Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

Hi all!

I live in a city in the north and after a few months in my new house I'm redoing my back garden. I have a *very* steep hill - I'm planning to build a privacy fence toward the top, and plant some pollinator-friendly shrubs/bushes behind the fence to just kind of let them do their thing while also giving me more privacy from the house at the top of the hill. The total area is about 40-50 feet long.

It's quite difficult to access the area so I won't be able to do much (or, really, any) upkeep after I plant them, unless in a few years I have to trim if neighbours complain or anything like that. I'm unsure about the soil composition, but the former owners more or less used the back area as a literal dump (you would not believe how many literal motors i found strewn around the grassy areas) so I'm not confident that it would be suitable for something fragile. Nettles, brambles, a few ferns, dandelions, and clovers are all growing like crazy, and I think a neighbour's butterfly bush may be sending some volunteers through the fence (and they have a huge elder tree that's absolutely thriving) - not sure if that helps at all.

Thanks so much!

Is anyone else having problems with riverbank grape just going crazy? I feel like I am in a constant battle with it, pulling it off of trees. Any suggestions for getting rid of it other than cutting it (temporary solution only as it just comes back). I am not looking to use herbicides due to collateral damage.

Looking for advice on planting Cone flowers. I am looking to find some decent blooms already potted from a nursery and placing them in my garden. Is it a good time to do this with a mature plant or do I purchase seeds?

Recently made a small garden with a little pond in my backyard. I saw 3 of these huge slugs on the big maple tree!

Found this little gem in my garden this year. Silene Carolinia/ Pink Catchfly

I have chopped down two large leyandii over the weekend and I'm wondering what to do with the wood. My first thought was to stack it up as a habitat for insects, hedgehogs, and anything else. But I was wondering whether insects would be repelled by the wood. Does anyone here have any experience with this?

This has been the second summer in our new home (Austria), and it's the second time our lawn completely burned in August. Thankfully it has finally started raining today, so it is soon going to be green once again. But still it got me thinking, next year we are prob going to have the same problem again as the summers here are getting hotter and hotter. Do you have any suggestions how we could create a „lawn" or rather „No-lawn" that is heat and drought resistant? We built a really nice patio this year and it would be nice to be surrounded by living plants (as well as animals!) and not a dead desert ...

I am kinda thinking about a tapestry lawn? Do some of you have experiences with this?

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

I need to mow and spotted these 2 lovebirds. Should I just give them some privacy?

I’m a seasoned vegetable gardener, but new to flowers. I spread a bag of wildflowers in my front yard to attract pollinators. It looks beautiful and colorful, but the last thing to blossom is the Nigella or love in a mist. It is extremely tall with very few blossoms on it and looksovergrown/like a weed in my front yard. I want to be patient and wait for them to blossom but not sure that I’m doing this right

They are over 4 feet tall! Should i keep waiting??

First, let me say this is the first year I've had caterpillars and I've been checking them somewhat obsessively.

I think something is eating my monarch caterpillars but I thought they were safe due to their toxicity. I had counted seven, several of them pretty big and appearing to be in their last stage. It's a big bushy swamp milkweed plant so it's hard to get an accurate count, and they do move around. So when I went back out and couldn't find any big ones I thought maybe they crawled away to do their thing, but all I could find were a few little ones.

Yesterday I counted five, most of them medium sized. The regular volunteer milkweed hadn't had anything yet, but yesterday I found two little guys on it for the first time. This morning I went out and I can't find any of them. The regular milkweed is not big and bushy so I know those are gone. I can't find any of the ones in my swamp milkweed either.

I had 21 black swallowtail caterpillars on my fennel. They got big and fat and disappeared, presumably to make their chrysalis, but I haven't seen any of them, and it seems like with that many I'd find one or two. So maybe some bird fed them to their babies. But I did not think that was a risk with monarchs.

So any ideas or advice? Where are my monarchs going?

Recently I moved house and I’m working on my garden now. I want it to have a cottage garden vibe that will attract birds, bees, butterflies, hedgehogs, etc. I am creating a walking path in my garden and would like plants in between the stones so I don’t have to deal with weeds too much. The stones are about 10cm spaced from each other. I live in a zone 8 (Netherlands) and the path is most of the day in full sun in summer. Our soil is mostly clay. I was thinking of periwinkle or creeping thyme but I’m not sure they like the full sun (periwinkle) or the clay (creeping thyme). Anyone a good idea? As I’m on a bit of a budget it’d be nice if they spread relatively easily.