Slug and snail resistant plants.

15/08/2022slugs, snailsJackie Elwin

Apparently we are not supposed to think of slugs and snails as pests in our garden any more, however, I do think that they can cause so much damage to certain plants that I consider them a bit of a pest in my own garden. Over the years I have tried to only plant slug resistant plants so that I am not constantly being disappointed at the total decimation of my newly acquired plants. Plants cost a lot of money and I take umbrage at them being slug food. I don’t mind the small grey ones which can take the odd nibble or two out of my primulas but it is the huge Arion slugs that can destroy a whole plant in one evening. I know that some slugs are the gardeners friend, such as the green or yellow cellar slug that will eat algae and mould, and the leopard slug that will feed on fungi and rotting vegetation and other slugs. I have tried many methods to control the numbers such as deterrents and barriers like surrounding susceptible plants with a variety of materials such as: crushed egg shells, or wool (or wool pellets), or grit, or sand, or coffee grounds, or bran. None of these worked. The bran is meant to work by the slugs gorging themselves on it and they end up bloated. They are slow to go back into cover so are picked off by predators – so they say (but I haven’t tried this method). I have seen the slugs move across all sorts of surfaces and onto the plant. I have seen slugs moving across a very prickly cactus plant in the conservatory, and up very prickly stems of the moss roses in the stumpery. The sand just gets bounced away with heavy rain, and I have heard that the slugs just produce more slime in order to combat a surface they don’t find comfortable. I did think that the sand would work as it would stick to their slimy bodies but alas they didn’t care. I have tried making up a strong garlic solution to drench the plants as many people find that it works as a deterrent, but it certainly didn’t work on the new shoots of Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ in the spring, but as the plants grew a bit the leaves became a little less palatable to them. You do have to re-apply after rain as it washes off. I have tried Vaseline on the rims of pots and also up the stalks and around flower bud of narcissi but somehow the slugs and snails still managed to get passed the sticky surface. The copper tape method can work but might only work if you put enough tape around the pot. I just put one inch of copper tape around a large pot and the slug can be seen arching it’s body over the band of tape to reach further up and over. Once I put about 6 inches of tape around the pot the plant has managed to grow on and has had no further damage. This isn’t nice to look at and you have to keep the pot away from any other surface or plant in case the culprit can just stretch across the gap or get a bridge from a leaf of another close by plant. If I had put the tape around the rim it may have helped, but they leaves could overlap the pot edge so the slug would still have been able to get into the plant.


Slug in astrantia pot

slug avoiding copper tape

astrantia regrowth in pot with more copper tape

Now and again I have used pellets and also nematodes. I am trying to avoid these as they not only kill the bad slugs but they also kill the good ones. The nematodes are at least environmentally friendly but are a pain to use as you have to have various jugs and buckets to get the correct amount of water to mix the nematode mixture in, the soil has to be a certain temperature and must be fairly wet too. The nematodes are only active for around six weeks and I am not sure if they actually kill snails. They are also quite expensive especially if you have a large garden. Slug pellets, even if they say they are organic, can possibly affect other creatures if they are consumed in large quantities. I have used them in small quantities around specific plants but I don’t think I will again.

The methods I prefer are the slug traps and just going on a slug and snail hunt in the morning and Harry does it at night. The slug traps can be anything like butter containers or jam jars with and inch or two of cheap beer in the bottom. Lee shows you how here. If you dig a small hole in the ground near a susceptible plant and place the jam jar in the hole with about an inch of the jar above soil level. Cover this with a broken bit of pot that is slightly curved so the rain doesn’t get in but the slugs can. With the jar being slightly above soil level means that ground beetles are less likely to fall in. The slugs go in for a feed of sweet beer and fall in and drown (intoxicated?) but the trouble is that again this is indiscriminate. (I use the jam jar and keep the lid so that I can pick the jar out of the hole and screw the lid firmly on so that I can transport it on my lap without spillage, dispose of the slugs and re-use the jar trap.) Both good and bad slugs have a boozy end, and so do some wasps. You can empty them into your compost heap afterwards.

jam jar with some beer in it to trap slugs

Jam jar beer trap

jam jar to trap slugs with the broken pot lid on

Jam jar beer trap lid on

Picking off the bad guys is a good method at controlling the numbers but nature will never leave a void so more slugs and snails will come in. I actually like the presence of snails as the blackbirds and thrushes can have have a good meal. I do throw them into the golf course behind us though and they can takes their chance if they want to come back. The little slugs are food for the frogs, newts and hedgehogs (we have only had one hedgehog visit). If you walk around your garden regularly you will get to know where their favourite hiding places are so you can check them out on a slug hunt. You can even put something they love nearby as bait such as old melon skin, then go and pick them off. One favourite hiding place for snails is in the holes in the wall of the raised bed. You have to be careful sticking your hand in the holes as sometimes wasps and bees can be found there too and you can get stung if not wearing gloves.

