What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

I've made a decision, Bideshi. 😃 The Compte de Champagne plus another Desdemona to balance out the bed. The one I put in there last autumn is doing beautifully.

We were forecast a light rain shower through the night so I watered the garden. And of course it's now raining quite heavily!! The hedgehog has returned to the wood store and we have cows and calves at the bottom of our garden in the farmer's field. They are so lovely and quite brave, coming right up to the fence. It all feels very peaceful.

Don't worry, @ComeIntoTheGardenMaud the first year of a clematis is often indifferent, particularly the less vigorous varieties. They often look quite spindly and lack new growth.

keep them well hydrated and mulched during the coming growing season and I'm sure it will reward you next year. They do tend to be the precious little snowflakes of the garden. The exception to the rule is Montana. It's like a wild child from day 1 - I planted one the other week and even though it's been so dry, I've kept it watered and it's romping now. It won't flower until next Spring but it's looking quite robust on the rose arch. I also put some crocks (broken terracotta pot pieces) around the roots to keep them cool.

Oh yes, I know the drill. My magnificent purpurea plena elegans snuffed it after many glorious years, and the Kermesina I planted to replace it has taken about five years to take off. It’s just mildly frustrating that these other newbies are so slow off the mark, whereas the clematis I bought from the half price, half dead shelf at Toby Buckland’s garden centre has been unstoppable from the day I planted it.

I’ve not done much bar watering and picking strawberries for a few days, but I think the recent rain has encouraged all the weeds so I’ll be dealing with those next week (when it cools down).

I noticed some pieces of leaf stuffed into a little hole in my garage, about head height so can’t have been my children messing around. Any ideas if it’s some kind of creature?

Likely to be a leaf cutter bee, I think.

I'm still waiting for the White Cabbage Butterflies to lay eggs and let us grow the baby caterpillars on the two tubs of nastursiums I grew for them. I'm prepared . They are AWOL.

My Black Knight Buddleiah is Magenta not dark purple <sulk>

Milllions of brambles cutting today .

Picked peas, parsley, kale, a lettuce, and dug some new potatoes.
Pulled new marestails (I'm winning)
Planted some seeds of saladbowl lettuce, raddicchio and radishes
Planted out some more kale seedlings from pots
put layer of grass cuttings in compost bins.

I agree.

For comparison, the leaf-stuffed hole here is the work a patchwork leafcutter bee.

Plan for today:

Plant 3 buddleia to replace the 2 seedlings DH ran over with the mower
Pot up rocket, cress, wallflower.
Plant new crop of lettuce varieties, we've chomped our way through an entire crop in 3 days, they were so delicious.
Plant up my Morning Glory into a pot with canes or maybe I'll let it scramble up the rose arch and battle with the bindweed! Duelling creepers.

Weeds
Try but fail to strip away bindweed from the end of the border - it's rampant but I've lost hope of ever getting rid of it so just need to contain it to that part of the border.

Sounds like a good plan daishychain! Mine is similar regarding weeds! I'm going in with long thick gloves to get as much goosegrass from the Hawthorne and dog rose hedges as I can.

Then I have planned a little trip to the nice garden centre to buy a few six more perennials while they are still on offer at three for £18. Big, healthy plants which have been really well cared for. It's another beautiful day here 😍

It's looking set to be a hot and sunny weekend so I'm planning to try and get caught up with all the jobs that need doing. It is never ending at this time of year isn't it!

My iceberg rose has finally started to flower but only a few blooms and buds on it so it's a bit of a disappointing show this year. I can't tell if it's just getting old (it is decades old) or I over pruned it in January.

I've been busy harvesting new potatoes, rhubarb and courgettes. Some tomatoes and chillis are starting to appear on the plants in the greenhouse and the sunflowers are just starting to open up.

I've had a nice morning out early before it gets really hot inspecting everything and moving some pots around. Watering later this evening I think.

Ah, I'm going out watering in a few minutes, post boiled egg.
Need to do a bit of dead heading, and may pop out a few irises in the border.

It's gorgeous now, but set for 28 later on, at which point I will be hiding inside...

