We’re back in my garden this week. I am still feeling a little on edge after significant changes I made to the Wisteria Border last weekend. I’m not sure I’m happy with them yet, but I need to let things settle down. Anyhow, time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a leaf, a job to do, compost heap, wildlife, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Dahlias, various. I have found that dahlia tubers are quite happy in my soil over the winter, it is fairly free draining. I therefore don’t lift them for the winter which means much less faff. There is a serious downside to this – slugs and snails go crazy for the emerging shoots. All bar one or two of my left-in-the-ground dahlias have been repeatedly grazed back to ground level – they just haven’t had the chance to get going, nowhere near it in fact. Annoyed with their tatty (or total lack of) appearance, I dug them up. Honestly, I was planning to bin them, but I could see they were still trying hard to put out new shoots. Always a sucker for a sad case, I took pity and potted them up instead. They are all convalescing in the greenhouse and now look pretty healthy. I am hopeful they will get to flowering stage before the frosts, and if not, that they will put enough energy into the tubers to come back strong next year. I am now resigned, if I want to have dahlias at all, to lifting them and storing over winter, which means I will have more control over the initial stages of growth. In theory…

2 – Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’. That always sounds to me like it should be followed with “gruppenfuhrer” or something similarly teutonic. Just me? OK. In my garden I have a couple of decent clumps of this, originating from 4 or 5 plants I bought in the end of season sale then divided. This is their second summer and they are doing very well.

3 – Purple loosestrife. A canal or riverside wildflower in the UK, this plant is a good 15 years old and a reliable performer. It doesn’t seed about too much for me, and spreads only very slowly. I divided it years back so I now have two good plants. At this time of year it is a bee magnet, there is always a cloud of them dotting about. It can flop about pathetically if not restrained – this year I managed to get some supports in before any heavy rain, it looks better as a result.

4 – Begonia ‘Glowing Embers’. A couple of weekends ago I decided one of my patio planters wasn’t working sufficiently well. I hoiked out the shirkers and replaced with plants bought from the garden centre. At full price too, a rare occurrence for me. Among them were three of these begonias. I only needed two of these for the planter as they get quite big, so this one is on its own smaller pot on the patio. I might get away with leaving the tubers in the planter over the winter, but more likely I’ll try to stash them somewhere and enjoy them again next year.

5 – Thunbergia alata. These plants seem to take ages to get going for me. I have a few in a 9L pot on the patio, growing up canes. Admittedly they are not in full sun, hiding as they are behind some other things. The flowers are jolly enough, but I’m not convinced I’ll bother next year. Who am I kidding, course I will!

6 – Gladioli. Another of my bargain gladioli. I think this is one I bought last year, although only one of them seems to have made the return trip. It’s rather bright, a group of them would have been even better.

Those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to have a crack, just publish your post and pop a link to it in the comments below. If you also mention my blog in yours that would be tip top. For more details you can read the participant guide.

It’s going to be roasting here at the weekend, and muggy with it. I shall soldier on, lots of things on my to do list. Have a super weekend, don’t forget to check back in as more links get added during the day.

Stay safe, I’ll be back next weekend for another #SixOnSaturday.