How does your garden grow?

Cinnabar_wing said:

I call her my little botanist and got her a marvellous book to fuel her explorations. 

Davina Attenborough!

My garden has been a challenge this year. My seedlings grew well in the April warmth, but in early May I had a problem with aphids, so as the weather forecast was no frost I  planted out the unaffected ones and hoped for the best. Then the weather changed and I had to protect those planted out. They had rain, but no growth due to cold. Then came the heat, but with watering they have started to grow. I have planted out my second lot of cosmos now which I planted late to replace the ones I lost. I am now hoping I will have a lot of colour in this bed.

The recent heat has been challenging with the watering. Some geraniums were going limp. The bonus with the geraniums is that I have some where I didn't plant them, so maybe they seeded in the heat last year. I managed to start removing the weeds that have grown up again when it got a bit cooler last evening.

I planted a philadelphus last year. I am pleased that this year it has grown and is full of blooms and the smell has been wonderful when I have been watering in the evenings. 

With the changing weather each year, at different times getting things right and planting the right things has become more of a challenge. For example, two years ago I had a wonderful pot of sweet peas as the summer was cooler and plenty of rain. Last year I planted some in a pot and a few in a space in the bed. The pot did poorly due to the heat, but those in the garden did well. So this year I have planted the sweet peas with a wigwam in the middle of my annual bed. 

I am now hopeful I will have some colour to enjoy in the summer. I have to remind myself it is still spring at the moment, despite the heatwave. I am also hoping in the coming days to enjoy the rain and a break from watering. 

Finally my kallets have started to germinate, I was about to replant them and there they were just poking thier heads up.

My dandelions are doing very well in my garden, but I will be tackling the remaining patch of yellow headed nuisances tomorrow. A good trowel, to dig them up by the roots, and a new hoe, a ‘Which’ best buy, will help me clear all the weeds.

Away from my garden, I love seeing dandelions, nettles and brambles mixed through long, fresh grass on my walks. Even better if some bluebells are in the mix. It is a wonderful thing in the wild. 

TheCatWoman said:

The rhubarb has bolted,

I've got that problem too.

I'm afraid I'm not that much of a gardener but I grow children in my garden.
(I keep thinking when they are bigger I'll be better at it, but for now it is good enough.)

The garden is most definitely my daughters most of all. She's grown up in it, making little pathways and demanding the nettles be removed from the places she likes to hide. And there is a good sturdy climbing tree, and a surprising number of places to hide when you commandeer your mums green coat and fashion a mask of leaves, a game of hide and seek is actually tricky. (Though apparently sitting in the greenhouse doesn't count as a good spot, I did try some what).

This post was a pleasure to read Cinnabar_wing 

That sounds lovely and an exciting environment to grow up in. There is something different about finding out or identifying plants from books than searching online.

Children are the biggest allies of dandelions. An eagrly seized prize and raptuously blown to the four corners. They are also beautiful in photographs against a setting summer sky, and are the most delightful and whimsical in artwork.

I do marvel at their hardiness, growing in the toughest of conditions to bring a splash of yellow to places too inhospitable and dry for anything else. The yellow amongst the stones in the driveway. I stopped with my daughter the other day to wonder at the places they manage to grow. To thrive where nothing else can.

The docks, though their roots seem to be 3 miles deep and don't brighten up the garden half as much. And creeping buttercups. We keep trying to have a veg patch, but the wild exerts it's control again before the seasons end.

The biggest problem is grass though, the march of the grass is relentless, and as the seed heads are another ingredient in children potions they get help to spread in a nice mud pie. it is a problem living downwind of fields.

The current bushes do well here, red and white and black. And gooseberries, which are resiliently seeding spiky shrubs all over the garden, partly driven by a small child who loved to eat them sour and throw them half eaten around the garden.  I don't mind the blackbirds taking their share of them, especially when you are proffered a handful and expected to eat them all.

The old plum tree doesn't often bare much these days, what with the bullfinches nipping the buds in spring, or the wasps tunnelling drunk when ripe.

Flowers are hard to grow when you have a child who picks them all and dissects them. I call her my little botanist and got her a marvellous book to fuel her explorations. 

We inherited a gardeners garden, but moving in with a baby meant it's half wild again now, but it's full of wildlife. I like all the small trees around the edge. In the summer you are hidden by the green, and can lie while the thrush comes out of her nest and hops around on the shorter areas of grass -a mix of cut and strips/corners of un-mown to have variety of habitat. 

They produce only seed heads as well as the flower seeding so they are double trouble (unless you are a bee).

Homebird said:

Could you have some in a pot and remove the heads before they seed?

An idea

I'd have to be quick though.

The little buggers have blown their seeds in a blink.

We actually have masses of bee flowers anyway.

Could you have some in a pot and remove the heads before they seed?

My spud plans are, slowly, sporouting; more signs of life, Saturday evening, when I last watered them.

I always feel conflicted with dandelions, because I like them but I know that for the benefit of my garden overall I should probably get rid of them. I feel so lucky to have a garden. We are looking to move home soon and one of the few ‘must haves’ on my list is that we must have a garden.

pinkchocoholic said:

Hopefully you'll win - why not save them when you've removed them then give them to him as a present - that way you can say you got him something he likes so he shouldn't be sad or mad

He isn't a bee though  (unlike me).

https://theconversation.com/dandelions-are-a-lifeline-for-bees-on-the-brink-we-should-learn-to-love-them-204504

Hopefully you'll win - why not save them when you've removed them then give them to him as a present - that way you can say you got him something he likes so he shouldn't be sad or mad

Homebird said:

Dandelions are definitely a difficult thing to get rid of and the often plant themselves close to prickly plants in my garden.

I am having to stealthily remove them whilst my husband isn't looking as he wants to keep them for the bees.

It's a dandelion battle.

️

Dandelions are definitely a difficult thing to get rid of and the often plant themselves close to prickly plants in my garden.

I have several strawberry plants in flower. Also the geraniums are beginning to flower. I have a beautiful pink  clematis in flower which spreads a long distance.

I have a variety of small annuals and Zinnia and Cosmos seedlings which I have now transplanted into pots and now need to grow bigger before going out. I have sweet peas ready to go out next month. 

Now I have the mammoth job of weeding the beds, which I haven't had the energy to do for a while.

TheCatWoman said:

How are bees at interior design?

Mud seems to be on trend