spring growth

Looking good! :)))

I have no clue as to what, is eating both the petasites, the one in the second photo with the red stems, is P. purpureum, which has a bit less damage,than the variegated one, well at least for now! It's either slugs or caterpillers!

What a treat to see so many plants springing into life after the winter. What joy !

Lots of new growth :o)

Lovely variety there your garden will look wonderful seems you have snails or slugs eating one of your plants.

Lots going on there Helenium, it's an exciting time of the year :o))

Mariek, the rodgersia in the 5th photo was just peeping through the soil in the pot, but within about 10 days that's how much it has grown.

TT isn't it good when you see the new growth of life, I think that's when the plants are at their best colour.

Thanks sixpence, the new border is nearly ready to be planted. I'm not sure what's eating the plants but I suspect slugs, I don't use pellets, but I'm going to try Astrantia leaves round the vunerable plants, apparently they don't like them!

Your right Annella, it's really exciting, I'm like a child at Christmas, just waiting for surprises, now how infantile is that!LOL!

Paul 4th photo Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum,' as you can see not as healthy looking as yours, but I live in hope! LOL!

Good idea Helenium they don't like gravel either.

Sixpence.. between the gravel and the leaves and not forgetting throwing the ones I find in the bin, hopefully it will cut the numbers down. It's a case of being careful too - I've noticed that slugs lay their eggs just inside the holes at the bottom of plant pots, I've found lots of them, little white round balls! Had I not seen them, I would've put the plants in the ground, slug eggs and all!

How interesting Helenium I shall get my grand kids to look under the pots now thanks for that. A lucky escape you had then.

I sure did, Sixpence! I used to wonder what they were! But just like the slugs, you'll need gloves to handle them! It's better to tip the plant out of the pot, then you know you've got them!Hubby is making me some veggie boxes and I'm going to nail the roughest sandpaper I can find round them, if they don't like rough surfaces they wont like that!

lots happening in your garden helen, all coming to life and love your delmera peltata flowers, arent they just so pretty when open, great pics :o))

Thank you Helenium

Nice to see things sprouting. I couldn't find the caterpilla :( I hope it doesn't do too much damage.

Hi Hywel, if you look at the biggest hosta sprout nearest the camera, half way up there's a white'ish part the caterpiller is on that bit!

Ah yes I can see it now lol :) Thank you

Your welcome Hywel!

Is that Diphylleia cymosa in the second photo? At first I thought they were mayapples but I think your tag reads Diphylleia. I have just ordered two of them. I've wanted them for a while but they may be iffy in our climate....we are at the southern edge of their range. Well, I'll hope for the best.
I am going to try Dipel for caterpillars; they are eating my sensitive ferns!
You have a great variety of plants there - looking forward to seeing them in their full glory!

Thanks Lauram! Your'e right it is Diphyleia, so far the slugs have left it alone, not so the Petasites. I'm going to try some sharp grit the kind used for fish tanks, it's a lot sharper then most grit. I would use nematodes but that can work out expensive, but I'll see how other things work, first. I can get lots of filter spent coffee, so I will try that too! The best thing I could do is, put plants that slugs/snails don't like, next to the ones they do, but it's finding ones that like the same conditions, or look nice together, not as simple as it sounds!But I suppose I have to share the garden with nature, as it's not exclusive to me!

I wasn't sure what was eating my sensitive ferns but yesterday morning I caught the evildoer in the act! It was some sort of caterpillar. These were on their way to becoming a nice mass until last week. They look horrible, full of holes. There are still some fronds coming up so I hope I can salvage them.

You can't use pesticides on most ferns - they are too delicate. The Dipel is Bacillus thuringensis or however you spell it.....the same strain that's in the mosquito dunks. It was recommended on a fern care website. Just a few holes wouldn't bother me but these have been eaten down to the ground. They aren't touching anything else, just those particular ferns. I hope that stops it. I hate to kill anything and I really don't want to use chemicals, so this is my safest option. I ordered the Dipel along with Spinosad for my peach trees since the spinosad will kill the oriental fruit moths that destroyed last year's crop.

Heavens Lauram, I've never heard of anything eating ferns before! Could you make a hoop with fleece until the Dipel arrives? I thought my Osmunda Regalis was dead, but no.. the tiniest piece of frond is visible. In photo 6 you'll see a caterpiller on the hosta's new growth, (largest spike closest to the camera) I didn't see it until I put the photo on here, but I went out and looked the next day and not a bit of damage, I was amazed! Hope you get things sorted out with the peach tree too, you must've been really disapointed to have the whole crop damaged, I wouldn't mind sharing the fruit with nature, but I'd be annyoed if they damaged it all!

The Dipel is being FedExed, should be here in a couple of days! I hadn't heard of anything eating ferns either - and these ferns are known to be toxic!! I'm afraid covering them won't help much at this stage, you wouldn't believe how quickly they were destroyed.

I hope the spinosad is effective - I look forward to those peaches all year and I lost every single one! I guess some caterpillars aren't bad, but last year a big green fellow planted himself on my eggplant and it didn't take long for him to eat the whole thing.

Osmunda regalis - is that royal fern? I need a big tall fern for the back. The glade ferns should reach a good height and the log ferns also, but my cinnamon ferns never get as tall as I hope they will.

Osmaunda regalis, is the royal fern it's lovely. I also like the Osmunda cinnamomea and Osmunda regalis purpurascens, might send for them this year! My sensitive fern, has shown no signs of growth so far and yet it survived the winter the year before and it was in a pot! But I'll still keep checking for it, hopefully its just taking a bit longer to recover this time!

Some of them are so very slow in the spring. Last year I chucked a wood fern in my brush pile because it wasn't doing anything. Lo and behold, later in the season I found it growing amongst branches and cast-off dead annuals. There's no action from many of my wood ferns but I'm just going to let them do their thing.

Ah well.. I'll just have to keep checking!As you say let them do their own thing!

Catching up on blogs tonight ... good to see new growth once more. I found slome slug eggs on a piece of 'crock' in the bottom of a pot! So glad I tipped the lot out before planting up again. Yeuk!

Hi shirley, there such a nuiasance, slugs. Never mind I'll sow extra lettuces this year which they'll eat, then hopefully they'll leave the other plants alone! There's usually a male blackbird in our garden, and when he sees me, he's straight over, with a look that says come on you know why I'm here, get cracking. I turn up the pots to find him slugs, which he kills and leaves with his beak full. Then he returns for the others I've left him!

Oh, he must love you very much ... lol! : o )

LOL!