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?

@InMySpareTime I already have a couple of Cotinus in the adjacent borders. I do love the dark reds though, and we have a huge copper beech at the bottom of the garden, so I’ve got a few things dotted around in that colour to tie it all together. Phormiums wouldn’t quite work for my current gaps though, because I’ve got too many spiky plants already (red hot pokers off the list too now I’ve thought about it). Now considering Cannas. A faff in winter though.

Did loads of mulching yesterday, and moved some Geranium Rozannes that swamped their neighbours last year. They are now getting rained in nicely.

I have a circular island bed in the middle of my lawn with a vintage bird bath in the middle. It’s heavy sticky clay, I’ve tried all sorts of planting combinations over the years and it’s never really worked. Idly wondering about swapping it for a circular formal fountain. Dh would never agree, like he’ll never agree to a swimming pond. He’s not watery.

I’ve been continuing to ponder on what might suit you, VenusClapTrap. Persicaria famously do well in clay soil and I’ve got several romping away here. Red Dragon is tall and won’t wreck your colour theme if you remove the flowers.

Got thoroughly soaked today , but we’ve prepared an area to lawn seed (trying a thing I saw on instagram, mix bag of seed with a bag of compost, water and leave to germinate, Iv got it covered in a wheelbarrow!) planted sweet peas . Transplanted poppy plants that had grown on a heap of earth that’s moving tomorrow. My SIL has almost finished my veg plot 🙌 membraned round the raised beds and put down the shingle. We’ve got a raised drain cover in the lawn , so plan is to put an edge round it to make a tiny bed , cosmos I think ?!? And pop a very old bird bath on it with cobblestones . Now feet up and thinking about wine 🍷

Bought some geraniums, begonias and marigolds to plant in the front borders once it gets a bit warmer.
Got a nice hanging basket.

Been too wet to do much so been spending money instead.

I could really do with a new shrub in the back garden. Got a space in the corner. Wouldn't mind something summer flowering.
It gets the sun a few hours on a morning but shaded in the afternoon. Something with pink or white flowers.
It could climb as I do have a section of bare fence there so would be nice to cover that eventually.

Any good ideas?

How shrubby is shrubby? I had a pittosporum growing happily in a similar spot. I’ve very recently moved it and am going to put a hydrangea in its place. I’m a recent convert to hydrangeas; I’ve never liked the mopheads but they are great doers for shady places and don’t seem to mind clay.

Too wet in the garden to do anything, so went to a garden centre instead & bought two blueberries, two ferns, a Fuji Cherry & foxglove- all from the reduced section, plus a little hazel plant.

Too wet here to do much but bought some trailing plants to go in with dahlias in pots.

Too soggy for gardening today so I’ve been filling a basket with plants online.
We had some landscaping done at the start of the year, and made the border up the right side of the garden wider, so now it’s warmer I’ve started digging out the grass ready to fill it with new plants. About 2m done, only another 12-ish to go 🫣

If anyone has recommendations for fairly low growing shrubs I’m all ears. I’m more a fan of interesting and colourful foliage than flowers. South east so clay soil, and this is a west facing border.

Persicaria could be good, thank you Maud. I will add it to my list.

Blueeyedpoggle how about a Chaenomeles? Geisha Girl is especially lovely. It’s spring flowering rather than summer though. Weigela? Philadelphus?

I visited Kellie Castle gardens today, and came home with some thalictrum! Hope they survive my slugs...

@Imicola . My thalictrum are untouched by our numinous slug population. I love them. I sat in the garden today with a cup of tea. Iwill walk up the top later and look at my seedlings in the greenhouse. I call it planning.

Blueeyedpoggle how about a climbing Hydrangea?

SBAM low growing evergreen Hebes have interesting varieties of leaves and little flowers are a bonus.

I've done absolutely nothing in the garden today other than sunbathe, drink a beer, read my book and watch DDs playing nicely together outside for most of the afternoon. It's been great! 😁

Potted up a few more plants for the decking. Cut back my daffodils, did a fair bit of weeding out the front. Learned how to prune a few plants (new to gardening and have inherited a few plants). My lovely neighbour has been so helpful! Also binned a few plants that died in the heat last summer when we weren’t there to water them. Watered and fed everything that’s still living. Need to go and get more compost and think we might be almost ready for a few bedding and hanging basket plants in Scotland now.

I potted on seedlings, planted my haul from the local plant swap but (curses) stumbled as I walked to the front of the bed, trod on Charles Darwin and snapped off his best branch. Sob.

Cleared some weeds from the patio, potted up some cuttings that had taken, and continued the never-ending battle with slugs with beer traps, garlic spray and scissors. Made DH mow the lawn. Read my book in the sunshine and dozed off for a bit.

@SBAM doubt it's everyone's cup of tea but Farmer Gracy were advertising a white feathers hosta that looked very interesting. Foliage grows in white and matures to green.

I've planted out a dozen plants and 2 shrubs. Still as many left sitting on my patio... Looks like a garden centre.

One of my beds today was more like quarry mining than gardening, so here's hoping they survive.

That's good to know. It always worries me buying a new plant as they do sometimes just get decimated overnight. Not quite sure where to put them yet!

@Muststopeating they definitely fit the brief for interesting foliage, thank you! I’m not sure they’d do well in the border since it’s very sunny and dry in summer, but I do have a shady corner that needs sprucing up.

Looking out for greenfly.

Yesterday I planted up all my patio containers and hanging basket. Hopefully I've not done it too early and we're past the cold weather now. I'm on the London/Surrey Borders so in a generally milder bit of the country.

I had so many trays of plants around I just needed to clear some space. Now to try and protect everything from the slugs and snails - I don't use pellets because of the wildlife around us.

I finally remembered to buy sweetcorn seeds yesterday so will be planting them today.

Still as many left sitting on my patio... Looks like a garden centre. My Mum was like that! She always had a stack of pots on the terrace of plants waiting to be planted. She also had a "cuttings row" in the vegetable garden, where she stuck cuttings in the hope that they'd root. By the time I left home, it had grown into a hedge!

Oh don't!! I've only been gardening for the last year and I swore I'd never have seed trays round the house and (non decorative) pots all over the patio... Here I am!

A lot of what's left is for the hanging baskets which I can't plant out yet as North Scotland, so hopefully that'll help. The rest... I still have a huge amount of work to do to extend borders etc so who knows when that'll be done.

i eat a lot of citrus fruit. I save skins and place them around the stems of vulnerable plants. It worked with my dahlias last year. Planning it with courgettes and sunflowers this year.

Can I stick my head above the parapet and ask you all to consider not mowing the grass for the month of May? I am gritting my teeth and not doing it, as the wildlife needs the plants/weeds more than I need a manicured lawn.

How to take part in No Mow May 2023 | BBC Countryfile Magazine | Countryfile.com