Jess is in the Garden

best kind of bird feeder?

So far I've only really scattered a few peanuts around, but mainly squirrels get those...and whenever I tried a sunflower shaped wire bird feeder (hanging type) all the nuts kept getting soaked and spoiled.

What's the best type to use which also protects the food from wet?

I have loads of blue tits, blackbirds, robins and some wrens.

Thanks.

Nesting Doves

very ingenious! 

bird box

murce!

Thanks for all the advice - had no idea about peanuts so will stop using them for a bit.

Time to buy sunflower seeds!

Funny you mention the suet balls - I have had several out on the washing line, all rich in seeds, brand new, and the tits won't touch them! Sob.

However, I did see a tiny wren hopping around on my sedum roof the other week, picking out insects and worms, so I'm quite happy now

PS: what's the best contracption to put seeds into? I had a sunflower-shaped one but everything kept getting soaked and mouldy, so I gave up on it...

Gardeners World

GG!

Yes LG - most of us know why it happens and no, it's no great surprise at all - but that doesn't mean we can't all be really p*ssed off about it and say so!!!

Sod the snooker, I say.

Very well put Tootsie - but can these same experts really manage a green rectangle as large as a tennis court, you think?

Poorly Grass?

thought so

saw a phormium chocomint the other day and it was gorgeous - chocolate leaves with a mint green stripe...too big fir me sadly or would have been bought asap!

Golden courgette

oooh thanks for all the tips!

shade loving plants and grasses

Oooh yes Verdun - had forgotten skimmia! I have 2 in my shady bed and they flourish.

Thanks for the busy lizzie tip too - may try tht this year

shade loving plants and grasses

PS: also worth digging over your clay soil, removing any debris, stones etc, maybe even a few centimetres off the top, then breaking up the clods and back filling with Levingtons organic farmyard manure/compost mix - I did this to all my heavy clay beds and theresults were very good.

Another great north loving plant which I forgot earlier is clematis nelly moser...

shade loving plants and grasses

Hi Jason,

As Lindsay says, Mme Alfred is a great and vigorous climbing rose (mine's trained on a north fence and in heavy but free-draining soil and diesvery well).

I also have 2 raised flower beds along the same north fence and have snail-resilient hostas (sum and substance), ferns, hellebores, vincas, pulmonaria, heucheras in one (lime greens/purples/whites) and have made the other bed ericaceous, with an acer palmatum, camellia and more hostas and ferns in it.

Separately I have a north bed with loads of bulbs (cyclamen coums for spring, cyclamen hederifolium for autumn, snowdrops, lily of the valley, the odd bluebell) as well as some ground cover lamiums, and geranium phaeums plus other shade loving perennial geraniums.

Also have some lovely golden Hakonechloa, a Japanese grass which tumbles and is very tough.

I had never bought stuff for partial or full shade before I had this garden, but found it really easy once I'd found this amazing mail order site called: www.plantsforshade.co.uk - it's really well designed with easy to browse alphabetical categories, good info and photos. Worth spending some time reading and seeing what you like best. 

Their delivery was excellent and all the plants I ordered were in great condition too.

Enjoy your shady patch!

nesting blackbird

aaaaw! any new pics?

Hakonechloa All Gold

best kind of bird feeder?

Golden courgette

bird box

bulbs throughout the seasons

RHS Online Plant Shop

Best dwarf pear or apple?

Newly laid sedum roof

having a moan about...

raised flower bed plants - ideas please!

planting a raised flower bed

Rose Mme Alfred Carriere or Alberc Barbier?

Potentilla Fruticosa

HONEYSUCKLE won't flower :-(

VINE WEEVIL NEMATODES