oops, what happened there? I've given up on heucheras due to vine weevil. I can't get delphiniums growing either. How can anyone give up on Hostas? I have about 1,500 of them and no problem with slugs and snails. I do have hedgehogs, thrushes and other lovely things to feast on the slimey ones.
Festucas. They grow but don't grow well, so I keep looking at them thinking they are just ordinary grass that I missed when I was weeding.
We're vole infested here too - I start all peas and beans in root trainers and plant them deep. Some years the wretched things eat every plant off at the bottom of the stalk, but most years they eat tastier things instead. Keeping the paths round the beds clear and all grass very short has helped a bit. It is a lottery though - very disheartening when they just kill every bean plant
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Dahlias. We inherited a bed of pink dahlias. I tried lifting and storing some, leaving some in the ground ... within a few years they all died. I have also given up on brassicas (too many pests, and they don't like the loose soil in raised beds). And I grow very few annual flowers from seed, I'm rubbish at annuals.
Last year was my first full season in the garden and I went a bit good life, and in particular grew lots of herbs that I didn't know what to with, so this year the only ones I am growing are chamomile which is pretty as well as useful for tea, chives (cheer up a boring cheese sandwich) which my old neighbour gave me and mint (again a nice tea and allegedly keeps mice and wasps away, I did get a wasps nest last year but thankfully no rodents) I have given up on Basil the seeds I bought last year were puny specimens compared to the shop bought variety and if you pick up one in the shop and leave it a month you can put it in pasta dishes to your hearts content. I came back from holiday to a gigantic cabbage that promptly flowered so gave up on that, although now thinking about it you could eat the leaves before the proper cabbage came and they were tasty so might rethink that, tho of course it's the heat that makes them flower so probably a bit late to remember that now. Strawberries and carrots from seed tried several times for both and got nothing , the established strawbs I got from Dobbies did well and even managed to propagate some runners so hopefully will see the fruit of my labour (pun intended) in several weeks. I did get some plugs for carrots late in the season, and they were lush but unless I see some soon will probably leave it. Oh and my cauliflower and Brussels that I planted last March are still growing away quite happily with no sign of ever giving me any bloody food!
This year I focusing more on flowers but don't think I will be buying lobeilia seed again as I have had most success with ones I stole out my hanging baskets in January and even have some allysumm which self seeded and seems to be growing quite happily I mean seriously why crowd precious window space with seed trays if they are just going to do it themselves anyway?
Golden hop, Humulus lupulus 'Aureus'. I love it... but had to use glyphosate on it when it threatened universal domination, popping up through all my shrubs as if it was bindweed. Oh, and anything loved by slugs.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
My most recent is snowdrops, I just cannot get them to grow in this garden. I have had them given to me by various friends with more than they want and I have bought them, always in the green but after a year of leaf only they disappear. No idea if mice eat them or if my poor soil is the reason. I have tried them in different locations but no success. There are great big clumps of them growing in the hedgerow at the top of our lane as well as along the lane, another reason may be that my garden is too dry. And yet wild primroses flourish and self sow everywhere, so I just enjoy them instead.
Aubrieta and Dianthus as they don't like my acid soil. I can grow the deltoides Dianthus like Flashing Light though, as they self seed prolifically, so it doesn't matter if the parent dies after one year
Posts
I've given up on heucheras due to vine weevil.
I can't get delphiniums growing either.
How can anyone give up on Hostas? I have about 1,500 of them and no problem with slugs and snails. I do have hedgehogs, thrushes and other lovely things to feast on the slimey ones.
We're vole infested here too - I start all peas and beans in root trainers and plant them deep. Some years the wretched things eat every plant off at the bottom of the stalk, but most years they eat tastier things instead. Keeping the paths round the beds clear and all grass very short has helped a bit. It is a lottery though - very disheartening when they just kill every bean plant
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
This year I focusing more on flowers but don't think I will be buying lobeilia seed again as I have had most success with ones I stole out my hanging baskets in January and even have some allysumm which self seeded and seems to be growing quite happily I mean seriously why crowd precious window space with seed trays if they are just going to do it themselves anyway?
Oh, and anything loved by slugs.
Too many to list.
My most recent is snowdrops, I just cannot get them to grow in this garden. I have had them given to me by various friends with more than they want and I have bought them, always in the green but after a year of leaf only they disappear. No idea if mice eat them or if my poor soil is the reason. I have tried them in different locations but no success. There are great big clumps of them growing in the hedgerow at the top of our lane as well as along the lane, another reason may be that my garden is too dry. And yet wild primroses flourish and self sow everywhere, so I just enjoy them instead.