What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

Yes, exactly that!

I've got a signed copy as a thank you for DHs leek and potato soup when she did our garden design and it is indeed an excellent book. I love her pithy and down to earth observations. Also loved her Telegraph column which ran for many years at the weekend. The book was renamed to Gardening in your Pyjamas btw.

Love this

Today I've harvested some potatoes and cherry tomatoes. I've also cut back some of the foliage on the pumpkins.

I turned compost bin 1 and it had settled right down after being full so I topped it up from compost bin 2. It's doing well but needs a lot longer to compost down so I'm hoping to get it to a point I can leave it to do it's thing while I work on filling compost bin 2.

I did a bit of weeding the border but then DD called me inside and after that it started raining (yet again!)

Chillis in the mini greenhouse are starting to turn red so I think I'll be picking quite a few later in the week.

Went to visit another Yellow Book garden. Hartside alpine nursery had a stall there (which was why I went). I bought:
Roscoea 'Harvington Imperial'
Primula 'Tantallon'
Corydalis 'Blue Line'
Anemone trullifolia 'Pradesh'
DH bought a couple of highly priced and minute ferns for his fern garden.
Buying plants makes me really really happy. Tomorrow I'll have to find places to put them and that makes me happy too🙂

Picked today's veg.
2 courgettes (one mutant, one giant)
One massive spiky cucumber.
Hand for scale

I just took apart a pot of summer tender perennials which wasn’t really working. Nearly all my cannas seem to be sulking.

I took out a weird step/path on one side of the garden, cut back a few things and then attempted to dig out the millions of montbretia corms that have spread themselves around. A willow has self-seeded under a fence post which is really awkward to get out but it's where I want to put the greenhouse eventually so it's got to go.

Bloody knackered now!

Went round picking up slugs and snails - there were loads. They've been eating my squash plants. Picked 2 courgettes. The garden used to be buzzing with moths, ladybirds, hoverflies and lacewings but there's hardly any insects this year.

We've recently moved into a bungalow with a fairly large garden front and back that was once the pride and joy of its owner but hasn't been properly looked after for the last few years.

Todays big job was digging out 7 rose bush roots and clearing a corner of the front garden, we've regained about 1/3 of the path and no more sidestepping thorns. We've planted one David Austin rose (we bought with us) in a more central location away from the path and we're planning a Hebe collection around it.

Front lawn strimmed (it was long) and mowed.

A lot of work ahead of us.

Mowed the lawns just now. I don’t know if it’s the weather or what but I swear it has grown 6 inches since I last cut it 10 days ago. Front lawn doesn’t need doing but is mostly not grass.

Our cannas are not happy either.

Planted a foxglove & Pulmonaria under the cherry tree. Pulled up some bindweed & deadheaded the buddleia.

We are on holiday in Dorset and today went to Abbotsbury subtropical gardens. Just stunning 😍 And the weather was fabulous too!

That sounds fabulous!

We've finally had some good weather which means my tomatoes and chillis are starting to ripen. Lots and lots of green fruit still so hopefully there's a lot more to come if the weather stays ok.

I planted a verbena and a hardy geranium in my one and only flower bed (small garden) I'm fast running out of space in that border it's jam packed and I want to dig up more of the lawn to give me more planting space but DH is huffing and saying DDs need the grass to play on. He's sort of got a point, they're still very young so they're at the wanting to play out in the garden stage. I've put my name down on the waiting list for an allotment instead 😂.

I bought a new cordless strimmer last week and have been perfecting my lawn edging. I never thought I’d be saying those words ! It’s tricky but I’m getting better. Cut the grass and strimmed all of the pesky edges around the shed and other areas that I normally have to do by hand. It’s looking lovely. A bit of weeding tomorrow and it will be ship shape. Next job is to re felt the shed roof and give it a lick of paint.

Visited the gardens at Arundel Castle ( very lovely) before driving home from our holiday. Read half of Gardening in Pyjamas which had arrived in my absence 🙂Sales must be soaring!

What's the battery like on your cordless strimmer @Anjo2011 ? Do you get a reasonable amount of time on one battery charge ?

@daisychain01 , morning! It’s 40 mins so ample time to do the front and back garden. It’s a Ryobi, you can purchase with different batteries so you can pick one that works for you time wise, I opted for the 40 min option.

Today, so far I've been doing "mucky" jobs - I pulled the weeds around the patio, cleared the drains and scrubbed out the brown bin (badly needed!).

After a shower (once teen dd vacates the bathroom!), I intend to enjoy a fresh pot of coffee in the sunshine! I also want to tidy up French beans (hanging off their stakes and flapping), check courgettes, clip back the vine (choking other plants) and harvest tomatoes and possibly a tiny handful of peas. We plan to bbq tonight as the weather is nice for a change, before it changes again tomorrow.

I’m sitting in the sunny porch with a cup of coffee, going through my seed stock so that I know what to order this autumn, and separating out the things that I will grow an extra batch of today (winter lettuce, landcress, couve tronchuda, cavalo nero) and need sowing next month (sweet peas, Knautia arvensis, Clarkia).

A bit more tidying today, cleared the weeds from the block paving and planted a few trays of Violas into pots.

I planted my latest roscoea after much deliberation. I am sorry to say that last night I put some slug pellets down - one or two hidden under stones. This morning it was slug apocalypse. I hate doing it because we are 98% organic, but I was losing irreplaceable plants mostly back up meconopsis from the National Collection at Holehird.
Pottered about and pulled out a few weeds, but mostly I just stare at bits of the garden wondering how to tweak things to make improve it. I spend at least 2 hours a day just staring. And another hour thinking about changes.
I'm also wondering what seed to order. I get some from seed exchanges and some from Jellito in Germany. Occasionally something from Plant World seeds in Devon or Chiltern seeds in Cumbria. It's keeping things manageable that's the challenge.

Hi @Anjo2011 thank you, I'm very tempted! I've been trying to find a smaller strimmer for ages. We have a big petrol one, for doing all the heavy duty stuff, but I'd like a lighter one and the Ryobi ones I've just found on .Amazon look perfect. Just need to decide on the battery size. 40 mins seems very useful 👍 thanks for the Recommendation!

Very little gardening today, but I have watered and fed the pots. Still willing the cannas and dahlias to flower. Hey ho.

I’ve got DH digging out a huge clump of crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and Sanguisorba hakusanensis (bl… thug too!), then a clump of irises- they’re a fibrous rooted version, beautiful blue flowers but again taking over everything. That corner of the of the small back garden will look so much better!
It’s been drizzling on and off but we’ve just had a short downpour., no watering needed tonight!