Rain stops play
I had planned long spells in the garden this week, but April has lived up to it's reputation - lots of showers.
On the positive side, it's made sure the wool pellets I put round my lupins swelled up nicely. In fact, it's obvious now that I put too many on. I had to dig a hole with my finger to uncover the plant that had been attacked - the shoots trying to come through had been covered by a blanket at least an inch thick. I also pulled some away from the bigger plant in case this causes too much moisture retention and fungal problems on the stems.
No slug damage overnight, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. What I have to decide now is what to put in the space left by the third lupin plant which died last autumn. It has to be something which is ideally slug proof and doesn't dangle over the side to allow slugs to get into the pot without touching the wool. Thinking caps on...
When we moved in, most of this part of the garden (see picture below) was chocked with ordinary red crocosmia which barely produced any flowers. We dug as much as we could out but it is steadily increasing again year on year. It's growing all through the hardy geraniums and most other plants. All we can do is pull the leaves off individual plants as they show because digging the whole thing over didn't work last time and there are too many perennials in there now.
The patch of ground I was mainly attacking was in the front garden, just behind the geraniums on day 1's post. This has been a bit of a knotty area as the Garrya I planted in the corner has grown far bigger than my wildest expectation and there are some particularly troublesome weeds around its base. In the photo you can see a soft rush tangled up in the lower branches of the Garrya, brambles and more of the dreaded crocosmia At least I managed to get the rush out, and a couple of brambles.
On a slightly different note, I picked up a Weekly News today and there's an article in there on creating a bog garden. The publisher is based in Scotland where they know a thing or two about rain. The byline reads "Don't be bogged down by the rain" and they have a picture of Astrantia as one of their moisture lovers. Astrantia loves my garden. Even clumps dug out and left on the surface flourish. This was an article meant for me.
Today I've mulched the weeded area under the Garrya. We've got a surfeit of chipped bark this spring and I'm hoping it will do the job, though very little seems to keep the weeds down in our very fertile soil: new seedlings of bittercress and willow herb were already springing up. This is how it looks now. A vast improvement, but you can see the massed ranks of crocosmia beyond. Will have to try and do something about that.
On the positive side, it's made sure the wool pellets I put round my lupins swelled up nicely. In fact, it's obvious now that I put too many on. I had to dig a hole with my finger to uncover the plant that had been attacked - the shoots trying to come through had been covered by a blanket at least an inch thick. I also pulled some away from the bigger plant in case this causes too much moisture retention and fungal problems on the stems.
No slug damage overnight, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. What I have to decide now is what to put in the space left by the third lupin plant which died last autumn. It has to be something which is ideally slug proof and doesn't dangle over the side to allow slugs to get into the pot without touching the wool. Thinking caps on...When we moved in, most of this part of the garden (see picture below) was chocked with ordinary red crocosmia which barely produced any flowers. We dug as much as we could out but it is steadily increasing again year on year. It's growing all through the hardy geraniums and most other plants. All we can do is pull the leaves off individual plants as they show because digging the whole thing over didn't work last time and there are too many perennials in there now.
 |
| Soft rush, centre, loves wet marshy ground |
On a slightly different note, I picked up a Weekly News today and there's an article in there on creating a bog garden. The publisher is based in Scotland where they know a thing or two about rain. The byline reads "Don't be bogged down by the rain" and they have a picture of Astrantia as one of their moisture lovers. Astrantia loves my garden. Even clumps dug out and left on the surface flourish. This was an article meant for me.
Today I've mulched the weeded area under the Garrya. We've got a surfeit of chipped bark this spring and I'm hoping it will do the job, though very little seems to keep the weeds down in our very fertile soil: new seedlings of bittercress and willow herb were already springing up. This is how it looks now. A vast improvement, but you can see the massed ranks of crocosmia beyond. Will have to try and do something about that.
 |
| After weeding looks much tidier. But for how long? |
Comments
Post a Comment