Six hours in the garden - and still more to do!

I am in love with this plant, Monarda didyma, despite the difficulties in growing it due to slugs/snails (the slimies) and powdery mildew. The leaves are aromatic, it's happy in semi shade and bees love it. And it sets seed freely I gather so hopefully I'll be able to grow more plants next year.

Well, standing pots of Tagetes on saucers of horticultural sand didn't keep the slimies away I'm afraid. I had to throw three plants away today which means I've only got three containers of these plants left. The slimies have also ruined two out of three of the Sunflowers, the Mustard, the Watercress (again, third sowing) and one container of Garlic Mustard.

At last I've finished pruning the Buddleia and I have a huge vase of beautiful blooms on my dining room table as a result. The plant looks a bit bear now (although it still has some flowers) but it'll bounce back I'm sure.

It's been a day of mainly sowing, pricking out and potting on: satisfying, but time consuming. I've sown seeds of grasses blue Fescue and bronze Carex for my winter baskets/containers. If they don't put on much growth between now and autumn I'll plant them in small 'bunches'. I pricked out more Viola seedlings into modules and planted out the larger two plants into a container along with a remaining Birds Foot Trefoil which was a 'spare' in the greenhouse. I also potted on some Fuchsia cuttings into 5" pots, two of which have flower buds.

On the edibles front I potted on the four Tomato Micro plants into their final, three litre, containers and these are on the top shelf of the greenhouse with three Greek Basil plants, potted on into 5" pots. The 'spare' Tumbling Toms were getting too big for the greenhouse so I put all three into a 12" container where they will have to take their chances. The Strawberry runners were well rooted in their little pots so I cut them off the parent plants and popped them into 5" pots. I've got eight plantlets which I will keep in the greenhouse until spring. Finally I potted up the purple Chilli plant into a three litre pot and that sits along side the yellow Chilli and Chilli Thai Hot on the kitchen windowsill.

Georgie