What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

Today I committed Blackfly genocide! They are affected the flower stems of my Aloe striatula and a couple of Salvia so twice a week they get blown away with a high pressure water jet.

 

Ha ha Shiney.....beat you :rasp: I’ll take a picture. Lovely plant....soaring purple blue foliage, delicate, hazy flowers. Thought you had Thalictrum Anne??

Got alstroemeria Indian Summer coming today so will plant it out...even now, I’m not exactly sure where to put it; couple of contending spots

 

I have now planted out my lavender. Some of them are ready to flower.

I had said I would think about growing hardy geraniums in there as I know they would grow under almost any conditions and fill up the spaces easily. I'm now wondering whether I could plant something like helenium or echinacea. I would like a bit of height and a bit of colour. There should be enough sun.

There is already white trachelospermum jasminoides on the fence. In time I will increase the size of pots.

G.

 

If there's not enough room (or sun) I was also thinking about aquilegia. I see them everywhere I go. They would fit in there nicely I think.

G.

(EDIT) Looking into it further, they could have been irises I saw. I'll see if I can get a photo of one while I'm out and about. I can easily plant some iris bulbs.

 

Hiya Gary

Heleniums are one of my favourite group of plants....lots here. Yes, they would look very good behind your lavenders. They flower for a long time and great for impact.

Echinacea too would be good there but not add the desired height.
Aquilegias, for me, are not welcome here....agh! I can sense folks wanting to slaughter me now. The reason is they self seed, take over, so readily. There are some lovely varieties but often they revert to pretty ordinary specimens so!!??

Irises? They don’t flower for very long so for a summer long display they will disappoint you I think.

How about hypericum hidcote there? Semi evergreen foliage and yellow flowers all summer ?

 

Invasive weeds in my opinion. They'll need a lot of trimming throughout the growing season. How much sun does this bed see?

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

That’s a relief...at least you won’t lynch me longk

Too many visitors....!!!....but I got some jobs done.
Lawns mown again...I aim for twice a week and takes very little time. Alstroemeria planted.

A cider helped me assess back garden ....I must resist the urge to impulsively tinker though

beautiful weather now

 

@longk the shadow from the fence falls roughly half way across the bed. Everything at the front is in full sun practically all day. The back half gets some sun early in the morning and late in the evening.

@Verdun St. John's Wort certainly looks a good plant. Had there been nothing else planted there I could quite conceivably see a nice long hedge of green and yellow. As it stands there really isn't a lot of room left for that kind of thing.

The best thing to do, I think, will be to wait until everything has filled out and then see what space is left. I can look at it again next year with a view to moving things around if necessary.

In the meantime I might just plant some spring bulbs (possibly aliums) just to create a bit of early season interest.

G.

 

Nothing outside. Sadly I needed to file forms for a permit to chop down a tree. Anything with a trunk over 15cm in diameter needs town approval to remove. This is the big one behind my hostas. It is 30 years old and now not only has lots of dead branches but the other branches are already dropping their leaves. There's been good rain so it is not been thirsty. It is a grafted jobby - used to be a canopy of white flowers in the spring and that is why it is called a "Snow Cloud".

It is cloudy today and miserable but we are expecting mother nature to flip on the heating tomorrow with full sunshine and temperatures up in the 70's and rising over the next few days.

Then I'll be reporting lots of outdoor work

 

I enjoy reading member's views on various plants - geraniums (invasive weeds?) some but definitely not all of them. We all have different tastes and our garden choices reflect our individuality.

Personally I dislike anything that flowers for a long period (boring) and orange flowers. I have some orange poppies that seed themselves indiscriminately around the garden and even after 35 years of diligent gardening I have failed to eradicate them completely.

Some flowers I find creepy i.e. flag iris (especially the purple ones) and salvias.

I don't grow any vegetables because I don't like them but I have apricot, apple, plum and cherry trees.

 

Nothing today as it was a golf day and it's none too warm now.

But I'll have these two rhodos to dead-head tomorrow.

 

Some good comments....Gary, makes sense to me. Take stock of what you have for now
Alana....you are correct. Many geraniums are weeds, nor are they invasive. As with everything else, choose carefully. I have several geraniums here, all well behaved and colourful

 

I'll help you pull 'em out if you want!

Ok. So having just gone on about invasive plants I'm now going to suggest Hemorocallis (Day Liliy)! Although they can walk a bit they are easily addressed in the spring as shoots emerge if you need to. I'm no expert but I used to have H.citrina..............
Hemerocallis citrina by longk48, on Flickr

It's a nice spring bloomer with a lemony fragrance. I believe that the Spider types can be quite well behaved and they are mostly summer blooming - maybe @Spruce could advise.

Or what about Fuchsia? 'Hawkshead' might look good with the Lavender...............
Fuchsia "Hawkshead" by longk48, on Flickr

You heathen you
My pet hate is daisy-like flowers. Loath them.

What, no vegatables?

 

I do grow a bit of Veg Alana but other than that I swear we could be related..