A BIG BIG MISTAKE!

Now you must know by now, how proud and thrilled I am with my little cottage garden. Doesn't it look lush,mmm,LUSH! L U S H!! Sorry, just a little Miranda moment. But a lot of the LUSHNESS, came from the Russell Lupins.

Yes! I was very thrilled with these flowers and their antiquey colours. Not many of the plants flowered though, but they did grow big and LUSH!

As I gathered the water from the washing machine every other day.

Even doing extra washes of unnecessary yet still delightful subjects such as these doilies and linens.

The garden was kept lovely and moist, growing more and more LUSH!

Then I noticed that the roses were disappearing among the Lupins leaves so decided to prune their leaves back.

Just a wee pruning job I thought yesterday morning. One Lupins was very close to a sad rose so I pulled it out. WELL! As you can see, it was a BIG plant with BIG ROOTS! AAAHHHGGG!!

When I saw those big roots with little nodules on them I was horrified. I had no idea! I thought they spread by seed, so had faithfully cut the flowers off before they dried.

But LOOK AT THOSE ROOTS! And the size of the plants with multiple heads from those little harmless plants in the punnet that I planted in Spring.

It quickly became my mission to dig them all up, pronto! And dispose of them with haste, leaving big gaps in the garden but now the roses can breathe again and won't have to share the water with those greedy roots.

How's that Munstead Wood. 

And The Lady of Shalot.

And you, tiny bud, now uncovered and breathing free. That's much better, isn't it?

Here's hoping there are more rose flowers to come now, and I will be checking out the nursery for more suitable plants to fill some of the gaps in an unintrusive way.

So! My dear friends, beware the Russell Lupin. Beautiful as they are, they are not suited to a small cottage garden. Maybe they do not grow so robustly in the Northern climes but I know I will not plant them again, and will no doubt have to be constantly on the look out for new plant popping up from where they were growing. AAAAAHHHHHGGGGG!!

A lesson well learnt.

Bye for now and May blessings, love, Trills,xxx