As I trundle around the garden every morning search for slugs and snails I tend to do a mini review of what is doing well, what needs tweaking, dead-headed, weeded, staked etc.  Now and again though I do a bigger review of certain areas that just don’t work for me.  Some plants may have outgrown their space.  Some I just don’t like how they have grown ie their shape or colour or their relationship with the plants next to them.  I am trying to be ruthless so am having to make the decision whether or not to keep the aster I planted (rather too close to the path), or move it further back, or do away with it altogether.  It isn’t a plant that I love but it is a good do-er.  I think I will wait until it has gone over and then find a replacement – one that I do love.  The area near the patio where the soil can get quite wet and is rather clay-like is still annoying me.  A thorn-less rose like Zephirine Drouhin might do well there, but then maybe a couple of dogwoods would thrive in those conditions?  Is there room for both dogwoods and a rose?    Another area of uncertainty is the central bed where the large tree heath is growing just a bit too large.  You can see from the photo that it wasn’t pruned right after flowering this year (you can see the old white blooms have gone brown) and I would like to cut it down in size to allow the other plants a bit more room.  How far down should I prune it?  I don’t want to take it right down to the base so maybe just take a 1/3 off?  That would mean I wouldn’t get any flowers next year but I can live with that.  We are still waiting for the house next door to be sold (been a few years now) and both the front and back gardens will be in a right state.  The garden wall is needing fixed as the previous owner removed the buttress on their side and has started to fall over at the back.  I haven’t been able to sort that area out and plant up as we don’t want any builders walking all over it.  Major pain in the backside!  Hey ho.

There are still a few plants which are flowering sporadically and some that come into bloom fully at this time of year so the insects can still enjoy a feed. The Japanese anemones, cyclamen and persicarias are looking great just now.  A couple of heathers are about to bloom.  A few of the hellebores are in flower, so too are the nepeta, mint, oregano, aster, coreopsis, viburnum, weigela, geum, knapweed, prunella, deadnettle, roses, parahebe, and even a few flowers still on the geraniums and foxgloves.  The apples are looking good.  They are not really keepers so I always have a bit of a glut at this time of year so I make apple sauce, apple pies and crumbles, stewed apples to freeze, eat some and give some away to pals.  Today however I will just be weeding and browsing my bulb catalogues.

Ajuga coming through a saxifrage

Large aster bulging over path

Tree heath

Persicaria amplex ‘Blackfield’

Some pots on the patio in front of weigela