Borrage

I've recently rescued a Borage plant from poorly corner at the local garden centre, there is one quite healthy stem with a good showing of flowers but not many leaves. It's also REALLY leggy, I suspect it's been hiding in a corner or crammed in with a load of other plants. I'm going to let it go to seed this year so hopefully I'll get some brucey bonus plants coming up at some point, but then what? chop it back and hope the slugs snails and Charlie the cunning mouse don't get to it 1st or let it do it's thing?

It's a new garden to us so at the moment we're taking more out than we are putting in, it was PROPER over grown, this was an attempt at a bit of colour to be going on with and to give some plants a chance to establish before we get really stuck in round the edges~!

thanks in advance for any advice (again!)

Hello Moonlit Hare,

borage is a beautiful, but very shortlived plant. So letting it seed around is definitely the best policy. Also, why not collect some seeds to sow in pots? That way you spread the risk of not getting plants next year! Do cut back the flowering stems when you've got all of the seed out of them.

God luck with your overgrown garden, it sounds like a great project!

Emma

gardenersworld.com team

Thanks Emma, I'll give the pots a go, it's prob the safest way until I work out what we have, I came home tonight to find the lovely man next door had made a start on the laylandii we need to take out, he's stripped the branches off up to the top 7ft or so, the rest comes down on the weekend, needless to say we have a much lighter garden.... but some very disgruntaled sparrows!

Moonlit Hare, are you sure that the sparrows aren't still nesting in the hedge? They can have up to four broods a year.

Hi Alina,

I know I must admit a was a little cross with him, he's PROMISED me he checked all the way up the tree as he was going, and thought he might as well do it while he was doing his hawthorn!  

To be fair to him the birds do seen to be on the other side of the garden where we have the laurel and the ivy and I know we've had them rebuilding in the Ivy on the house, I'm guessing it's more sheltered, warmer, better larder......

I've cleared most of the branches away now and so far I've not come across any evidence of even nests let alone eggs or chicks, but we'll see after I've got through the 4th and final mound, but this one is hte big stuff from the bottom so I think we're ok!

Needless to say the much beloved has been quite bemused by me making him promise not to touch ANYTHING else that even remotely looks like they might nest in until Sept / Oct!

Fingers crossed you're in the clear, then

Hey Sue thats good news.... I feel a family plant swap coming on!

And Alina, we are clear and it looks like he wasn't fibbing after all which is a bit of a relief, the birds seem to be settling down a bit now as well

Hopefully they've found somewhere else to settle. Mine love the laurel near the birdfeeders