I have read various websites to find slug and snail proof plants but I think it is a bit of trial and error to find the ones that will survive in your garden. I have 3 Astrantias in the garden and only the white one was resistant to attack (not completely however). The pink and red ones got totally decimated wherever I sited them. Some websites say that fennel should be ok, and mine was for a few years but there must have been a stack of eggs in the base of one plant and the whole bronze fennel was covered in them. I now don’t bother trying to grow hostas or delphiniums, and even my Salvai Amistad can be a bit hit and miss from attacks. I do love my narcissi so I will keep trying to find a solution to stop the slugs and snails eating the flower heads. So here is a list of plants in my garden that are pretty resistant to slugs and snails. Note that I haven’t added shrubs or annuals to the list, they are mainly perennials.

Slug and
snail resistant plant list (in my garden)

This is a list of the
perennials and bulbs that are slug and snail resistant in my garden (although
some can get nibbled they are not decimated).

·
Ajuga reptans

·
Alchemila mollis

·
Allium bulgaricum
(Nectaroscordum siculum or honey lily)

·
Androsace
lanuginosa wooly rock jasmine

·
Anemones Japanese
and other types

·
Aquilegia

·
Arisarum
proboscoideum mouse plant

·
Artemesia

·
Astilbe

·
Brunnera macrophylla
but NOT Brunnera Jack frost, it can get quite a bit of damage until
leaves are older

·
Calluna (heather)

·
Camassia
leichtlinii

·
Centauria the blue/purple ones are ok but the white
versions are often eaten

·
Cerastium
tomentosum (snow in summer, dusty miller)

·
Chiastophylum
oppositifolium

·
Chionodoxa

·
Cirsium rivulare
Atropurpureum

·
Cistus
parviflorus

·
Corydalis

·
Crocus

·
Cyclamen

·
Dicentra

·
Digitalis

·
Epimedium

·
Erica (heaths)

·
Erigeron karvinskianus

·
Erythronium
mostly ok but some nibbles

·
Ferns

·
Filipendula
ulmaria Meadowsweet

·
Fritillaria
snakes head

·
Galium odoratum
Sweet woodruff

·
Gallanthus
snowdrops

·
Geum

·
Geranium( hardy)

·
Gillenia
trifoliate

·
Grasses

·
Hebe

·
Hedera (most
ivies) although the snails love hiding in it

·
Hellebores (can
be nibbled by snails)

·
Heucheras

·
Hyacinthoides

·
Hydrangea
anomala petiolaris

·
Lamium hybridum
dead-nettle

·
Leptinella
squalida Platt’s black

·
Ligusticum
scoticum

·
Lonicera honey
suckle

·
Myosotis
forget-me-nots

·
Nepeta x faassenii Junior Walker

·
Oregano vulgare
‘Aureum’ golden oregano

·
Oxalis acetosella
wood-sorrel

·
Papaver orientale
Patty’s plum

·
Parahebe porlock

·
Parthenocissus
henryana Chinese Virginia creeper

·
Peony red

·
Persicaria
affinis superba (knotweed)

·
Persicaria amplex
Blackfield

·
Phlox ice cream

·
Polemonium
caeruleum Brise D’anjou Jacob’s ladder
variegated

·
Potentilla
thumberi Monarch’s velvet

·
Pulmonaria ‘Lewis
Palmer’ lungwort

·
Pulsatilla
vulgaris papageno Pasque flower

·
Rodgersia
podophylla

·
Roses

·
Saxifrages

·
Selinum
wallichanum (a few nibbles)

·
Silene dioica red campion

·
Sisyrimchium
californicum brachypus

·
Spirea

·
Thalictrum
flavium Glaucum

·
Tierella

·
Thyme

·
Vancouvera
hexandra

·
Verbascum

·
Verbena
bonariensis

·
Veronica
Gentionoides Blue streak and other veronicas

·
Vinca major and
minor

·
Viola

Mid July and still watering the garden.

