Digging up bulbs

There are some garden jobs for which there never seems to be a good time to get stuck in.  Cleaning the pond is one, but another is clearing weeds out of borders with bulbs in; the best time, as far as the bulbs are concerned, is when they are dormant, but that's high summer when surrounding plants are in full flow.  I've decided that this is probably the best time to do something about the seriously weedy patch down near the summerhouse; a lot of what's in there can be dug up and discarded.  I'm working around the plants I want to keep - Crocosmia 'Lucifer' (now fading), Lilium henryi (in flower) and the yellow chrysanthemum (still to come) - and I'll sort them out in the autumn or early winter.  The doronicums will also stay, but they're easy to dig up, weed underneath and replant.  So I've been removing the bugle (Ajuga reptans atropurpurea - attractive but seriously rampant), an overenthusiastic self-seeding euphorbia and the big red poppy Papaver 'Allegro'; the latter will probably reappear in due course, but that's fine by me.  That allows me to get to grips with the couch grass, vetch and other nasties in there.  I've been digging up bulbs as I go.  The little red and orange species tulips (um ... T. linifolia and urumiensis???) will go back in, along the sunniest edge, as they are delightful, as will the very few bulbs of the big red tulip (no idea of the variety, they were in the garden when we arrived) if I can find them.  The daffodils I'm not so sure about.  They are large trumpet varieties, also inherited with the garden, and I'm in two minds about them.  On one hand, they are good for cutting, and they certainly brighten up the garden, especially after a dismal winter; but they have no scent, aren't particularly elegant and seem a bit out of place in a country garden.  Increasingly I'm preferring smaller-flowered varieties.  I may replant some of them, but in any case they had become very congested, and I will have lots of spares (I have ideas about what to do with them, more in a future post!).  There are also lots of little white bulbs in there, which I've been picking out to throw away.  I can't think what they are; I don't recall other bulb flowers in there.  Much of that patch is really too shady for most bulbs, so I wouldn't have planted them there.  My best guess is that they are Allium triquetrum (although they don't seem to have the distinctive onion smell), which I established a few yards away (before I realised how thuggish they are!) and am now trying to remove.  Whatever they are, I can do without them, so they can be binned!

On the bright side ....

No weeding today; it's raining.  The weather over the past two or three weeks has been very unsettled and rather disappointing for summer - below-average temperatures, quite a lot of wind and showers.  The rain is at least partly welcome after the dry spring and early summer, but a little more warmth would be nice.

... a lovely rainbow

The shallots and garlic have been lifted and are drying in the greenhouse.  The dry weather wasn't good for them; the shallots, frankly, aren't much bigger than when they went in! and the garlic is on the small side, but prolific and should keep me going for the next few months.  Various seeds, for late autumn/winter crops, have gone into their place.  My very late-planted courgettes are trying hard but struggling with the temperatures, and the bean plants are attracting far too many slugs (where is that toad when I need him? I haven't seen him since his day in the greenhouse).  The tomatoes are just starting to ripen, and the aubergine plants have two little fruits on.  I am always frustrated by the garden writers who urge you not to allow your aubergine plants to produce more than six fruits - if only!  The plums have ripened this week; far fewer than usual, though at least I don't have the normal business of dealing with the glut.  Wasps have attacked some, and the blackbirds have also found them, but several punnets have made their way into the kitchen.

Butterflies continue to appear in the garden, weather notwithstanding.  The count so far is up to four red admirals, two peacocks, and one each of painted lady, gatekeeper, small heath and meadow brown (and lots of whites).  No tortoiseshells to date - I wonder why.