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 walked through the garden to get to my car this morning, the scale is all wrong ! We moved in late last summer, so my plan was tho leave the big beds and see what happens . There are 3 very pretty pink shrubs , but you can see they will be drowned by some huge leaf plants . So I’m guessing that I’ll need to move the shrubs in the autumn? Yesterday I planted 2 pots and realised that the fuchsias I got are trailing , so will need to buy something tall for the middle of them ? Main thought for today in between working is getting hose sorted. Enjoy your day 😎

Here in Melbourne it's the last week of autumn so spent ages grubbing up clumps of seeding grass. Autumn and winter are boom time for weeds, no breathing space as we had in the UK.

I'm going to finish weeding & tidying the edges of the rockery, drill drainage holes in my new pots, and subsequently repot a lavender.

I've a tonne more weeding to do in various beds but I can't face it today. And the patio cracks need redoing too. Pfft.

As we're away next week, I wanted to get as many plants into the garden before we go to give them the best chance of surviving a week without watering.
Put in the final foxglove, 2 almeria, an iris, a fern; & 4 strawberries.
Repotted a chocolate mint; a hollyhock, nepata, & a valerian.

Planted out some more peas, as only one of the original 9 plants survived the ravages of snails.
Dug up the last of the woody, bolted, parsnips which would have been delicious if I'd actually harvested them months ago.
Dug a load of alpaca poo into the rest of the raised beds and trimmed half a wheely bin off the bay shrub.
Now sitting out in the sunshine listening to the bees.

Bark chipped my new raised beds, and a section of border that I’ve already weeded.
Picked some salad leaves for dinner - first home grown thing of the year!

Home grown stuff is just the best, isn't it? I picked some spring onions and radishes yesterday to have as part of a salad.

Today I've planted three dahlias into the border, given everything a feed with blood, fish and bone as well as planted two spare courgette plants in the flower bed to just take their chances. I've got two other courgette plants, each in a pot so I'll just see how they get on. Knowing my luck I'm going to be feeding the whole street with courgettes this summer 🤣.

Just picked and dried yarrow. Too tired to do much else

Planted out French beans, beetroot and courgette into raised beds outside. I grew them from seed, that have been gardening off outside for the past few days. Also planted out some tomatoes into the greenhouse, gave it all a good water and weeded the asparagus.

hardening off. not gardening off.

I went out to de armpit and twirl my polytunnel tomatoes and it was so hot I had to go for a lie down after 10 mins.

So when it got cooler I weeded an outside bed and will do tomatoes later in the week. It's my chuck it in bed, so any old seeds get thrown in there, I just needed all the weed seeds to germinate first before I start chucking things in there.

I've also started planting out my straw flower, agastache and monarda seedlings around the place.

Dug out more sodding brambles. The two front borders, which are huge, had just been neglected for years and years. Gardeners cleared it, and it was the one time I have used weedkiller (or rather gardeners did) after things had been cut.
Lots of sycamore trees, buddleia, ivy, brambles, etc.
Surprise snowdrops got to bloom for the first time ever once the stuff was removed, and am slowly clearing out the remaining crap by hand, and planting out a variety of bee-friendly plants. It will take several years to sort! Leaving a few brambles as DD likes the fruit.

I'm a bit obsessed with species and old-fashioned pelargonium so I put a few more of those into terracottas for the summer (P.Ardens and P. sidoides). Still got a few more pots to do and a few more pelargoniums to accommodate.

We got a load of plants from a nursery that's going out of business, some big mature specimens so I decided where to put them - good white azalea which must be 20 years old being the best.

Watered, but the watering can's sprung a leak so most went over my boots. Looked up Hawes galvanised cans online (to replace leaky one) and found they are £69. Sighed. Looked for a less Monty-Don-type can but then went and nicked the one down in the nursery. Finished watering. Smuggled can back.

Yellow Book opening on Sunday so made a list of Things Still To Do. Spent 25 minutes looking for my secateurs which were eventually found with my specs on top of an olive pots. Came in reluctantly because it was getting dark.

