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A strange gardening year for me. What about you?

B3B3 Posts: 27,505
edited June 2021 in The potting shed
I wandered up the garden and noted the following things:
Wildflowers like feverfew, nigella, , valerian, iris foetidisima,  purple toadflax, wild fennel,herb Robert etc etc have gone sillydaft.   Half hardy annuals pelargoniums , cosmos etc  are just hanging on waiting for better times that might not come this year . If I depended on planted rather than self seeded, the garden would be pretty dull.
Is it the same in your garden?
In London. Keen but lazy.

Posts

  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    Maybe! The garden is bursting with flowers, but like you say, most of them wild and things like aquilegias. Euphorbias and the thuggy things have been reliable too, a huge swathe of Persicaria, yellow loosestrife ready to try another takeover. Bulbs have been good and the rhodies in the dell are looking beautiful though the very early ones were hit by the frost I think and weren't as good as usual. Ferns and acers enjoyed all the rain in May and I've just about managed to get my dahlias to flowering point though some are much slower than others.
    But the annuals I sowed this year have not delivered so far. I can forgive the sweet peas because the were hard pruned by a sheep soon after planting but are growing well again, though flowers will be delayedl. I have lots of Verbena B and a few rudbeckias and a few zinnias and a big tray of Lobelia that I'm not quite sure what to do with, but other things either didn't germinate or only produced a couple of plants and they and the overwintered things are growing so slowly you don't see any change from one week to the next :(
    As for the veg -don't ask! The only success is a tray of sweetcorn which I've not grown before so don't know if it will work and some squash and pepper plants from seed nicked from the kitchen :)
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Despite the later than usual start, I’ve had a really good year so far for shrubs and perennials. The established roses have been really good so far despite blackspot hitting early, although some new ones are a bit slow. Californian poppies self-seeded like mad. Tithonia and new dahlias (to replace the ones I lost over winter) are small, but look as if they will make it. So not too many complaints on the ornamental front.

    But as for the vegetable garden? Pah! Worst year ever. Couldn’t get peppers and aubergines going, far too cold at the critical time. The peas and beans started well, got some mange tout, but then heat hit and the crop went over rapidamento. Broad beans a disaster. Beetroot tiny and gone woody. Onions look dicey, usually harvested by now. Second sowings of salads and radishes failed. The spinach bolted early. The only real successes have been salad potatoes and the early salad stuff. The tomatoes and sweetcorn are late but doing well so far, so finger’s crossed they may come good.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    No, everything is amazing
     Taken me 7 years to get a wildflower area,I have so many poppies in in it this year
     Been picking sweet peas a week but I did sow the first batch last October,and they have been the best autumn sowing I've ever had. Veg is doing fine, picking peas,broad beans, chard,lettuce,salad leaves. Everything grown from seed germinated,have so many plants both annual and perennials
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    My shrubby salvias are acting very oddly - some stunted and sulking. Tulips were great until frosted. Lots went over with the period of high heat - so lost globe alliums and red roses quickly.

    Other than that, things have been as expected. My garden space by volume is now about half self seeders - valerian offis, borage, ox eyes, marjoram, erigeron. They all seem happy. Poppies seem be going crazy everywhere, which is great.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I got 3 poppies this year!! That's three more than I've ever got before! No flowers yet but buds whoopdeedoo.

    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    The hedgerows have been and are definitely much richer in flowers this year - the wildflowers seem to have thrived. Bulbs have generally been good, including the alliums now and irises. The vincas have gone loopy which has left some other plants a bit swamped. 

    The veg is all at 6s and 7s. All very late
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Some of my sedums, Salvia verticillata, Phlox and Amsonia tabernaemontana seem to have suffered a bit from stunted distorted leaves. The Amsonia has produced rather weak slow growth and I finally hoiked it out as it's not really performing as it should. Everything else it's romping away now after a slow start. I was worried my Eupatorium "Baby Joe" plants had died but they're now putting up loads of sturdy new stems. 
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • robairdmacraignilrobairdmacraignil Posts: 782
    Bit of a mixed year here as well. Wildflowers are doing great but this years vegetable seed has all been slow to get going. Only getting pea flowers starting today and some other vegetable seedlings are barely growing and still not sure if some of the seeds planted will sprout at all. Garlic bulbs are mostly looking very good. Had Jacob's ladder put on a nice show of flowers last year but no sign of it this year. On the bright side the spot it was growing is now covered in some nice red clover.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/sustainableveg/videos
  • didywdidyw Posts: 3,573
    My tulips were spectacular and lasted for ages.  But the annuals I sowed and nurtured so carefully are putting on hardly any growth.  The geums are doing well and the heucheras are all flowering away and attracting the bees.  The verbascum are flowering but not very big.  But the poppies in the hedgerows all around are just gorgeous - more of them and redder than ever.  The winter greens (kale and cabbage are still going strong and the sprouting broccoli is very lush.  Hardly any sprouts but we eat the leaves. In fact I want them gone as I have squashes to plant in the space.  I've had to order more young chard plants as most of them have been eaten by snails and the sparrows have discovered they like eating them too.  Climbing French beans putting on good growth and am about to start picking the sweet peas.
    Gardening in East Suffolk on dry sandy soil.
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