What are we doing in the garden 2025

Beautiful clematis @LunarSea what variety is it? Looks similar to mine but I can't remember the name of it.

 

Another vote for Lady of the Lake here. Is it Mdme Julia Carr Correvan @LunarSea ? We have one we inherited in the front garden. Lovely and robust and flowers her socks off. Frustratingly, I’ve never managed to get a cutting to root

 

I did the same removed a huge amount of low flat growing ivy and freed up lots of bluebell and snow drop shoots that were hiding amongst it all. Its an non stop ongoing battle with the ivy though.

 

can I ask what clematis this is as it is lovely?

 

That's the one I've got aswell @Butterfly6 .

 

Hello all

If you do a Visual Search it returns this:

Clematis Madame Julia Correvon

I have no idea if it is Correct but it looks similar.

Kevin

 

Do you have Hedgehogs or Slug eating birds that visit your garden? If so slug pellets can kill them if they eat a slug that's been poisoned. . Sorry, not trying to be confrontational in any way, just a concerned animal lover. There are other way to deter slugs. I do understand they can be a real problem.

 

@luciusmaximus the current blue slug pellets are NOT toxic to birds, hedgehogs etc. The nasty metaldehyde ones were banned a few years ago. The blue ones now just have iron salts in them, which don't do much anyway. They are however not good for worms if high density, so you are supposed to scatter very sparingly.

 

Full marks everybody! Yes that's the one. There's one on each side of the arch, planted about 25 years ago. It has good years and not-so-good years when it comes to flowering. Last year's rain obviously suited it. I have to remember to keep on tying it in to the arch though otherwise it goes off in all directions.

 

Well, yes that's what the mfcrs claim, and they do work. The ferric phosphate is a stomach poison. The theory is that the slugs eat them stop feeding and crawl away and hide so die out of sight, so the birds don't get them.
HOWEVER, ( as you may recall) last winter/ spring was very wet and mild and slugs and snails were rampant. On my Allotment site, people were using a lot of the ferric phosphate pellets, they were complaining that the pellets were disappearing, but their seedlings were still being eaten. Then one of our committee, found a dead pigeon, later I found a second, in both cases the birds crop was full of blue pellets. It's impossible to know if the birds were poisoned or if they just choked. The bird I found looked perfectly healthy and well fed, from the outside.
Nature just doesn't always do what Humans think it's going to do.
Note, I hadn't use ANY pellets on my plot where the second bird was found, it just looked like it had dropped out of the sky.

 

Driveway and steps moss scraping and sweeping today, not really gardening but part of the up-keep. The builder over the road lent me a floor-scraper on a long handle - absolutely great!

 

Getting wet. Again!!

 

Just finished gathering old Montbretia leaves from various clumps around the garden. A job I particularly enjoy cos' they come off easily in handfuls and you can see all the new leaves starting to protrude. I'd just emptied the trug into the compost when the heavens opened and big hail battered down. Everywhere was suddenly white over.

 

That's very odd @Allotment Boy - I know birds can choke if they eat too much dense stuff (I've seen chickens die after someone let them have too much long grass) but why on earth would they eat those pellets?
I don't use them anyway because you have to put them very sparingly not to harm worms, and I found in pots in the greenhouse they just got mouldy. I have taken to throwing coffee grounds around my vulnerable plants - it seems to help.

 

I think the biggest problem with slug pellets is people use too many.
I've seen them applied in thick rings around plants like they are to stop the slugs crawling over them.
Maybe they should be supplied in smaller packets with an area that it should treat.