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?

i regretted purchase from high profile mail order company the year before (got totally different colour from that ordered and they bloomed haphazardly)
These were mostly Lidl, and cheap!

Love those tulips.

I had a delivery of Erysimum and Rhodanthemum from Hayloft. I’ve taken a risk and planted them straight out into the garden instead of potting them and growing on in the greenhouse for a bit. I might regret that.

My irises are out. They are so beautiful. Lovely to see the big blue flowers after the bright yellow daffodils and red tulips.

I’ve stripped everything edible from the Aztec broccoli, 9 headed bird or whatever it was in my biggest pot so I can change the soil and plant out a courgette in it

That’s the sum total of today’s gardening. Apart from watering porch and greenhouse and taking the kitchen compost bucket down to the compost heap

Our meadow lawn is just about to burst into bloom. First couple of ragged robin and yellow rattle flowers are out, but loads more things are absolutely covered in buds.

I’ve panted out some annuals, I’m pretty sure the frost may have gone. Sad to see another big Cordyline seems to have bitten the dust. Squashy trunk, bit I might give it the chop and see.
on a positive note the Azaleas are blooming beautifully, they were cheap rejects several years ago.

Planted*

I've potted up my new herb garden, weeded one of the beds and planted a new salvia and astrantia. Dh savaged the weeds in the wilderness at the top of the garden and dug out random tree saplings.

I've braved it and planted two of my pumpkin seedlings outside in a very large container. I've kept back some others in the greenhouse in case the ones outside don't do too well.

I’ve wasted a good gardening day on having someone over for lunch.

We went to a plant fair and bought onions, walking onions, peppers, a Paul Robeson tomato, a salvia, 2 heucheras, and various other things including a hydrangea quercifolia - an oak leaf hydrangea which we've been looking for since we got here. Very happy with that little haul. All planted except the onions which will go in tomorrow as I'm beat.

Pulled out the last of the tulips and planted out my bedding plants. Swept up a tonne of pine needles and for cones. Committed ant genocide with the bait traps. Moved a few tubs around. Worried about my azalea- not many flowers.

Spent the morning conservation volunteering including heaving out a whole lot of tree prunings that some mindless idiot tipped in the pond, came home wet, muddy and smelling of pond. DH went to bed (he had been working harder than me) while I potted up 3 courgettes in soil barrowed from the compost heap at the far end of the garden, then sorted out all the pots that overwintered on top of the woodpiles. I won’t be doing much else tonight.

Not much gardening activity today, but I collected some nice old pots bought on Facebook and watered the new planting.

Started work on a border of doom along the south facing side of the house. Erigeron karvinskianus has been allowed to go feral in there, and swamped roses, Dierama, Sisyrhinchium and Sedum. They were all still there, struggling along underneath. Now they can see the sky again. There were a lot of annoying brambles bumbling around in there too, so my arms are scratched to ribbons.

Also swept the patio under the pergola and scrubbed the table and benches there. A funny smell turned out to be a cache of rodent corpses under the table, probably left by a cat. Nice. Once transformed back into a pleasant place to be, we then had our first alfresco lunch of the year down there. The white wisteria I planted on the pergola two (three?) years ago is colonising it nicely; maybe next year it will finally flower.

Today I did my weekly lawn mown and edged with kitchen scissors. I love haphazard planting but I love a nice neat lawn. It looks lush and green. One of the rare times in the year when it isn't a sodden mess or baked dry.

Rodent corpses? ((faints))

@VenusClapTrap I was feeling very despondent about my pergola of doom, but I’d take pigeon shit over rodent corpses any day of the week. Well done for powering thru on that one. Love a white wisteria. Mine has the climbing Generous Gardener. It used to also have Clematis tangutica but that seems to have died in the frost, no sign of it at all.

I’m inured to rodent corpses through years of cat cohabiting (let’s not kid ourselves its ownership). I thought one of these was a rat at first, because it was massive, but the furry tail revealed it was just a humungous mouse. Or possibly vole. We have our fair share of pigeon shit too, Zebracat, so I feel your pain on that.

Generous gardener is a good ‘un. My pergola also has Super Fairy <stupid name> on it, which has finally reached the top after lots of encouragement.

Thatsn0t I applaud your scissor edging. Love an immaculate edge. Mine has gone wonky and it is distressing me.

Or possibly vole Voles have short tails, easy to recognise from that.

Yes, it was hard to tell if this one was chomped off or just short. It had been… mangled.

Potted on the sunflowers as they had gone a bit gangly

Another round of yanking nettles out by their roots

Sat with a glass of wine in the sunshine

Planted out the haul from the plant fair yesterday and today- lots of hardy geraniums and some kaffir lillies which are new to me, and a few dianthus.
Got a random rose and some iris too.
Did the feeding today- only do it monthly, takes 1.5 hours!

But everything is about to burst into flower, so excited for my first proper summer in the new garden!

Oh, and got my first insect bite of the year, summer is definitely round the corner

I took the bubblewrap down from the greenhouse