What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

I need to go out and deadhead the first dahlia in flower. The rest are still in bud. I suspect I also need to redo the garlic spray - the clivia I put outside for it’s summer holiday has been ravaged by molluscs.

Ive been trying to resist the blandishments of Farmer Gracy and others offering early bird discounts. Ballerina are lovely, though. Orange tulips are my favourites.

I spoke too soon, of course. Only one and a half of the three nicotiana seedlings I planted out at the weekend remain.

Seriously disappointed with some of my Gardening Express 'bargains'. The bare root dahlias were as expected so I've potted those up for next year but I ordered a couple of perennials too which look very sad, badly packaged and one is completely finished for the year. They look like the cheap 'past their best' stuff you would find for 99 pence at a supermarket. Except they were £6 each. 🙄

But on a happy note, the first of my dahlias is flowering and loads more buds ready to open.

I’ve been disappointed with nearly everything I’ve ordered online this year - they’ve all been tiny, weedy specimens and not cheap. Apart from David Austin roses and a random damson tree that DH ordered which were all excellent.

Still hankering for more cosmos, so I ended up going to a community garden to see if they had any and they did with a 6-pack of mixed flowers for £2.50 - 2 x cosmos (10" with thick stems); 2 x rudbeckia and 2 x dahlia. All planted out and I'm just crossing my fingers the cosmos will bloom. Pinched the tops of them. The other plants had flowers on them, so I done those too so that they're encouraged to set root more easily.

The gardens there had wonderful lavender hedging and the bees and hoverflies were all over it. The marjoram was in flower too, so picked up a pot. They also had rows of wonderful rainbow chard that was ripe for picking. I don't know what' wrong with mine this year as they have been so slow in growing and the leaves keeps getting blotchy brown and papery - does anyone have this issue?

In the polytunnel they had this big peach tree dripping in fruit. How lucky they are to have such a fine specimen. I've not seen peach in fruit before here in the UK.

I tend to wait for Farmer Gracey have their 50% sale on their stock/bulbs - I got some last November of several varieties of tulips, narcissi and other bulbs. All in great condition and fairly good sized too.

Yes, I bought bulbs from Farmer Gracy then, even though I already had more than enough, because they have some fantastic varieties and the 50% off was impossible to resist.

I should add that the plant I did resist yesterday was salvia Nachtvlinder because, although I love the colour, I know it’s unlikely to thrive here. Two pink salvias I planted in a huge trough in the front garden about a fortnight ago have simply vanished.

@ComeIntoTheGardenMaud that's why I chosen it for my username! I tried to grow this twice, but it didn't survive last winter. Although, the other salvias I have (dusky pink one and Apricot) have done really well, and grown in similar sheltered positions. I saw it growing in a big swathe in a community garden last week in the ground amongst other plants, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Ha! I imagined the opposite - that you’d chosen it as your username because it grew prolifically in your garden!

Took a party of 25 round the garden. It's difficult to know how to pitch these guided tours. They always say they're fantastically keen and knowledgeable gardeners so you assume a basic competence only to be asked 'Whats that shrub?' and it turns out to be a bog-standard hydrangea. They all seemed to enjoy it, but nobody bought any plants, even the ones they queued up to photograph in the garden and asked if we sold. It's a mystery. We're cheap too.

Ballerina and Aladdin are my favourite tulips but the lily-flowered ones are the least likely to do a second year here. Actually it's a bit early to plant tulips - they're fine going right up to Christmas. We do ours in late October and that lessens the likelihood of tulip fire blight. I need to choose four different
tulips to do the Perverse Parterre. It takes about a thousand- sigh. I need to top up my Crown Imperials too.

Another party on Sunday - wish they weren't booked in for tea and home-made cake. On the other hand, I could put the money I make into more tulips and Crown Imperials🙂

@Bideshi your garden sounds fabulous. Are you allowed to say the name on here as I know it's south West Scotland and we are in Northumberland so not ridiculously far away. I would love to visit! Strange that your visitors knew so little about plants! Maybe they were lured by the cake 🤣

My mother in law recommended a garden (and stately home) to visit in North Yorkshire but when we looked at the prices, it was SO expensive. £45 pp. And no tea or cake included.