Don’t scatter meal worms! They are toxic to hedgehogs who may eat them. The five them a calcium leaching bone disease and their numbers are already low. Bird seed should be ok!

I finished tidying the new patio, 🥰 and arranged the pots. Moved 5 tubs of strawberries into full sun, weeded and trimmed them, topped up the composts and gavel them a good feed and water. Lots of flowers so fingers crossed.
Trimmed the edges of the back lawn, attempted to dig up more of a horrible hairy spreading plant that gets everywhere ( can’t remember the name, orange flowers), I’ve been fighting it for years, it’s infiltrating the path and borders. Resorted to weed killer in desperation, don’t like using chemicals but i have had enough 🤬
Weeded lower patio, got out cushions for the swing chair, parasol for the table, now need lots of sunshine!

It's my chuck it in bed

I like the sound of that! @AlisonDonut What grew in your chuck it in bed last year?!

@Bideshi I love species pelargoniums. Sadly I lost several this winter as it went below freezing on one of my greenhouse benches 😭 but I treated myself to a lovely new one at Chelsea yesterday. Fillicifolium. It looks like a fern.

We only moved here 18 months ago so it was grass last year. I have now put two kiwiberries in, have a hazel lattice made from cutting back newish sprouts from the hazel behind my big office shed which has sweet peas on it at the moment. I've also dug up wild onions and planted some in there. And put thyme in. And some marigolds. All will be left to go to seed and will drop seeds there for future use.

My shed is where I sow all my seeds and save and dry all the seeds for future years. So when I get bored of cleaning lettuce, celery, onions, beetroot etc, instead of throwing all the dry bits and no cleaned seeds in the compost I'm going to chuck it all on the chuck it in bed as well.

When seedlings sprout I'll dig them up and move them to the veg beds when they are big enough. Just saves me time, space and compost to dedicate a bed to this.

Spent 25 minutes looking for my secateurs That’s why I currently have 5 pairs of secateurs and 4 trowels. There’s always one to hand, and I can leave the errant ones to turn up in their own time

OMG yiu’ve just reminded me I’ve left my trowel on top of next doors wall.

@MereDintofPandiculation Yeah but these were Niwakis and a present from the husband. They have twice given me blood blisters by getting skin caught in the folding mechanism. They are scarily sharp but I don't love them like my old Felcos. And you're supposed to oil them with camellia oil🙄Agree about trowels, weeding forks etc although I do tend to have favourites.
@VenusClapTrap Serious pelargonium envy. I need that one. I use things like Uniniques and Scenteds in my big pots. Tomentosum makes the most fabulous specimen pots but it was the one I lost last year and it seems in short supply. This year I've got big terrace pots planted with Scarlet Unique, Lady Plymouth and Clorinda. Three plants of each in a big pot and they'll be brimming over by mid-July. Idea pinched originally from Levens Hall where they do fantastic containers. They're also maintenance-light which is brilliant because I have so many pots and tend to lose interest in them at a certain point. But they just carry on doing their thing. Do you have P triste?

@Bideshi Well, clearly you need a "cheap" Felco pair for run of the mill pruning to save your Niwakis for stuff that "really needs a sharp blade"

Alternatively ... would he actually notice if the ones you were using weren't his?

I hate that thing of skin getting caught. It only ever happens when you're doing something awkward and concentrating hard and squeezing extra hard, in other words, the worst time to suddenly feel pain

Ooh, VenusClapTrap. Carol Klein was fondling P filicifolium on the TV coverage last night. I lost lots of fancy pelargoniums (pelargonia?) because I was too slow to bring them in for the winter, but spent a happy time yesterday evening browsing more.

That’s interesting about Niwakis, Bideshi. I’ve noticed on gardening Twitter that many professionals seem to have abandoned their Felcos in favour of them. I was thinking of asking for some for my birthday, but perhaps not.

Before work .... trundled round in my dressing gown.

Potted up a variegated shrub from Facebook...can't remember the name, holly shaped leaves but isn't a holly.

deadheaded some late daffodils.

Moved all the squash out of the greenhouse to start hardening off.

... wasted far too much time wandering around identifying birds with my newly discovered Merlin app!