What have you done in the garden today?

[ThreeRingCircus]

I thought it would be a nice idea to share what we've been up to in our gardens.

Today I planted potatoes in buckets (with drainage holes drilled into them.) Six buckets in total, three second earlies and three main crops. I have fond memories of digging up potatoes with my dad when I was a child.... I still get excited rummaging around in the buckets when my potatoes are ready!

I also made up a herb planter from an old plant pot that had been hiding behind the shed. Mint, parsley and thyme planted in that so I'll see how that does.

I fed my pot plants with blood, fish and bone and gave them a water.

What have you been up to?

Partially dug out large border, moving clumps of grass from borders into sparse patches in the lawn... I like to think of it as the gardening version of a middle aged man's hair transplant
Dug out Spanish bluebells, moved around potted ferns, and moved lovely bluebells that had popped up in the lawn into the border, before DH got the mower out.

Checked on all the fruit bushes. Sewed some wildflower mix into back of garden, the wild bit round the trampoline.

Sat with a gin and admired efforts!

I hand pollinated my Patty Pan in the greenhouse (before bringing them back into the house because it's too cold to leave them out overnight)

Cleaned up fox poop. Yuck

Noticed fox poop and decided to leave it until tomorrow. Deferred yuck.

I love this thread (fox poop excluded). I mowed half the lawn (I'll do the other half tomorrow, or DP will); I dug out more of the big bed I'm making, and I planted two gorgeous agapanthuses in nice rocky soil that will constrict their roots. I finally planted my akebia quinata, which I have had in a pot for ten years and brought through five house moves. And I split a nepeta that was getting too big for where it was, and my cat spent a blissful hour eating it then staring drunkenly at the robin that likes to follow me around.

Oh, and I spent a lot of time cooing over my new pear tree, which is full of blossom and looks gorgeous. I'm so happy with it. Annoyingly, the pear I planted in late autumn seems to have something on its leaves - I've only glanced but I'll have to google how to sort it out.

I've spent the day taking down the tatty old green polytunnel that was here when we came, I kept having to mend it with duck tape and it's in the wrong place and it was annoying me so it's gone. I will reassemble it again one day in a place where I actually want it, with proper poly on it and as I have a proper one that I put up last spring, I don't technically need it.

Which leaves me a large square space to revamp. I'll grow in market garden style rows this year going east to west, and do the revamp at the end of the season.

And I potted up all the plants we got at the two plant fairs we've been to over the weekend.

SarahAndQuack - Just a word about the Akebia quinata, in case it’s helpful. It’s a beautiful thing but is bent on world domination. If you’re planting it in open ground for the first time, give it plenty of room to expand. Don’t plant it on an obelisk which it’ll quickly outgrow with miles of plant wafting about above it, like (cough) someone I know did.

Ah. Hmm. And it's such a pretty obelisk I planted it on, too. Whoops!

I shall see what it does and if I need to, I'll hoik it out. I have endless patience about moving things and fortunately have sandy soil that generally releases roots well.

I've just Googled Akebia quinata, I need a climber and this looks the part .

Chocolate Vine

I have a Jasmine which is doing well , a hop which is growing well and a new Passionflower .
I don't like the sme;; of honeysuckle and if I mention Russian Vine ( Mile a Minute) someone will ask me "Are you mad they are thugs" !

But this looks like it will fill a nice space in the garden, in a pot .

I mowed the lawn, planted some peas and sweet peas and admired my seedlings that are slowly coming along in the mini greenhouse. Started off some nettle tea to use as fertiliser. Ordered a few discounted plants from FarmerGracy.
I have also been looking at Akebia, I need a climber for a sunny but windy spot and it looks like it might survive.

Today, I potted on baby tomato plants that had sprouted - I hoped for 3 and got 9! I'll take the strongest 3/4 for me in a few weeks and give the rest to DF and DMIL. They're all cordon types. I also split the 2 chilli plants to grow on.

I sowed peas in tubs for the patio - I have to wait a few more weeks for dwarf French beans, climbing French beans and borlotti beans.

I planted 3 bush tomatoes I bought into my hanging basket. Planted out 2 chamomile plants and potted on a thyme. I need a 2nd pot for the other plant I bought yesterday (I use a lot of thyme but it dies in the ground here).

