After the sun...the rain

Do you have any problems growing Lupins, Csarina? Our Older Son says he loses his every year and I know what he means. We bought a pot of Lupins a beautiful light cinnamon colour and they lasted the Summer but then gave up the ghost. Is there a "trick" to keeping them? I do love the peppery fragrance.

Up until this year I have had a problem, I find that if its a wet spring the slugs and snails get to the young growth. This year it was very dry so no slugs around. I have put 4 new ones in, surrounded them with slug pellets, hope they will survive. I suppose you could do the same as I do with the delphiniums and dig them up and pot them up, overwinter them in the greenhouse and then put them out in the garden when they are big enough to withstand the onslaught from the slugs etc.

Your garden is really paying off for all your hard work Scarina, and its s neat and tidy too. You should have a great strawberry crop.

I lost two baby lupins to slugs while they were still in the wallhouse and only had four true leaves each..grrrr!

Oh dear, sorry about the unfortunate spelling mistake - I keep typing letters in the wrong order these days. Comes of being in too much of a hurry I guess.

Know what you mean about the spelling Stera, brain working too quickly for the fingers! Same with stuttering I believe, not the fingers of course.
Csarina, the garden looks wonderful and veg beds immaculate. Your Hostas don't look as if the slugs have braved the dry weather to get to them. We have some Thrushes about which as obviously doing their things as when weeding I keep finding empty shells - I hope they keep up the good work.
As for the extra wood needed, perhaps you can do some skip inspections, there is so much out there that needs a new home - lots of decking being removed again now. Have a look on a Freecycle site, Gumtree or something similar. Hillsidegirl will probably point you in the direction of freebies.

Oh no, I'm trying lupins for the 1st time this year, have put lots a pellets down, I just have to cross my fingers. Garden looks good and love the strawberry bed.

Your garden is looking really nice hope your Lupins do well I watched a garden program where he put sand on top of his Delphiniums afer flowering in order the slugs did nt get to them in a high pile ready for next year so perhaps you could do this with Lupins, slugs don't like gravel either Vaseline works too put on thickly.