What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

That is really interesting, thank you for sharing with us! I love hearing about all the different types of gardens. Mine feels very boring in comparison.....an average sized back garden on a housing estate in Berkshire 🤣. It still brings me great happiness though.

hi all. Bideshi here but on my phone so different name. I can’t access quote facility. Change pages not, indeed, post under Bideshi on my laptop. Site freezes but all my other things work fine. Anyone got any idea why or what to do?

Nor rather than not

Not much here. Pinched the flower buds out of the basil and oregano to prolong leaf production. Eyed up my bay tree trunks for another session of removing the dead frost bitten branches. That's it. Been a bit glum here and massively cooler than recently.

I finished sorting out my bed of roses. Got my garden designer son coming tomorrow and he will be appalled by my veg patch and my other rose bed, but at least he will be able to get up the garden to be appalled.

I deadheaded some sweetpeas from pot 1 (the other pot is later so no flowers yet) and yellow leaves from one huge tub of nastursiums .
Took away the seeds and fead flowers .
Still no sign of Cabbage White eggs but millions of black aphids . I don't want to spray them (soapy water) in case I do have caterpillars .

Deadheaded roses
Pulled up loads of bindweed
Next in the list is the brambles !

Hi to @CanaHouse , I am a little disappointed by Canadian gardens when I visit, lots of 70s suburban conifers and bedding. But the conditions are challenging. Although I have begun to quite like those types of schemes lately. They have a vibe, as my Dd would say. My Canadian friend simply did not believe me that I liked the goldenrod in my garden, to her it is a weed. Horses for courses.

I didn't have time for much today as I've worked a full day, but snuck out before dinner and repotted my morning glory into a very large pot and hoping it will flower soon.

decision time... I'm wondering if I should plant it in the border before it flowers and let it climb up one of the tall shrubs, or will it look a mess ....

Deadheaded all the roses. Put some plants into the new pond and planted a couple of marginals. Dug two euonymous bushes out of the new raised beds (totally the wrong place) and replanted them at the back of the garden, by our new fence which divides the scruffy compost-heap-and-brambles section from the very, very slightly less scruffy actual garden. Moved two sad-looking heathers to a much sunnier spot. Pulled up the hogweed from the lawn. Took delivery of 300 litres of rotted manure.

Pondered, for the gazillionth time, whether or not I should bite the bullet and plant rosa Kiftsgate to ramble across the garden wall and into a tree...

Knackered!

@MaxandMeg when you're on your laptop, do you have Mumsnet saved/have a shortcut to it? With the risk of sounding a bit IT Crowd, if you delete all evidence of Mumsnet, so any shortcuts, clear your browsing history and any cached data, then try afresh as it were, that may work?
Disclaimer- I am very very far from an IT expert, so if it sets your laptop on fire/brings about the Zombie Apocalypse I apologise!

@70isaLimitNotaTarget good luck with the brambles! I may have mentioned my battles with them a few times... there is a huge degree of satisfaction pulling them and the ridiculously long roots out. There are a couple I'm actually going to have to use chemicals on later in the year, as the stem at the base is thicker than my upper arm.

Gardening scheduled in for tomorrow. The bit of rain we've had now means the lawn looks like that leopard print frog they've just discovered in S America

Yesterday I picked yet more courgettes and dwarf french beans. I'm just freezing them now as we have a real glut. Luckily we have plenty of freezer space and I quite enjoy eating vegetables from the garden throughout winter. We're still using chillis that I grew last summer.....they freeze really well and are easy to chop from frozen and add to a recipe.

I also went through the border and pushed plant supports or stakes into the ground to mark where any herbaceous perennial is. My plan is to leave them there so I don't accidentally dig them up as I inevitably would once they're underground. I thought I'd killed my rhubarb last winter doing that but luckily it survived.

Today I have to mow the lawn and give things a good prune as we're having family over for a BBQ so everything needs a good tidy up.

@NorthernChinchilla Thanks. That seems to have done the trick. Deeply impressed although I'll give the Zombie Apocalypse another 24 hours to be sure.
A couple of days of rain like stair-rods here so not much done. DH has finished cutting the perverse parterre and planted about 40 more ferns in his the fern garden. Still haven't tackled the new bit of border earmarked for iris. Off down south tomorrow so I've just been cleaning the house all week for the dog sitter. Dead-heading's the main thing now.
@CanaHouse All those delicious Canadians like trilliums, sanguinaria, aquilegia canadensis, cornus canadensis! You need a shade area. Do you have to winterise roses? I know they do in rural Maine.

Did my first volunteering session this morning at a local community garden. Mainly deadheading and pulling up withered sticks of stuff, very satisfying though!

Came home to find a new strimmer had been delivered, so tidied up half the front lawn, leaving the other half wild.

I've just moved a few bits around, am getting braver at splitting established plants so I can fill any gaps.

I have a lovely blue perennial geranium that I've tried to dig a bit out so I can have it in two places. It's not looking very impressed at me now!

Have done some tidying up and weeding, need to mow the lawn but am stopping for a cuppa now.

Geraniums are usually pretty tough. I divided some (bought from the garden centre but split them before planting to try and save a bit of money) and thought I'd damaged them as they looked very unhappy but a good watering and some sunshine has perked them up.