15/07/2022flowers, wildlifeJackie Elwin

Yes we may be in Scotland but we have had very little rain for the last few months (despite the showers this morning). I have had to water the garden and top up the pond every 2nd day or so. Plus watering the patio, conservatory and house plants. The good thing about being very dry is that the roses have lots of sunshine (but they do require a lot more water) and so have done particularly well so far. I planted a new rose in a difficult area by the patio, Gertrude Jekyll, it is just a small plant just now so hopefully it will do well there as it is quite heavy soil and it should get enough sun. There has been very little slug and snail damage apart from a few plants that have been absolutely decimated. I have Astrantia major Alba, shaggy and Rubra, but only the Rubra has been attacked by slugs (the huge Spanish slugs). I have moved it’s position now a few times and it always comes under attack, even when in pots on the patio. So I have now dug them up and planted something else in it’s place for the time being. I am going to try a very dark variety called Astrantia Gill Richardson group which is on the patio just now but if it gets no damage there then I will try it out in the garden.

Another plant to succumb to slug damage is one of the Selinum Wallichianums. There are about six of these in various parts of the garden and only one has been damaged, even though it only about a foot away from another of the same. I definitely know it is slug damage as I picked them off myself!

The witch hazel Hamamelis inter Diane foliage is looking almost autumnal already but rather lovely especially if back lit by the sunshine. The Verbascum raspberry ripple that was divided last year is looking a bit bushier now. The double purple hellebore that was moved earlier this year and sadly cut in half by mistake is actually flowering just now! The blue geranium with dark purple leaves has finnaly flowered. It is Geranium pratense Midnight Reiter and when it was sold to me it had very little root system so I should probably not have planted it out as soon as I did. That was a couple of years ago and it has hardly grown at all but it has flowered now. And the sweet peas are doing rather well now that they can get a bit more sunshine as the next door neighbour’s large shrub has been cut back. (We have no neighbour there yet as the house is still being worked on by the current owner who is a property developer. Let’s hope whoever moves in will chop that blasted huge purple leafed bird cherry tree down that has taken over our left hand corner of the garden!) I did find a ladybird that I am just not sure if it is the dreaded Harlequin ladybird or not. The Harlequin ones are bad news for our own native ladybirds but it can be hard to identify them properly.

The front garden is looking very dry but I haven’t been watering it much at all. The small diamond shaped bed in the middle only has tulips and iris in it and is rather boring. It looks great when the yellow bearded iris are in flower but they only last a couple of weeks then it is boring for the rest of the year. I have decided to get a small rowan tree (Sorbus vilmorinii) and maybe some lavender to plant there instead to give a bit more interest all year round. But that job will have to wait a bit. So here are a few more pics for now from the back garden.

Verbascum raspberry ripple

Pale pink climbing rose Generous gardener

Generous gardener rose

Munstead wood rose

William Lobb moss rose

Gertrude Jekyll rose

Geranium pratense Midnight Reiter

Double purple hellebore

Hamamelis inter Diane

Astrantia major rubra slug damage

Selinum wallichianum healthy

slug damaged foliage on Selinum wallichianum

Selinum wallichianum slug damage

Harlequin ladybird possibly?

Ladybird native?

selection of sweetpeas in a bunch in a green glass vase

Sweet pea bunch

Photos of the garden in May and June 2022

29/06/2022plants, wildlifeJackie Elwin

We have had so much sun and wind in the last few weeks that I have have to water the garden, patio and conservatory almost daily so it is nice to finally have some rain so I can get some other work done.

There are signs of mildew on the new variegated honeysuckle, perennial cornflower, meadowsweet, some aquilegias and some pulmonarias. The slug and snail problems are mainly on the red astrantia (although in many books they say astrantias are slug proof! – the white astrantia are fine however), the Jack frost brunnera at the back but not the ones at the front of the border, and the salvia Amistad and the baby’s breath. Most of the other plants are left alone or just slightly nibbled.

I now have to cut back all the irises in the garden as they are all over. None of the pond irises have flowered yet. I am still waiting for the dark leaved geranium to flower – it has taken 2 years to grow just a couple of inches wide so I am guessing it will take ages to spread.

Here is a selection of piccies taken over May and June.