DH and I put compost on top of leggy lavenders to try and get them healthier. He also potted on a banana tree.

I salvaged some strawberries but put the old compost into the compost bin before I realised it was riddled with vine weevil grubs 😭 so I squashed lots and need to recheck in a few days if any more appear.

The last thing I did before tidying up was raking the grass for thatch and moss removal then throw some flower seed into the front lawn.

And my tidying up included harvesting a handful of radishes and baby salad leaves to eat 😁

I always underestimate how much bark chip I need too and I seem to do it every year, I really should learn!

I harvested more radishes and quickly pickled them in vinegar and had them with dinner. There were only a few but it's still so satisfying eating home grown veg. DD1 (age 6) tried them and liked them which was an unexpected win.... I've yet to convince DD2 (age 3) on radishes.

Today was a pottering type of day. Weeded the lawn a bit, deadheaded the daffodils and put them on the compost bin, gave my pots a water and sowed some french beans and some courgettes. I then caught up with Gardener's World with a cup of tea.

I potted up some baby foxgloves which I found behind the garage. Free plants are great.

Did some weeding and pulled up two fennel plants that had massive woody roots. So glad I got them out while the ground was soft. Added manure to two flowerbeds. Doggo then came back from her walk and DH let her into the garden when I wasn't looking and she rolled energetically in one of the flower beds crushing a couple of perennials and covering herself with manure. I had just been congratulating myself on how good they were looking. Hoping they might still recover.

SarahAndQuack - The sandy soil might be your ally here. My (cough) friend gardens on clay and digging anything out to move it can be difficult, as the clay doesn’t want to let go! But fingers crossed you won’t need to.

Sowed beetroot and lettuce. Tidied the greenhouse. Weeded. So many weeds.

I've been away for a week so wanted to have a wander around to look at everything - see what is sprouting. I did on my lawn tutting and shaking my head at all the dandelions and other weeds embedded in the thick blanket of moss wondering what to do about it. I don't need a lawn - I don't really value of enjoy it but it would be hard to maintain if it was all shrubs and trees. We've learned that gardening needs you to be decisive and to make decisions - of something isn't thriving we think about how to intervene. We are far bolder these days with pruning and moving plants around our taking things out altogether - I struggle though to know what to do with the front and back lawns. At the back I might or some raised beds and a greenhouse - that would leave very little grass - enough for some paths. The front is not so easy. I've thought about wild flower meadow but they can look a right mess for most of the year.

I was emptying two pots containing canna and amorphophallus konjac which I took for granted had perished over the winter. I was surprised to find they were both alive and the amorphophallus had produced several sprouting offspring.

Ooh @ComeIntoTheGardenMaud I took it for granted my canna Lily had perished. It’s been in the shed all winter but no signs of life yet. Maybe there’s hope.

I think there could be! I assumed the rhizome would be mush, but it was sound, so I hope it will sprout. The big canna which spends every winter outside in a pot was sprouting a couple of weeks ago but, worryingly, the shoots have vanished. I suspect a mollusc attack.

Today I sowed a load of really old veg seeds I found, not really expecting them to germinate but just to get them used up.
Knowing my luck that means they will all germinate and in a few months I'll need to use up hundreds of beetroot/radishes/carrots/broccoli and whatever was in the random unlabelled packet.

Lovely day here, I spent way too long out there, exhausted now!
I started to empty some planters where plants had died. My horizontal eucalyptus was turning brown. Frost I thought, but no, bid fat vine weevil grubs! I’m so annoyed.
I divided a huge planter of Stipa grass, had to take a saw to the roots then tidied up the hedge, just cutting off the old dead branches. Finally planting two very cheap roses, one in the front and one in a bed at the end of the garden.
Nice glass of wine now. 😊

No gardening here but a visit to Aberglasney to see the end of the tulips. Glorious.

Watched it get waterlogged again, as if it's still March.

Put food out for the fox.

Asked about scarification but firm told me it might be too late, plus it would be about £300 I think so not really on. Will invest in a rake.

No action in the garden planned for today but I am pondering digging out the very ratty looking rhododendron bushes in the front and replacing them with a magnolia. There are still a few knocking around the garden centres. I feel a bit guilty about getting rid of them but I'm not a fan. They are the bog standard pale purple ones.