Wielded the strimmer and cut back some of the encroaching wilderness. Tidied the pots on the steps and put in some nasturtiums for a bit of colour. Cut various herbs for drying.

Nothing today as it's been a bit miserable up here but I have a busy day planned tomorrow.

We have a boring old patio with no plants so I signed up to a vegetable growing subscription a couple of months ago so tomorrow I need to replace the bamboo stakes in my cucumber and tomato plants because they are growing like crazy! I need to cut back the dill and freeze dry some of it as I have an abundance. I also have 2 cape gooseberry plants to repot from seed tray to a bigger pot.

Then depending how tired I am after that (I have a chronic illness) I will be planting French beans, spinach and spring onions in the seed pots.

Joining this lovely, uplifting thread if that's okay? I've been thoroughly enjoying reading this thread and the previous one, especially as I've not been able to do as much myself recently after spraining my ankle.

We're in Carmarthenshire (in a rural location near Llandeilo) although originally from the south coast of England so gradually getting used to the damp conditions here!

Our house was surrounded by 0.5 acre plus of weeds, overgrown laurels and huge trees but not much of the flowering, pretty variety of plants when we purchased the property five years ago. It's therefore been our mission - apart from restoring the 400+ year old house - to create a garden, which won't be our first created from scratch, but definitely the largest. Along the way we discovered there were a few things we'd not noticed when viewing during January 2018 (a large acer and pink rhododendron spring to mind!) which was a pleasant surprise!

There's loads still to do, but so far we've planted more than sixty roses (mainly David Austins - our last house was not far from the DA nursery which we really miss visiting...and buying from - online is great but not the same imho) and all sorts of other stuff as well as adding some hard landscaping using reclaimed materials found on site where possible. It's quite hit and miss due to the challenging conditions, although we do have a great plant nursery near(ish)by that grows plants geared for our tricky weather 😉

Almost the first thing (garden-wise) we tackled was the walled courtyard which separates one side of the house (an old mill) from the main garden in order to make it a peaceful place full of colour and wildlife in which to escape from all our DIY building work. It's where we have our raised beds with herbs and a few veg.

We're now onto the part of the garden seen from our snug, which has till recently been the dumping ground for building materials and salvaged items. It's so exciting to be finally getting this done - looking out onto an architectural salvage yard was getting a bit old!

So, having had a trip out to buy plants - in the rain, yay! - yesterday, today (dry but dull) I've been placing them out ahead of planting tomorrow. There's a mix of stachys monieri Hummelo, lythrum salicaria Firecandle, persicaria bistorta superba, verbena rigida, ajuga Blueberry Muffin, geranium Blushing Turtle/Mavis Simpson/Sanguineum Striatum, thyme Doone Valley and primula bulleyana. Also I planted up some lavender into pots and put a replacement rosemary into one of the courtyard beds. There's some bargain bamboos (clump-forming) to get in the ground too but I'm leaving those for DH!

@LibertyLily I’m due south of Llandeilo, almost at the coast, it’s also very damp here usually, though it’s been incredibly dry lately. A good friend who is a great gardener lives up your way and we’re always amazed at the difference - my daffs, tulips, ceanothus etc are always a week or two earlier than hers - it’s always a bit colder where she is.

I’m very jealous of your roses. We have a tiny garden but have managed to squeeze in 17. Oh for more space.

We’re away this week in a cottage where the hosts are obviously keen gardeners, especially of veg so I’ll be taking notes. They’ve kindly told us to help ourselves to their bounty.

I fed and deadheaded this morning before we left so fingers crossed.

@LibertyLily I find that Persicaria looks great here for about 2 weeks then voles climb up the stems and eat the flowers leaving a sea of stalks. It does get about a bit too (which is nurserywoman's euphemism for somewhat invasive.)
I've just been and deadheaded roses as we're not back for six days and they'll look a sight. The rain is rotting them.
A fellow meconopsis addict brought me three plants of M. 'Huntfield' the other day which brings my number of mecs up to 19 - 13 different bigs blues. I need to lift and split and make more of them. If the weather's cool I can do it in July as well as in the spring.
I hate going away and leaving the garden. It's supposed to be a pleasure trip and I'm having to pretend to be looking forward to it, but I don't want to miss anything here. True obsession.

Welcome, LibertyLily. That sounds like a fantastic (although demanding) project. I like your plant list. I have a friend who lives not far from DA so we have promised ourselves a spree there.

I’m fond of persicarias (because they tolerate clay) although frustrated that Red Dragon has flopped over and swamped the new rose I planted in front of it. Think I’ll be buying even more plant supports …

I’m also obsessed and tend to spend holidays fretting about the (imagined) state of the garden.

All are welcome to join! I'm so pleased these threads have become such a happy place.

I have geranium blushing turtle too. It's so jolly and always makes me smile.

I cannot even begin to tell you all how proud I am of this little cucumber.

It's my first time ever growing vegetables! (Don't worry it was watered straight after)

Now after the agreement on the ridiculous geum names I really need to know what Blushing Turtle looks like!

Looks like your cucumber is doing the same as mine this year and going straight for fruit without bothering about the 'growing taller' thing first. That's a good number of cuckes you've got forming.