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?

haven’t got the space for a blackcurrant bush at the moment but would love one (just read the thread back a bit). Have redcurrants, gooseberries, summer and autumn raspberries (although DH hacked both of these back and I lost all the autumn fruits 😠)

Feeling virtuous as I've already sown the sweet pea seeds. I don't know why it's not occurred to me before to prepare the pots for the ones that may benefit from soaking the day before and then sow them inside.

I have been snatching odd hours in the evenings between downpours to carry on tackling the overgrown buddleias in the wild section at the back of the garden.

The trouble with pruning is that it is just ten per cent pruning and ninety per cent chopping up the prunings into manageable lengths for the green waste bin or the composters. And I always under-estimate how long the chopping part is going to take.

So I usually end up chopping away rather frantically in rapidly fading light accompanied by a raucous chorus of screeching parakeets having a last squawk before roosting for the night. Parakeets, like the children in the proverb, should be seen and not heard. They are such a glowing shade of green, only they tend to fly so high they are just silhouettes with horrible voices to me for most of the time.

I find I don't need to do too much chopping for the buddleia stems or even moreso the dogwood - it's surprising how much I can shove in twiggy end up into a bin that's apparently already full of other stuff (except grass clippings which are too dense). It feels a bit like a magic trick and remarkably satisfying to shove a large pile of stems into a 'full' bin.

I’ve just been eyeing up the buddleia, to decide how hard to prune it, although I’ve adjourned the task for another day. I’ve sown some seeds. I’ve also been pleasantly surprised to find that the amorphophallus Konjac which I forgot to bring indoors for the winter has survived.

The garden is full of baby slugs and fox poo. At least the frog may take care of the former.

A good three hours of weeding, relocating about 20 teasel plants to better locations, why do they want to grow in inappropriate locations!!?? divided some perennials too close to the path, reorganising pots that have been in sheltered locations. broadcasting poppy seeds plus a bunch of saved seeds. Managed to cut one of the lawns (didn't do a great job, but it's better than it was 😁, tbh a bit too wet to cut, but the warm weather and the constant bloody rain!)
Seeded about 8 different annuals and perennials.
A good day! Also chatted to lots of walkers going by.
I'm feeling spring is coming❤️

I've never heard of konjac before, that's a weird and (possibly) wonderful thing. Do you grow it to eat?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konjac

Because my buddleia grows long straight stems, I've turned the prunings into a substitute for bamboo canes. Hopefully they'll be strong enough and won't take root!

No. I grow it for the fabulous foliage. Frustratingly, it never flowers for me, although that may be a blessing, as the friend who gave me the corms had to remove her plant from the porch after complaints from the postman!

I thought from the drawing on the wiki page it was about the same size as Lords and Ladies...

sowed the sweet peas and put in cold frame.
planted some jolly primroses for me to look at from the kitchen window.
refilled the bird feeder.
got the heated propagator from the garage and brought the pots in to be cleaned.
looked for compost and realised I need more.

I had a much welcomed stroll around the garden after work today. Lovely sunshine and fluffy clouds.

Sowed a box of grass seed on the lawn where I'd planted snowdrops and top dressed.
fixed birch twigs to the clematis as they are really growing fast now and needed to be trained up so they dont flop all over the place.
gave the compost heap some attention. It needs turning over and a bit of moisture added as I'd covered it over with a small tarpaulin to keep the heat in and it's a bit dry.

it really felt good not to be rained on!

Pruned two rambling roses, reducing their height from 4m to 2m, ie to the height of the trellis they’re meant to be climbing on. About two car loads of prunings. Almost overwhelming scent of sweet briar, breaks my heart to prune it, but I don’t want any more dashing out in the pouring rain using a rope to temporarily hold back a mass of foliage that has tipped forward to block the road.

Coppiced my hazels, and now have 4 “hanging death” trunks which just will not pull free of the tree canopy.

I had 4 female and one male pheasant turn up for breakfast this morning, they've polished off the food from the ground tray already. DH is wont to point out I'm fattening someone else's dinner.

Finally sowed some peas, beans, and squash in the polytunnel.

Someone kindly gave me 4 rhubarb crowns which need to be planted. When I checked last night, the chickens have already eaten one 🙄

Had a mooch in B&Q yesterday and their daffs, fratilleries, tulips etc were all half price so went a bit mad and bought lots. Also a big fatsia which needs to go in.

If the rain holds off today I'll get outside and get them all in (before the bloody chickens have the lot).

@HazelTheGreenWitch I also save the sturdier, straight lengths of buddleia prunings for plant supports. They’re free and a lot less obtrusive than bamboo - I have a lot of home-grown canes too. But I have so many at the moment I could build the second little pig’s house of sticks.

@ErrolTheDragon Oh, I am envious. We had a pheasant visit one afternoon a couple of years ago. He must have been a long way from home to have fetched up in a suburban garden. He pottered about looking wonderfully exotic and let DS and I get surprisingly close to him. We really hoped he would stay but it was a fleeting visit. Possibly the local foxes deterred him.

Still ploughing on with taming the neglected buddleias in the wild section. Some of the branches are so thick it is a real effort to cut them. But I think the end is in sight and they should flower profusely and more densely this summer. And I got out earlier so I had a blackbird singing beautifully for company rather than screeching parakeets.

The Japanese ornamental cherry is a cloud of lacy white blossom. The biggest acacia pravissima is dripping with gold blossom, and the berberis is blazing with the fiery orange blossom which always makes me forgive it for its vicious spikes. The assorted tulips in pots are starting to flower. It is a breath of fresh air to be able to see them.

It's so wet still - I cleared out the 'waiting' area behind the greenhouse and all the pots are sopping.

We do have frogspawn in the very small pond we put in last autumn. And the birds have been using it to bathe in.

I chopped my buddleia right down before reading this....maybe I should have been less brutal.

Planted some agapanthus which I’d bought in January, put in the shed and forgotten about. Poor things were shooting inside the plastic bags. I’ve also found some chocolate cosmos I bought at the same time so I need to think about where to put them.
we are dithering about whether to have some hard landscaping done so I’m a bit reluctant to do very much.

Just come in from some more weeding and mulching.

I now have 3 areas that are clear and ready so I am going to be brave and order some plants.

I made two new beds today using the Dowding method.

That was a lot of compost to shift.

I’ve done some more tidying up - emptied some unpromising pots of last year’s tulips and potted up a few more things for our upcoming plant sale. Very pleased to see that a couple of things I thought had perished last year have resurfaced.

I too have pheasant envy. I was stunned to see one on our local (very urban) common last year.

Did you buy bags or order one of those dumpy bags? I need loads of soil but not sure where best to get it from.

Those big bags.

Do you need soil, or compost/mulch?

I have used mushroom compost and it has been amazing. Never seen celeriac like it.

Have you a good local nursery? Where I work, we will deliver loose soil (or indeed manure, or mulch) by the cubic metre - it's usually much more cost-effective than buying it in bags, so long as you have a place where someone can unload a tip-up truck.

That's a lovely vote of confidence! Yes, I must. And I sort of do. Part of my issue is that, when we were renting the garden, we did a quick, cheap fix and ended up with a flower garden and, behind it, a veg plot. The veg plot was absolutely lovely and made me very happy for several years. But, then I bought the house, and that meant I could remove a very ugly, asbestos-clad shed. And this threw the whole site out of kilter! Rather rashly, I decided I'd sacrifice my veg plot, and continue a curving flowerbed up into it. I'm not sure that was right!

I wish I had a better mind for geometry.