Gran/Grandads Gardening Corner

I have a rambler and clematis climbing my dead tree.

Paul's Himalayan Musk which is huge and now that the tree is breaking with age needs constant pruning and this year I planted Niobe so that hasn't taken off yet.

I think that the best clematis are the later flowers. I know that they aren't those huge dinner plate size blooms but you get an enormous amount of bang for your buck. They get cut to the ground well a foot in February so no problem with fiddling with pruning.

My roses have suffered a bit this year. I shall plant geraniums around them next year. Thanks Lucky.

Don't be tempted to get a too rampant clematis Luckygirl, it may be difficult to trim if it runs out of tree to climb!

I wish the tree in our front garden would die! It's a very large lopsided Scots pine, which sounds wonderful but it's in a very small garden and partially overhangs where we have to park the car with inevitable results from the pigeons above. There's a preservation order on it and we've been refused permission to remove 6foot off the offending branch. We've appealed. DH manages to keep the pigeons at bay much of the time spraying water up their bottoms, but we still had a broken pigeon's egg welded to the rear windscreen wiper last week. Silly birds!

The trunk of this tree is shorter than I am so not very big and not in danger of causing destruction if it does come down. I just think it would be nice to make it look more attractive. I think we could just tie a clematis to the trunk and then let it ramble over the branches when it gets a bit higher. No sign of fungus, but lots of mistletoe, so that might have sapped its strength. I have no idea what sort of tree it is as we inherited this dead item when we moved here and have never seen a leaf! I think it might be a flowering cherry or something along those lines.

I have planted geraniums and creeping phlox in my rose garden and it looks very nice - google told me that the geranium was a good thing for rose beds as it puts off various bugs. I have had black spot, but only a handful of greenfly which I just picked off. I am thrilled with my new scented garden!

luckygirl Do you know why the tree is dead? I was thinking of nasty things like honey fungus. I would want to now how big the dead tree is and is it still safe.

If it is a branchy tree the clematis could climb by twining up the remaing branches or would you need to train it up on wires or such by climbing on ladders etc.

I still can't stop buying plants though. I went to Asda's cash machine to get money to pay the hairdresser and ASDA had two really nice lillies reduced to £2 each.
I have just pulled up a lot of geraniums from under my front window which is really dry and shady. This is a Geranuim I bought specially as it would grown in very shady places. I am going to try planting these off sets along the bottom fence to see if they would grow and act as good ground cover weed suppressant right down by the fence at the bottom of the garden.
The original plants have spread very well. I go over with the hedge trimmer every autumn and it keeps them very neat and tidy. A lot of my gardening now is trying to make as manageable as possible.

I have a dead tree in a bed at the front of the house. We have decided to leave it there because, although it is dead, it does provide some privacy. Do you think I could grow a clematis up it?

Thanks for the link Shysal. I saw one of those hoes being used in a NT garden and have wanted one ever since. Now I know what they're called. They look excellent for annoying the soil.

loopyloo it is said that you can't plant another rose in the same place as the soil gets rose sick.

But if you could plant a rose near but not in do look at the David Austin site ooooh!!! I could buy them all.

You can order now I think and they turn up in the late autumn for planting

I put Lamiun under roses and it spreads beautifully. I've planted it where I removed ground elder. Although I know I'll be forever removing bits of the ground elder.
There are loads of variety of Lamium, yellow, whit and pinks, they also can have variegated leaves.

Roses are red. What do you plant? And what can you recommend as ground cover? I planted some creeping jenny as ground cover and it has gone berserk. Do have alchemilla mollis and am planting bits of that around. What do you like to grow?

Devon girl, do you have a strimmer or could someone strim it for you? then mow it . Then throw down some grass seed and rake it in. Or you could go for plastic grass.........

White wave, order GJ , of course you must .I have a rubbish rambling rose from a cutting that is going everywhere. Only flowers once not spectacularly so it needs to go. What shall I replace it with?
It's against the fence.

Thanks, J52. It's only a very small area (maybe 12ft square?)

Replacing an established lawn is quite a big job and new turf/ seed needs a lot of attention. I don't know how large your lawn is and what final quality you want, but I'd be tempted to go down the remedial route.
Get the grass/ weeds cut before the weeds set seed, then if there are large weeds, hand remove. Autumn feed and mow til the frost.
Mowing reduces weeds. In the spring more weed and feed, keep mowing and re seed any bare patches.
You should see an improvement.

I need advise re. my lawn! Following an accident I was unable for a long time to do anything in my garden and now the 'lawn' is completely out of control, very high with weeds but hardly any grass!

Would removing the top layer, putting down topsoil and turf be sensible? Any advice much appreciated

Can I possibly find room for Gertrude Jekyll that is the question.

I have just had an email from Austin roses naming the most fragrant.

Oh! I so want GJ!!! If I do shecwill have to go in a shadyish spot.

Anyone growing theirs in a similar position?

I agree about ground cover and filling the gaps. I hardly have a square inch of soil showing so rarely see a weed. The veg plot is a different matter, but I remove weed seedlings regularly with my stirrup hoe, which I love.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kent-Stowe-Stainless-Steel-Long-Handle-Oscillating-Hoe-Garden-Tool-Stirrup-/222598823186?hash=item33d3ec7d12:g:NWgAAOSwHHFY~zqI

Do what we do ( to avoid weeding) plant everything close together, it gives a nice cottage garden effect and keeps out the weeds ( still get one or two but not many.) Also, where that just isn't possible or wanted, plant ground cover.

Do it when I can't stand it anymore!

I don't know how you control the weeds but:

Do the weeding after it has rained (obvious of course - you knew that anyway ) because they come out more easily.
Do the weeding when you're in the mood (after rain) - sometimes it is very satisfying (usually not)
You know you'll feel better when it's done even if you don't enjoy it at the time
Get rid of them before they flower and spread seeds everywhere

Our weeds even grow up through the sides of the steps etc - and some of them are trees!

Alternatively leave them and develop a wild garden

White wave, I am with you. Been in the garden, why does everything grow so much so quickly? Where do you start?
Today I thought 1, Bury dead slugs and snails. 2 tidy the garden up ie put bins away cut off dead heads etc. 3 Start weeding somewhere.
People out there ....how do you control the weeds?
I have bought some bark to put down and a weed wand.
Thing is without the weeds I realise I don't have many plants !!!. We have quite a few trees, a magnolia and a Bramley apple and others so I need things that tolerate shade.
Any advice anyone?

Nana climbing roses often have red new growth, particularly if they are pink or red. Suckers are found at the base of the Rose and come from the stem beneath the point where it was grafted onto the growing stock.

I have sat today on GN and reading and pottering and it is stil the summer. I really must get myself more organised and give myself a kick up the proverbial.

It's just awful here today, wind and rain. I did manage to nip into town for an hour earlier when it stopped raining.
DH said 'at least your sunflowers haven't blown over this time!'

Yet.

Cheesed off with the wind. I hate the wind!!!