Lavender: cutting back into dead wood

 You know how “all the books say” not to cut Lavender back too hard, as it won't grow back.... well, a fortnight ago, I was doing the annual clip of a low Lavender hedge, and I spotted this:

 

Uh-oh... is that a bare brown patch coming up?

Hahaha! I'm teasing you, this was not a case of it having been cut back too hard, it's a case of two of the plants having died off, completely.

 

Oh dear! Quite, quite dead.

Why?

Well, probably not any particular reason: Lavender are not long-lived plants......

 

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Three Bags Full...

 Or in this case, six bags full.

 

New Clients often have no idea how much waste I am going to generate, when I spend a morning (or afternoon!) in their garden....

 

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Dianthus, by any other name would smell as sweet...

Although, strictly speaking, that's not true... because the genus Dianthus includes Pinks, Carnations and Sweet William, and carnations are not scented, whereas Sweet William are, hence the name.

 

I'm often asked about “Pinks”, and there seems to be some confusion regarding the name, but it's quite straightforward: all plants in the genus Dianthus are commonly known as Pinks, and yes, that includes carnations.

And they are called “Pinks” not because of the colour, but because.........

 

 

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Reseeding a bare lawn

 I had a question from a Patron a couple of days ago (“Hi, Becky!”) asking about my views on reseeding bare patches in a lawn, which is probably looking something like this:

 

 

Well, I'm not really an expert on lawns, but I can certainly offer a few comments.

Firstly, I have to ask the “before I start...” questions.

Why is lawn bald?

 

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