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?

Visited a friend for lunch and ended up taking home a sack of alpaca poo for the garden!
That's the weirdest doggy bag ever 😂

Now that is a weird doggy bag!

I've been emptying compost bins into pots. Saw a snake! It turns out it was a slow worm not a snake. Wish I had photographed it now. I've seen some before but only tiny ones. This one looked like a snake.

I live in an urban area so I must be doing something right.

It didn't feel I did as much as how I feel right now, but today...
I sowed some carrots (long red ones and stubby ones), onions (big and spring, both red), some beetroot, broad beans, purple spouting broccoli and some sprouts
I moved my red gooseberry plant and redcurrant plant from a flower border and planted in my fruit and flower raised bed. I just hope they don't die from shock, though I am guessing there will no fruits this year.
Planted some lavender plants that had grown from seeds from the main plants
Moved some daffodil bulbs and some English bluebell bulbs
Divided up some English mace plants and planted on a bit of a slope so they will hopefully matt and keep the soil in place
I also cleared up our cats grave and planted some purple violets on top
Cleared loads of weeds from the various borders I was working on
Dh laid a path next to my greenhouse
Had a beer in the sunshine😊

No actual gardening here, but we drove past a roadside plant stall, screeched to a halt and I bought three goodies!

Pulled out 5 barrow loads of nettles, sooo satisfying to get them by the roots!

Tried to get the celandine out of my woodland patch

I used to have them when I lived in Kent. Beautiful things! I miss them.

Even more so when you notice a plant 5ft away slowly disappearing back into the ground as you pull

The one yesterday was amazing, @MereDintofPandiculation .
It looked like this one but slimmer.

They're just so nice, aren't they?

Cats would occasionally bring one in and it'd go under a cushion - some hair raising moments for DH who'd just returned from a collecting trip in Australian outback

I mowed and edged the lawn as it's been dry here today and have potted on some tomatoes. I also tied in the sunflower seedlings as they seem to be romping away now.

@MereDintofPandiculation , it gave me a surprise to say the least. I hadn't realised that they could be so snakelike. I hope it's ok and not shed its tail.

Shedding tail is an escape mechanism, to make a clean getaway while the attacker is still fascinated by the tail. So if it didn't shed it straight away, logic would say that it's OK.

Oh good. Thanks @MereDintofPandiculation . Hope DCat doesn't get ideas about catching it. at the thought of your DH and the cushion.

@ComeIntoTheGardenMaud what did you buy from the plant stall?

Dcat sometimes brings us slow worms too, although she hasn’t for a while. She’s old and rickety so hopefully that’s the reason rather than because she’s cleared out the population.

Her dear departed sister once brought a grass snake in through the cat flap, fully alive and hissing. It did a fabulous job of playing dead when she put it down at my feet though. Tongue lolling out of its open jaws and everything. I popped it back down by the compost heap and hid behind a shrub to watch it come back to life ten minutes later. Marvellous creatures.

Today I made a note of all the gaps in the borders left by winter casualties, and planned and ordered replacements. I’m giving up on Achillea and Nepeta, and trying out Rhodanthemum and Erysimum (the longer lived type) in their place.

I mowed my very ratty lawn today, and spent all afternoon removing some new weeds. They look like hardy geraniums, and have bright cerise flowers, and they have completely taken over my pots and borders. I have had a few before but loads this year. They are, however, very easy to hoe and lift, so it was very satisfying.
I am eye up the boston ivy from my neighbour which has nearly covered my fence, and wondering whether to just poke them back over his side with a rake. If I have to cut it off, I will have to take it to the tip which will a pain...

VenusClapTrap - a geranium phaeum with much better (darker) markings on the leaves than the ones I have already, heuchera Plum Pudding (because heucheras are my latest obsession) and herb valerian, because I think mine perished over winter. Nothing very unusual but good doers, as they say!

I’ve just repotted my Sarocococca, Sweet Box. All around it were loads of little seedlings, so I potted them on. I do hope they survive and I can share them with friends and family.

Planted out some of my many pea plants. The plan was that about half would germinate but of course every single one came up! I've planted out 9 so far but there are another 20 that should go out in the next few weeks (and I gave away a further 60!).
I will be eating a lot of pea shoots in the next few months.
I also planted out some sprouting broccoli, dug out some Alkanet and raked moss out of the grass.
Today was going to be a rest day, well that failed!

I'm putting everything I can in the ground this week. Went to a plant swap yesterday and got rid of a load of stuff. It's steaming here today, so I've got my muslin curtains up, the workshop door open and the fan on high. Potting on peppers and sowing sunflowers, melons and beans.

We had a hard day yesterday taking some old breezeblocks and rubble to the tip and generally shifting stuff so we can paint the shed on the next dry day so today I’ve just sat in the sun.

Today I planted some broad beans and then finally took the plunge and put my name on the waiting list for an allotment! It'll probably be years before one comes up but it still felt both exciting and daunting 🤣.

Today I finished weeding the hot colours border, and then manured all the roses on the rose terraces. Some of them are full of buds and it looks like they’ll be in bloom pretty soon! Did my back in a bit, lugging the wheelbarrow of manure up and down the steps. Just the roses along the drive left to do now, but that whole section needs a big weeding session first.

I’ve got some gaps in my hot colours border, surrounded by Crocosmia Lucifer, Rudbeckia Goldsturm, dark red Hemerocallis, Peony Coral Sunset and orange Geums. Any suggestions? Contemplating Salvia, but which one.