What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

Sounds like a good, pragmatic decision, Bideshi! Good luck with the watering cans. It is utterly exhausting.

Not strictly garden, but I painted the door frame and a bit of the woodwork on the front of the house while it's good glossing weather.

Whilst watering, I found a ripe strawberry and a ripe raspberry, and a few redcurrants the birds missed. I’m planning to go out in a bit and choose one 15 minute job. I’m kind of hoping that I will get sucked into more. My dog died yesterday and I need the distraction but lack motivation.

I finally got to speak to the neighbours to ask if I could go round their side of the front fence to cut back my hawthorn. It looks much better now cut back to the fence line, and they were never going to get round to it. I also pulled out a load of cranesbill geranium that had finished flowering and cut plants back from the front path. Now I am knackered and sweaty but feel I've done my bit to make the garden look a bit less wild.

I'm sorry about your dog, Zebra. I hope the garden provides solace.

We have a hosepipe ban

Wouldn't normally be too concerned but the garden is big, in full sun, and on sandy soil. More importantly everything has been planted in the past 9 months. I'm going to lose SO much of my hard work, especially when we're away on holiday.

Not anywhere near your loss though @Zebracat

To potentially lighten the mood though, standing in the kitchen, I exclaimed "DH- twatburger is watering his garden!" Forgetting our back door was open. Think he heard It just popped out!
Apologies for the language, but they disturb everyone's peace letting their dog out that yaps soooo loudly for ages, have wrecked their beautiful house with eyebrow windows with the world's worst extension, plus various other things, and now unsurprisingly think hosepipe bans don't apply to them

I’m sorry about your dog, Zebracat.

Ive just filled the gap in one of the big planters in the front garden and have decided to swap some of them around, on a cooler evening. Our adjoining water company has just introduced a hosepipe ban (possibly the same as yours, NorthernChinchilla) so I’m getting jittery. The long-established plants will be fine, I hope, but I did a lot of new planting in spring to replace winter casualties.

Ate my first picking of mange toute. Delicious.

It's raining here! Proper, heavy rain. I never thought I'd be excited about rain but there you go. No watering for me tonight. I'm going to put my feet up and watch TV. Sorry for those of you facing hosepipe bans and especially sorry to hear about your dog @Zebracat.

Just 0.25mm here so far, but more forecast overnight. Might finally get something in the new waterbutt.

Thanks everyone. Could not be arsed to garden. Comfort eating seems to be the distraction of choice. Very envious of the mange tout, they look delicious.

@Zebracat So sorry to hear about your dog 💔. We lost our beautiful 13 year old retriever a few months ago. Hope you can find peace and distraction in your garden over the coming weeks x

@Zebracat [Flowers]

We had a tiny amount of rain last night but nowhere near enough. There are still great cracks in the lawn.

Just been out to dead head and noticed my Generous Gardener has flowered for the first time. Smells glorious.

Weeded. Again. I hate it, it's never ending. 😔

Watered. It's now 48 days since we had rain. In the wild all my Himalayan plants would be revelling in the monsoon now. Inverewe head gardener came a couple of weeks ago and bought all my 'Inverewe'primula. They keep losing theirs but can't really not grow them (it's a National Trust garden). I thought Oh it doesn't matter because I have a nice colony going in the garden. Nice colony now have leaves that look like Ryvita. It's a miffy plant anyway - sterile and probably carrying a viral load, but it's a lovely thing and I don't want to lose it. Whorls of tomato red flowers on heavily silvered stems - nothing quite like it.
I've been giving the 20-odd plants can after can but they are visibly degrading.

Hoping for rain tomorrow but it'll take a lot. We dug a metre down looking for a buried pipe and it was dust right down to the bottom of the trench.

On the plus side the roses have never been better. It's a rubbish garden for roses really - they don't like mild and wet. This year they're sensational.

Oh, and DH usually clips the Perverse Parterre but he's decided he's got tennis elbow. Looks like I'm in the chair😕

Oh @Zebracat I'm so sorry about your dog. I love my garden but my dogs are my number one joy givers. I've lost a lot of dogs over the years so I know just how you feel. It's awful, isn't it?

We had this little visitor tonight 😊. Walked across the drive and into the wood store where he could hide until dark

Picked strawberries and raspberries and will admit to eating quite a few of them as we picked. Sprayed the Plum tree which has fruit but is struggling with aphids/whitefly. We are watering everything in the garden and greenhouse every evening at the moment as we are raised bed/container growers. I can just see the start of broccoli heads, the baby cucumbers are full of flowers, the courgettes are full of flowers too and I am delighted that the basil which I have grown from seed is thriving after never being able to keep the potted stuff from garden centres. Need to make some pesto now 😃

Wow, a little hog! Not seen one in our garden yet. Lots of butterflies though, especially red admirals, who are dancing in pairs in the sky. One even landed on my husband, although they prefer sunning themselves in the middle of the desert lawn. Also had them as late as November and then in Feb!

Finally had a bit of rain, and due more later today. Once Father's Day has been administered I will be out weeding, feeding and deadheading.

@Diversion our new apple tree had a terrible infestation, I ended up just removing the leaves. What spray do you use that's suitable for edibles?

Ystd I moved a few plants around in pots, I've successfully grown sweet Williams from seed so moved them to a large pot (they'll flower next year).

My mum bought me some plants Ystd, a couple of salvias and this one that Ive forgotten the name of already 🙈 so I put them in.

Glad of the rain we're finally getting!

That’s a Sisyrhynchium. Not a clue which one, but it’s one I grow

I love it. Ok mostly it’s couch grass and Herb Robert, but you find all sorts have seeded themselves. And sometimes you meet a frog

Yay! We have rain! About 1mm yesterday, another 3mm overnight, and more forecast for this evening (though they’ve taken our promised thunderstorm away). I’ve brought the hammock in.

I watered the greenhouse this morning and it was so quick! Just 4 cans. And no need for the other 12 cans to do the outside stuff.

I love weeding too. I have a little weeding stool and I can happily sit for ages pulling out the couch grass. It’s almost meditative. As for cutting down brambles, my family laugh because at the mere mention I’m there with my secateurs. Hate the things.