The population in our house was reduced slightly earlier this week when #1 child was deposited back at university for his 3rd year. It will be reduced again tomorrow and by two more the following Saturday as yet more students head off to the four corners of the country to a strange covid-affected term. Not all the students are ours, I hasten to add, two are borrowed, nephews stopping over for a few weeks on their way back into the UK. Anyhow, soon be even less going on round here that might distract me from the garden! In the meantime, it’s Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything, you decide. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week…

1 – Leaping Echinops Seed. Caught in mid-flight, ejecting itself explosively from this globe thistle seed head. A miracle of photography, prize-winning I expect. Or, the seed is stuck on a thread of spider’s web, and just looks like it’s flying. Only you can decide the truth.

2 – “When will there be a harvest, for the woooorrrld”. Erm, not likely, at least not from my patch this year. Beans have been highly resistant on all fronts this year. They didn’t want to germinate, then when they did they were rubbish plants, then when they grew well they didn’t produce. The funny run of weather here, too hot then too wet then too dry, has not helped. In recent days, however, things have begun to change. The runners are having a late flush, the climbing beans are finally producing, and the dwarf beans are giving up a small number of beans despite frequent attacks by our slimy friends. Oh, and a courgette, well on its way to being a marrow. It was hiding beneath a whopper leaf.

3 – Eurybia divaricata, white wood aster. Very happy in the shade, I now have a few clumps of this brightening up the darker corners of my garden. It flowers for weeks at this time of year, probably taking me right up to first frosts. It does flop about a bit, so best to have it hemmed in by other plants, or some kind of support in place.

4 – Begonia grandis sinensis. I grew these from seed last year, or maybe the year before. They have been planted out since early summer and have grown into quite large plants. Covered in large numbers of white flowers at the moment, I actually grew them for the leaves, the underside of which are quite attractive. Happy in partial shade and bone hardy too. Supposedly it drops bulbils freely which become new plants, so who knows, I may have a forest of it next year. Nice problem to have.

5 – Salvia ‘Amistad’. Rather common these days, but still very pretty. Only one of mine survived the winter in the ground, but the dozen or so cuttings I took did well in the greenhouse and are now flowering with gusto. Even the leavings, the dark calyx, are rather pretty. I should get in and cut some of those spent stems back, I might get some more blooms in before Jack Frost visits.

6 – Dahlia. Another bargain purchase, this time bought as a tuber. I bought two, the other didn’t grow. I’ve no idea what variety this one is. To be honest, I’m not sure most dahlia growers know what variety a given tuber is, they seem to send quite random stuff out. Anyhow, it’s quite pretty, can’t argue with that for £1.

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

Have a splendid gardening weekend, I have a lengthy list of things to get done, including planting some of my growing backlog of plants. Don’t forget to pop back later as more links get added during the day.

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