These pictures are from the 23rd (Wednesday). It was nice weather at the start of the week. I bought a sprinkler to keep the plants watered on friday and then it started raining and hasn't stoped since. My rain butt I ordered about a month ago still hasn't come. Well it was delivered when i wasn't here and they took it back and broke it and don't have another one. I'm also still waiting for the fence man to get back to me. Mainly becuase there is a shortage of fence panels and he can't get any replacement ones.

So I haven't been in the garden this weekend as it has been raining and I've been painting my door. On Wednesday I tried to thin out and replant the stocks but I'm not sure how sucessfully I've done this.

I had great plans to sow lots of wild flowers in with the grasses, but I was running out of time and the grasses were growing, so I've done it in a very unproper way so I'm not sure if any of the flowers will grow. In with the grasses I've aimed to put some lurkspur seeds at the back and then marigolds, daisies, pansies, scabious and poppies.

The red plant is a paeonie (peony) I've been told.

What is the red flower?

It has been raining all week. Some new red flowers have arrived but I don't know what they are. They are in the plants at the left of the grasses but also one smaller plant on the right - which is where you can see the flower in the second picture.

My new seeds finally arrived this week (after a month) so i really need to plant them quickly but it won't stop raining and I've been too busy at work. Hopefully I'll get a bit of time at the weekend. I've got some to go in amongst the grasses. I was planning to plant these before the grasses grew - but as you can see they've already started! I've also got some foxgloves and larkspur to go at the back.

The sweet peas have began to shoot in the bed I planted and the stocks are definitely ready to be thinned out a bit I think.

We've had rain this week - look how the garden grows!

I'm going to have to work out how to thin the stock seedlings out soon. I put a whole packet in one row as i didn't realise how many seeds there were. I think its about 750! It says thin them out when they are ready - but i don't know when that is. My dad said when they are an inch or two and they have really grown this week.

I really like these pink flowers. They must have been in the bed before i moved here. They've never really come up this much before but i cleared a lot of ivy out of this bed the first year and lots of bind weed last year and earlier this year so hopefully that is why they are growing so well.

The gladioli bulbs are growing as well. I think the ones i put in a line will look a bit silly. My mum has now told me about growing them in clumps. I'll do that next year! The ones near the clementis should look better.

The plants i planted last weekend look OK. They are meant to be a in a sheltered spot and i thought they were. However, as the back fence has been cleared by the park gardener a wind comes wiping across the park and into that back bed so they've been rather blown about this week. I hope they will be OK.

I need to plant more at the back bed. I ordered some seeds about three weeks ago to go there but they still have not arrived. I also need to get the fence mended so I probably should do that before I plant more.

Rain yeh!

Rain at last. Not good for bank holiday barbys but good for my plants.

How has the garden changed?

Well, I looked back to find photos of the garden last spring. I have a few at the end of April:

And also some from May. These were taken on the 12th - so a week later than today. the clematis was in much better shape last year. It hasn't had nearly that number of flowers this year. I did try and prune it last year after flowering (as the book said). I cut through one of the main trunks so that might be one reason there are not as many flowers. However, even despite that - the flowers this year have not been nearly so dense.

This last picture confirms my suspicion that i definitely over "weeded" the back bed. There appear to be a few more flowers in it. Although i can't remember what they turn into in the summer. The bushes also look totally different this year.

Bank holiday weekend planting

These last are "quick growing" tobacco plants - so let's see how quickly they grow! I'm not sure what the plants to the left are - they managed to avoid the excessive weeding/ pruning I did in the first year.

The plants at the top are a white Ieronica and 2 pink verbascum that i bought from the garden centre yesterday. Behind these two plants are Lurkspur seeds.

The blue flower is a vinca minor. I've planted it under the fir tree so it might not get enough light. We'll have to see. I planted poached egg seeds along the boarder with the vinca minor.

Bindweed

I have terrible bind weed in one of my flower beds. At least that is what i assume it is. it wraps round all the plants and grows super quickly. I don't know if is doing damage to the plants but i guess it is taking their precious water if nothing else.

I've not been into gardening long but bought Gardeners World magazine. It had an article on weeds and indeed the dreaded bind weed was listed as the weed most gardeners found problematic. There wasn't a picture of it but I assume that is what I have. So how does it say to get rid of it?

"Well, aside from moving house, the only way to stamp it out is to clear everything else from the patch of ground, then treat the patch with glyphosate over a couple of years."

So that is why the previous owner moved then??

So I guess I'll have to just keep pulling the shoots out every week then.

1st may

The sunny bed I'm creating

At the front is Lobelia. There is then stock seed. I poured the whole packet in by accident so I will have to work out how and when to thin these out at some point. There are then some Gladioli bulbs. I didn't realise at the time it is best to put them in clumps so they are in a row and might look a bit funny. Live and learn. At the back, there is a bush in the middle. It is really pretty but I think I have killed it by pruning it to much at the wrong time. So I'll see if that grows again! Then too either side are sweetpeas. I made little wig wams - but they won't be big enough. I'll need to get some bigger sticks soon. I planted all this bed in April, the week of 16th April I think.

Before i planted 3 plants