The yellowish hardy fuchsia in F2 was damaged by very strong wind last night. A large branch, supporting ⅓ to ½ of the plant’s foliage was broken underground. I cut it away just above the ground. Let’s see how it recovers

If it was good enough for Monty Don on Gardeners World last night it’s good enough for me.

Most of the plants are doing well.

The parthenocissus has already reached a good height. It’ll be interesting to watch for the autumn colour. It probably won’t need cutting back this year.

The white hydrangea I transplanted from the original back garden is very good. Perhaps it needs some sort of support, although it’s not really blocking the neighbours’ gate.

The ivy is not clinging to the wall yet. Perhaps I need to put up a wire and give it some help.

The hydrangea petiolaris is not looking as happy as it was, and the bergenia next to it is much smaller than its siblings that were planted at the same time. Are they in some sort of rain shadow under the clematis?

One salvia nemorosa ‘Lubecca’ in B1 cut back. Two left. Some geranium ‘Rozanne’ foliage cut back. Some erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ in B3 trimmed.

The thalictrums in B1 and B2 have gradually thinned out as the season’s progressed, and you can now see through them quite well.

Early September 17

Cut back all the thalictrums, and most of the salvias.

See also May 17

This is good, but getting too big. It will need careful pruning this winter and next spring

Fuchsias are new plants for me. These came with the original garden, and must have survived for several years. The yellowish one is easy to cut back from the neighbours’ path, and doesn’t seem to mind this treatment. The reddish one lost its leaves in a drought last year, but recovered quite quickly. The tips of some branches died over winter and needed pruning in the spring. F4 is rather dry anyway, and needs a lot more organic matter. Both of them would benefit from a fairly severe prune in spring. See RHS advice

This was inherited from the original garden. It’s always been very good in summer and popular with the bees. It’s got very woody over the years, and last year I tried to prop it up with stakes and cord. This didn’t really work, and this year I’ve let it flop. It seems happy, and I quite like it like this. I’ve struck some cuttings which seem to have taken, and I’ll repeat this in the autumn.

This is a very vigorous plant on the S facing fence behind B3. It’s hardly flowering at all at the moment. I think this is because I gave it a very good prune last autumn, or early winter, when the neighbours cut back their side. The RHS advice is of course to prune immediately after flowering. It seems that Jasminum officinale should flower in spring on last year’s growth, and in autumn on this year’s. I’ll see what, if anything, happens this year, and then decide what to do.

These two hardy fuschias came with the original front garden. The darker one in F4 suffers slightly in dry weather, but seems to recover well. The lighter one flowers even more spectacularly a little later, but I’m going to have to reduce it a bit before it takes over.

This is the best of the three hydrangeas that came with the original garden. It was pruned into a tight, small ball, and probably hadn’t flowered for years until I let it grow.