These large daffodils regularly come up strongly. My plans seem to be silent on what variety they are.

Apart from ‘Ice Follies’ to the back of B1 these don’t look much like the varieties I thought I’d planted in these two beds. The dwarf daffodils, probably ‘Tête-à-tête’ have come back strongly in B2 and elsewhere.

The hypericum ‘Hidcote’ in F2 put on a terrific display, but they’d got too big and dominant. See these pictures from last year. There were originally four plants here. One I dug out in 2019. I removed another today and cut another right back, leaving just one untouched.

I had plenty of sun loving perennials in pots to plant out in the gaps.

The santolina clearly likes it here. I’ve taken some cuttings, and I’ll try to reduce it’s spread over the pavement. Perhaps it will grow a bit from the base now its no longer covered by the hypericum.

Only the neighbours really get to see the hydrangea, but it’s well worth going round to look.

For 11 months of the year I wonder why I keep the dianthus (carnation, pink?) in its pot. This is why.

Salvia ‘Caradonna’ is the only one I’ve tried that succeeds left in the ground.

There’s a neighbourhood cat that will destroy the nepeta if it gets the chance, but not when it’s this big, I think.

The acanthus may completely take over the NE corner, but I don’t mind.

It’s incredible how weedy the E fence fuchsia looked only a few months ago. See E fence in winter. But today I was cutting off great branches so I could get round the pond.

I’ve often thought about planting something in this gap. Mind-your-own-business, chamomile, succulents or sweet woodruff. As a first step I cleared out the gravel in the narrow section to a depth of 100cm or so when it was dry, cleaned it and topped it up with fresh golden gravel. The drainage is probably still not brilliant.

The edge of F1 near the front door continues to be the best. Let’s see how it does over winter.