gardening

[elshajd]

What's happening in your garden?

We have tadpoles, frog spawn, the first butterflies (bright green) and it's all looking very green. Hard to believe we snow on this day last year.

I've just ordered various 'easy' seeds from Thompson &Morgan. I don't have a greenhouse or even a cold frame which limits what I can grow - not sure when/if to try their various 'plug plants' or other bedding plant formats.

Im hoping to persuade DH that we could create a pond whilst we are on lockdown. It would be great to put a smallish one in the kitchen garden and get a few frogs working on slug control. Plus it would be good for wildlife in general.

It’s looking very pretty with lots of blossom trees (still small), magnolia, daffodils and acers

Make sure you can get some sort of appropriate pond liner before he digs the hole!

We've got a pond for wildlife, it's stuffed to the brim with tadpoles - we dug it out when we got rid of the trampoline a few years ago as all the grass had died anyway. It's more tadpole than water right now.
This pond liner place is still doing deliveries: www.aqualinersdirect.co.uk/pond-liners
I fancy doing some gardening as in planting new stuff but there isn't much space - we have a small garden and I've planted about as much as I can in it, it really needs weeding and tidying but that's not fun.
I was sitting out yesterday and realised I've somehow planted 5 trees and 2 more have self seeded over the last few years.

I quite like a good weeding session. Or hacking stuff back - DH got me a superb set of extending loppers for my birthday last year. A session of 'mindful destruction can be very therapeutic.

He was going to get me a water butt installed for my present this year but - ironically - I'm having to take a rain check on that for now.

Just realised I'm missing Gardeners Question Time!

Lots of buttercup dig out, and I've potted up some of the Lily of the valley which was spreading too far. It's just in soil as I've not got much compost so I've no idea how it will do but it needed to come out anyway so worth a try.

Just listening to Alan Titchmarsh on R4 interview. I feel bad for the plants that won’t make it to nurseries. Wish we could access them and give them a chance.

Some growers are trying to get it online, might have a look.

I'm going to take an hour out today since the sun is out again here. Monty said to split snowdrops and ours on the bank at the front of the house could do with spreading out a bit so I'm going to get the whole family doing that for an hour (DC have a very strict school schedule).

If anyone is interested in buying plants you might want to take a look at this

https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/support-our-nurseries?awc=227315858462688_7f2bc5c6bcbd10ef9537b0b0c473f807

Good day for gardening.
My agapanthus had broken its pot but fortunately I've got an old one a size bigger which I've replayed it in. I'm wondering if I can mend the broken pot with epoxy, it's a nice cobalt blue one.

The fuchsias I kept from last year in pots up against the house seem to have mostly survived despite not being hardy varieties, so that's a bonus, something for my patio pots later on. At the moment they've got villas, grape hyacinths, and my favourite white narcissus 'Thalia'

And then I've dug out loads of red campion. I made the mistake a few years ago when some appeared in the back border of thinking, oh, how lovely, charming woodland flower. Turns out if you let it self seed in garden soil it's a thug. Maybe this year I've got some hope of getting it under control.

I love ‘Thalia’; I only have one plant and not open yet (Scotland!) but can’t wait.

Put out some mange tout seedlings and planted some romanesco cauliflower today. Beautiful day up here.

I meant to mention yesterday, I had to water some of my pots - it's been dry (or very nearly so) for quite a long time now but windy too. I don't expect to see my mint starting to wilt in April in the northwest of England! (It's perked up again now).

Been enjoying the first few flowers on my recently planted new blossom tree!