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?

@VenusClapTrap
red hot poker
Dahlias
Not sure if Lords and Ladies count, they're only hot colours once the flowers go over.

Red hot pokers are a good shout. Dahlias just end up as snail food in my experience.

And because they’re my obsession, how about heucheras? Lots of reds and corals available, although perhaps they’re not tall enough.

Yes not tall enough unfortunately. The gaps are middle of the border.

Day lilies?

9! I remember my mother who would sow the recommended 6inch trench with 2inches between peas, about 5m long. Usually two of them. No wonder she’d turn a blind eye to me and my friends feeding on raw peas straight from the plant.

I mowed a path through my lawn, 2nd mow of the year. And weeded a trug full of celandines and ivy leaved speedwell.

Already got loads of those!

Trying to keep on top of the ground elder . Im sure it has multiplied overnight.

Mowed the lawn - it's tiny and I've been cutting regularly for a couple of months now.

Planted out a tiarella, a dark leaved Jacob's ladder and a euphorbia in the front. The euphorbia was a cutting from a friend's garden - lovely bright lime colour.

Sowed some nigella, calendula and cerinthe directly.

Tonight I'd like to get in a climbing hydrangea for the wall that faces the kitchen window. I put one in round the side last year and it's just starting to find its feet.

@VenusClapTrap if you're after something tall and structural, how about a deep purple shrub like Smoke Bush or New Zealand Flax? They would be a good foil to reds and oranges, and make them seem brighter.

Hoicked out loads more of Brazen Hussy celandine 🤬, it reverts to the common version and spreads everywhere, and yet more sodding Spanish bluebells.
DH dug a big hole for a pieris that’s been struggling in a big tub, it’s got three probably 8’ tall trunks and leafy bits at the ends. I planted it at least 20 years ago. I backfilled with lots of ericaceous compost (we’re definitely not in an acid soil area) so 🤞🏻.
The back garden is looking pretty good even if I do say so myself, rather chuffed with my efforts.
Now to tackle the front garden …..

Reported baby plants. And a few teeny seedlings - of the dozens I planted, not that many seem to have made it!

Anyone else feel so much better for a little time gardening?

*repotted even

Although if I could have reported a few of them , I would!

I put some more lettuce and spring onions in my veg bed 1, also French beans under a cloche, though it may be too early… I have lots more in the greenhouse

I gave a stay of execution to three woody plants which I thought had perished over the winter - I was all set to turf them out of the pots, but detected tiny vestiges of life. Fingers crossed here too!

Checked over my currants and acer for scale bugs and found only 5, which is a marked improvement on the hundreds last year. It was worth wiping all the little fuckers off before they got all fluffy and full of eggs.

@ComeIntoTheGardenMaud fuschia by any chance? My normally prolific fuschias only have tiny signs of life and I'm worried

No, although one of my fuchsias which survived the winter seems to have perished in the later cold snap! These are my quite hefty lemon verbena, the pomegranate bush (produces one pomegranate a year, the size of a cherry) and a chitalpa.

Feeling very pleased with myself as yesterday I finally got around to digging all the weeds out of my raised beds! One had completely been taken over. It was supposed to be a "no dig" bed. I put cardboard down with compost on top and sat back to let the worms do the work, was ill for most of the winter with one virus after another, and in that time the weeds went mad! Digging that lot out was my punishment for letting the weeds take over! It was an amazing work out though.

My huge hardy Fuchsia (note spelling) has tiny green shoots at the base. All that top growth has clearly been lost.

I wouldn’t worry, you’ve got signs-of life, Fuchsias grow back well

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn - So, I ordered a Jersey online to go with my Blue Crop and it arrived today in full flower!

The Blue Crop looks nowhere near ready to flower so expect that I won’t get the benefit of cross pollination 😞

Wow - that is full flower. Find a bee!

I expect the bees/ insects will sort the pollination for you.Blue berries are also self pollinating, although having two is a bonus.

I dig holes. Two foot deep holes in ground with massive rocks and I feel quite proud of myself.

Our polycrub is arriving on Monday so last of the groundworks before we install it ourselves.

the dog is now asleep on me as if they did all this digging today and not me.