What have you done in the garden today Part 4 Spring 2024.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

What have you done in the garden today? What went well? What surprises have you had? What could have gone better?

Still digging up my beds - lots of nettles - only got stung once! Pulled lots of weeds out of the lawn too - which is looking so much better this year. Bought a baby tree fern as a trial - not sure it’ll survive - but if it does I’ll think about investing in a grown up.

Spring weeding

Looking after new growth in conservatory seedlings

I made a start on edging the back border, the aim is to remake a bit of a channel to hopefully drain the part that's gone swampy into the bit that's meant to be a bog garden.

Spring clearing by the wheelbarrow full, mooching around looking at leaves starting to unfurl, and planning where to put my new Tickled Pink apple tree and Sunburst cherry. When the weather turned nasty I went back inside to the fire and went online; bought a wiegela, a forsythia and three new shrub roses.

Ooh, which apples, @inkblackheart?

I have planted the bare-root irises I got in the post, and bought (not planted!) some fritillaria persica, and weeded the howling wilderness of weeds. I'm feeling a bit down about my garden. When we moved here six years ago it was rough grass grown over builders' rubble, plus a giant yukka. It is bordered with extremely ugly industrial/agricultural fencing and is a really weird shape. Originally, it was part of a row of cottages that would have used our garden as a communal yard, and our outbuildings as privies/washhouse etc. Later on, the landlord carved up the space into gardens, but in a really odd, haphazard way, so there are dog-legs and odd bites out everywhere. I do love it, but sometimes I lose confidence that it'll ever look coherent!

First earlies potatoes planted
Mowed lawn
Sown night scented stocks.

I never really gardened until someone gifted me some plants last year, so this is really the first year I'm thinking about it for the full gardening season. I have so much to learn!

Today I put some edging alongside the beds and planted out a rhubarb and some herbs. Hope the rhubarb will survive. I tried planting from a crown but there was so much wet weather that it didn't work.

Built a new bird feeder station too. This week I also planted some tomato seeds (sungold and rosella) and I already have some cape physalis on the go.

If it's dry tomorrow afternoon, will try mowing the lawn.

Cut my 3 "Midwinter fire" cornus plants back hard to about an inch from the ground - they were a good meter high and starting to sprout - I could and should have cut them back a week or so ago but they're incredibly resilient and will grow back pretty vigorously no doubt.

I trimmed off all the dead parts of my pitcher plant which has been forgotten about over the winter TBH - left outside in a tall glass vase - it's a plant I really like though.

I have a camellia "Señorita" and a Philadelphus/orange blossom (Belle etoile) I bought recently in 3L pots that will need planting but I'm going away in my campervan for the next 10 days.

I've got several bags of rotted manure, some ericaceous compost and some mulch for various roses, camellias and magnolias that need to go down.

The "Robin Hill" amelanchier is budding beautifully and the pinky-white magnolia stellata finally after 7 years of really coming into it's own.

Last weekend I put six different types of cyclamen in the front North facing garden - they'll see a fair bit of shade but should be fine.

The hedge is Rosa rugosa alba. Extremely prickly!

Apple trees were Bramley. We have four eating apples in another part of the garden and they haven’t done well so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for these.

I have admired the frog spawn. Bucket loads of it. The frogs are still mating, so hopefully it will be a good year for the froggies❤️

We have a weigela in the front which I adore. It got moved from the back garden to the front about 15 years ago when we had a big renovation done. Every year it gets bigger and better, is massive now. I’d prune it hard after flowering but am struggling atm to see how it could be improved!

I have a tricky area near a fence in the back I’d like to plant. It’s mostly shaded by a massive acer tree that’s in leaf early May - October. I’m thinking weigela might want more sunshine? I have a few osmanthus burkwoodii in other similar parts of the garden that are doing well in shady spots (we are in dry chalk, south facing) but keen to have something a bit different. Any ideas appreciated.

@babybons frogs! How lovely. 🐸

@SarahAndQuack I did chuckle at “howling wilderness of weeds” 😂 I am
not a pristine gardener who likes swathes of bare earth and regimented structure. There is something about control in a garden I find really depressing. Even the most overgrown, weedy plot probably has more wildlife in it than any pristine, regimented garden so there’s more beauty in the former in many ways.

