Hobbies and Crafts

Hello All

Ann, I hard pruned our budliea bush and now think it wasn't that good an idea!

Vera, you have a lot of work ahead but it sounds exciting and will be amazing to see everything take shape in your new garden. Take care though not to harm yourself.

Kandj you are supposed to hard prune them. I think the month to do it is February before they start to grow.

Kandj, Ann is absolutely right. We had quite a collection of different buddleias at our old house and we cut them down every year to the lowest sprouting leaf. Mostly this would be between 6 and 18 inches off the ground. We did it end February or early March and by the summer they would be several feet high and covered in blossom. The butterflies loved them.

I miss the butterflies so much that I am considering trying a couple of those mini buddleias in pots.

Thanks Vera and Ann. Don't remember the exact month I cut the budleia back but it was earlier this year. It has smaller flowerheads but not many butterflies at all this year, but then they aren't attracted to our neighbour's garden either and their budleia is huge. Perhaps it's just coincidence that there are only a few butterflies around now.

Like you Vera, I am also tempted to buy the dwarf budleia variety for another tub.

Kandj, we have seem hardly any butterflies except cabbage whiotes, Last year our Buddleia was full of them, it is a bad year for them.

Just thought I would add this tip whilst I think about it. Please forgive me if you already know this but if you spray the outside of a pot with WD40 the slugs and snails
can't climb up the pots.
It seems to work :-D :-D :-D

That sounds a useful tip Von. I generally put copper tape round my pots but I might give WD40 a try.

good tip Von thank you.

Ann, like you, so far I have seen just one big butterfly, not a Red Admiral but loads of Cabbage Whites, especially around what is left of the Swiss Chard after the Sparrows have been at it and a few small brown ones and tiny blue ones. Nothing on the Budleias at all.

Saw quite a few Swallowtails in Italy again.

The Sweet Peas have gone mad but the Runner beans are pathetic, we came back to just enough for two meals. This time last year we were eating them every day and freezing at least two portions a day as well. We could watch them growing.

Garden has that End of Summer look to it, luckily the Phlox, Rudbeckias Golden Rods and Anemones are still flowering their socks off.

Vera looks like the garden is coming along well.

Next door's extension has gone up to roof level whilst we have been away. It does rather over shadow the patio by the house and we now see a wall rather than the sky from the conservatory one side. She is going to have it rendered and painted, I hope it will be white as that will be nice and bright, hopefully as it is on our North boundry it might also keep a bit of the North wind off the garden. The men still arrive early and we were woken this morning at 7.15 by a circular saw. Needed that !!! The house is covered in a thick layer of dust and I did dust before we went away too !!!!

M.

I have just been walking around the garden taking photos, some of it is a bit like a jungle with the rain and now sun causing a growth spurt. I have put the photos on the blog and there is also one of a Red Admiral on a new Buddleia plant.

Lovely photos Ann.
Have a great day tomorrow :-D

Thanks Von :-)

I have just checked out the photo blog Ann. Thank you for the showing the Scrumpties trail... it looks to be quite good fun and I also loved seeing your garden this afternoon. Such a lot of bright coloured flowers you still have there.
A really good close up of the Red Admiral, well done and thank you for sharing these lovely photographs Ann.

Glad you liked the photos Kandj, we got 2 more Scrumpties today, just one left now.

A few photos added with the two scrumpties found today.

On Monday I received in the post 3 very moist healthy plug plants of the pretty ground cover Campanula Clip White. I put them out immediately in separate spots in the front border and have been watering them to get them established. My aim is to have ground cover and lessen the weeding. All has been going well until this evening I had the garden hose to water the border and saw the first Campanula which was all stalks..... no leaves left...... strange??
The second and third plants were the same. No longer healthy green leaves but just stalks?? We have no squirrels and no rabbits nearby, so what has been feasting on our new plants?? It's a mystery and I'm not happy. Waste of money, time and effort!!
Any thoughts on the culprit please??

Ann, love the two new scrumpties, especially the oops a daisy one. Thanks.

Kandji
I think slugs might be the culprit.
You could rescue them by digging them up. Repot them and put them somewhere where the slugs can't get them until they are much bigger.
I don't use slug pellets but if you do you could try those.
Good luck
Von

Thanks Von, we don't usually get bothered with slugs but I have taken your advice and re-potted the Campanula plants. As the roots are all in tact they should survive and hopefully get more leaves and pretty white bell-shaped flowers in the future.

Vera, the ongoing rain should help to get your new plants well established now.
Hope the family gathering went well for you all.

Our garden is beginning to look pretty good now. Virtually all the plants have been delivered and OH has been busy putting them in. There are still quite a lot to plant and I feel a bit guilty that I haven't helped him much as I have been tied up with other things.

Two trees, a crabapple and a hawthorn, were delivered today and they have now been planted. The trees with the various shrubs we have put in have given everything a bit of height and shape and the whole garden looks bigger.

We are well pleased

:-D

Sounds great Vera, it must be wonderful to see it developing as you planned :-)