#SixOnSaturday – Six things happening in my garden this week

Posted on by whatcathyreadnext

Six on Saturday is a weekly meme originally hosted by The Propagator but now in the tender care of Jim at Garden Ruminations.

I should think we’re all pretty bored by now of talking about the weather so I’m just going to get straight on with my six:

One – Our two buddleia got attacked by something last year. One that had been there for years died completely. This one looked sickly all summer but is currently looking much more like its old self.

Two – Anonymous shrub rose brightening up the area under an apple tree.

Three – I expect the bees will soon be moving on from the lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) pictured last week to this large clump of rose campion (Lychnis coronaria).

Four – If you look carefully you can spot the first evidence the gooseberry sawfly caterpillars have arrived.

Five – Another unwelcome visitor – a lily beetle. It’s the first one I’ve ever spotted. It didn’t live long after the photo was taken.

Six – Alchemilla mollis just coming into flower.

A bonus one… We invested in a makeover of our total mess of a front garden last year. An overgrown, invasive hedge was removed, the scrappy old lawn was dug up, raised beds were built and new turf was laid. Since then I’ve been gradually adding shrubs, perennials and bulbs in the raised beds and borders. It’s still a work in progress – isn’t every garden? – and perhaps I should have labelled the second one ‘Now’ rather than ‘After’ but here’s a record of the changes.

Do check out the posts of other participants by following the links in the comments section of Jim’s post. If you fancy taking part yourself but don’t know where to start, here’s the participant’s guide.

13 thoughts on “#SixOnSaturday – Six things happening in my garden this week”

    1. I have a sort of plan but it’s a bit trial and error to see what does well. The front garden is south facing and gets very hot in summer so plants have to be able to cope with dry conditions, even thought we mulch heavily. At the moment we don’t have easy access to water at the front – it’s a case of lugging the watering can from the back garden.. One of the next projects is to install some water butts.

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      1. Water is a problem for us too. We have quite a big garden, front and back, with a lot of young plants/trees but only one water butt. It doesn’t even cover a quarter of the space under dry conditions.

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  6. I’m glad your butterfly bush is doing better! It’s such a beautiful plant and I love that color. Have you tried fertilizing with rice water? It almost always seems to do the trick for me whenever a plant isn’t doing that well and there are no obvious pest/fungus issues. It’s basically boiling a cup of rice in a pan of water (no salt!), and then diluting the rice water. (1 rice water and 2 regular water) I’ve had plants that have been stagnant for years grow in record time just by adding rice water!

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      1. I’ve tried whelk shell around my strawberries which has some effect but you need to use a lot. I’m about to experiment with wool pellets around dahlias I’m planting out. My son-in-law is a landscape gardener and he recommends galic spray but obviously you wouldn’t want to use that on fruit or veg.

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