Scoliopterix libatrix

Cepaea nemoralis

white iris unknown

right side of pond

right side of pond different angle

Nectaroscordum siculum

purple heuchera beside golden spirea and pink flowered hebe

Heuchera, hebe and spirea

Veronica filiformis on log

part of the garden in May 2022

Enkianthus campanulatus

Enkianthus campanulatus flowers

spreading geranium with pink/lilac flowers

Geranium pink/lilac unknown

Geranium wargrave pink

white geranium with pink centers in the raised bed

Geranium cantabrigiense biokvo

Geranium double lilac unknown

Geranium himalayense blue

Iris Jane Philips

Ligusticum scoticum

Foxgloves in the stumpery

White foxglove

Campanula garganica Blue diamond

Clematis warszawski Nike

Astilbe Fanal red in the stumpery

Astrantia major white

Primula sikkimensis

Zephirine Drouhin rose

Generous gardener rose

Munstead wood rose

selection of pots of flowers on the patio

Patio pots

Mouse ornament in trough

Fabulous, hardy, garden ferns.

01/06/2022ferns, plantsJackie Elwin

What’s NOT to love about ferns? I simply couldn’t imagine my garden without them. I have some in the stumpery, in the raised bed, in holes of the wall of the raised bed, in the shady border, in the the sunny border, in the middle bed, on the patio in pots, in the conservatory and some in the house. I can only remember the names of some of them, and some have just popped up in strange places. I will however have to take a few out that are going to be a nuisance. They have self-seeded (spores) in the crevice between the harling and the ramp, also some of the larger ones have popped up in-beside a smaller species in some of the holes in the wall. Some are just way too big for the space. Debs chopped a large chunk from the Osmunda regalis purpurea (starts off very purple before turning green) from beside the ramp so we re-located that chunk into a shady damp area of the stumpery where it is doing well. Some have popped up in with a large pot plant (Beaucarnea recurvata – the ponytail plant). As you can see, ferns come in many sizes, shapes and forms. Some are evergreen, some semi-evergreen and some are deciduous. Some are low growing whilst others are huge. Some are clump forming whilst others spread along the earth or a wall with rhizomes. There is a fern for any location in the garden. I have many more ferns in the garden – too many to photograph. A previous post from 2018 shows a few crosiers before they unfurl.

Athyrium niponicum ‘Silver falls’

eared lady fern with reddish stalks and mid-ribs

Athyrium otophorum okanum

low growing fern with rusty coloured tips

Blechnum penna-marina

Dryopteris crispa congesta

Dryopteris erythrosa

Osmunda regalis pupurascens

Polystichum polyblepharum

hairy fronds of the Japanese tassel fern

Polystichum polyblepharum hairy fronds

Polystichum setiferum cristato pinnulum

Mix of ferns at the end wall of raised bed

Mix of ferns in the shady sided wall of raised bed

Polystichum setiferum plumoso multilobum densum

unknown fern in chimney pot on patio

Davallia canariensis

mixed self-seeded fern in large pot plant

Mixed self-seeded ferns beside Beaucarnea recurvata

World bee day

20/05/2022bee, world bee dayJackie Elwin

As it’s world bee day today I thought I would show a few photos of bees in the garden. These were not all taken today as I didn’t have time. As far as I can tell in these photos we have the common carder bumble bee (Bombus pascourum), the red tailded bee (Bombus lapidarius), white tailed garden bee (Bombus lucorum) and a small tree bee (Bombus hypnorum). We do get a few other species but I haven’t yet taken any decent photos of them yet.

Tree bee (Bombus hypnorum) a deutzia

Bees on cirsium

Bees (Bombus lucorum?) on centaura plant

Carder bumble bee (Bombuspascuorum)? on centaura

Red tailed bee (Bombus lapidarius) on veronica

Bee in a cherry blossum

Wheelchair gardening tools – gloves

18/05/2022gloves, wheelchair gardening toolsJackie Elwin

I have added gloves to the tools section as they are so important for comfort, protection, and grip gardening. Yes you can do gardening without gloves, but I have found that using a wheelchair, gloves that have a bit of ‘grip’ to them not only helps with pushing the manual wheelchair around in the garden but also helps me hold onto the tools easier. Having arthritic fingers means that I can’t grip as well as I used to and I kept dropping my tools, especially the unmodified ones. In both my front and back gardens I have some prickly shrubs so gloves can offer a bit of protection from these when weeding around them, and clearing their fallen leaves.

