Newbie Mistake

Hi everyone,

By the looks of it, its been a couple of years since I first posted on here and haven't been very good at staying on this forum for advice - something I need to clearly correct!

A couple of years ago I created a border in my garden, and now I realize that I have probably made some pretty bad mistakes by planting some fairly big plants too close to each-other. The other mistake I made (I think) was not preparing the area properly and so I'm getting a ton of weeds and grass growing in-between the plants.

In this picture, you can just about make out the buddleia, peony and ceanothus - in between the grass and some other plants that I planted last year.



So, my question is, what should I move, when and how? I'm thinking that the ceanothus is going to be the hardest thing to move seeing as it has spread quite a lot but I'm worried about moving the peony as its has a tough time - when I initially planted it, I damaged most of it and didn't think it would recover and then this year we had to have our lovely oak tree taken down and the tree surgeons threw the bits of wood right on top of this area, so I'm amazed that anything has survived!

The long leafy plant behind the peony. Can anyone help me identify it? These were given to me by a friend last year but I've not had any flowers from them.

Thanks for reading and for any help

 

TBH I can't see a peony at all. Or a ceanothus. I can see a buddleia, a large leaf rosette which might be a foxglove but could also be several other things, a thing in a pot which might be a hibiscus and possibly a cotoneaster peeping through the fence from next door. Hang on, I've spotted a green thing at the front which I believe is the peony.

First off, there is no substitute for getting down on your hands and knees and weeding out everything that you know is a weed. So that's the grass and probably quite a bit of wood avens, a dock, several dandelions and some others besides. If not sure, leave it in for now. Try to get the roots out by sticking a trowel in deeply next to the plant and pulling gently to see how much root you can get out in one piece. If nothing else, clear what's on the surface.

Once you've done that you'll feel much better and will be able to assess what needs to be done. I would leave the peony there, see if the thing behind it is going to flower (if it's a foxglove it will very soon). If it does, remove it or transplant after it has flowered.

I don't think that the plants are badly overcrowded at the moment, it's the weeds that are crowding them so things will improve a lot once they are gone.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Definitely plan on getting down and dirty and rid of pretty much everything that I think might be a weed - which is everything that you haven't identified I probably would have actually been better posting a picture once I've done that - if only I hadn't of seen the blasted spiders, I would have got on with it already!

The ceanothus is being swamped by all the taller plants - which brings me to another question. Are there varieties that grow outwards rather than upwards as this one doesn't seem to be growing upwards.

The potted plant is actually a weigela rosea. At least that's what it was sold to me as. I have quite a few shrubs that I will be planting in the top part of the garden.

 

Yes, there are ceanothuses (ceanothi?) that have more of a spreading habit. Let us know when you are ready for stage two!

 

Nice to see some locals on here
I can understand your comment on spiders
I hate the things
I too have made mistakes, so you are not alone. The GC crew are very helpful though
So glad I joined. I hope you get sorted.

 

I think you are right.

Tell us your secret of lovely hands, Shines. Mine are like gnarled, horny, orc hands with grime-encrusted talons for nails! And that's with gloves on.

 

But you are human aren't you?

 

I have nicer hands
Mine are like womens hands

 

A couple of work in pictures to see if you think it is verbacsum. If so leave or move?





Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

Just down the road

I came across these yesterday (nursery spiders?), which gave me the heebie geebies.


Thankfully they seem to be playing nice today and have stayed out of my way today

 

You can keep those just 'up' the road thanks.

 

The female eats the male after mating
So the male takes her a fly beforehand in the hope that it will satisfy her hunger, and save him .

 

Last seen heading in the direction of Northampton