Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

All to the good that councils are trying to reduce the amount of chemicals used in public spaces but I wonder how many of their residents are doing the same. With the decreasing truly "green" areas a lot of our wildlife is ever more reliant on those of us lucky enough to have our own gardens .

 

@NigelJ , was being facetious soz.

@Obelix-Vendée , I would deadhead it but it’s trailing up high over an archway and can’t reach.

 

Apologies my misplaced inappropriate sense of humour often gets the better of me.

 

I've had a good display of hydrangeas this year, with no watering which has surprised me, a number of other plants have struggled and the Solanum laxum and the Lonicera on the garage wall are struggling, the Rubus on there and the Jasminum nudiflorum seem happy.
This year I've seen more grasshoppers and moths/butterflies than I do most years, even had butterflies on the Buddleja.

 

Stepladder @Songbird ?

I've been watering anything I see struggling. It's OK as long as I do it between 8pm and 8am and we're metered. Don't see the point of letting plants die for a ha'porth of water after all th etime and money i've invested in buying plants and growing them on or sowing seeds, taking cuttings and divisions and all the compost and feeds they need to get to planting size.

Getting better at selecting plants that can cope here which helps too.

 

I dont know if anyone saw what was going on in Brighton a while back, they stopped using weedkiller a couple of years ago and it had reached the point where some of the paths were impossible to walk along, I think the residents made them rethink and get it sprayed.

The real problem is that bugs should be flourishing in the countryside as they used to, but due to intense agriculture they have been wiped out.

It was a drive through the countryside that always meant you ended up with flies and bugs on the windscreen, not so much in suburban areas.

 

I have watered it, and the leaves are looking good. All the flower heads are dark brown.

 

I gave the oven and hob its annual clean last week, I found this nasty spay stuff under the sink that said corrosive, wear rubber gloves when using.
So I also found a pair of rubber gloves but they had perished, but I manage to use the stuff anyway.
I thought to myself, best to get some more gloves for next year, and put some on last weeks shopping to be delivered.
I remember seeing them but totally stumped as to where I put them, so ordered some more this week, just found last weeks ones in the cupboard under the sink, as I was putting this weeks ones away.
think I'm going crazy.

 

@Obelix-Vendée , I’m afraid we can’t get a stepladder near the clematis as it’s right outside the greenhouse door ( about a foot away/ very tight) and the other side of the clematis backs onto lawn. ( stepladder would sink into grass). We tried one year getting the little steps under it but the ground is very uneven and dangerous. Well, it is for us oldies now.hopefully next year the weather may be better and the flowers will stay longer. At least we still have the nice green foliage of cover.

 

Put a plank under the base to stop it sinking @Songbird

 

You clean it every yr? That's bordering on obsessive.



@KT53, hopefully it is just a one yr bloomless blip, and all will be well next summer.

 

I only clean my oven when I smell burning

 

I think it is down purely to the weather. The flower head developed OK, it's just that they didn't open.