gloves that I wear when wheelchair gardening

Gloves that I wear when gardening from my wheelchair

As you see from the gloves pictured, I don’t have any heavy duty gloves which would offer good protection. I just can’t be getting on with them. I can’t feel what I am doing, and pushing the chair is more difficult with them, so instead I would just use my pruners and secateurs that’ cut and hold‘ to tackle any prickly shrubs so that I don’t have to touch them at all. If I am just going to do some sweeping up or scraping in between slabs in the garden, then I will use either my lambskin gloves or my Global leather wheelchair gloves (if they are drying off then I will use any old leather gloves or my old biker gloves). They not only keep my hands warm and clean, but also help my grip and prevent blisters. I won’t even pick up a cane without gloves on now after I had a very nasty infection in a finger from a skelf (splinter). It was extremely painful, required antibiotics (which mucked up my warfarin INR), and made it painful to do any wheelchair transfers.

Over all my favourite gardening gloves are the pink Show-341 gloves. They are flexible, light, breathable, have a textured waterproof latex covering on the palm, and are machine washable. They offer some protection from small prickles such as nettles, and have a good grip. However, they are not totally waterproof and don’t have any padding on the palm, and can still be a bit slippery once they are wet but they do still offer some grip when wet. The rubber does wear off especially when pushing a wheelchair but then I can use them in the house when it is freezing or when I am playing with the dog throwing his ball around the house.

The Global leather wheelchair gloves have padded palms which not only help with grip but protect your palms getting sore when manipulating objects.

bruised and broken blod vessels fingers from gardening

Broken blood vessels on fingers

This picture shows my painful burst blood vessel and some other blood vessels near the surface which often burst when pushing the chair. This one burst when I was pushing a metal plant support into the earth. If I had been using my lambskin or Global leather gloves then maybe that wouldn’t have happened but I was just using my showa-341 gloves.

The main trouble I find when using gloves with a wheelchair is that the grip goes as soon as they get wet. I have found online some gloves from macwet that claim to keep their grip when wet but I haven’t tried them out. Once my hands get wet they get very cold and I have not yet found any gloves that are waterproof and that have grip when wet.

Therefore I would suggest you always have a good selection of gloves so that you always have some dry ones available. You need some that offer padding and more protection for certain jobs in the garden, but some lightweight gloves with grip for most of the light everyday gardening jobs.

Wheelchair gardening tips – cleaning your dirty tyres

06/05/2022wheelchair gardening tipsJackie Elwin

Even with all the new paving slabs in the back garden I still manage to come in with manky tyres. We get an lot of wildlife in the garden and therefore a lot of poo. The crows, magpies and jackdaws all sit on the various surrounding trees dropping the inevitable all in the same space, whereas the wood pigeons and pheasants wander all around dropping as they go. I can’t go around the entire garden hosing it all off every day, and I can’t always dodge in between the poops, so I will end up running through it now and again. Wheelchair tyres pick up all manor of garden debris and you don’t want to be wheeling it through the house. Even when I am in the garage potting up seedlings etc I end up with compost in various nooks and crannies of the wheelchair.

At the top of the ramp to the conservatory I keep a small wooden plant-pot stand with a collection of old, folded up towels ready to wipe down my tyres. I also keep two brushes to remove ‘stuff’ from the tyre treads and from the brakes (wheel-locks). The tough, green floor scrubbing brush gets into the treads and the narrow grouting brush can be used for the brakes and other harder to access areas of the wheelchair.

dirty wheelchair tyre with bird poo in the treads and dirty brakes

Manky wheelchair tyre and brakes (wheel-locks)

Scrubbing brushes

In the past people have suggested to me that coir mats (coconut mats) would help but I actually find them very difficult to push the chair over as they have a deep pile and you cannot drive in a straight line over them. These mats would need to be cleaned quite often too. We have carpets throughout our house which are either multi patterned or brown and these don’t show the dirt as much as other plain colours would.

If you have a small area at your entrance that can get wet then you could try using a Muddaddy. This is a tool that is used to wash down dirty dogs before they get in the car but can be used on your wheelchair and tyres. However you may have a job getting your wheelchair tyres dry enough to enter your home without dripping on your flooring. As I am often in a hurry to answer a call of nature or the door bell, then a quick scrub with the brush, or rub with an old towel is usually all that is required.

