Well, what a lovely three days off work I have had. Sunday evening/Monday I did a lot of tying things back, weeding, planting some of my own seed-raised plugs, and moving containerised things around. I took off the unnecessarily long whips from my thornless blackberry and cut them into sections, put them around the edges of a pot and put a bag over the top.
Then there was Tuesday at HCPFS - exhausting.
Then today I have planted up some of my purchases, and placed the others where I want them to go. I've divided and replanted 5 of my heucheras (out of 7) and lifted a lot of sisyrynchium - filled a recycling box with it and two large pots! The box will go to my mum and the pots on my work intranet. I have about 6 pots each with 3-5 bits of the heucheras, so we'll see how many of them get going. They were more 'basal cuttings' than divisions - they snapped off the main root with very little of their own root system. I had my boy's help with that - he filled the pots with compost and dibbered the holes around the edge, I dipped the ends in rooting powder and planted the cuttings. I actually had to buy pots for this - got six of the six inch ones from B&Q, when I went to get compost. I also managed to take four basal cuttings off the dahlia bought yesterday from Avon Bulbs - that's Carol Klein's influence there!
Planted out another blackberry (from a bargain shelf at a garden centre a while back) and a pair of buddleias (pink and black) on the back fence. Seems crackers to plant cultivated blackberries when the woods over the fence are full of wild brambles, but I could compare and contrast I suppose. I've been eating a blueberry or two every time I go past the bushes in the trough near the back door - naughty naughty. Boy had a few with his cereal the other day though, so I'm not depriving him. Strawberries are coming through quite well too - not super abundant but enough to have made sending off for the freebie worthwhile.
I think I may have a verbena bonariensis baby that has self-seeded a half metre away from the mother plant (which has totally not come up this year). I pulled it up thinking it was a weed (the baby I mean) and then recognised its rough stem... it had not snapped above the root so I heeled it in near where the original was. Very happy to see that both my Arum lilies are emerging again this year - that's the second winter I have successfully left them in the ground.
The boy ate his first carrots this evening. We were sitting by the pond to see if the frog would come to play, and I said how about checking the carrots... his face was a picture when I pulled a small handful of them up (we didn't thin the out, intending to eat them all small anyway) and there were 2-3 inch carrots on the end of the foliage! I don't need to have a picture - that will stay with me for ever.