Too much of a good thing

You can’t have too much of a good thing, the saying goes, but in the garden I think you definitely can.

Mind you, the dismal weather recently relented for a couple of days, with some warm sunshine on Wednesday, which was a really Good Thing, and we could do with more of it; but now we’re back to more normal temperatures, with mostly showery and breezy days in the forecast.  It has been quite dry for a week or so, and plants in pots are suffering, so some rain would actually be quite welcome!

At this time of year I’m always behind with the garden jobs, but having been away for much of March (and part of February before that) I have a lot of jobs to tackle.  One that should have been done in March and is still only partly done, is pruning the buddleja.  It’s a big old bush, woody and bare in the middle, with a fringe of new shoots round the edges, and I tend to allow as many of these new shoots to grow as possible; the result is that they tend to become rather congested, and there are now many more branches to prune than previously.  Pruning them is only part of the job; dealing with the prunings, many of them very long, is a time-consuming task.  It would be easier if I had a shredder and were prepared to use it on them, but I like to make use of at least some of them – the long poles for pea and bean wigwams, the sticky-out tops as supports for small plants and to guard seedbeds against intruding birds, and the old seedheads and new leaves for the compost heap.  Trimming all those prunings to suitable sizes takes time, and while the many growing shoots are a ‘Good Thing’, especially for the butterflies, the quantity of them is becoming a bit of a nuisance.  This year I’m being more prepared to rub some out, which will reduce flowering but will, I hope, also reduce the job next spring.

Half-pruned!

The bare middle

Some of the prunings have already been used as stakes for peony 'Sarah Bernhardt', and more have been earmarked to do the same job for the giant achillea.

Another ‘Good Thing’ that might be too much is the pink felicia that I’ve used to top some of the tulip pots and have potted up for growing on elsewhere.  As I rather suspected at the time and mentioned in a previous post last year, it’s pretty bomb-proof; not only has it now sailed through the winter unharmed, but the pots of it outside the greenhouse have been regularly disturbed and overturned by an inquisitive pheasant that seems determined to peck at them.  I’ve given up bothering; the felicia seems to grow undeterred even when upended.

Overturned felicia pots

Then there’s the symphyandra acquired from last year’s plant sale and planted rather haphazardly in very stony soil.  It doesn’t seem to mind, in fact it is already spreading rather worryingly.  It’s not invasive yet, but I can see that it might become so.  Note to self: keep an eye on it and cut it down to size if necessary!

Symphyandra among the stones

Some of my ‘too much of a Good Things’ are self-inflicted.  I can’t bring myself to trust that seeds will germinate, and tend to sow too many.  As a result I now have 18 lettuce seedlings.  How much lettuce will we be able to eat?!  I’ll try to give some away.

Lots of lettuce!

But sometimes plants increasing by themselves can be a genuinely Good Thing.  Some old tulip bulbs bedded out at the far end of the veg patch, for want of anywhere better to put them, have increased rather nicely, despite being overrun by the lily-of-the-valley.  I use them for cutting and am grateful for the colours that they bring to the house.

Veg patch tulips - definitely a Good Thing