Does anyone know anything about gardening?

From 50% of all our plants being dead from the prolonged snow / frost last year to this.

It’s looking lovely though there are still some gaps and things that need to fill out.

Really helped to add another layer of sleepers to the Lowe bed and roughly a tonne of soil to it from digging out a play area for my daughter.

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im loving those beds, particularly while pondering what to do with my new wierdly shaped garden. how do you find mainenance on that deep corner section?

Thanks.

The deep section isn't too bad - we could do with planting something with a bit more height to fill it in a bit but, for now, we just walk around on the beams for weeding etc.

Good news: the Dahlia seed I bought are all grown and one has started to flower.

Bad news, this isn't the pompom dahlia I was promised on the seed pack ;)

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Arrghh no! So annoying after all the waiting… there’s a running joke in our family that whenever my mum buys a plant/bulb/seed and it flowers, it’s invariably yellow which she hates. Maybe it’s a bigger conspiracy.

Today we reached peak agapanthus.

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That's amazing!

Mine only has about 4 flower heads this year. Is there a technique to get them to flower more?

get them pot bound but well watered ?

I thought maybe being pot bound was the problem but looking at the photo above, my pot to foliage ratio is not at that level yet.

Hmmm, dunno really, luck?! I think the pot bound thing has been debunked but they do like a regular liquid feed (seaweed). I think it depends on whether it’s hardy or not and how much damage is inflicted over winter. This one was stored in the greenhouse even though it’s supposedly a tough guy.
And I deadhead once the petals drop, possibly that helped.

Seems to be loads of butterflies and moths about this year. Had four of these drinking from the Echinacea this morning.

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My budget lillies are also yellow they just flowered lol at least I don't =hate= yellow.

Did she annoy some sort of old vegetation goddess? :p

Your agapanthus look great, I got a mixed colour bag of seeds. Now I bet the ones that did come up will all be standard purple. Will know in 3 years...

Lovely!

I haven't seen as many small tortoiseshells this year, the moths seem to be doing OK.

Them bargain box dahlias are out, I asked my brother to include something for scale:

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New framework on 4" posts on one side, tensile steel bolts to the house on the other.

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.... and decked with sawn and treated timber to match the cladding on the house. One joist partially deleted to allow a hatch above the sewage manhole, in case someone needs to take the piss in future.

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Looks good!

We have an inspection chamber like that, actually quite handy when something is blocked.

Dunelm bargain bin lillies are out.

Yellow again, but since all the ones sold at spar are orange ik not complaining and it goes well with the purple toadflax next to it :)

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Ours are out too - Nymph, bought a few years ago from Hampton Court. Need to dig them up and spread them out a bit I think.

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I can't find a thread for waterfowl or general bird care, but has anyone in here ever kept ducks? Someone local to us is looking for a home for 3 Indian runner ducks and my wife and I have been thinking about it for a while.
I'm a bit concerned about the time commitment, but at the moment, things are looking like we're going to pick up a second hand coop tonight...
Would be grateful for any tips or recommended literature!

I love a shocking pink flower, very nice. Weird dahlia fact I read last night is that your particular ‘cactus’ variety are all supposedly bred from a single cutting found rotting in a delayed ship delivery in the early Victorian times. No one ever found this type growing in the wild.

@JWestland @rhowe Impressive lily’s, is that ‘hotlips’ too?

The X-Men among lillies ;)

The geraniums are starting to take over in this bed. Nice flowers but they're strangling other stuff a bit.

Don't want to take them out fully or do anything that might kill them off, any suggestions on how to just get them under control a bit? Cheers

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Cut them all the way back and then dig up as much of them as you can find. Scour the soil for any last remnants of root that may have escaped your search.

That should keep them at a manageable size for about a month.

In my experience anyway.