Wheelchair gardening tip – cleaning your dirty tyres:

keep old, small towels at the door
use a tough scrubbing brush for getting debris out of the tyre treads
use a grouting brush for reaching harder to access areas like brakes, crossbars, foot-plates etc

Mid April 2022 has been a mixed bag.

22/04/2022flowersJackie Elwin

It has been pretty cold and wet for the first half of April but has now started to dry out and get a little warmer. Some of the plants are earlier, some are later, and some haven’t come back at all!

I planted smallish yellow tulips Budlight a few years ago, and as they are a species tulip I thought that they would come back each year, but there is no sign of them at all this year. There are two larger yellow tulips which were planted as a clump of about 7 years ago (can’t remember what they are called) and only two have come back this year. All very disappointing.

The tulips Mystic Van Eijk are a little early this year but are looking good in the raised bed.

Tulips Mystic Van Eijk

Most of the narcissi have come up, all except the 10 Segovia that I planted a few years ago in the stumpery. Only three came up this year, and two of them have been eaten so that only a few inches of stem are left. Tete-aTete came up earliest, Pontresina are looking good right now, and Pipit are just coming out now. There was a nice display of narcissi Ataea pontifica in the right hand border but now they are getting decimated by snails or slugs. The white spirea Bridal wreath is looking good just now, as is the
foliage of the pieris Japonica Forest flame in the right hand corner of
the garden. The berberis is flowering away merrily. The hellebore
below it however looks rather tatty. Going over now is the pink Corydalis, in the middle bed, which is spreading like mad. I keep taking clumps out and giving them away. The yellow marsh marigolds in the pond really brighten up that area. The purple hellebores are still doing well, whereas the white ones and paler ones have gone over sooner.

Narcissi Actaea Poeticus eaten by snails/slugs

Back right hand corner

Right hand border

Right hand side of garden and pond April 2022

Corydalis solida

Debs brought round lots of yellow erythroniums and planted them in a few areas of the stumpery (which is on the left side of the garden) and they are doing well despite being nibbled.

Erythronium yellow

Stumpery April 2022

The smaller white erythronium Snowflake have gone over now but the marble foliage still looks good. Also in the stumpery is the pasque flower which is very pretty, and I love it’s fluffy foliage. It is very slowly making a couple of clumps. In flower at the back of the stumpery is purple honesty, brunnera and pulmonaria. There are a few catkins on the tortured witchhazel, and some tiny perfumed white flowers on the osmanthus right up in the back corner of the stumpery which you can’t see here. I had planted a winter flowering honeysuckle beside the osmanthus and although it did flower a little, I thought it might have put on a better show.

Pale purple Pasque flower

On the patio there are narcissi Pontressina in flower and in a blue pot there is a lovely pink heather: erica Westwood with a small struggling hellebore in a pot beside it.

Erica Westwood

What I would like to do, within the next week, with the area in front of the patio, is to dig up a clump of the red astilbe and maybe put in the red rose that was actually dug out because it had such large prickles, and also to move the cornus a little to make room for the lovely rose Gertrude Jekyll. We were afraid that our new dog would come a cropper to the huge rose prickles but I am sure we can make sure he doesn’t go near it now that he has been with us for a couple of years and is now used to the garden. The conservatory is still to be fixed so we are still waiting for the builders to come up with a date for that work. Otherwise it is mostly watering any newly planted seedlings, putting in plant supports, dead-heading spent flowers, and disposing of slugs.

March 2022 on a cold but sunny Edinburgh day.

30/03/2022flowers, garden, wildlifeJackie Elwin

We have had some wet, windy, gloriously sunny and warm days in March, but are now back to very chilly weather and it is trying to snow/hail/sleat in between sunny spells. No wonder the frogs left it a little later this year to spawn. In 2019 and 2020 the first spawn in our pond was spotted in February (in 2020 it was as early as the 5th) but this year the first spawn was on the 18th March. We can now count about 7 clumps of spawn which means there are at least 7 female frogs around the pond. We haven’t seen any newt spawn yet.

Frog spawn 18/03/22

Some areas of the garden are looking better than others right now. The stumpery is looking fine as some the spring bulbs are coming through such as the narcissi and chinadoxa, some of the primroses, anemones, pulmonaria, hellebores, vinca and erythroniums are in flower now. Although some of the narcissi have gone over, there are others still to come out. Some of the tulips are just ready to open. A couple of shrubs that have scented flowers: the mahonia out the front, and the lonicera fragrantisima and osmanthus burkwoodii out the back are flowering well. There have been quite a few bees and butterflies out in the warmer days taking advantage of these flowers.

