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Wordless Wednesday - overwintering ladybird

January 30, 2019

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Product Review - Gro-Sure Smart Ground Cover

I was asked a few weeks ago if I wanted to trial some Gro-Smart Ground Cover, which is made by Westland. I hesitated a little before agreeing as I am not someone who generally mulches areas of the garden. One look at my weed population will confirm this but I do like to have self-seeders and mulches will keep them controlled as well as the weeds. After some thought I realised that it could be really useful in my vegetable borders where I do want to restrict self-seeders from colonising. A short time later a bag duly arrived.
The first thing I noticed is that it is incredibly light. I braced myself to lift the bag and it was really easy to lift.

Then I set to spreading it out where I am growing beans this year. I am not growing a lot of veg this year but nothing beats the taste of freshly picked french beans.
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So goodbye lavender edge......

Let me rewind to 2007 when the front garden looked like this:
I declared this front garden boring and decided a knot garden was what it needed. I sometimes wonder if I should have left well alone. Yes it was dull, but the front garden seems to have been a constant battle I have never really won. I could just have mown it once a fortnight, yet that was just not what I wanted to do.
The garden was laid out as tiny box cuttings in the spring of 2008; by 2013 it looked like this. Yes even then the lavender hedge was a bit sprawly but it had a lot to redeem itself with. In the summer it was always alive with bees and butterflies and it was a joy to brush past as the scent would be released. I did love the lavender edge.
But then the lavender edge got old and sprawly. I kept it pruned but it was long past its best. So the other day I was weeding under the (out of shot) Magnolia tree and I started to weed along under the lavender edging. This was going quite well, there has been no …

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