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?

Weeding

A little weeding and prodding

Armfuls of needles and cones into the garden waste bin (been in piles waiting for the bin to get emptied). Leaf sucker on the drive and gravel. Repotted an oregano plant. General tidy up. Will need to water the pots this evening. The few bedding plants that looked a bit sick when I potted them a few days ago have perked up a lot and look like the others now so that's good.

Also my 10kg of meal worms arrived. I got fed up of the retail prices for bird feed so ordered a job lot from a wholesaler. Bit of a scale fail. I know they're light but just so you know, 10kg of meal worms is big .

My neighbour got good results bird wise by scattering them across the lawn

I have a 1kg bag of mealworms and that's not small, so 10 kg must be a sack!

Which reminds me - must set this afternoon's portion to soak before the robin starts glaring through the window.

Have just been out to do a bit of desultory weeding of the block-paved driveway; total PITA and utterly unrewarding because in 48 hours it will look as if I hadn't bothered.

Staked up the rather floppy Wollerton Old Hall lurking at the end of the front garden. It has two (two! count 'em!) buds on it. Exciting.

Rearranged some pots on the back patio, picked aphids off all the roses, and am now sitting under the pergola in the sun, breathing in nemesia Wisley Vanilla...lovely.

I knackered myself power washing yesterday. All plastered in pigeon poop again today.Ive been wanting to clear out the weedy and I forget what else is in thempots but other stuff got in the way. I will do one at least after dinner. I decided that it would be better to just stick one thing in each pot, but that went off course as I snatched up 1/2 price summer bulbs and bedding the other day.
I have 2 spaces in a cool coloured south facing but slightly shaded border. It gets very quiet in late summer. Need to be robust because there are some thugs close by. Any ideas?

Zebracat how about a salvia or penstemon? Lots of purples in those

Think salvia might be the one. which is most robust? I had hot lips somewhere else and it died in slightly cold weather.

Took 9 month’s supply of prickly prunings to the tip, mowed a path through the wildflower meadow and potted 8 tomatoes into their final pots, using garden compost from the other end of the garden.

Oh god, pigeon crap - you have my sympathy. My patio is caked in the stuff.

Went on a tour of garden centres and was pleasantly surprised to find the local one we rarely go to is cheaper and has better plants than both the national chain and B&Q. We’d always felt it was expensive.

Bought and planted salvia and some antirrhinums and a few other things that I still have to plant. We bought a few new pots too and I repotted some of DH’s acers (under supervision, I’m not allowed to touch them usually).

We have a smallish oak sapling that has rooted in the border in the front of the house so tomorrow’s job will be to try to dig that out. I would love to have a garden big enough for an oak tree but sadly it has to come out.

I bought some gallery lupins and put them in a BIG pot I have so hopefully they flower over the summer. Couldn't resist a yellow geum too.

I still think it's a bit early but I've started putting my sunflower seedlings into the ground.

I'm trying to create a low hedge in one part of the garden, so bought a diosma, which is new to me, and some hebes.

The next job is to "wet and forget" the patio.

Sadly no lawn. We have a sort of patio bit and the rest is gravelled over dirt/ sand. I scatter over gravel to give them a bit of foraging to do and discourage fighting 🤣

Weeded round small lavender hedge, potted up some petunias and planted out my Nora Barlow. Staked a rose and a peony, and attached some more wiring to fence (I checked with the neighbours first!) to train all my Maid of Kent roses and jasmine.

The MoK I had at my last house was HUGE, planted two round the window and within a couple of years they were about 15 ft and threatening to take over the terrace!

@MidlifeWhatNow I feel the same about weeding our driveway we live on a busy corner and get loads of litter too - very irritating!

Lawn is cut back here now except for a bit DP couldn't be arsed to do and I'm putting more bits out in pots with the 'help' of the DC... DTS1 keenly planted a few things for me but forgot to water them, and looked bemused when I asked him to do it

Watered my roses that are all in pots waiting for keys to new house on Friday all being well. One is a Maid of Kent that my Dad dug up for me shortly before he died as it got too big for his garden, not sure where it will go yet.

I feel very much in garden limbo at the moment and desperate to get into new one and get started. It is a mature garden that was well loved but a bit neglected as the owner was ill.

@Zebracat to be honest they’re all a bit borderline when it comes to surviving the winter. Yesterday I replaced all the Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ that I lost this winter; only about 50% of them had survived.

Also replaced a beautiful deciduous Azalea and Loropetalum that didn’t make it through, and the Ilex crenata balls that last summer’s heatwave damaged. The borders look less gappy now. Fingers crossed for more favourable conditions this year.

@Seaitoverthere we were the same last summer, I'd bought and/or dug up so many plants in anticipation of our move, the new patio area looked like a jungle for months. Everything crossed you complete Friday.
MoK is amazing and a whopper- I'd taken cuttings of mine so I've a few years before they take over

@NorthernChinchilla I can relate to that 😀I wasn’t expecting to have such a mature garden and am now thinking where am I going to put it all ! One bed appears to be mostly full of crocosmia, sedum and Japanese anenome so I guess if I do some thinning there I can put a bit in there. My MoK has spent over a year in a large pot and is already a decent size, I’m thinking maybe on the house - the front is south facing .

Picked up the shredded lid of the meal worm container. Yes, I know I shouldn't have left it outside but it seemed sturdy enough so I risked it. Bad decision. Something (squirrel??) has chewed straight through the lid and helped itself.

Planted up some of what we bought yesterday then a large parcel arrived from an online garden shop. DH remembers ordering some roses but has no recollection of ordering a plum tree! We only have a tiny garden. We had talked about how nice it would be to have more fruit trees if we had more space but he must have added it by accident. It’s gone in a big pot for now.

Thought I'd replace the hanging basket that's by the front door.

Bought a new coco liner, came home and found it's not the right size (1/5 too shallow for the wire basket?). Annoyed but I'm going to continue using it and hope the plants will just grow big enough to fill up the gap.

Tied up sweetpeas,cleaned the pond, rescued frogs from plant pots,planted up some pots and did a bit of weeding