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 dug up a shoe once... bit unnerving.

I live in fear that one day I am going to come across the previous owners dogs. I know at least one (but likely more than one) is buried in the garden but I have absolutely no idea where.

Otherwise I only ever find rusty bits of machinery as we live in an old mill. I have kept them all, but I have no idea what I think I might do with them.

Could you make a Derek Jarman-ish sculpture with your found objects?

Our worst discoveries came when we first double-dug the garden - the previous owners’ cat and some live ammunition.

I've found a few skulls over the years, usually cats or dogs. They're often right up against a wall. Out of the way, I suppose.

There was a dreadful story some years ago about a man who went to help someone dig up a very large plant they were donating to his garden. He started to pull at what first appeared to be a root only to find it was a cat's tail 😬

Live ammunition in the garden, that's terrible!

It was quite a shock! The worst bit was that over the phone the police told MrJekyll to take it into a police station, which he did, although as it was old and probably unstable it should have been collected by specialist officers. Police officer thought it was probably a little boy’s wartime stash.

Love all these finds. We found a tiny terracotta figurine of a person, about 3 centimetres, but I dont know where it’s gone, now. Most intriguing.

Eek!

Most exciting things I've found apart from the lead piping have been some broken blue & white china and a smurf.

@GertrudeJekyllAndHyde what awful advice your husband was given by police. What were they thinking?

Re a boy's stash, I knew such a boy (though he was in his 20s) and he was an absolute menace, him and his bullets. 'Do you want to hear a loud bang?' he asked just before he blew all our electrics. He actually ended up as head of department at an FE college.

Anyway, I'm not doing anything in anyone's garden today as I've sprained my wrist and it's really twangy and painful. Will catch up when it's better.

Different species, too. My Crocus tommasinianus have been out over a week, but they’re always early

I used to live near the site of a clay pipe factory, so used to get dozens of pipe stems and the occasional barrel, some quite decorative. Once got a tiny blue medicine phial in perfect condition (till one of my ex-partners’ friends dropped it ) I think I got a lead horse once. I’ve still got everything somewhere.

Live ammunition? Flipping heck!

It's so lovely taking on a garden that was obviously well loved in the past and enjoying what is coming up.

@Seaitoverthere I am jealous!

I think my garden was loved long ago, but it's been maintained to the bare minimum for at least 15 years (including 5 years by us until I got the bug). So not a jungle but certainly not loved. Every now and then though you find a hint of the earlier love and that is a joy!

@Muststopeating at least you have the bug now and it is loved again 🙂Do you have people with well stocked gardens you can raid?

There’s a Camellia which had got really out of shape and had loads of dead wood on one side so I took a deep breath and heavily pruned it then fed it. Think I’m going to be rewarded soon as quite a few buds and I can see pink on the ends of the buds.

There’s some huge bush/tree with red berries, a gigantic buddleia which needs taming, bay tree and white lilac. What was a big Maigold rose that is now smaller as the rose arch had seen better days. In rescuing the apple tree which had grown down to the floor I sadly destroyed a Clematis montana I think and a mock orange. I did try to save both but it was a complete jungle. There’s loads of Japanese anenomes, Bergenia and did the last guy ever love hardy fuschia. He liked pink and yellow which I find a bit jarring in the summer.

Feel a bit bad as took out a mature flowering current and some huge green bush growing down the side of the garage and a conifer in the middle of the lawn . The left side is looking very bare but I needed to untangle it to plant it up again and I want some veg beds. The greenhouse needs a couple of panes replacing as is by an ornamental pear and inevitably some of it broke.

The downside is the huge amounts of slugs and snails, have never seen anything like it and all my dahlias got eaten last year and most salvias, including big pots from the garden centre.

Live ammunition?! [wow]

I thought I was doing badly with numerous dog bones (both bones of dogs and bones those dogs had enjoyed in life) and an entire sheep skeleton. For added grim, though, I discovered the sheep skeleton by putting my hand through its still-articulated jaw.

Sorry, I am distracting from proper garden talk! Happy to say that, just today, a few more crocuses have popped their heads up, so I am back to crossing my fingers for a decent display.

That is grim, SarahAndQuack.

And, yes, we were surprised by the police advice but went along with it because, y’know, it was police advice. We were later told that it was spectacularly bad advice as the ammunition could have gone off en route. ((wibble))

@Seaitoverthere Sweet violets? Going from the round leaves, the colour and the rounded not pointed sepals.

@Muststopeating Mine’s much loved but a jungle

I sadly destroyed a Clematis montana Respect! They’re not easy to destroy.

Evening all- I was on the previous threads but a lot of life happened August onwards!
Agree with pp about the snowdrops- nothing a week ago, and now everywhere in borders and lawn, flowering madly. First few croci too. I've got several winter flowering clematis and a winter flowering cherry, so not too bad for cheering up January

And whilst I've not dug anything up, the land my house is on is called Gallows Hill- did a bit of research and it is indeed where all the public executions took place till Victorian times!

@MereDintofPandiculation yes Sweet violets, there’s another clump somewhere. I am hoping that the Clematis Montana may send out new shoots this spring where the root was, fingers crossed..

It was cold here today, but I did another square metre of weeding. My most common weed is wood avens , which is a form of geum. I dont buy geums any more because I always weed them out. I have tried them with prominent labels even tho they are another thing that are seen as naff, unless they are hand painted on slate or whatever. I like labels, if only to remind me of what’s already died in a space, but my dogs pull them out, sadly. I also love pink and yellow together, so probably irredeemable. I love some colours in flowers that I hate in any other context, especially purple and peach.

It’s mild here, and the weather forecast said rain would arrive tonight, so I again snuck a couple of hours in the garden. I spent the time mostly tidying up, but dug some pretty decent compost out of the bin to fill some holes in the border. I also salvaged about a thousand morning glory seeds from the frazzled old plants - Grandpa Otts, would anyone like some?

Usually with bodies left to rot as a warning. Rather an aromatic place to live. Googling “hanging in chains” was gruesome but informative.

Two huge Christmas cacti, hundreds of flowers each, entered into a suicide pact and nose-dived to the conservatory floor. To add insult to injury, I’d swept the floor this morning.

Damn, @MereDintofPandiculation what a rotten thing to happen! Can they be saved?

@MereDintofPandiculation . There’s your mistake- sweeping that floor was an invitation to disaster. Hope you could save them. After another hour, I’m halfway through the first bed I’ve tackled. Merrily pulling up Avens, then realised I’d moved onto buttercups, then started to get really uncomfortable about a geranium I planted somewhere round there that had untypical leaves. If only I could remember what it was called. I thought it was apple blossom but searches don’t look right. Anyway I’m in now and kettles on. We have a recycling collection for garden waste that starts in March. My bins overflowing already.
a@NorthernChinchilla I do hope your luck holds and you never dig up any grisly relics.

I pruned some roses. DH said I didn't prune them hard enough. I mentioned they were DA roses so we have to go gently! Shall I prune the clematis or is it too early? I live in the South East

Why do you prune David Austin roses gently?

@MereDintofPandiculation - oh no! But you do make a good story of it!