Daydream fund challenge part 4

Davesnave

choille wrote: »

Anyone recommend any nice ground covering plants?

Depends. To me, a 'nice' groundcover is something that'll grow anywhere and won't let much grow along with it, not even grasses.

What fits the bill for me is Symphytum ibericum or Iberian Comfrey, It comes in several varieties, and I have them all, but it tends only to flower once a year, around now.

It's possible, just about, to grow Geranium phaeum among the comfrey. It will ground cover too, but in my garden it lets grass grow with it. However, if one takes a brushcutter to established G phaeum+ grass and knocks it down flat in early summer, the whole lot comes back, reasonably tidy, and flowers again.

Other good groundcover: Geranium cantabrigiense, various persicaria, like 'Darjeeling Red,' Ajuga 'Caitlin's giant', Stachys 'Silver Carpet and Woodruff, Galium odoratum.

alfie_1

well we still have thunder and lightening ! two and a half hours !!


its amazing but bl**dy scary too..
crackles that seem to go on and on !
flashes over the river and IOW direction ...
bl**dy hell an enormous strike just shot down [as I write!] and had about 5 forks to it.. I was told lightening goes UP but this is def coming down !!
hope its not causing damage ...
tilly and her foal are out in the field and im a bit worried incase she gets scared and bolts into a fence ... cant do anything now so will check at first light. all the others in the bottom field should be ok as its a much bigger field and they have seen it before.
im not going to sleep now !!!

choille

Davesnave wrote: »

Depends. To me, a 'nice' groundcover is something that'll grow anywhere and won't let much grow along with it, not even grasses.

What fits the bill for me is Symphytum ibericum or Iberian Comfrey, It comes in several varieties, and I have them all, but it tends only to flower once a year, around now.

It's possible, just about, to grow Geranium phaeum among the comfrey. It will ground cover too, but in my garden it lets grass grow with it. However, if one takes a brushcutter to established G phaeum+ grass and knocks it down flat in early summer, the whole lot comes back, reasonably tidy, and flowers again.

Other good groundcover: Geranium cantabrigiense, various persicaria, like 'Darjeeling Red,' Ajuga 'Caitlin's giant', Stachys 'Silver Carpet and Woodruff, Galium odoratum.

Thanks Dave. It's for smallish areas that I want to not have to weed too often. I'll need to google the names. I have geraniums a couple of different ones. Cranes Bill? and another quite common pinkish one. I may have a dark purple if it's still alive. They are good for covering. I just don't want to spend my time failing to tackle weeds. I've trouble keeping on top of them - well I don't keep on top of them. The place is a tinker's den really - but it's good for the wildlife.

The track is looking good since it's been redone and much less liable to rip the chassis off the car! It's sort of spurred me on - what with that and the fact we'd have two days that were nice. I wish my back was better I'd be out there now in the pitch black with a head torch on - well possibly not.

choille

Have googled and those all seem rather good indeed.

I must go down to a little, lovely nursery near Poolewe that has a stunning plant collection of hardy things. I hear they have to vacate which is really sad just when they'be really done so much work on the place outdoors. They rented it and it's new Estate owners who want they out. It's very sad.

Yes, thank you Dave I think I may get some of those suggestions ordered up.

alfie_1

morning peeps...


what is going on with this weather !!
yesterday overcast, mizzley rain ...
today bright sunshine ?.... long may it reign !


must admit that mizzle did the plants in my pots good.
I got my car back yesterday . new front light, I think a new bumper [or they have cleaned/buffed it] new front sign thingy, and cleaned !
have to take the van back this morning minus the few dog hairs !


went to sell at the boot sale last sunday which was on even after all the rain we had the night before . lots and lots of sellers, lots and lots of people but not many buying ? I think people were not expecting so many sellers and left their bank roll at home .....


right, off to work I go ! im hoping the sun stays

Davesnave

Rather quiet! I'm dodging the showers in an attempt to get the grass under control here and trying not to notice all the thistles & docks I'll soon need to tackle in the fields.:undecided

Had a couple of hug burn-ups at the end of last week, so all the spring clearings, many dumpy bags of a friend's leylandii and the unusable parts of the large eucalyptus are all gone. :j

We've started selling plants again....£20 worth bought on Day 1.:D

Good to hear Ferretkeeper is OK. Wonder how Fay is getting on and if she's moved yet?

