July Borders

My posts are like buses....   none for ages then two come along!  As I said before I added four little albums and the links to them and I thought I could write a sentence or two about each one - how little I know myself.  So here comes the chatter to accompany the July borders album.


Firstly a question...  has anyone any idea what the beetle is on the astrantias (and everywhere else)?  Do I kill it or nurture it?  I don't seem to have a lot of beetle damage this year - I might even have beaten the lily beetle thanks to the wonderful Provado - I can't recommend it enough.


As for the giant tree climbing snail - I still only seem to have snails in the front garden and not in the back.  I know they came in with a plant from somewhere because they were new to me last year.  Are they harder to kill than slugs? - again I seem to winning the invasion war on that front thanks to organic slug pellets.


I really would welcome comments/answers please.

As for the borders themselves............ in July my front garden looks better than the back.  In the back garden all the roses, delphiniums, poppies and foxgloves have gone over and I think they are the backbone of those borders.  The front garden has all the hot colours and always has something in flower so I like it pretty much all the time but by July the three baskets have come into their own.  Round the corner  the Golden Showers rose and Black Prince clematis are flattering each other and at the front the tree/half circle border is bursting with crocosmia Lucifer which has to be one of my favourite plants.  It is such an extraordinary colour in all kinds of light and is especially lovely as they day shifts into evening.  It positively glows.  I've even come to like this year's corporation parks planting in the skinny border which is a surprise as it contains one of my least favourite plants - the marigold but it does seem to be OK here.


I hope you have a nice trip round my July garden.