Potted up lettuces on an industrial scale while listening to the women’s test cricket. Mowed the “lawn” for the third time. Picked a whole punnet of alpine strawberries and another of garden strawberries . Squealed with excitement as I saw our flowering rush has flowered for the first time in 20 years - we moved it to deeper water last year and it seems to have done the trick.

@Bideshi Do you still find your garden too small? Everything I do - greenhouse, borders, paths, ponds - could do with being larger. I presume it’s like construction sets when you’re a kid - you buy the extension set, then your ambitions get larger, and you still don’t have enough bits. So I guess you’re afflicted like the rest of us?

@Defiantlynot41 You posted in the old thread that you picked mulberries today. I was amazed! Mine are only just in flower. I don’t expect mulberries until the raspberries and tayberries are over, and they’ve not started yet. I’m still on strawberries

I’m newish to gardening. I’ve always loved plants and flowers but never really had the time until this last few years. Now I long for a bigger garden with space for a pond and a greenhouse. I really envy those of you with bigger gardens ( although 6 acres might be a bit too much!).
I’ve dug a couple of new borders this year but I’m running out of space for new plants - the amount of pots on our patio is getting ridiculous.

@MereDintofPandiculation

@MereDintofPandiculation Ha! Yes I totally do! We do a lot of wandering round, with trees especially, not finding anywhere to put them and bemoaning lack of space. Then I'll go and visit other gardens and think 'Why don't I have a Paradise Garden' or a Chinese pavilion, or a small but perfect lake (for heavens sake!)? My big borders (did I say this before? sorry if I did) are 80 yards long and 18 feet deep , but nevertheless I can never find space for new plants.
My clematis plena purpurea died for no reason after about ten years so I'm wondering if that's just what they do.
Also my Icebergs are rubbish even though it's been a sensational year for roses here. I have a dozen of the as the spine of my white border and they've really let me down. I struggle with roses but thought Iceberg would be bombproof. I think I'll replace them with some Austin roses -'Claire Austin' or 'Lichfield Angel'. Or may that fantastic old white damask 'Mme Hardy.'
@BestIsWest There is no hope for you. You have been captured and are doomed to walk nurseries and garden centres for the rest of your life.
Good solution to a high class problem @catwithflowers You do need to squeeze the Lark in somewhere though.

Re stapled all the netting for the fruit cage and screwed it together so the bastard blackbirds don't eat all my blueberries.
Pulled up loads of euphorbia that sprang from nowhere into all my raised beds, then picked a tray of raspberries and the few strawberries the wood lice left for me.
The cucumber will need planting into a raised bed soon, but it will need a support and I CBA to make one yet. For now it's ok in a big pot.

@Bideshi I think my clematis in particular (I’ve lost quite a few over the years) are a salutary reminder that, just because a plant is a perennial, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to live for ever. Like the massive montana I lost when it had to be relocated for the fence replacement, it was spectacular while it lasted.

I’m now goggling at the thought of your big borders, each of which is indeed bigger than my garden. Jealousy is an ugly emotion, I know.

Wow @Defiantlynot41 that's an impressive haul! I've just got a small bowl full of golden raspberries, and the loganberries are ripening nicely.
Not grown fruit before, but I've put a a range of them in enormous pots down the side of the house, and am proud of what we've got so far

Justwaiting for it to cloud over so I can actually do some proper gardening without expiring. Funnily enough, after lugging approx 40 10l cans up and down a hill, I'm both sweaty and knackered. Love this gardening lark

@Defiantlynot41 I'm still eating last year's mulberries from the deepfreeze. I'm going to have to start looking up some recipes for them. Usually we just eat them on cereal, and I don't want to make mulberry jam as we already have masses of quince jelly and medlar jelly.

@MereDintofPandiculation sorbet or smoothies would use up a lot of mulberries

@Bideshi My husband is going away for work in a couple of months. I will have no one to reign me in 😂. I'm sure The Lark will find its way into the garden somewhere 😍

@Bideshi, very true! I can think of worse fates - luckily DH likes a wander round a garden centre as much as me.