gardenning granny

Lavender hedge!!

Yes, leave well alone.  Once they come into leaf check for any stems totally dead (head to foot) and cut those out.  In the autumn clip all over with shears to leave the lowest shape you can whilst leaving green tips.  Lavender does not make new growth from old wood - it only grows above the existing green/grey leraves.

I take a few cuttings each year ready to replace any plants that have become too leggy.

bindweed, alder, buttercups, ivy

That's good advice Derek.  Took me years to eradicate ground elder by both digging out roots and weedkiller on new gowth.  I'm now struggling with brambles which grow under the wire netting and holly dividing mine and next doors gardens.  Again I've tried the "dipping the growing tips in SBK solution"  and digging or pulling out rooted young plants, but there is always a bit that escapes my beady eye and is not spotted until it emerges from the top of the holly.  My arms bear the scars of tackling long whippy lengths of bramble in amongst the holly.

Is there an alternative?

euphobia

Hello Garry

are you growing the tall varieties or low growing oners?

I think they flower on last years growth.

Once they've flowered you cut out the flowered stems at ground level (wear gloves because the stems have a very sticky residue which ittitates the skin).  The new stems that grow will then produce the next crop of flowers, but not necessarily the first year.

Once they are established you end up with this years growth (non flowering) - last year's growth which shiould flower - and the year befores wjhich needs to be cut out.

Does that make sense?

Climbing Roses

Yes, Zephrine Drouin is a beautiful old and free flowering thornless rose - I have clematis The President growing through it and they look wonderful together.

Climbing Compassion is very vigorous - mine grows over two arches at right angles to each other - one of Harkness' most pop[ular climbers and lightly scented too - I've never needed to spray as it seems disease resistant.

Another very beautiful climber which I have trained along ropes in three tiers is Summer Wine - it has deep golden stamens that positivelt glow in the sunlight and carries on flowering until November here in Bedfordshire.

With clematis I have found it does not pay to buy big expensive plants.  I have bought my named varieties from Wyevale whio each year have some kind of offer, like 3 for £10.  Pklanted deep with lots of humous and bonemeal at the bottom of the planting hole they grow quickly to a a good height in the first year.  With careful choice yiou can have clematis flowering in every season - starting with Francis Rivis which will be in flwer here in about two weeks so yiou get some flower while the roses are still rather bare and hibernating.

Fatsia Japonica

I used to have one - lasted many many years - I only ever cut out leggy stems and new growth seemed to appear from the base.  I pruned in summer to prevent rot getting into the stems, but I think it's one of those plants that has a limited lifespan, allbeit of ten to fifteen years.

I'm sure someone else knows the official answer!

MOB rants

Hello again Grandma - just checked onlline - Lidl's gardening stuff starts next monday.  I'll be in there to get some more shady-lawn seed.....fraction of the cost of the GC, but unfortunately the moss I thought I had erradicated last year seems to have invaded the newly grassed area again......now moss really is something to have a moan about!

and then there are the pigeons....don't get me started.

MOB rants

definitely not Rosa carriola.

No light from me, Grandma - a lot from my nice neighbours. Just really spoiled my lovely open views - think I'll just let the holly hedge let rip - at least that will be popular with the birds.  House building of course not done by a real person - a developer making money - has built a 5 bedroom housse with a tiny walled backyard at the front of the plot and this "bungalow" at the back....always used to think a bungalow was single story! hey ho!

MOB rants

you've got neighbours - well my next-door-but-one neighbour has planted a two storey bungalow (!) at the end of the garden and a double garage with a pitched roof half way down - great excuse to grow something reeeeelly tall to obscure that view!  Come on now - any ideas?

Talkback: Top 10 plants for a dream garden

So we could Gardening Grandma!

Jess - I planted a rose bed many years ago with much advice from Peter Harkness but over the years the roses have grown tired and you can't plant in the same place when they die because of rose sickness.  In the meantime I've planted other things amongst the remaining roses, and now only have shady spots left which new roses don't really like.  I do have a very beautiful "Sweet Juliet" and three other David Austen shrub roses and I'm cosseting them with a little horse manure and ash from my wood burner. Mind you, sweet Juliet is a lttle less sweet when you try to prune as she has vicious thorns.

Talkback: Top 10 plants for a dream garden

I like things with scent, so have several "boring" evergreen bushes with wonderful tiny scented flowers hiding under the leaves - Osmanthus and eleagnus ebbingiei, as well as viburnum bodnantense and mahonia charity, lavender of course, and then old fashioned pinks and evening primrose, which grow to 6 feet high and smell wonderful.  Perhaps my all-time favorites are the iris family, from the tiny ones in flower right now, through the delicate siberian ones to the heavily scented bearded ones - I love them all.   Not everything is scented,  I have many varieties of clematis which also seem to do well in my heavy clay soil and pentstemons....and the cranesbill geraniums which are the mainstay of my garden, from tiny low growing ones to tall elegant ones - no idea of their names as they have been collected from friends over the years.  Sadly roses no longer seem to be at home here so I have more or less given up on them for the moment.

When can I put the geraniums out?