What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

As someone who is very, very new to gardening this is a fascinating thread.

I was out all day so I just watered the plants when I got home. There's talk of thundery showers but they haven't arrived yet. It's been cloudy but warm. There was a tiny bit of rain earlier but not enough to water the plants.

Our roses are doing ok- we have a few yet to bloom but DMs hydrangea is nowhere near flowering.

Watered everything. That's about it, but includes the new turf dh laid at the weekend over the patch where the dog has been digging and peeing, so took a while.

I'm disabled and dh has built me a lovely herb garden on a table by the back door so I don't have to bend over. So I was able to cut herbs to go in the salad for dinner - parsley, dill, rosemary, basil, thyme, coriander and chives! Was very tasty!!

Watered watered watered. Tomorrow can pick the nasturtium flowers for salad at lunch!

Watered. Stuff is really struggling now, especially Asiatic primula and some meconopsis. We've got quite a few newly planted trees and it's so important to keep them watered for the first year at least. On the whole I don't believe in watering the general established stuff, but this summer's really taxing that.
Planted my Itoh peony and some white sangisorba in my white border. The garden's swamped with the scent of philadelphus - it's making me feel a bit headachy.

I don’t believe in watering established plants either, but it’s so dry now that everything is drooping and so I’ve been out tonight with the hosepipe. No sign of the promised rain here.

We've just had some rain - under 2mm, so still some way to go before the waterbutts are refilled.

My hydrangea do not flower this early in the season - I have several varieties from the big blousey globe shaped flowers to the more delicate lace top.

They all flower around late summer, but perhaps that's due to how I prune them as I leave the previous year's flowers on (albeit they are dead then), right up until April until the last risk of frost and then reduce the total size of the bush by around 30% to keep them compact.

Currently they have nice healthy growth but flowers haven't yet formed - I am certain the dry conditions haven't helped.

I'm with you on that - I try to mulch like mad over the winter months while the plants are dormant such that in Spring when the sap rises they already have water retained from the Autumn/ Winter rain to sustain them. The past 2-3 years we have had some prolonged dry spells lasting over 2 months which would deplete even the most moisture-retained soil.

I remember during the first C19 lockdown with that exceptionally hot summer in UK I was even soaking my hydrangea with bowls of washing up water (the small amount of fairy liquid didn't seem to do any harm!) because they were looking seriously distressed. They're pretty bomb-proof and revived quickly,

I watered all the flower beds and pots last night then went round to my DM's and did all of hers. Then we had torrential rain in the night which has started up again. I also left all the bedding on the line overnight which is now sodden.

Hello I’d love to join as my garden gives me so much joy. It’s north facing and fairly small but I’m chipping away at it by adding borders and putting in plants to suit the heavy clay soil conditions.

It gets a lot of sun this time of year but takes a while to get started and always seems to be a few weeks blooming that everyone else. I moved a peony that I must have planted well over 5 years ago and it’s finally flowered. I’m so thrilled as I know they don’t like being moved but it wasn’t getting enough sun.

I was wondering about my hydrangea. Last year I had so many flowers and deadheaded them all around March and I’ve just noticed this morning some buds are forming now. Hopefully it will give a repeat performing as the flowers lasted well into October.

We have had rain! I’m so happy. Though I too left the washing out overnight. Sun forecast later on and for the rest of the week. I’ve got some potting on to do. Zinnias and geraniums and something that won’t flower till next year.

Scuttled out this morning to do the last bit of weeding before it got too hot, and I was still sweating horribly at the end. Also nursing seven insect bites from last night, little buggers actually got at me through my linen trousers. So need to remember garden protocol of deet AND jeans.

I love my garden and allotment.
This morning I’ve planted out the runner beans in the front garden (no space anywhere else!) DH eye rolled but I think they are pretty enough, and better looking at them than the path/road.
I’ve also watered the greenhouse, rain yesterday and overnight re-filled the water butts so I was thankfully not to have to trek up to the house and back multiple times.
Minipop sweetcorn planted out. It’s growing with courgettes, yacon and tomatoes in a mixed bed. I also put 4 spare plants into the front garden.
Watered all the pots, harvested some kale, also a baby cucumber and some strawberries/pineberrries. They didn’t make it inside though.
Allotment later for more weeding and watering, and I’m also going to plant out all my spare tomatoes there.
Need to harvest the gooseberries, probably to freeze for jam-making in the autumn. Garlic and onions need lifting at some point but not before the end of the month, then I have gilfeathers turnip-swede seeds to go in. Phew!

I didn’t grow half the things I wanted to. Wish I didn’t have to work frankly… gardening is much more enjoyable.

Had a plant swap table at church so I offloaded a load of self-seeded stuff from the garden to new homes and ended up adopting what was left at the end which is mostly strawberries, a tomato and a verbena. I'll put them in somewhere or try to keep them alive for the next plant swap.

"Wish I didn’t have to work frankly… gardening is much more enjoyable."

Same here @LaMariposa

Iv had a bit of a mad moment , got family here for the weekend, husband son and grandson are going to the arcades. Daughter in law and little one are asleep . So Iv cut back a huge bush of I think California lilac that’s finished . Two rose trees are fighting for light and it’s swamped a bleeding heart amongst other things . So it’s back to stumps . It’s bin day tomorrow so had to be done ! But also filled 2 huge grab bags , so I guess it’s off to the tip for me tomorrow. If I can persuade the hose to work , I’ll water after family leave at bedtime.

I am very much a novice gardener and it's only really the last couple of years that I've really gotten into it......since we bought our house with a decent size garden (well, decent for a garden on a housing estate anyway!)

I've learned a lot though from threads on the Gardening forum, this is a lovely corner of Mumsnet.

Sorry, that was a reply for @Florissant

Hello 👋 baking here now. Tried to do as much watering as poss this morning before it got too hot and planted a couple of Hollyhocks that were in the garden bargain bin. Discovered one of my borders is the midnight feasting area for muntjac. Gutted as my hydrangea had some huge flower heads waiting to bloom (the first year its flowered) and they hate the heads off 😒 I worked so hard and I'm a bit demoralised tbh as every night they come back and eat more. First time they've done it in the five years we've been here 😔

Nothing. I've given up. I'll water my pots later but essentially it's in the lap of the gods. We've had no rain since the 2nd of May and the sort of plants I grow just don't tolerate that. Having said that my Big Borders look fantastic and no doubt will all be flattened when rain does come. No garden visitors today either - it's just too hot.

I am so sad about your iris with no soul. Maybe you could play it some Aretha…..

@viques I noticed the typo when I read through earlier and it made me DYA! Soil, bloody soil...

I'll wait till later and go out and water, too hot to do anything of use.

Hi @Florissant there’s no hope once you’ve been bitten by the gardening bug. My teens actually gave me the nickname Demeter!
Today I’ve watered, weeded, planted two rhododendrons, dead-headed, and removed multiple snails.

Thank you for the kind responses. This is a lovely thread.