If you’ve got them from a reputable place, they will be well packed. My last lot were wrapped completely in a layer of straw with the roots completely enclosed in a plastic bag. Unwrap as soon as you get them, and place n a bucket of water. Then get them planted or heeled in asap.

@SarahAndQuack but sometimes I lose confidence that it'll ever look coherent! Why go for coherence? Divide it in to a sequence of mini-gardens so you don't ever know where you are or what to expect. Thinking Biddulph Grange. Or maybe York Gate.

I foisted a carload of plants on a local primary school that is developing its kitchen garden and nature garden. The poor woman that came round seemed a bit overwhelmed by the time she left.
I kept wrenching plants out and handing them to her with vague instructions "that's marjoram, CONTAIN IT!" "Raspberries, just poke it in the ground anywhere and it'll chuck fruit at you until there's a hard frost" "you actually want a buddleia? Here you go, have these five"
I said anytime she wants more plants just pop round but she just looked a bit shell shocked.

Dug out and filled twenty bags of hardcore/rubble from the new bed we’re making, and took it all to the tip. Actually that’s not quite true, husband did about 5 or six of the bags yesterday. But I’m still feeling it was a good job.

Have gone out and handweeded an area I didn't mulch quick enough.

Lesson learned but with all the rainy weather it's hard to keep up.

@SarahAndQuack I try and take a photo of the garden at the same time each year, in the same place, so I can see progression otherwise I can get feeling low which is silly really as I’ve done tonnes.

@RidiculousPrice I have a weigela in the front garden that’s doing well, I was just going to take some cuttings from it for the back but this one I’ve bought was down to £2!

Today I cleared more, then sat as DD6 went on her swing and morosely looked at my plastic coal bunker and plastic wheelie bins and air source heat pump casing…all in an ugly, ugly row along my back house wall…and tried to work out how I could best hide them. I find myself not going to enjoy my back garden because of them, it all just hurts my eyes. It’s all on concrete under a top layer of large gravel, so I can’t dig willow screens or latticed fence panels in. Don’t know.

Thanks for the advice. I ordered them from Pomona Fruits, who I've not used before, but they've got good reviews on TrustPilot so I am hopeful! They won't be delivered now until Tuesday, though, which is very annoying.

I've cleared out most of the shed today. Sorted through my ridiculous collection of plastic pots and I'll take a load to the pot recycling point at my local garden centre tomorrow.

One of the shelves in my shed has fallen down. It is so old and rotten it was inevitable. Luckily nothing broken or damaged so time to put a new shelf up. To be honest, it's time for a new shed as my current one is ancient and falling apart but that won't be a job for this year!

Maybe you need to sit facing in a different direction - perhaps get a arbour or summerhouse that allows you to ignore the utilities, @Jelliclecats

I did very little this weekend because it was DHs birthday but I have got my last pack of sweet pea seeds soaking and filled half a dozen pots with compost ready to receive them tomorrow. And expelled the seed tray of verbena seeds which is doing nowt inside out into the growhouse to make room for them.

@Jelliclecats when we moved house we inherited a bin store with a living roof. It's not the most exciting bit of the garden but I've had wildflowers growing on there before, and now I've got sedums and alpine strawberries. Could that be an option? Really It's just a high/deep table with enclosed sides, tall enough and wide enough to roll the wheelie bins underneath it. I was very pleased that it was already here when we moved in, as I doubt I would have thought of it!

I try and take a photo of the garden at the same time each year, in the same place, so I can see progression I’ve been doing that on the first of the month for 3 years. Main conclusion so far is that nothing changes

@MereDintofPandiculation monthly sounds interesting. Nothing changing can be reassuring - continuation of the seasons etc. I think I’m only doing it to be certain the hedge I planted a couple of years ago is actually doing something. It is, but you get used to minute daily changes and don’t register them…a bit like waiting for your hair to grow.

Sat out with the sun on my face eating crisps with my daughter and listening to the starlings.
admired a pink hellebore that is doing very well.
made some newspaper pots for sweet peas and planned my first round of seeds to sow in the heated propagator - some seedlings for me and some to sell at a car boot in April. Various tomatoes, kale, nasturtiums…