What are we doing in the garden 2025

I did a bit of watering before work and noticed this


It's from the front of the house. I guess I'll have to extend my night patrol before bed to that as well. The usual suspect is of course slugs, which I was hoping the gravel would deter. But I actually think it might be snails this time, so nematodes wouldn't affect them. It doesn't seem likely to me that the culprit would be an insect.

EDIT: I went out a few mins ago (it's nighttime) and found a big fat slug munching on it.

 

How satisying!

 

I thought they did look very similar. I had them on Anglesey. I don't mind a few as good for pollinators, but don't want an entire garden full of them, given tiny size.

 

My Dahlia's are finally starting to wake up, feels a bit late but i'm glad they're starting to get going!
We've discovered that we have leatherjackets, the joys of a new build with poor drainage, so im now awaiting my delivery of nematodes.
Garden has been slightly paused due to our kitchen project, with the actual kitchen being delivered this morning

 

Foxglove excelsior coming up from last year, should be flowering this year as it is a biennial. Red circled is my hydrangea paniculata which should be my show piece of the summer but seem to be growing weakly and shadowed by my foxglove. Should I move my foxglove elsewhere? The foxgloves might die when moved...

 

Dead headed the hyacinths and some of the tulips that had finished.

 

Still trying to finish setting up the Raspberries, that I'm moving to a new place on the plots. I have moved the cage but I'm putting on corner brackets to brace it up a bit, but it's fiddly. The top rails are much thinner than the uprights, so I'm having to pack out the clamps to get them to "grip". It was supposed to be a job for winter but it never happened. I'll get there eventually!!

 

Dead headed the hellebores - I don't want to be tempted to grow on lots of seedlings. I've done it in the past, and only one or two were better than the parents. I've also been lifting pots in greenhouse and on patio to find and squish slugs - they have chewed off the growths on my black petunia.

 

Potted on stocks and lobelia and planted up tubs with pansies.

 

I checked my dahlias a few days ago, left out in pots all winter and saw chewed stumps. Looked again today and the stems have grown, look rather tatty. Will have to put some slug pellet around them after the family have left this week-end.
Emptied and washed out the cat litter tray, it is the area of about 6 seed trays so a job and half.

 

I mowed my front lawn and trimmed the edges and noticed it’s looking a bit greener after the recent MO Bacter treatment. Quite impressive as we’ve had little rain. I then removed a 12 year old Arbutus which had been struggling for a while because someone put it in an unsuitable location and pruned it too severely last year . In future, follow the RHS guidelines, not your instinct . It paid me back by giving quite a fight to uproot. I then planted a climbing Hydrangea in the shady border in my upper garden, tying it in to a metal growing frame against the fence. I’m planning to keep it well contained and not allow it to explore my neighbour's trees, although I’d welcome some extra screening .

 

I think I’d just leave the foxglove where it is @Jinny, you could them move it after it’s flowered so it dies and drops its seeds where you want them

 

Thank you so much @Butterfly6. I will leave my foxgloves which were grown from seed last year. A small achievement for a novice. Hope my hydrangea paniculata will grow stronger asap! One impatient newbie!

 

Busy day yesterday , painted the kitchen , dismantled garden furniture to take to the tip , strimmed and mowed the back and side of garden and added 5 wheelbarrow loads of soil into a newly created cut flower bed and worked it through. Then sat with a cooling drink planning out the next day’s efforts

 

Got out into the garden yesterday. First time in over a week, other than trips to the GH to water seedlings and quick sample inspections of the box hedges.
I now have a second wave of newly emerging box moth caterpillars. The nematode spray seems to have worked a treat on the first lot, they seem to disappear and I certainly haven’t spotted any getting bigger/fatter. No more adult males moths caught in the pheromone traps, Justine a month or so ago, so am unsure when these eggs were laid.

I didn’t do a second spray within the recommended timeframe due to a combination of rain forecasts, the odd drizzle of rain arriving and work. Am hoping I’ve got away with it as I can’t see any new damage. I’ve decided to clip the hedges before I spray again so started yesterday and will carry on today. Using the leaf shredder to hoover and shred all the debris ( and hopefully the new caterpillars).

Am reluctant to spray too often as it’s against all my natural instincts plus I’m still not totally convinced that it solely affects the intended target. It feels completely counterintuitive to be doing everything I can to encourage and support butterflies and moths and then killing this one. I will use the spray I’ve got but I suspect this is time to may say goodbye to my box hedges.

I can easily find an alternative for our box hedge high separates the main garden from our wild area. What I will miss is my little knot garden, it’s such a strong feature of the garden