm in the process of hardening off/planting out, so tedious, but I will have a load of stuff ready for planting out this weekend which will free up some space. I need more compost though to fill tomato buckets. My need for compost seems to be permanent. My life is lugging compost bags back from the garden centre.

[Epponnee Rae]

Yes mainly lower leaves but if we lob them all off there won’t be many left! I have trimmed the worst affected ones though. It may be irrelevant as we discovered earlier that a bastard fox had helped itself to one of the half grown courgettes! Fuck’s sake! Not sure how we’re supposed to protect them from foxes, as we’re absolutely riddled with them.