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?

Planted out some wildflower seedlings. Wrestled a huge fern out of an enormous pot and planted it in a bed. I dont think it will survive being manhandled tho.
Planted gorgeous daisies into a half barrel, to brighten a shady corner, checked on seedlings in greenhouse not ready to plant out yet. Weeded two big pots which have hostas in and watched the new tiny tadpoles wriggling in the pond.
Now in a hot bath!

Emptied some large pots of dead something???? Only to find vine weevil grubs, yuk! I do use nematodes, but they still survive! Sadly pruned the dead fronds from my palms, wrapped them up too late!
But was pleased to see the fuchsias sprouting.

I p,anted so echinops today but wasn't actually sure which way up they go! Does anyone know? I bought them from Wilkos.

Hoed and weeded, planted three pear trees, sat with a cuppa in the sun.

Went to the garden centre & bought a reduced miniature ornamental cherry & lime.
Cleared some bits of wood & broken pots - DH took them down the tip.
Planted my Vince Minor - though may regret that according to another thread!
Emptied some pots of dead plants from last year.
Cleaned & photographed some of DCs outgrown play equipment & listed it on FB for sale.
Topped up the potato bags with more soil as the shoots are coming up strong.

Vinca Minor! Bloody autocorrect!

Planted out five fruit bushes and strawberries, all in very large pots- will see how they fare!
Covered up a large border with tarp to kill all the weeds/grass so I can dig it out in a couple of months.
Split up some peonies (long story, thought it was one, it wasn't) so re planted those.
Planted a rose and one of the rogue peonies at the front.

Bought a new house last summer with a big garden and huge borders at the front, so been doing LOTS of back-breaking work the past few months.
Said to DH I love it, but will be glad when it's all established and I can just ponce about with secateurs

And also hot bath, ibuprofen and a gin, my usual post-gardening fix!

Frogspawn is in clumps and IIRC toadspawn is laid in strings.

Is it in a pool, and will the pool remain for several weeks?

If no to the second part, move it. If no to the first part it may not be amphibian spawn at all.

That’s why I’m puzzled. It looks exactly like amphibian spawn (in a place where a frog has been lurking) but I’ve never heard of amphibians laying spawn not in water.

Weeded the strawberry patches.

Finally cleared out my greenhouse of all dead things. Had some clematis cuttings I had taken whilst out on dog walks which did take, but due to my neglect died :( I was following the plant it and leave it with a plastic bag method, but I think they just got too dry.
I did pot up two of my three agapanthus plants my dd bought me for Mother's Day. I just have one more to do but need more compost so off to a garden centre tomorrow, and see if I can get a nicer pot than the one planned. The other two have lovely pottery pots, but the one I have planned is a faded blue plastic one.
I also cleared up some of the dead foliage, and planted some flowered bulbs from the pots I emptied for the above planting.
Plan tomorrow is mow lawn, sow some seeds and pot up the last agapanthus after a garden centre visit. Who knows what else I may find there😉

Do I need an edging tool?
I was thinking if using a hoe instead to mark straight lines for my borders.

If it helps, loads of people's seedlings are slow this year - unless they are grown in large heated greenhouses with lights they are likely to be slow going this year due to the weather - it is the same here in the South West of France. Don't panic.

Edging tool - yes my OH has been edging his beds and it makes a huge difference to having lovely smooth edges. I bought it for him years ago and he rarely used it but over in the new garden which has a large lawn, it is superb at keeping those edges sharp.

I think it's useful, I just use a half moon edger that I bought in Wilko very cheaply years ago. Handy thing!

Yesterday I watered everything in the greenhouse and dug up a grass from the border that is definitely dead. It's right at the back of my south facing border so I'm planning on just putting a couple of sunflowers there this summer to give me time to think what to replace it with.

Today I really need to weed the driveway and the gravel at the front of the house which I'm dreading. Probably my least favourite job.

• tried to decide if my potted wisteria is dead
• got v excited about the bluetits in the nesting box.
• felt perplexed about why my tulips are mutants. Literally the biggest tulips I’ve ever seen.
• felt a bit depressed that the garden is still nowhere near where I’d like it to be, not helped by building work.

Of course it’s OK. Britain has a pretty impoverished wildflower flora, but we have a moss flora to die for, and are one of the last refuges of Temperate Rainforest. OK your lawn moss is probably Springy Turf Moss Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, the dandelion of the moss world, but it’s still a moss.

Frogs will lay in puddles, which you can find later when the puddles have dried up. The females will drop unfertilised spawn if they are predated. You haven’t said whether you have a clump (frog) or two-egg thick long strings (toad). It needs to be in water, not necessarily a pond until you know whether it’s fertile. Does it have black dots in it? If not, it’s not fertile and could even be a slime mould. If it’s got black dots which turn white, it’s not fertile. If it’s fertile, the black dots will elongate, then they’ll start eating the jelly. It takes about a week to see separate head and tail.

Moss lawns are a thing in Japan - often alongside grass ones so the 2 different greens make river-like patterns.

Today I’ve pruned a huge Rosa glauca, and used the prunings to block holes in the hawthorn hedge to deter next door’s party guests from pushing through in search of footballs. I can hold a grudge for a long time.

It’s definitely spawn. When I first found it, given its location, I thought it was a slime mould but the distinct globules with black dots inside indicate it’s spawn (I’m now thinking frog). I’ve moved it to a bucket as an interim before moving it to the pond.

Definitely, it's the quickest and easiest way to make a garden instantly look smarter! Depending on the size of the lawn of course... my last garden had a long edged path all the way along the lawn which took ages, but it looked amazing after it was done!

I will embrace my moss lawn then... maybe i can see what varieties we have.
Today I visited the garden centre, made a container pond, potted up my tomato, cucumber and chilli seedlings, and continued digging over my patch of scrap that is due to get made into an extension of the (moss) lawn. With a lot of distractions to look at the flowers!

I had a lovely trip to the garden centre too. I bought some hardy annual seeds and a dwarf rhododendron....and also some pumpkin seeds on the insistence of DD1 who said she wants to grow a pumpkin for Halloween. I've never grown pumpkins before and due to having a small garden it'll have to be grown in a large container....any idea if that'll work? I bought a variety that said it was a smaller one!

What variety? If it's something like a Jack Be Little you can grow it up a cane wigwam to save space.