I found this dark edged bee fly ( Bombylius major) sitting on a tulip leaf as it was watching a wasp very closely. I have just read about it, and have found out that the bee fly will follow wasps and single bees to their nest, they will then gather some sandy soil with their feet, and flick this, along with their eggs, near the entrance to the wasp/bee nest. The larva will attach itself to a wasp/bee and it will be taken into the nest where it will then find a wasp/bee larva to feed on. After which it will turn into a pupa, hatch and fly away undetected.

Bombylius major (dark edged bee fly)

I will need to put the pot of Iris Katharine’s gold in a better place for next year. It is one of the earliest flowering plants in the garden and I had the pot under the garden bench just to protect it from some of the heavy rain. By the time I remembered it was there it was almost finished flowering.

Iris Katharine’s gold

There are lots of jobs still to do: over the wall is now rather overgown and needs a good sorting out. The vinca major is now acting like a climber and is growing up the fence and smothering the hydrangea petiolaris. It actually looks ok but it needs cutting back. There are ferns and lots of few-flowered-leek popping up everywhere so they will need to come out. The ivy needs to be kept in check. I am going to be quite ruthless now and any plant not earning it’s keep must go. I have started getting rid of some of the plain brunnera in the stumpery. It does look ok when it is in flower but it is rather plain and I wish I had planted the Jack frost version instead. I had let a few hellebore seedlings grow a few years ago but I don’t actually like the colour of the flower so it has gone now to another home. I don’t bin these but they go to other peoples gardens, or the local park takes any plants that would do well in the park. I also put them in the plant sale at the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club plant sale (which this year will be held on Saturday 30 April 10:30 – 12:00).

CVinca major growing up and over hydrange petiolaris

Overgrown vinca major all over hydrangea petiolaris

Here is the view from the patio. You can just see in the background one of the large ash trees has had a huge bough snap off during the strong winds. The entire tree is pretty dead and I think most of the ash trees in that golf course are going to have to come out. That is good news for us as we may get more sunshine into the garden. What with all the shade from the trees and all the recent rain, the ‘sunny’ border hasn’t been able to dry off very well. I have lost the nepeta again this year which were in the ‘sunny’ border. I will just hae to keep taking cuttings each year.

View from the patio

This is how the stumpery is looking right now. I love the dappled shade in this woodland area, and spring and early summer is the best time of year here before the tree canopy develops allowing less sunshine to get through. The whole garden will soon have plenty of colour.

Stumpery in March 2022

January garden to do list.

19/01/2022wildlifeJackie Elwin

January has been a pretty quiet month in the garden. It has been cold and wet so far with a touch
of frost. There a few things to be
sorted out before spring though, such as, moving the Rodgersia and the Royal
fern, as they are far too close to the walls now. This isn’t good for the walls and it also means
that the plants are forced forward and tend to collapse on the plants in front
of them.

the corner by the ramp with rodgersia and royal fern

Ramp corner Rodgersia and Royal fern

I would really like
the large Polygonatum multiflorum to be completely dug out. It used to be on one side of the chimney by
the ramp, but it has spread to behind and around the other side of the chimney
and is now coming up in front of it too.
Also I have found the very beautiful, but very destructive Liliocerus
lilii (scarlet lily beetle) on it. It
has had it’s leaves stripped by slugs, snails, saw flies and now this so I have
had enough.

Lilioceris lilii (scarlet lily beetle)

The front hedge has been rather poorly cut last year (sorry
Harry) and it is really needing a proper cut.
This will have to be done before the birds start nesting, although if I
was a bird I wouldn’t nest in it looking like that!

Front privet hedge with bad cut.

Behind the garage we used to have 2 apple trees which have
now been re-homed to our good pals shared tenement garden. The apples were tasty but were not keepers
and I am the only one who eats apples here.
Now I can choose what to do with that area. That small border only has a few cyclamen in
it, but it only gets sunshine from the one side. Maybe a clematis or honeysuckle would cope
with that area?

Behind the garage.

There are a few bulbs just popping up here and there, mostly
snowdrops, and some of the hellebores are flowering a bit. There is still plenty of greenery in the
garden due to the many evergreen plants and shrubs so it doesn’t look
completely barren just now. Roll on
spring for a bit more colour.

Cardesque Garden

Gardening from an ageing, paraplegic perspective.