What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

I have a ra see tiles area with pergola over at the end of the garden. It is also under a tree and unfortunately that tree is constantly raining sticky things and leaves and of course birds hang out in there. So I generally keep the furnished covered, but realise the faff of taking the covers off mean I don't go back there often.
So today we tried to do a clean up. The tiles really need a power wash and I'm going to get bamboo (like the rolled fence type) to put over the pergola to reduce future mess.
Other than that my nasturtiums are taking over! They are HUGE! Grown from seed but planted too many.

Right then, I'll go back and get some of the peonies if you all reckon they'll do okay! I don't have a massive space but could possibly get one or maybe two in a bed that gets morning and early afternoon sun.

Today I've repotted a spearmint and an apple mint and removed shoots from a small sycamore stump. Too hot to do anything else for now.

Any sure for tips for killing sycamore btw? Have tried drilling holes and painting with neat glyphosphate, and some stump nails but they seemed to have had no effect so far.

Fire?

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn I love it! Sadly it's right next to, as in touching, a dry old fence. Which is in turn next to a decrepit wooden outbuilding. The whole lot would go up! 😂

Angle grinder? I saw a gardener in a local park using a pick axe to demolish a gnarled old tree stump. Rather him than me. <weakling>

Lovely afternoon at Aberglasney though I’m frazzled now. I think they’ve been struggling a bit with watering like the rest of us. Photo doesn’t do the rose arch justice but the smell was amazing.

Oh dear, I feel awful! Reassure me? My daughter showed me a hole in a bag of topsoil with a leaf inside it, and showed me the bee buzzing around. We have leafcutter bees, so I asked if she'd seen the bee there earlier today. She said no, the bee has only just come. She wasn't here yesterday. DD is six. I misunderstood her, so I pulled at the hole in the bag of topsoil and found the bee had definitely started a little nest. Then DD explained she'd been watching the bee for days and she'd been back and forth for about a week, just not yesterday.

Obviously I've now left well alone, but I am kicking myself.

Small glazed pots are lovely for hardy succulents though, a nice freedraining gritty compost, group them together somewhere they won’t get knocked over, and so many pretty succulents to choose from. They even look cute if you have one or two on their side with the plants tumbling out. Or auricula, I could get hooked on them, such gorgeous little things, all so individual.

(walks away smugly,my work here is done, those pots will go to the ball be given a role to play.)

@LostAtTheCrossRoad Bloke with a stump grinder?

@@catwithflowers Lark Ascending is absolutely lovely, and it makes such a big floriferous rose. I've been after it for a while but David Austin seems to sell out quickly. But either would be good. Difficult choice. I managed to get the other one I've been coveting which is 'Tottering by Gently'. Single yellow, repeat flowering.
We've been in the Daily Telegraph - blue poppies picture that a professional photographer punted to them I haven't seen it and probably won't.

You’ve done well with bringing up your daughter. It was watching flowers and mosses at a young age that led to my adult interest in botany.

Remember that the positive effect on nature that your daughter will have as a result of your teaching will far outweigh a single mistake.

I spent a good two hours or so in the garden. Mowed the front lawn and pulled up some weeds which were sprouting around my pots. I dead headed my roses. Watered all my pots out the front. I was just watering the ones out the back when a shower started. When the rain eases off, I need to go back and water my last three pots. I'm not sure if the shower was heavy enough to soak the soil. I also need to put my bins back into their normal position - I moved them out of the side entrance to get my lawn mower through.

@WellTidy I made the same mistake of buying small pots at the beginning and for the same reason (cheaper). Like you, I realized that the bigger pots are so much better - taller so you don't have to bend over so much when it comes to watering, wider and deeper so the plants have a better chance to grow and spread out, higher in terms of the plants being closer to eye level etc. So I've some smallish pots lying around with nothing in them. I might plant some dwarf narcissi in them come the autumn. @viques I wonder if succulents would survive a cold Irish winter? I live in a part of the country with very hard frosts in winter, although we don't get a lot of snow.

The lupin I bought at the garden festival has come back to life and is sporting a beautiful flower. It was touch and go for a while.

I've developed a real love for hydrangeas these past two years. I mean, they've been in everyone's garden for as long as I can remember but it's like I've only just noticed them. Only thing is, I live in a lime area so I'd end up with pink ones - I really love the blue ones. I invested in a runaway bride this year. It's a good specimen and flowering really well. Also roses. My neighbour has a gorgeous deep red rose. I was admiring it while I was doing my garden. I've two rose bushes out front and they're a peach colour.

