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

Had a little mooch this morning after optimistically hanging out some washing, and found a clump of purple crocus who weren’t doing diddly a few days ago but have braved two solid days of rain and flowered. I think I should put an umbrella over them to reward them for their courage. Also found a hitherto unspotted set of snowdrops hiding under the camellia.

We were the same @ErrolTheDragon, moved here in 2000 and ever since have been debating will we, won’t we move so shall we sort the garden (see also drive) and we still are having the same debate. I’d like to downsize to a smaller house or bungalow now the DC have left home but don’t want a smaller garden, apparently that will cost me 25% more than our house is worth. Crazy.

@BestIsWest we moved to a smaller house with a bigger garden then the dc started coming back, and arthritis kicked in and now it doesn’t seem such a good idea! No gardening today and it is quite boggy now, but I hope to clear out the greenhouse tomorrow and assess seeds.

I have some seeds, those card pots and soil plus can keep in the conservatory

Keen to sow but says early Spring, or Spring on the packets

I should wait right? Or ok to do early

Depends what the seeds are.

Oh, I am so fed up with rain. My garden is flooded again. Tell me, wise ones, should I be worrying? We've been here since 2018. One year it flooded into the lowest-lying place, but this year it has been really bad, persistent flooding over flowerbeds. We're next door to the school, which is on the same level as my garden (a foot or so lower than my house), and they get bad flooding. I know it's been a wet year, but it feels such a dramatic difference that I can't help worrying something's failed somewhere in a drainage system.

Hello hello. Joining in with a burst of enthusiasm. Hoping this thread will help me keep momentum this year!

We had pretty much all plants removed from the garden at the end of last year so I can start again (we've lived here just over a year now and I didn't like what was in the garden when we arrived).

Yesterday I planted a few trees - birch, rowan, apple and weeping pear - to add to the apple, pear and plum trees that we put in last year. I also plant a few roses.

Have just ordered some juniper trees, so hopefully they arrive soon. And then in spring we'll get a few more shrubs to fill in the gaps.

Out the back it's a vegetable garden. I want to get some early broad beans in asap so hopefully I'll remember to do that.

I've got a garlic bulb in the cupboard that has sprouted; could I plant the cloves now and expect them to grow?

You can definitely plant garlic now, most of my home grown garlic comes from accidentally missed ones from the previous year that I dig up as they start to shoot in spring, separate and replant. We called it Phoenix garlic because it rose from the embers of a supposedly empty raised bed every year. I'm pretty sure that the original was a supermarket garlic.

@SarahAndQuack I can commiserate with your flooding problem. Here's what we did, in case its of help to you.

We are adjoining a farmer's field that he uses for grazing cattle, historically it was all his land and he sold half the field and the property to our predecessor. it's on quite a gradient with a stock fence dividing our land from his.

The successive wet winters have been a nightmare even with the underground irrigation put in by the previous owners, with gulleys and soakaway. They unfortunately missed out the run off from the field!.

So last year we got a surfacing company with their heavy plant and equipment to dig a trench the length of the stock fence and back filled the trench with hard-core and gravel then top dressed with the soil from the trench. It has by no means totally fixed the run off(King Canute and tides spring to mind!) but it has made a massive difference because our lower down borders don't flood, the water doesn't quite get there now it soaks away the volume in the French drain.

We also have a willow tree up top which loves the water so everyone's happy 😊

We needed the farmer's cooperation for access but no problem there. It cost us around £3k but it has also solved the hazard of the flooding on the drive and pathways so it was worth the investment.

A French drain might be an idea, that's true. I'm just boggled at why there is so much water, suddenly. I did put in a ring of willows (I'm going to coppice them) last year, so perhaps I just need to give them a chance to establish.

That went well...decided to sow another pack of sweet peas, counted them out into a small plastic tray so I could see how many pots to fill... put it down on the garden table and of course, despite it not being at all windy a random gust caught it and sent it flying. I managed to find 8 of the 30 or so seeds on the lawn.

Saw my first celandine of the year while walking this morning!

Oh no! If you want to see a zillion celandines, come and look at my lawn (although I’m hoping the hori hori will vanquish them!)

Yes, that’s my problem. In theory we could downsize and “move to a nice bungalow before we get too old” but we both want a workshop and I want a greenhouse and a big garden, so we’ll probably make a loss on the whole thing so what’s the point?

I’ve never seen celandines growing in grass!

Celandines are weeds, aren't they?! They'll grow anywhere.

It has been a very soggy winter, @SarahAndQuack . We've had more standing water at the bottom of the garden than we've seen for 7 or 8 years.

It’s probably a sad reflection of the threadbare state of my lawn …

“Weed” doesn’t have any consistent definition (is Brazen Hussy a weed?).

Celandines aren’t great at competing which is why they have evolved to tolerate shade. They also prefer damp places. I’ve never seen it successfully competing with grass, and you wouldn’t expect to find it in a wheat field for example or on a beach. But a nicely kept border with bare soil between the plants - lovely!

On the other hand, both creeping buttercup and creeping cinquefoil can establish themselves in grass, maybe because they have long runners over the surface. And because they don’t die down in the middle of summer

All I can say is that the foliage appearing all over my (patchy and very worn) lawn is unmistakably celandine. There were a few incursions last year, dealt with by the weed grubber, but the parlous state of the lawn after a very wet winter means the wretched plant is running rampant. I’ll be out there with the hori hori ASAP.

If we accept that two plausible definitions of a weed are plant growing in the wrong place and plant which reproduces so prolifically that you’ll forever be dealing with its progeny turning up in unwanted and unexpected places and will rue the day you planted it, then the celandine is certainly a weed. I don’t know Brazen Hussy but, unless its reproductive habits are markedly different, would probably dub it a weed, too.

I’ve never seen celandines growing in grass!

I'm pretty sure I've seen it in grass, but also in areas that might have been grass before the celandines took over. It may be that shady damp bits of 'lawn' could be prone to this.

I've got a pale cream, almost white, cultivar in my (shady, damp) back border which is rather more restrained than the cheerful yellow wild stuff which I think would be liable to be too enthusiastic.

A cream, well-mannered celandine sounds delightful!

I'm debating whether to get Green Thumb in to scarify and treat our lawn where it has patches of moss interspersed with bits of grass .

Part of me thinks it will be putting good money after bad unless we keep up the treatment. The other part of me thinks it's all green what's the point. But a dominant part of me likes the luxuriant thick grass that looks beautiful when it's been cut, stripes and all. I do like stripes!

Sigh.

First World problem but hey, this is the Gardening board so I'm unashamed in my lament

I quite like all the moss in my grass, it keeps it greener for longer in the summer (I never water grass) and is nice and springy underfoot.

I didn't realise that the little yellow flowers on the edges of my lawn were called celandine - I think you can class them as well mannered, I just mow over them if they get unruly they always pop back up, they probably duck down under the mower and laugh at me

I've given up trying to get rid of celandines: the foliage dies off before anything I value comes up and the shiny dark leaves contrast nicely with the flowers. So I leave it. A pale one sounds very nice.