What are we doing in the garden 2025

Hi, @CanadianLori Yes, I will be using the autopot system again this year. It works really well, but the lines must be checked periodically to make sure they do not clog.

 

Well that wasn't in the game plan. My wife found a chafer grub in a large pot the had an Agapanthus in it. So I was called on to "deal" with it. I then found some more, yhe upshot being I emptied the entire pot, combing through every bit of compost with gloved hands. The final tally is 18 of the critters. I've put them in a dish for the birds but none have come yet.
The Agapanthus is back in the pot with completely fresh soil/compost. That little exercise took up most of the day so far.

 

You very rarely find a single one! Make sure the so-and-sos don't wriggle out of the dish! Any I find go straight to the chickens. Everybody's happy

 

Hubby cut the front grass which is a lot bigger than the back. I watered the polyanthus again, watered the blueberry pots, dug up polyanthus seedlings that were growing in the pavement and put them into cell trays, I've dug up 72. Sowed some corn chamomile seeds into cell trays and put them outside.

 

Dug out a 5 foot Spirea 'Snowmound' this afternoon, shredded all the top-growth and added it to the compost heap. I always feel guilty when I do this but we were really getting no pleasure from the shrub and in truth I can't think why we ever bought it. Anyway I needed the space for my new Ghislaine de Féligonde rose which is now planted. Whilst I was up to this mischief Mrs LS was planting her new Claire Austin rose to grow up an obelisk in her island bed.

 

Are gardeners hard to come by in France ?

 

Ghislaine De F is a excellent rose @LunarSea its probably my favourite rose I've got very reliable flowering and healthy nearly thorn less as well

 

I love the fresh green growth in spring and for the three weeks they are in flower, they do look glorious. However, for the rest of the yr, not much happens and their arching habit means they do take up a lot of space. I took one out recently, feeling enormous guilt like you as it was perfectly health. I took a little cutting first, and that is now planted in a better spot where the arching won’t get in the way. It should be a few yrs before it grows too large hopefully.

 

I don't know about other areas, but round here there are loads of people willing and equipped to mow vast areas of grass or cut hedges. Very few gardeners who know anything about ornamental plants. It's only quite recently that (some of) the French have started taking a serious interest in anything other than growing food. In the Brit enclaves there's a fighting chance of finding someone willing to weed, prune, plant etc.

 

I woke up early (unplanned) and decided to make use of the time before work, by undoing a rockery.

The rockery had been created 3-4 years ago, in a shady part of the garden, to hide the root of a leylandii that had been cut. I had used plants with shallow roots (saxifrage and 2 heucheras). It looked great at first but not anymore. I had already moved the plants at the weekend.

I was hoping that the root would be less big than I remembered, or that it would have started rotting away and I would have been able to remove some of it, to make more room for plant roots. Unfortunately, the root is huge and still solid, which is really going to restrict what I can do

 

Could you level it off and put a container on it, @CostasK?

 

Thanks for the suggestion @ViewAhead

I did think about doing that but using a low height container and using the rocks + potting grit around it to camouflage it, as I would rather not have a visible plant pot there. It might be the way to go, so that the soil stays put instead of it gradually becoming less the more I water.

I did also think of a completely different idea, which is to put a.. Hmm... Not sure what the best term would be. An overground pond? Probably not the word I am looking for. Basically something like this:

With this option, the container would be visible of course, but I don't mind that as it's not just a plant that happens to be in a pot.

I am not sure about maintenance though, especially during Winter.

 

I like the pond idea!

 

I like that pond idea too. I've thought about something similar in the past but still have some concerns, ie will it harbour mosquitoes, does it need an electricity supply, will it need to be emptied in winter, will it attract slugs and snails? I'm still undecided and await your decision @CostasK .

It already looks as if you've done a day's work on that site .

 

@Plantminded, I had a similar pond (I've recently bought a slightly larger wooden one). It didn't attract mosquitoes or slugs and snails. I never emptied it in winter and I had a very small bubble fountain in it provided by a solar pump bought form ebay for less than a tenner.The biggest problem I had was the dreaded algae.