I also spotted a lovely achillea in a pot when I was visiting a castle recently - it's a cerise colour. I'm putting it on my want list for next year.

Two lovely purple flowers have sprouted in my back garden. They may well be weeds but they're quite attractive. I did plant some flowers last year in that spot but I was under the impression that DCats had dug everything up. I need to download that plant identification app.

I'm off to a plant and cake sale on Saturday. A winning combination .

@BestIsWest what a beautiful rose arch.

I'm really enjoying the gardening chat and I'm totally in awe of those of you who are proper gardeners with sizeable gardens who grow things from seed etc. Just wondering how you manage if you go on holidays? Have you someone to help with watering and deadheading?

@MereDintofPandiculation, that's such a lovely way to see it - thank you! I really appreciate the reassurance.

Two lovely purple flowers have sprouted in my back garden. They may well be weeds but they're quite attractive. I did plant some flowers last year in that spot but I was under the impression that DCats had dug everything up. I need to download that plant identification app. You could just post a photo here. The most recent app id on this board misidentified an Allium (monocot) as a dicot, the other side of the big divide in flowering plants.

Just wondering how you manage if you go on holidays? Have you someone to help with watering and deadheading? I have DS who is plant-blind. So I avoid holidays at critical times, move things into the shade, get everything into the ground that can go in the ground, and leave things standing in an inch of water on the grounds that it takes longer than a few days to rot roots.

And dead heading isn't critical to plant health, so I'd never ask anyone to do that for me.

I took off some overhanging branches off the laurel bushes, and a burberis shrub.

Ripped out some brambles from the conifer hedge and pampas grass. I upset next door's cat as he was hiding in the pampas 🙄

I then tidied up the miniature blossom tree and removed some dead leaves from it.

Deadheaded the pansies.

I finally put the garden tools back in the garage and noticed that my amaryllis bulb that had been in hibernation for the last 2 months had grown a large green leaf so watered it profusely and put it back in the kitchen window in the hope it might flower again 😀

Not a bad couple of hours work really 😁

I hauled the pots in the front garden into their new positions, although I have yet to tackle the heaviest pot, which may be unhaulable. I also labelled the dozens of plants I’m hoping to rehome at a local festival.

Coincidentally, a neighbour and I were chatting today about watering each other’s gardens during holidays. I think she’s going to try to recruit some others into a watering circle (like a babysitting circle for plants).

I haven’t done much today other than unpack some plants that arrived this morning, going them a good water and leaving them in the shade to recover.
For the first time in over 45 years of growing them, my tomatoes are a disaster.
Four are expensive grafted plants, three were bought at the garden centre. All are in tomato growbag compost decanted into very large pots. I have watered, fed etc and one plant has 1 tomato, the others are flowering but look really pathetic. Not a happy bunny! Four are in the well-ventilated greenhouse, three outside.
At least my roses and clematis are beautiful 😍

I've sat in my garden today and watched my DH do the watering. My rose campion has started flowering which I'm pleased about. We had one years ago which disappeared (I suspect his nibs of being over enthusiastic with weeding) and I couldn't remember the name of it but saw it at Painshill Park and searched for it and now have one.

I have also been admiring my new potting shed and planning on what I need to put in it. And we bought a beautiful rose last weekend which I need to go and buy a new pot for.

We go away next week, and DH has been instructing DD on what she needs to do watering wise 😀

I’m disappointed in my new clematis, just because they’re still only a foot high. I think I need to step up the watering.

@Bideshi You aren't making this any easier 😂😂

@Taytocrisps we moved just over a year ago to a house with a very large and beautiful garden. There is a lot of work involved but it's what my husband and I both love doing.

We made the mistake of going on a two week holiday in May and have decided not to do that again 😬 There is too much to do in the gardens around that time. So now we have decided to take holidays when the garden needs us the least!!

So now we have decided to take holidays when the garden needs us the least!! Glad i’m not the only one!

I think it’s a common thing among gardeners but, whenever I go on holiday and however much I enjoy it, I still have a niggling worry about what’s happening in the garden.

Sorry@catwithflowers I know, but, honestly, I've got the same preoccupations, obsessions and worries as any other gardener, plus a lot of my own. I absolutely love hearing about everyone else's plants and gardens, failures and successes, so don't resent me please😳
I've gardened since I was little and I had to do something with all this land which came with the house. I started and it just sort of grew.