On the subject of moving, when we were first looking for a place, a fantastic walled garden of 1.1 acres in South Devon came onto the market. We took a look, but it was obvious it wasn't for us. Firstly, it cost almost as much as this place did, but there was no house, and no likelihood of anything permanent. Secondly, although it was a dream as a garden, there was no full view out, so it made us feel somewhat claustrophobic.

Well, someone bought it, and it's now joined the NGS scheme as a new garden. We'll look at it one day, but not yet as it's still too young. Would love to see what they built as a house....it's biggish, but low.

See what you think. 3 pictures here:

https://www.ngs.org.uk/find-a-garden/garden/35203/

choille

We are back to rain and cooler weather also. Quite heavy showers at times, fabulous rainbows followed by sunny & then the sky turns navy blue - rinse and repeat.

I am itching to get stuff doe outdoors but the weather is just too much at the mo. Good to see the cherry blossom bursting forth with its froth. The daffodils seem electric bright this year. I brought some jonquils into the kitchen that had broken - probably the hens scratching about and they've filled the place with their perfume.

lucielle

Finished lambing, not as rusty as I thought. Off to London tomorrow


L

choille

Have a lovely time in London Lucielle - Good that the lambing is finished. It's been a tough lambing up here with the way the weather was. I know that many are facing/faced huge loses.

The weather today is lovely - but it's so up and down you don't know where the season is really.

First swallow a couple of days ago - early for us, but similar to last year with that.

Puppy up all night being not well and barking. He had his annual booster yesterday and I don't know if it is that or not - dragging myself about feeling ruff ruff.

Trying to work on the new poly house - we've just manged to get it up and looking to secure it and make a raised bed at one end later on. It's like an oven in there - Phew - never happy eh?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Too hot and too cold and too wet here. The seedlings are going crazy, but I can't risk them outside yet.

I seem to have acquired vast clumps of another type of Wild Geranium, going by the leaves appearing everywhere. The entire place is smothered in Herb Robert usually - that's appearing as normal (I'm not bothered, the bees love it and it can be yanked out easily enough - and it's entertaining to see the OH come in from snoring out there in the summer, complaining of being hit by something - thousands of seeds ), but this one is different. I hope it's white or deep blue.

Quite pleased to see a small self seeded Forget-me-not appear in the path out the front, though.



I must tosh around some Oxeye Daisy seeds. I can't think of anything out the front that is white - I've got blue, purple, pink and yellow in the honeysuckle, but no white and I think it needs it to look like it's sort of planned rather than a mismash of stuff. (I know that's for next year, so will still have to find something for this year).

The nearest thing to white will be the Ivy flowering in another few years, presumably - it's growing mostly in pure sand, so is very slow and is showing no signs of maturing, despite being completely left alone to work its way over the house.


Anyhow, no sign of moving this year - Himself has got some temporary work next month, but more importantly, he's actually getting to see his son once a week for a couple of hours, so reminding him we're supposed to be moving isn't going to go down well right now. An up to date reference will probably be handy, as well as actually working a bit might get his head straight as per the normality of working for a living, rather than leaving it to me.


The houses are going up next door but one. And the morons are coming out to play - somebody on their site broke one of my windows with a catapult a couple of days ago - it's the only place that gives a high enough elevation and clear line of sight to the window and the offending lumps of hardcore were sitting on the patio when I went out there. If it were at silly o'clock, I'd almost understand it to be a stupid kid trespassing - but it was between 9 and 11am when the site was full of people putting the room beams up (when not just sitting and chatting on what will be the bedroom floor level).

I'm not going to go and talk to the Site Manager this time (I don't have video evidence, after all) - but if it happens again, I will be having a polite word. Immediately before sending the company an invoice for replacement and inconvenience.