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

The big round drill bits are called Core Cutters

Am I the only person who doesn't much like hellebores? Apart from some of the white ones, I find the colours a bit too murky.

I'm a fan, because I love how they are at their best in the middle of winter when everything else is fast asleep. I've got about 5 varieties, none of them black! My perception of the colours is that they're 'antique' but that may be putting a positive spin on them if you aren't a fan.

I do have to cut the leaves right back in the autumn as they are prone to disease, but by Nov / Dec there are new fresh green ones coming up.

@SarahAndQuack My “lawn” is a mixture of standard meadow grasses (I’d be surprised if yours was pure couch), and tussocky enough for me to have had a bumblebee nest in it. I was very proud. I leave it to grow till late July.

I grow new crocuses in a pot the first year for a nice indoor display, then when the foliage dies down or I get around to it, I grub around the lawn for gaps, drive a trowel in, push to one side, and drop three crocuses into the slit. And repeat. Or I dig up a dandelion and replace by crocuses.

in other words, crocuses are tough.

American land cress, if that’s what you sowed, has Viola shaped terminal leaflets with several pairs of leaflets down the stem. Viola has a single leaf, with a leaflet-like stipule where the stem joins the main stem.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn That’s lovely! You’ve done well!

Hi Hedera! Welcome in. Let me know if you get on with Gardening in Pyjamas - I need new garden books to read.

Thanks all for reassurance about lawns and crocuses! I will go forth and plant.

Talking of gardening books - I got this (I think) out of the library a while ago. It's good, and interesting, but noteworthy for her recommendation of cannabis plants in the border, for their foliage. Autres temps; autres moeurs...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pot-Pourri-Surrey-Garden-Mrs-Earle/dp/1408633620

This is my favourite old gardening book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/GARDENING-SHADE-Margery-Fish/dp/0713485604

I'm in the process of clearing my mums house, and she has some hellebores in the garden. Can I dig a couple up to bring here?

I have my eyes on a couple of roses I bought for her, so I will get those home soon. I have no idea where I will put them as I have no space at the moment. Though we have decided that as the raspberries seem past their best, I'm going to dig them up and use their bed as a patio area so could do pots for the roses.

I suppose I better get out of bed and into the garden if I'm going to make a start. 😀

Yes you can dig hellebores up, they may sulk this winter but should perk up next.

Thank you. I will give them a go.

Thanks for the reassurance about the American Cress @MereDintofPandiculation we'll enjoy with gusto!

A dear colleague bought me in some squash, organic yellow courgette and beans.

We're in for a feast.

I feel a complete failure crop-wise this year. The dahlia are lovely, they gladden my ❤️ but no good to eat

Sat in the sun topping up my holiday tan reading a d chill!!

Fabulous dahlias, especially the dark red!

There's an absolutely lush dark red one, @GertrudeJekyllAndHyde that was just out of shot of my camera - when it's stopped raining (ha! Chance would be a fine thing!) I'll try and get a shot of it. It's huge and complex, I can't stop looking at it.

As a gardener I'm really upset by a thread elsewhere on here which is about spiders, and methods of killing them in the home. Pages of people condoning it and seeing it as acceptable, recommending a spray you can buy to kill them.

I know some people have arachnophobia, but I am really upset at the thought, so that probably makes me the one with the problem. I suppose I've been brought up from birth as a gardener, so spiders are part of that experience. I've never batted an eyelid with "creepy crawlies". I love 'em all. I'm just very sad at the thought, spiders to me are as sacred as cows are in the Indian culture, revered. I'm such a coward as I haven't gone on the thread, because I'll probably put my big size 9 feet in it and say something utterly tactless and get hounded off the thread

A pom pom and a dinner plate.

The light quality is so poor today. The good thing is it's warm and still, so I'm going to nip out andprune a couple of hydrangea and forsythia because they've gone rampant with the rainwater and need to be brought in a bit to stop them shrubspreading (as opposed to manspreading)

I saw the spider thread (or one very like it). They upset me too. I can’t say I revere spiders, but I accept they’re part of the ecosystem and the arguments why (supposedly) people have to kill them instead of just chucking them out of the window are never persuasive.

Absolutely with you on the spiders despite having to get DH to remove a tick from my backside on Tuesday: ticks being arachnids too and one of the least lovable ones. I'm a spider rescuer. They should all be made to read 'Charlotte's Web.'

Ouch to the tick and tick removal!

@GertrudeJekyllAndHyde I suppose it has been engrained in me since childhood as my granny used to say

If you wish to live and thrive
Let the spider run alive.

I just cannot understand anyone wanting to kill a creature that can weave a web that could stop a Boing 747 in flight, comparatively speaking. I love going out after the rain that'll be every day then and seeing the tiny droplets of water on a web.

@Bideshi Ill let you and DH off that one (especially being on yer bum), I get eaten alive in summer - I'm currently sporting a neck with about 6 separate bites from some carnivore- sweet meat, me! Plenty of antihistamine tends to sort it out. Love Charlotte's Web as you might expect!

I'm with you on spiders. I'll evict big ones from the house, and small ones if the numbers get out of hand, but otherwise they are very welcome to get on and do their thing without me bothering them.

Ticks I'm not so keen on.

I love your granny’s rhyme, Daisychain01! I post lots of pictures of my garden onto a well known social media platform and was somewhat taken aback recently when someone threatened to stop following me if I posted any more photos of the spiders and other wildlife.

I've not seen the spider thread, but I also hate it when people want to spray chemicals to eradicate anything vaguely natural. I admit, I don't stop my cats when they go on a spider-hunting spree indoors (in fact I try very hard not to see them munching up too many legs ...). But I do know we need them.

I was wondering: do you think gardeners are more likely to be tolerant in this respect? We have a bad reputation for being furious about slugs or caterpillars, but my anecdotal experience is that non-gardeners are much less respectful of wildlife. I've been shocked recently by parents quite cheerfully sending their children into school with birds' nests for show and tell (new nests, during nesting season), and one of the yummy mummies at my daughter's school told me proudly she'd managed to 'squish' a toad that was hopping about their garden when she parked her car.

I love garden pictures on well known social media platforms. I'd absolutely follow yours (though understand you may be strictly anonymous!).