What have you done in the garden today? Part 3

[ThreeRingCircus]

The old thread was filling up so I've created a new one!

Link to old thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/gardening/4823202-what-have-you-done-in-the-garden-today-part-2?reply=128367673

I got a bit freaked out by last years nasturtiums- total triffids that made a complete takeover bid. By late September they were making me feel a bit queasy when I looked at them . I didn’t plant any this year though I’ve pulled up a few where they’ve self seeded.

Hacked back a climbing rose that had finished flowering and fear I may have gone too far. It made a nice screen between us and our neighbour and now I can see him pottering in his garden every time I wash up.

Nothing much else to report. Eaten some potatoes and loads of tomatoes from the garden. It’s just been weeks of dismal rain and cold.

Our allotment is not terribly productive, but we did manage yesterday to eat home-grown potatoes, apples and figs.

I buy a mixed packet of lettuce seeds from Real Seeds I think. Mortons secret mix. Butterhead, cut and come again, oak leaf, green, red, red and green striped, and all possible combinations thereof. It makes lettuce growing fun.

Today I need to have a tidy up in the shed . Hope it stops raining .

@SarahAndQuack I love everything about Rosa glauca. Foliage, stem colour, the deep pink flowers and the way they complement the leaf colour…

A question for Rosa glauca fans: do you prune it? I’ve tended not to, which has meant it’s become very, very tall with all the flowers and hips well above head height. I pruned one branch last year, which prompted some new growth, so am thinking of being more ruthless this year. Should I?

Long time lurker... some advice welcome. I've totally neglected my tomatoes this year to the extent that they're languishing in their 10cm pots (outside). If I put them into tomato growbags today will anything happen or are they a total lost cause?

What I've done so far - finally bought a Charles Dowding calendar and planning to get out in a bit to sow some pak choi and cabbage for spring

I’m no expert on fruit and veg growing, but my gardening mantra is nothing ventured, nothing gained. The consensus on the allotments yesterday was that tomatoes have been held back by the erratic weather, so I think there’s a fair chance that, if you plant yours out, they might catch up - especially if the sun returns.

I popped out to the garden centre during my lunch break & got some reduced plants: Nemesia Wisley Vanilla; Geranium Sanguineum & Phlox Emerald Cushion Blue.
The nemesia made the boot smell lovely!
Have realised I will need to move my hydrangea once we develop another part of the garden.

@MereDintofPandiculation - yes, it's beautiful! Very underrated, I think. The open habit is gorgeous.

@GertrudeJekyllAndHyde IME they are very robust. One of mine put up with being hacked out of very stony soil, most of the roots left behind, and of course I pruned it to almost nothing because the roots were so limited. It's just fine a year on. I'd say the only issue with pruning is to be careful where you do it, so you don't lose that lovely open shape they get.

Thank you, SarahAndQuack. I can’t prune it to the ground because it has a clematis growing through it, but I will be bold!

@APurpleSquirrel I love vanilla nemesia! I had a big pot of it on my patio a couple of years ago - great wafts of ice cream.

If I put them into tomato growbags today will anything happen or are they a total lost cause?

Green tomato chutney?

Watched a bat flitting back and forth over the front garden, which we've turned into a tiny meadow and is full of moths.

We have bulbs in at work! Such a lovely thing. Summer has been absolutely rubbish and I could very happily close my eyes to the calendar and pretend it's autumn. I know we might still have another hot patch, but does anyone else want to skip straight forward to planting bulbs and raking up leaves and smelling the woodsmoke? Just me?

Yesterday was lovely and sunny, and today the same, and my water butts are full. What could be better?

I’m still hoping for a last blast of summer warmth - it looks like we might have some here today - but I agree about the joy of bulbs. We sell them at the garden club and I love all the boxes of potential and the alluring pictures of yet more varieties I feel I have to try.

'Boxes of potential' is just perfect! Yes.

It is sunny here, but crisp too.

