Does anyone know anything about gardening?

lily beetles

Squish all day long and look for the eggs too

Is there anything more glorious than cherry blossom in flower

cherry blossom

You must have green fingers.
Nothing I have tried has ever encouraged a tin of shoe polish to germinate, let alone flower.

They're awful. They have sex then lay an egg in a lump of poo then the grub starts eating the lily.

Site’s not letting me upload pictures for some reason

Any guesses what this is? Just realised it isn't the geranium we'd assumed it was at first glance

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Geum Urbanum (Wood Avens).?

Deadheaded the Hydrangeas today. Some of them are quite large now so doing 16 in the ground and some in pots took quite a while.
Really tidies the garden up though.

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are ponds good or bad ? I have an old water tank from my loft which actually looks quite nice and I was thinking about perhaps recycling it as a pond in my garden… but won’t do so if having a pond is (1) a total pain in the arse or (2) loads and loads of maintenance

As long as you don't have fish, the Internet says they're good.

Let me find that 'pond in a bucket' video from the jolly looking wildlife pond chap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhyUW1p4Rdw

I really wanted to do this with our old loft tank, but my OH is worried about the kids drowning in it. Pls post updates on how you get on so I can live vicariously through you.

Edit: the point about fish is that they shit. If you can keep the neutriants low and establish oxygenating plants then you should only have to do some general maintenance in winter to tidy, and possibly summer to fish out excess alge.

That's what my google image search gave me. I pulled it up anyway.

I bet they’re stunning in bloom

Ponds are one of the best things you can do to increase the diversity of wildlife which is visiting your garden, if that's what you want (and IMO it should be). And it doesn't have to be huge. I have three plastic feeding troughs sunk into my borders, about 80 litres each, and they bring in birds, damselflies, squirrels, all sorts. Totally worth doing. You don't even need to spend a lot on plants - if you're patient stuff will just arrive. I can 100% recommend doing it.

Here's what I used, in case anyone wants to have a go:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333531082384?var=542629733971

Our cherry tree is taking a funny turn. It looks like the top area has evenly died back. What’s going on/should I do?

We planted it this time last year and I’ve been reasonably good with feeding/watering.

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Pics pls

They're honestly not a lot to look at. But next time I'm at home and the builders aren't I'll grab a pic or two.

thats a really good price compared to anything else I've seen

Pics please with banana for scale

Is that dying back of just slow to bud? Hard to tell from the photo

For those looking to yellow rattle to help with a wild flower area, worth watching this from 7m on to get tips on how to make a success or it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKzeRSTslV8

To manage expectations, you're probably looking at a 2yr process starting from September / October.

So all that yellow rattle seed I planted at the weekend is useless.

Great video though.

The latest grass seeds I put on the garden seem to have not germinated at all.

Think I am probably going to rip it up, level it and returf it this year. I liked the idea of putting bulbs under the lawn to come up each spring. Is this something I can do now or do I need to wait until autumn?

There’s probably some bulbs you can plant now still. Or leave it.

The grass will over take it and block out the light. My issue at the moment, so I be been out there with clips trimming the grass.

Azaleas are banging it out again, love these guys

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Bootiful 👌