ChapelGirl2

Something is eating my lavender

Well, figrat, I admit I have only caught a quick glimpse of the hamster-like creature but I didn't notice any white markings on it and its fur was more mole-grey than reddish-brown like the European hamster. Also the range map on Wikipedia doesn't show any in our part of Europe.  It could just be a brown rat which has lost part of its tail, of course...

Something is eating my lavender

I think I may have found my lavender eater.  There was a tiny bright green caterpillar (about 1cm long) in one of the pots this morning. It's not there any more!  I didn't think lavender had many pests, but you live and learn. I'll keep an eye out for any more.

Something is eating my lavender

We've been in France permanently for about 3 years but we only bought our house here just over a year ago.  Still lots and lots to do, and it's only a tiny and very plain house compared to many, but we love it here.  Is your parents' rodent a coypu or ragondin?  We don't have them here, I don't think, but they are an escapee from fur farms in certain parts of France.

Creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum)

Fair do's.  They're nice people, so they might be able to suggest someone closer to home you could buy from, if you give them a ring.

ID Request

It could be a solanum of some kind, though the leaves suggest a heliotrope.  BUT the flowers (although blue) are not at all heliotrope-like. The flower shape definitely looks more salvia-like, so my money would be with Leggi.

Mysterious plant

I sowed borage in my garden in Essex once.  I also fell for the 'good with Pimms' story.  Well it probably is, but how many times a year do you drink Pimms? Be honest, now?  I found it to be what gardeners call "an invasive plant", as in, it keeps growing even when you don't want it to.  It does have quite pretty blue flowers, but the 'cucumber-flavoured' leaves are only edible if you boil them so they don't cut your tongue with the nettle-like spikes.  I'd rather buy a cucumber.  I agree that the bees like it, but if you're short on garden space I'd look for a plant which YOU like as well as the bees.

HELP

I agree with Dovefromabove.  It sounds like you have fed and watered too much and they have caught a fungal disease.  It's now a week since your last post.  Did you stop watering?  Give it a week or two more and let us know how things are progressing.  Good luck!

tea bags

I mostly use loose tea in tea-balls, which works out much much cheaper than tea bags and the tea leaves go straight in the compost bin.  We also grind our own coffee beans for the Bodum coffeee jug, which is much more economical than any of those dosette thingys, tastes batter, and gives is grains we can put on the garden to deter slugs (not that we have found that 100% effective, I have to say!).

I'm not that bothered about the odd teabag ending up as "little papery skeletons".  I recycle ALL my brown cardboard boxes as garden mulch (dig out weeds, apply 2 or 3 x layer of cardboard boxes, then apply 10cm minimum layer of stuff from garden shredder) and when I have to weed that section again there is frankly not a lot left of the cardboard, so a few teabags isn't likely to worry me much.

pruning holly

How tall is to start with?

I have a garden I have recently bought which has 3 hollies on the boundary, all in the shade of a mature tree, and all looking pretty sickly.  It's a bit like the "daddy bear, mummy bear, baby bear" scenario, with all in various poor states of growth and health.

I'm guessing your holly is on a boundary, which is why you want to shorten it.  My personal vote is 'go for it'.  If it sickens or dies you can always replace it with something else.  If it doesn't, then 'job done'.  If you leave it, it will become an irritaton to you, and possibly also to your neighbour.  There is much truth in the old saying "good fences make good neighbours".

ribes

We recently bought a house with a garden which had a couple of true blackcurrant bushes and an ornamental ribes.  i severely pruned the fruiting blackcurrants and this year I got enough fruit to make a respectable pie, but I had to abandon picking at one point as the plant was covered in angry black ants.  Today I took the loppers to the ornamental currant bush and decided it is coming out.  It is in the wrong place and has been allowed to get too leggy anyway, so unfortunately it is not pulling its weight and has to go.  We had ornamental ribes mixed in with the privet hedge when I was a kid, and although they have quite nice pink flowers the main impression was the awful smell of cats' pee.

drunken Blue Atlas Cedar

I-Spy Carol Klein

Roses on my driveway

Something is eating my lavender