I might have said before that over the last few years I’ve become hooked on tulips. There’s something about the several times life size photos of Ronaldo and Prinses Irene that’s irresistible!

I bought Prinses Irene last year for my brother and SIL (I made up some planted pots for their new home). I've never grown it myself - I take it you recommend it?

So far I have ballerina and Black Triumph (which comes in lovely big bags of 40 for 12.50, and is like a darker version of Queen of the Night). I also got a load of crocuses - I've got sieberi 'firefly' and will add some more. I initially bought it because it's very tough and mice don't seem to like it as much as some, but I slightly wish I'd been purist and got tommasinianus.

I'm taking a deep breath and I'm going to buy some scented narcissi as well. I'm in the early stages of splitting up with my partner, who hates the smell of them, and I'm hoping it'll be a little tiny marker of new starts.

I have a long-standing love affair with Prinses Irene. The colours are my idea of perfection. I’m also devoted to Ballerina because it lasts for several years in a pot.

I buy ‘black’ tulips every year and am often disappointed - so many turn out to be a muddy mauve - but am trying again with Ronaldo. (It’s just occurred to me that I should look for last year’s order, because whichever black tulips I bought my SIL were gorgeous.) I don’t grow many narcissus because I’ve turned the pots over to tulips, but I love Thalia. If I could find the ideal black tulip, I’d combine them for black and white pots.

I’m very sorry to hear about your separation but, as you say, small steps towards a new start.

Thanks.

I know what you mean about 'muddy mauve' tulips. Does it depend on soil, do you know? I always think my mum's Queen of the Night come out much darker than mine, but can't quite be sure - hers are planted against a privet hedge so have a lovely dark green background, and I'm sure that helps too.

just returned from the allotment, runners are going bonkers now, soon get to the usual point when no-one I know wants any more! (I've never had much success with freezing them).
Outside tomatoes getting a nice bit of colour, have so far managed to dodge the blight that seems to be affecting many on here, fingers crossed.
Picking the last of the sweet corn, onto the smaller second (and occasional third) cobs and picking decent crops of both climbing and crawling french beans. Parsnips and purple sprouting looking good, horse radish has done it's usual attempt to take over the world, at least is smothers the horsetail that blights our plots.

SarahAndQuack - All my tulips go into pots filled with a mix of peat-free multipurpose compost, grit and John Innes (more recently replaced by homemade compost). I wonder whether the muddy mauve is to do with light levels. Most of the pots go into partially shaded positions. I might try putting Ronaldo in the sun!

We’ve just had our first tomato from the allotment.

I find Queen of Night (no 'the' @SarahAndQuack so it's obviously not referencing The Magic Flute) always flowers black for me. I wonder it is a soil thing@GertrudeJekyllAndHyde . I haven't done anything about tulips yet because DH and I have a twice yearly robust discussion about the squares in the Perverse Parterre. We plant them in colour blocks - tulips now, but it used sometimes to be blue or white bedding hyacinth with yellow or orange tulips. DH has decided he doesn't like the hyacinths and he has strong views about colour so we need 5 colours that we can both agree on that all flower simultaneously and are roughly the same height. It's not easy and usually involved truce and the restoration of marital harmony.
I've got an orange bed in Mary's Garden, which is my cottage garden area named after my mother. So thank you for reminding me about Ballerina and Princes Irene - they'll be just perfect there. My favourite lily-flowered tulip is Aladdin, though.
Can't do crocuses @SarahAndQuack : voles. But I'm smiling at the comment about Tommies and would be the same. There's a particular sort of thrill about growing the wildings (but only if they're decorative - I'm not that much of a purist!)
I've cut a big thicket of Rose 'Capitaine John Ingram' back to base this morning. It's hugely overshot it's allotted span and has a big clump of nettles in the middle of it. It's also subsumed a very good dark red tall alstroemeria and, although I'm not that keen on alstros this one's worth rescuing.
The rose garden has now got moles as well as voles. They have undermined and killed a newly planted 'Litchfield Angel'. Not sure what to do about that🤔