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

Oh goodness I really feel for them.

Thank you everyone for the thoughts regarding grasses on heavy clay. I may do what I always do and go to the bargain corner of the garden centre where plants are reduced, bung them in the garden and hope for the best knowing if they die I didn't spend a lot of money 😂

I had a friend foolish enough to buy in Watermeadow Close ....

I can just imagine! How many times has she been flooded so far?

Oh dear. Lincolnshire being, like Norfolk, very flat can’t have helped.

The scent of the daphne and winter box is the best thing about my garden at the moment, especially as it can be enjoyed without wading through the swamp. I’ve got plenty of hellebore foliage but no flowers yet, alas.

I had a friend foolish enough to buy in Watermeadow Close

Yes, a friend of mine bought a nice new house in a development called Watermead. I didn't say anything, because the deed was done by the time I got the change of address card.

A couple I knew bought a lovely old cottage next to a fast flowing river in west Yorkshire. I did mention the possibility of flooding in that area but they dismissed it and went ahead. After the house got flooded the first time, the man, thinking that surely they wouldn't be flooded again, emptied the sand bags into the river. I questioned the wisdom of this and he stopped talking to me, but I know from his wife that they were badly flooded twice more.

We watched open mouthed at the little development opposite my aunts house. It was so clever the way they made sure each house had their own piece of the stream that fed the old water mill……… her side was on a slight hill so they were only slightly inconvenienced by the annual bit of flooding on the road.

One of my earliest memories is of my great aunt's house with mud half up the walls after flooding, and the smell of the mud on the things from there that we took home to wash. They moved soon afterwards.

Friend if mine was badly flooded when her minor river had flood gates closed downstream to avoid flooding in the city centre. That must have been particularly galling.

Gosh yes!

Bit of a cheeky request does anyone have a 20% off code for Sarah Raven? my catalogue had 15% off (which I’ve used) but saw some catalogues had 20% off codes and I could do with a few more bits.

There was a 20% off in my last catalogue but only until the end of October 2023. Haven't had another one yet.

The rain is relentless, I’m sure the bulbs I’ve put into pots will rot before they get chance to flower.

That reminds me that I should check all my pots are standing on pot feet, in the vain hope they’ll drain.

I'm feeling so depressed by the rain. My garden is partly under water. I am so cross with myself - I used to have a veg patch, which I did really love. And I got ambitious and reckless and thought instead I'd change the shape of the whole garden and dig out a big new bed instead. We've been here since 2018 and one year there was a big puddle in the veg patch that stayed for a few weeks, but stupidly, I didn't think about that.

This year the fucker has completely flooded. It's awful. And the rest of the garden is like a quagmire.

I do have nice things that ought to cheer me up (winter cherry in flower; daphne; witchhazel, lots of hellebores starting), but I'm really fed up that I want to get out and do things, but it is so wet I'd just be destroying the soil.

Sorry, what a rant! I guess we're all in the same situation really.

Solidarity, SarahAndQuack, that’s exactly how I feel. I feel bereft at not being able to do any actual gardening. I’ve got the scent of the daphne and winter box to cheer me up, but can’t get close enough to the witch hazel to see whether it’s in flower. Hey ho.

@SarahAndQuack can you embrace it? Dig out a wildlife pond where the garden naturally floods them use the dug out soil to raise the elevation/fill raised beds?

Thanks @GertrudeJekyllAndHyde. It's rotten, isn't it?!

@Singleandproud - I had been wondering! The issue is that this bit of garden is extremely dry in summer, so I am not sure whether it would work. I'm also slightly terrified by the amount of work it'd involve - it's horrible ground to dig, full of stones, and I nearly killed myself digging out the new bed. (I work in a plant nursery so heavy garden work is a real busman's holiday.)

Oh @SarahAndQuack I feel for you. The rain here last night was biblical, a large part of our town was flooded.

I have finally mulched the border with bark chips. 400 kg of bark shifted as I had to do it before the frosts come. I tidied up and cut back some of the perennials while I was out there but left the verbena b. as I quite like the frost on it over winter. Whether or not it will survive when the ground is this wet I don't know.

I am now knackered and sitting down with a cup of tea.

@SarahAndQuack could you make the swamp bed into a raised bed?

Wow, @ThreeRingCircus. That's one well-deserved cup of tea!

@InMySpareTime - yes; I might have to - though if this becomes a regular thing, the water will need somewhere to run to.

Being in the northwest, although it's wet it's probably not that much wetter than usual tbh. I think the rain might have more or less stopped now and the forecast for the next week is basically dry, though cold. I've got lots of hacking needing doing and then I'm contemplating carrying on widening and trying to dig through the crappy stony layer in the borders and/or dig out one that's a mess dominated by too much Michaelmas Daisy. The wetness might possibly make it easier as it's clay.

@SarahAndQuack digging out a pond is an absolute mission, we did ours in the Summer lockdown. I wouldn't let the fact that it's dry put you off though. It's ok if wildlife ponds dry out as there is benefit to invertebrates and frogs of the shallower water and exposed silt, although I'd plant reeds and marginals more than water Lilys or anything that needs to be planted at any real depth.

I know - I dug one out a couple of years ago! I think unless it was massive, it'd be more 'cracked Martian crater' than silt/shallow water. But I shall have a think.

I got out today and found yet another attempt by our local foxes to tunnel between my garden and next door's. Earth everywhere and a hole about a foot deep and two foot long.

I filled it in as best I could, trying not to think about The Great Escape (which it rather reminded me of) and covered the bare earth with yet more chicken wire.

My garden now looks more chicken coop than garden - I feel as though the foxes are most definitely winning. Little f*ers!

I’m sure “cracked Martian crater” is the next big thing in garden design, thanks to global warming. We can look forward to a feature in Gardens Illustrated and a show garden at Chelsea.