What are we doing in the garden 2025

Take care of those stings, @CanadianLori!

My watering can might be smaller than yours, @shiney.

 

@ViewAhead, I have had 2 cotoneaster horizontalis in the past. Via pruning, I was able to make them grow a bit more like a normal shrub, but it's a bit tricky doing that while still maintaining a natural look to the plant. Overall I had mixed feelings about them.

As someone has suggested already, they are indeed considered unwanted / invasive these days. I used that as an excuse to take them out, without feeling guilt

 

Interesting info on cotoneaster habits, @NigelJ and @CostasK. Thank you. Am a bit torn about what to do with it. Seems a shame to discard it as it is so healthy-looking, but ...

I'll give it another yr in a pot, placed against a fence where nothing much will grow happily, and see what it does.

 

@ViewAhead I think mine is an oddity as another cotoneaster grown from the same berries looks very much like it's parent, a fairly scruffy looking bush.
The flat one is very prone to fasciation, however I have cuttings of it so I might see how one of them does.

 

Hope those stings are better today @CanadianLori . I don't think I'll be trying your wrinkle removal remedy any time soon though
After the cotoneaster talk yesterday @ViewAhead , I went and attended to mine at the front. Cut it back as it was covering too much of the paving, but also found a few pieces were trying to go up that box. I've tied in one of the longer pieces, so I'll see how it goes. Tidied all of the area -lots of moss where it had been, and painted the main timbers on the box, so that was a productive hour or so! Fortunately, it's in the shady part of the plot, and doesn't get sun until much later in the day, and I also got my Spartina rehoused and back in it's site, as the other shrubs prevent the sun getting in too much there.
Other than that, the usual deadheading, and it was cloudier in thte morning so it was fine for general footering in the back, and some photo taking. I swapped some potted sweet peas with some morning glories, but I'm not happy with the colour combo where the MGs are, so more swapping today.
It's cloudier just now, so I'll get my walk and then see what I can do before it's too hot for me. Those bird feeders need filled again. Sigh....

 

I think I might have found the parent of mine, just up the road, outside a small play area. I assume it seeded itself there as other hedging has its roots within the area, rather than on the pavement outside. It seems to be growing almost completely vertically, but that may be because any bits trying to encroach across the pavement have been removed by the chap who periodically cuts the grass.

 

There was one here when I first moved in. The flowers were always busy with bees so I kept it ....... for a while .

 

Thank you @lizzie27. I was watering in my nightie before 8am this morning. Watering is forbidden between 8am and 8pm.

 

Here’s the cotoneaster we inherited with this bungalow. It’s on the side of the property. Quite like it, so do the bees, so have kept it. It’s about 7 feet high now and unsupported but stands up very well.

 

That reminds me of the Helen Yemm book, Gardening in my Nightie

 

My first thought was why has Busy Lizzie planted out her nightie!

That is a beauty, @Bluejayway. I do like that they are so good at self-supporting.

 

This is one of ours, holding up next door's fence. It started life as an accidental seedling in a discarded container. Evie (next door) complained in the nicest possible way that she's for ever weeding out it's seedlings from her veg patch below. But I could never get rid of it when it's an absolute magnet for the bees.

 

Oh oh, I've been guilty of going out and getting really dirty digging jobs done while in my night clothes. I figure if I attend to getting the messy, sweaty stuff done before my morning shower, I've done things in a logical order. Of course, some days I discover more messy jobs to be done after my shower so it doesn't always work out that way.