My tulips and other bulbs aren't actually being delivered until mid September but it's my husband's birthday in September and the ballerinas are a birthday surprise. So sadly I can't wait for the discounts from Farmer Gracy 🙈

That must be disappointing, Bideshi, and I must say I find it surprising - when our gardening society goes on an outing, we generally hoover up all the plants for sale, because everyone loves a souvenir.

I usually plant tulips in about November. I don’t know whether Farmer Gracy were proposing to despatch orders now or whether these would be pre-orders (much as I hate that word) for delivery in the autumn. I certainly wouldn’t want them to arrive now, not least because I’d probably forget about them between now and November!

@Bideshi oooooo I'll be travelling through cairnryan next weekend and love a good plant bargain!!!! I've found the plants with the best success in my garden are those locally grown. We have an ace plant sale at the kids school - all the plants I get from that do tremendously well and I usually kill my garden with love...

We had the most amazingly tropical downpour last night, amazed the house is still standing, never mind the plants!

Being a nerdy researcher by nature, I have made a long list of all the plants that suit our slightly odd conditions (thank you RHS website and its filters...) cross referenced it with what I've got, and used that for the basis of what will be bought, moved, or put into pots. Don't want to be wishing the summer away but can't wait to get planting in autumn.
The collection of candidates by the back door is growing larger...

And here’s me just assuming you liked “night moth” as a username

My mother in law recommended a garden (and stately home) to visit in North Yorkshire but when we looked at the prices, it was SO expensive. £45 pp. And no tea or cake included.

Per person?! We used to live in North Yorkshire and we go over for a weekend sometimes but I can't think of anywhere quite that expensive.

@ErrolTheDragon I mistyped that!! Apologies! It's Newby Hall and I've just checked again. It £28 pp for the house and gardens tour if you pre-book. £30 on the door. Still not cheap though!

Finally got around to tidying up the edges of the lawn borders.

Ground had been too hard until our recent rains.

It’s similar at Castle Howard, but (top tip) we discovered there’s a 50% discount for Art Fund members.

We used to have a season ticket for newby hall when we lived over there, it does have very nice gardens, but haven't bothered with the house for years so I can't remember what that's like.

But I've just checked - it's a member of the Historic Houses Association. In the past we didn't think membership was worthwhile but we joined this year - not sure if there are more properties in it now or if the prices have changed but we're using it a lot. Its nice to just be able to drop in somewhere localish for a shorter time more often as well as big days out. It's £103 for a 2 person membership so you don't have to use it often to break even. And there are quite a lot of properties we didn't know about - ones only open a few days a week or month.

That’s worth knowing! Newly Hall looked lovely when it was on Antiques Roadshow recently. Generally, I’m trying to cut down on memberships, but the time may come when we run out of National Tryst properties to visit. Could I sound more middle-aged?

I’ve given up with my tomatoes and cucumbers this year, binned the lot. My three courgettes have been completely decimated in 72 hours by something eating them, I have no idea what, no slugs or snails evident. My runner beans seem to be doing well but one pot of dwarf french beans has had nearly all its leaves eaten 🤬, yet again no snails seen. All very odd.
I cleared out the greenhouse yesterday, moved the resident toad to the damp border (I honestly don’t know how it survives in the temperatures there) so it’s looking tidier.
My two dahlias in pots aren’t looking happy, I will turn them out and check for vine weevils.
Not a lot of success this year!

We're early 60s, DH is retired and I'm part time so memberships are excellent for us. We got the RHS one this year too- the introductory offer price was less than Harlow Carr (which we were visiting) and Bridgewater (which I wanted to go to) so it was a no brainer. (And then we found ourselves wanting somewhere to spend a day between Portsmouth and Cambridge. Wisley was in the perfect place!). Probably won't bother at full price next year.

(Although as we're happily married I don't think we'll be needing the National Tryst one )

Was at the D'Arcy Thompson Garden in St Andrews ( a cottage garden behind a small museum). Will retry to upload photo again

The garden also has bee hives