back garden

Comfrey in the back garden

comfrey flowers

comfrey

I have lots of green alkanet - the bees are loving it! and the comfrey

green alkanet

milk thistle with Strulch at the base - and no slug damage

strulch protecting milk thistle

lupins surrounded by Strulch at the base but too many plants around them to gain access to the lupins but at least they aren't completely destroyed

-update 15-5-2015-

it rained a lot yesterday and the snails seemed able to slosh around the mulch and attack the back lupin stem which had a flower spike developing, I removed some of the snails but I'm sure more came, I think it's completely destroyed now but will check it today

lupins with Strulch

iris in the front garden

iris

Lots of honesty this year (pink flower below with those distinctive seed pods) surrounded by green alkanet.

the hostas are growing like mad, this first one is amazing, I'll have to find the labels with each variety

hosta

hosta

hosta

the hosta below is the most damaged by slugs, it is also completely overwhelmed by the foxglove on top of it which I want to allow to flower first before removing it, the hosta will still be there and able to be the star of that pot

hosta and foxglove

on the other side of the garden opposite the hostas, I have a few centaurea montana which I love, there's the globe thistles starting and of course some pansies and nigella

Moving around to the left I have 3 pots with nepeta which the cats are loving - and me too, I love those purple flowers; one of those nepeta pots I also have viper's bugloss and sea holly so it can be an all-purple pot. I bought the viper's bugloss and sea holly as small "wildflower" plants at the garden centre so they weren't too expensive. I have tried them both with seed in past years. I got one plant from the viper's bugloss and nothing from the sea holly so maybe plants are the way to go.