Gran/Grandads Gardening Corner

Your garden looks lovely J52. Do you have an acid soil or did you change the pH of the Rhodie and Azalia bed?

I planted 4 nemesia last week and they have all lost all their flowers - I am wondering if bunnies particularly favour them.

I am not posting a picture of my Mr President as it looks very in comparison roses!

DH would like to know the secret - is it good soil or a dollop of manure or just green fingers?

Thank you Shysal the garden is on acid soil, a SW facing slope in SW Scotland. It was already landscaped when we bought the house. I'm trying to conserve it!
I'm nervously pruning the Rhododendrons as they are getting leggy.

I have been weeding around my bottom garden border, collecting seedling plants and off sets and putting them on Freecyle. They were in great demand but I must not give away too many. I hate throwing plants away.

My lovely little Rhododendron "Grumpy" The colours in the petals change. The two tiny petals at the bottom of the photo are from my London Pride which I am really begining to appreciate now. The tiny flowers are on feathery stems and beautifully marked.

I love London Pride, so unassuming and a gentle plant.

Lovely garden J52 and those rhods and azealias!

Jalima we don't do much to encourage the clematis, just make sure it has plenty of water and a handful of Grow-more in Spring.

Keep the pics coming everybody.

Shysal if you dug it all out or killed the weeds and then started again, just with poppy seeds?

Can anyone tell me what this might be please? I have accidentally dug it up and not sure what it might be or even if it's alive or dead. Sorry for poor photo I didn't like to scrape too much soil away just in case .

Looks like a dahlia to me, but could be wrong. It should be sprouting by now if it is alive.

No sprouts maranta just as you see. Having said that we are quite a way behind up here on the wild NE coast. Not sure what to do with it and if I plant it back in which way is up ?

I agree it looks like a Dahlia. I'd pop it back, it won't really matter which way as the shoots grow towards the light, clever aren't they!
However, I'd lay it sideways so the tubers are all at an equal depth. See what happens, good luck.
I'm off to plant an urn with some late sprouting nasturtiums. Lovely weather, happy gardening week end to one and all!

gilly I can't make out anything, it could be a dahlia bulb or a dead Martian.

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Just took these pics, the delphiniums are coming out now, the Nellie Moser is almost over, and the irises just out.

Nelliemoser that rhod 'Grumpy* doesn't suit it's name, it's lovely.

I just can't get hollyhocks or delphiniums to grow, spent a fortune

Lovely Delphiniums, the slugs always eat mine! I think I'll sow some seeds and plant them in pots next year. It has worked for the Lupins.

Luckily we don't have a slug or snail problem ( I remember a garden we once had where the first lupin that dared to put some foliage out was chomped instantly!)
There must be a few about, because I have just moved the pot of sweet peas to another location as there was a silver trail on the pot and a few leaves missing.I never see them though.

It's a dahlia tuber, but as Maranta says, it ought to be sprouting at least, but ideally well above the ground by now if it is viable. Nothing to be lost by putting it back in though.

We have a lot of lily beetles this year - more than usual. Inspections are revealing them daily, but there is no other course but to take 'em off by hand, which I hate, but it is better than dealing with the horrible stuff they hide their eggs in! And for the first time I can remember since we moved here, something is nibbling my hostas! You can't see the holes in the photo, but they are there.

As far as I remember slugs love hostas. That was when I stopped growing them.

We get very few slugs, oddly enough, but we do get snails. Thing is, all the pots except the big one at the back have slugstoppa tape on, and it has worked up to now. Perhaps they are pole vaulting into the foliage to avoid the tape! I have had these hostas for about eight years now; a couple of years ago I divided them all and gave some pieces to my daughter. Kiss of death, like any other plant matter she expresses an interest in and then promptly manages to fatally neglect.

I have popped my "dead martian" into a large pot and put it into the lean-to hospital. Fingers crossed for life.
What a great gardening day it has been today. I was off work after having a small hospital procedure last night . It felt wonderful to be "playing the nick" in my own garden and I got so much done gardening in my Jim jams .

Our lupins are pathetic so far . No sign of any flowers at all yet .

The irises are nearly over but Nellie Moser and Mr President have only produced one bud between them so far!

I may give them some chicken shit manure and talk to them nicely.