What are we doing in the garden 2025

Could you use lavender or some other small shrub to replace the box in the knot garden?
Or how about myrtus ugni? I grow it for fruit, but it has lovely shiny small leaves, evergreen...

 

Thank you @CarolineL for some suggestions. I will have a look at Myrtus ugni. Our soil is too heavy for lavender, it survives a couple of years but sulkily.

The knot gets lots of sun, it’s in an east facing area but quite open to sun from the south. Until last year it was quite a shaded area due to a huge old laurel tree but we had that removed. It was wonderfully architectural but several main branches were rotting. The know was a perfect solution for a shady area. I knew it was a risk when we planted it but we’ve been able to enjoy it for 8 years.

I’ve wondered about using yew but I love the fresh lime of the new growth on box. I don’t keep it very tightly clipped, I like a softer more sinuous feel, am not sure yew will give me that.

 

I do sympathise @Butterfly6 .
I had to get rid of (almost) all the box hedging in the front and back gardens. I will say that clearing the hedges from the back garden opened up new planting opportunities .

We still have a box hedge in the front garden which has recovered well from the ravages of a couple of years ago, but I'm very conscious that the caterpillars are probably lying in wait.
Replacing that will be a big job though, and there's enough going on in my life without adding to it .

Edited to add that it was Chris Beardshaw (I think) who suggested giving a good seaweed feed to stricken box plants. Whether this is why the front hedge has bounced back so well I don't know, but it might be worth considering as a means of combat.

 

Nothing today it's hair washing day.

 

I've got a low hedge of Euonymus Green Spire @Butterfly6. It's a fresh shiny green, with lime green tips, evergreen and slow growing like box, until it gets established. It will be happy in sun or shade. I have sandy soil but it will also grow in heavy clay.

 

That looks good @Plantminded. I had to get rid of all my dwarf box hedging and box balls 2 years ago because of box moth caterpillar damage. Like @Butterfly6, I was devastated to have to do it but didn't want to continually spray them. Actually, I don't miss having to trim them all a couple of times a year as my wrists/hands were beginning to play up so it does make life a bit easier now I'm getting older.

Hoping to get out in the garden in a minute to do an hour before lunch and then another stint afterwards. Must carry on with the weeding and do some other small jobs as well.

Annoyingly a young ? magpie has found the bird feeders so I'm going to have to rig up some sort of plastic mesh around them. Big enough holes for small birds but too small for magpies. We were plagued with squirrels before but they seem to give given up this year.

 

I spent an hour planting cuttings I took of my tall Red Geraium on the lane, my Dark Pink Sallvia and a White Plumbago which is on the lane behind our house.

 

Such a shame , i like box and its neat growth and so sad that so many people have suffered the same experience as box is always ravaged whether by blight or otherwise. But it does give opportunity to try something different. Good luck with whatever you decide upon.

 

Can I ask how long that hydrangea has been planted there? Was it small to start with? It's looking a little bit "behind" for late April, unless you are in a very cold spot. Is there a suitable location you could move it to? Hydrangeas don't have very deep root systems, so this is potentially doable.

 

@Butterfly6 I've got a shrub that could be used instead of box. It's Corokia virgata sunsplash. It's hardy down to -6c and likes full sun. In Spring it has yellow star shaped flowers followed by orange berries in Autumn, that's if you don't trim it.

It clips well and we do ours into a square pillar. Haven't clipped it yet this year, but have just nipped out to take some photos - looks nice when clipped.

 

Dead heading

 

Just enjoying watching the garden over the past few minutes. 7:10 pm here seems to the time that the birds have as their rush hour for evening activity. I have 3 bird baths and all 3 have been subject to an orderly queue involving robins and blackbirds. Maybe they have been frustrated by the amount of time i have spent in the garden pottering about today . Still i shall have a day off tomorrow rain in the morning and out tomorrow evening so the birds can make the most of my absence.

 

We are three or four weeks from being able to plant in the ground, so to get an early start on warm weather plants, I planted several in the greenhouse. Instead of all one type together, I intermixed them and planted sweet peppers, courgette, and tomatoes. Like everything else, the prices for gardening supplies have increased dramatically, I can't understand why. I purchased a large bag of potting mix for twenty dollars at a local hardware store. The very next day I passed by, and they were selling them two for twenty dollars! I expect they were still making a profit at that price, so it seems the supplies are way overpriced to begin with.

 

Purchased 3 50L bags of cheep multi compost (3x£15) and have been spreading the compost around the beds, think I'll need to go and get another 3 bags . Shuffled the soil about the beds removing weeds. Borage has self seeded itself around the garden very successfully this year, I've left the plants to it, I'm sure the bees will thank me. They're looking a lot more vigorous and advanced that the seedlings I've planted under cover.

Took 8 dahlia cuttings from 3 dinner plate varieties, cuttings look to be holding up well this morning.

Whole garden is looking like a bomb site at the moment, pots of seedlings and plants everywhere waiting to be allocated their forever homes.

 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and comments. I trimmed the rest of the knot yesterday and the clippers are charging ready for doing the hedge and the box balls. My back was aching, as usual, by the time I had finished so I certainly wouldn’t miss that if it all has to go @AnniD

Am not going to think too much about what I might replace it with. I will wait and see what happens and allow the sadness of losing it (which I think is inevitable) to be naturally replaced by the fun and excitement of a new project. I have made a list of the alternatives suggested in my garden notebook for future reference.

On a more positive note, I’ve potted on my tomatoes, lots and lots of Cosmos and some Cerinthe. I have lots of Rudbeckia (Gloriosa Daisy ones) to do but need to find some more little pots. I think I might be raiding my granddaughters crafting box for loo rolls, larger pieces of paper and anything else suitable to make some homemade ones