The garden is escaping us!

Oh dear ,Chris .Just turn a blind eye,for now at least.Enjoy the warmth outside in a shady corner,with a good book,or a Magazine ,and hope the Sahara dust misses your spotless windows,and heads out to sea ! So sorry,but this made me smile,even though it shouldn't ! xx.

definitely snap!

W'rose, if you look at my last 2 blogs. you will see I am in full agreement. The last 2 years' weather has not helped at all. Your garden photos look pretty, though.

I agree with Sandra, Chris! Just get your book and relax!
Life is too short to worry and will sort itself out eventually.
I still think your garden looks good though.
I also have black spot on my roses , but that is my fault as I start the year off with good intentions of monthly spraying and by July I seem to forget, or " oh well, I will do it tomorrow!" But tomorrow never comes! xxx

Think we have all suffered this year, seems the slugs and snails have had a party out there, anything leafy has just been gorged on, hoping that they are all too fat now to escape this hot weather and they all get shrivelled up, but in all honesty with what has been going on this year i think it's just kept tidy, cut back end of the autumn and start again next spring with a little bit more thought. On the plus side i have just had an iris germanica flower for the first time over the last few days with a heavenly scent

Cleaning windows and then to have Saharah dust, that's Sod's law lol

Most of the things you mention are natural things and we can't control nature so I don't worry about those.

However I have started taking control of the way it looks, by having a plan ready to be put into action in the autumn, whereby things will be moved around and arranged in a better way.
And there will be a major change down the bottom - watch this space.

I am determined this plan will work, I will not give in. The garden will do as I tell it and there is no room for negotiation, so there you are.

Meadowland it was sort of comforting to hear you are having a battle or two out there! Your garden looks as if you are definitely winning!!!

Bloomer I knew the Sahara Dust bit would make you laugh!! I think the problems in our garden are caused exactly by what you mentioned - me plus a good book and a sun bed!!!

Sbg I shall turn a blind eye to most of it and think ahead to spring bulbs - that will cheer me up!

Ange I know you have had some tricky moments out there too. I hope that you are happy now with the changes you have made and listen to the wise advice on here - if the going gets tough reach for a good book!!!

Rose your roses always look perfect to me!! Thanks for the soothing, calm advice which I shall remind you of when you are slaving away out there for hours on end determined to finish what you set out to do!!!

Davey it is lovely to read of your success with Iris Germanica. I planted 4 of them this year but no flowers so far but I shall now not give up on them.

Hywel you are my new hero on here - your fighting talk will spur me on to take control and just get on with it!! I am looking forward to seeing what you have got planned for your garden.

Thanks to you all. x

When I'm sitting gazing out, for instance like now, the heatwave we're having at the moment has driven me indoors for a while, then I think that I'll never keep up with it all, I tell myself off for being stupid, the garden has always been my domain, I spent hours out there earlier as I have done every day this week, its what keeps me going W'rose.... My roses have suffered but are now bouncing back again, the hostas have all been eaten even though I have most in pots in the front of our house so was able to treat them with pellets, I've had to give up trying to clear the St Johns Wort out as I cannot even get the fork in the ground , now that is a nightmare, might have to succumb to using the strongest weed/rootrot killer I can find and then cover it over until next year, never know that might work.... I'm not beaten though, just a tad despondent sometimes.....

I may not have a garden like the rest of you but even with a small balcony things can begin to get out of control at the back end of the summer!

Even indoors things can become a little overwhelming! A couple of weeks ago I found some of my Dragon Trees have become infested with mealy bug! The day after I first noticed them I took the pots to the bathroom & made up some spray with some Neem oil, liquid soap & water & then proceeded to give them a good spaying hoping I would be able to kill them. But what happened? A couple of days later, (I had left the 3 pots in the bath as a way of isolating them from the rest of my plants), I found one tree had dropped many of its leaves! The next day there were more & the other one was doing the same! I still have one pot that I'd planted 3 of the smallest cuttings in that seemed relatively unaffected. After a couple of more days with most of the leaves having fallen off I took drastic action & beheaded the 2 plants that had become almost leafless! I then moved them out onto the balcony & put them in the shadiest corner where I hope they will eventually recover. The pot with 3 small trees is still in the bathroom but now in the window. It's almost the only window in the flat that has never had a plant in it! The pot seems to be alright as, other than a just a few leaves falling off at first, no more have fallen off since.

Only I've since found the mealy bugs have also infested the mother plant! 🙁

Lincslass you are absolutely right. Sometimes we get on top of things and the garden looks beautiful and at other times it does not look quite so good! We do what we can and if it less than perfect it really doesn’t matter at all. Our hostas were fine for much of the summer but like yours they have now been savaged by the slugs. I was a little bit sad the other day as I had bought some pretty violas to fill a few gaps and they were immediately eaten by slugs too.

Balcony I am sorry you have had this problem indoors. Your plants always look so healthy on here. Mealy bugs have been such a nuisance and I hope you have got on top of them and that they are on their way out!

"Mealy bugs have been such a nuisance and I hope you have got on top of them and that they are on their way out!"

They are a great nuisance & I lost the greater part of my Amaryllis bulbs to them a couple years ago. I only managed to save a few that were in the bedroom window & had escaped them.

Unfortunately they are not on their way out yet. I still need to treat the mother plant though.

Your garden is looking very pretty, Chris. Your lawn looks immaculate and green too. I have days where my little back garden frustrates me...then other days, I think, it looks good today! My front is pretty self sufficient. We took our front lawn up years ago to widen the drive. We left a large cobbled area with shrubs and hedging. We do an extensive prune once a year, with me doing little prunes a few times.
I've noticed a few things reflowering, which is nice. I'm not a rose expert and I rarely treat or feed them. They are flowering nicely, but, the leaves are never lush. I just look on it as 'rustic' gardening!
OH's 'ashes from our chiminea' has worked to stave off slugs and snails munching on some plants - too late for the hostas though. If the ashes work again next year. I'll leave the hostas in the ground. If not, I'll be removing. An excuse to buy a couple more plants!