On Thu, 14 May 2009, K wrote
Kate Brown writes

There's a well-established Kerria at the top end - and I can't get
anything else nice to grow there at all! Thistles, grasses, wild
clematis, and ivy grow with abandon.

So have you tried ornamental grasses, thistles, eryngium based on what
already grows there)?

There's a lot of grass around the garden already,so no - I was looking
for flowers, really, something a bit colourful.



I've tried canna, which grow like weeds elsewhere in the village, but
the snails ate all the leaves and they haven't come up at all this
year. I sow nasturtiums, which sprouted one year but not the next.
This year I divided up a choked iris bed and put in some rhizomes, but
snails like eating their leaves too, so I don't hope for much. I also
put in some spare daffodil bulbs, but we're rarely there early enough
to enjoy them.

Probably not damp enough in winter for daffs.

What about the various succulents? Livingsotne daisies, sedums
(spectabile doesn't get eaten by snails, I don't know about the others)


Livingstone daisies are annuals, so too late for this year, but I could
sow some next spring. Sedums are a good idea, though, thank you. Will
look for some in June - you don't happen to know if there are any tricky
local French words for it, do you?

--
Kate B

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