This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Why did I buy all these plants
I'm not listening to you lot again with your, "The only way to resist temptation is to give in to it"!
I went to Paradise Park in Newhaven on the way home from work as it was raining and miserable and I needed a plant fix.
I went a bit mad on their 6 perennials for £10 offers, got home and saw that actually the flowerbeds are all completely full. Everything started coming up in the rain from last year.
Now I have 20 perennials and no room so I'm going to have to spend the weekend (again) making the existing beds bigger.
I got some self heal (prunella vulgaris) as I like to make medicines from home but then read it's mint family and I'm worried it's going to run amok in the borders!
0
Posts
Mine is in a nice liittle clump Lou - has spread about 6ins in 2 years
Nothing better than a good plant fix ....... and a decent cup of coffee
A couple of years ago I did exactly the same as you, Lou. Even bought them from Paradise Park too! We were staying in Eastbourne visiting family. The car boot was full on the way home to France and I was scared customs would confiscate them, but they didn't. I managed to squeeze them all in though, but I did widen a bed.
You can always find room for more plants, even if it means removing more lawn!
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Self heal grows in my lawn....just appears and forms small clumps which flower and seems to like my Wealden clay. The pollinating insects like it too. Lawn purists would hate it but it adds to the lawn biodiversity. You could just plant it in your lawn; then you won't have to find space for it Lou.
It does not need containerising aym ....... grows quite happily and conservatively amongst other borderers ...... geums, stachys, lavendar, aquilegia, poppies. It's only low growing and it provides interest between the perennials. I've split groups throughout the border - the bees absolutely love it. Very nice little plant.
Self heal is quite happy in wet soil - it self seeds itself in the graveled area by a natural spring in my garden - so you could plant it near your wildlife pond if you have one and yes, bees love it
. It also makes a pretty border edging and then you can keep it within a defined area.
So that's what it's called! It's popping up all over the place. I'm weeding to reduce it but not eradicate it as it looks quite good in the right place. The mower deals with it in the ' lawn'.
I've put some between paving aym ....... looks lovely - doesn't seem to mind the postman walking on it every morning
That's mint for you aym
This particular spring doesn't run so much as seep. Years ago there used to be a well there for the use of the household. The gravel is just to make the area walk-on-able. Our own water comes from another spring a little higher up the hill and others run through the sheep grazing and down through boggy cloughs full of rushes where it is often impossible to walk at all. We once found a lost ram completely submerged, only the top of his head and horns showing.
There is another larger one which has been channeled through the garden and feeds our ponds and bog gardens and then runs down through the fields and after a long journey becomes part of the river Mersey