Frothy Pink and Invasions

Okay so it's two weeks since my last blog (I feel like I'm in the confessional), but I've been doing so much I just don't know where to start. 

I planned a day out at RHS Wisely for some spring inspiration but it turned into a wash out.  It was pouring with rain but my friend Pernille braved the weather, which pleased Holly as she got to see her friend Francesca.  The pair didn't seem to mind the rain and still managed to roll around on the grass. 

sharing, caring friends

this is as pink as nature gets!

Wisely is a beautiful garden all year round and a firm favourite with young kids with the adventure playground and hot house root cave. 

Purple Toothwort; strange fruit indeed

The rhododendrons and azaleas were on top form with their loud blousey colours.   I also discovered (well not me personally, that would probably be a Victorian plant hunter) a rather curious looking plant at the foot of a large rhododendron, the purple tooth wort, Lathraea clandestina.  It was quite prehistoric looking in a dangerous triffid type way. A parasitic plant that lives off the roots of, mainly alders and salix but also other trees.   I do love it when I find things I've never seen before, quite by accident. 

Back home with a desire to get the garden looking more like a garden than a wildlife reserve, I mowed and edges the lawn. There's something wonderfully about the smell of freshly mown grass. While edging the lawn next to one of the borders I found a plant which made me stop in my tracks and change tack. 

Mint.

Now mint is an essential plant for summer.  In one word, Pimms. 

However, never, never, never plant it in a border. 

Always, always, always plant it in a pretty (and big) pot. 

It's a survivor i.e. a thug of a plant which will take over your whole garden and your neighbours gardens and completely put you off Pimms which is never a good thing. 

the border mid mint extraction

So as I said I changed tack and stripped out the border, apart from the lavender bush. This was in fact a good move as the congested irises needed  splitting. (I know it's the wrong time of year to split Rhizomatous Iris, July to September being the best time).  So the result is a bed clear of mint and irises that are a lot happier. 

Oh, a quick foot note on a previous blog, I checked the mouse nest and there was not a trace of mouse.  Now I'm counting that as a good thing, (no bones) so I think the parents went back to the babies and they are now jumping around my garden waiting for the strawberries to ripen.

the lights are on but no-one's home

Poking around in the back with the fruit bushes I discovered a bit of a disaster if you like gooseberries, which I don't.  American gooseberry mildew. Not sure why it's American? But it's mildew and that's bad. There's the non organic treatment, spray it with chemicals, or the organic treatment, cut out the affected parts, and in the future prime the plant to an open habit to let air circulate.  I don't like spraying fruit bushes as Holly tends to eat while she picks so the only option to me was to cut out the bad bits. Unfortunately this meant most of the three bushes disappeared. But my worry was that it might spread to the currant bushes, so I'd rather lose all the gooseberries than some of the currants. 

I don't like gooseberries even if they look sugar coated

I'd only kept them as my sister likes them, but as I'm the one who has to picking them and always end up filling the swear box when I do, I think they are going to end up on the bonfire.  Sorry Boo. X