Plant snobbery

I really like begonias, all you have to do is bung 'em in and watch them grow. Slugs and snails aren't keen on them either. I also miss Geoff Hamilton, lovely man, great gardener. Not too sure about Monty.

They do provide a lot of constant colour. It is daft to be snobbish about plants......however what I hate are regimental planting done with a ruler and too much eye to symmetry..Also orange owners and those red salvias!!!!

Lully this is why I don't let DH plant things or we have serried ranks and rows of things. I'm surprised he doesn't stand to attention and shout at them! I like haphazard planting and then if something's in the wrong place, I move it until it's in the right place. I'm sure the plants prefer his approach!

I don't just like colour I adore softness and depth and I have a 'thing' about leaves.

My garden is like a sanctuary to me. I get a lot of joy just walking around and admiring it. It's one of those gardens where I plant anything anywhere and cross my fingers.

I even allow some weeds to flourish just because I happen to like them.

Sadly 'cause I don't mind slugs they are allowed to wander and they have almost entirely consumed the Lupin I bought recently.

And they make a bugger of the Hostas too.

I couldn't kill anything.. well maybe mozzies but that's all folks !

Your garden sounds gorgeous. Mine is South facing, with a tiny bit of shade, so I have resorted to death by pellets. I am on a pension now and can't afford to lose plants on the scale I did before. They are living things too after all.
I love soft colours, but planted mimulus in the GC's area where I can't see them, and they seem to give a lot of joy. There is a place for everything and everyone in a garden, and thank goodness we all have different tastes.

Our garden is full of birds and other wildlife- and I hate killing anything. So I am phylosophical about it, and plant wonderful plants which are not affected by slugs - all perrenials. Just don't want to fight with things, and hurt others in the process. Given up on strawberries and only grow raspberries, black and red currants- for that reason. Life's too short- and a cottage garden is wonderful.

This is how I used to feel too. Getting back to the begonia discussion, it was one of the things I could grow, along with crocosmia, geranium, iris, poppy and saxifraga, without the slugs killing it.
Today, I took a video of the bumbles in my garden and lost count of how many of them along with hover flies and butterflies there were.
I won't give up on strawberries because my GD who is only 3, planted them and is watching them go from green to red.
I do not want slugs and snails anymore, or rotting compost, but this is after many years of letting them do their thing. I feel guilty though.

It's not just about slugs re strawberries, but foxes pee which can carry toxicarra and other nasties. No probs with taller plants like raspberries and other bush fruits.

I have begonias in pots on the patio btw.

I have never planted those showy begonias but thought I would give them a try this year - then I read the Monty Don article.

When I find some I am even more determined to buy them! Although I like Monty usually I think he should not express views one way or the other on what many other people may like.
Was it Monty who said that petunias were horrible?
I've just bought some pelargoniums for pots (they don't mind a bit of neglect!) - no doubt they are infra dig too.

Does he do all his garden himself I ask - or just faff around with a spade then leave the rest to the real gardeners?

I should give up on the strawberries gj - the slugs or birds always get to them first no matter what I try (straw, sand, nets)

The birds are enjoying the first loganberries, but they have left some for us!

So we are agreed, Monty was wrong x.

Cross post. That was for granjura.

granjura
(re foxes) I never thought of that

I have a cunning plan Jalima. It involves lots of green netting and a very greedy grandchild. Fingers crossed, but if it fails, as many things do, it is what keeps us gardening.

Flowers are very uplifting,they all have beauty.

I will try the green net again, I did try it last years with straw tucked underneath.
And I have a DGD who is very interested in gardening and food that is grown at home because they have a wonderful lady who visits playgroup and helps them garden and plant things to eat.

We walk around the garden regularly; she asked me if it was slugs or snails eating the hostas and commented on what a nuisance they can be!! I said as long as they don't eat the veggies I don't mind.

This is what I love about gardening. Passing the love of it on. My daughter finds herself quite keen on it now she has her first garden, and as for the little one, she seems to love it too.
I think we are doing very well as grannies in the garden.

this granny has been a bit lazy so far this year apart from weeding, but I did buy some plants today so they will have to go into pots.

To be honest, I can't resist wild strawberries, woodland types, which grow all over the place- the taste is so wow oh wow- and I forget all about the foxes! Somehow they don't seem affected by slugs either.

I bought some troughs with hanging handles and have places them on the wide wooden ladder I found in the attic, which I've placed agains a sunny south facing wall- and filled with some of the straberry plants from the raised veg patch and will soon have fruit, no slugs and no foxes.

I actually prefer raspberries- and eat them straight from the bush - very little maintenance and neither of above. Win win.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201606/medium-575931-image.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201606/medium-503299-image.jpg

Can anyone tell me the name of this please ?

I don't like begonias either, find the colours too brash for a garden here and prefer a cottage garden style.I have a friend who has many of them all in rows like a municipal park in the 1950's.However, we are all different and like different things, nobody is right or wrong, just a matter of personal taste.

Ginny When does it flower? It looks a bit like a fuschia but I don't think it is. What a pretty little shrub. I hope someone wiser will give it a go.

I thought I would brighten up the front with hanging baskets full of double begonias (never grown them before but Monty Don made me think of them!!)
And I am fed up with so much pink, purple, white!
Something brash for a change

However, there was not one to be found in the Garden Centre today.

I thought it was a fuschia, the hedging type, but perhaps not

ginny it's Gillenia trifoliata, a woodland plant from N America. I love it. www.rhs.org.uk/plants/details?plantid=878