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?

Bought 2 peppers and 2 cucumbers plus 9 plants d]from the 50p or 3 for a pound trolley which were 2 double primroses, a couple of phlox, mystery plant that looks familiar but I can’t place and some alpines.

DH off this week and is going to help get the greenhouse that was here mended and sorted . Sweet peas in little greenhouse just starting to germinate and I need to get sowing some other things.

Yes, it was! When I started propagating roses I got all excited about it and took cuttings from every garden I worked in where roses grew. Ended up with dozens of them. Planted some here but gave the others away. My favourite is 'Albertine' which I planted outside our bedroom window. Sadly it doesn't repeat flower but it's glorious in full bloom. Another year I rooted all the side shoots of the tomatoes I'd started and ended up with about 100 plants. I kept them all and we had containers of tomatoes everywhere. Made gallons of passata and for a while we had the luxury of using it on pizza and in many sauces. It was really good stuff but that many tomato plants was a bit over the top.

Grafting trees, especially fruit trees, is a good skill to have. We covered that on the RHS course and then I went to a fruit grafting day at that organic place in Brighton which I can't remember the name of.

Sowing a few seeds in the dry and warm with your morning drink is a pleasing start to the day.

I've been out to check my drainage channel is running, seems to be working as it should but we need to do more as some of the squidgy bit of lawn is a bit lower down. It's not entirely clear where the excess water in this area is coming from, probably the lane at the back. The border above the very wet part was too dry last summer so hopefully we can work out if that's what's happening.

I love Albertine. Beautiful rose.

I wanted to find a grafting day or course, but didn't manage, so I just did it off the net.

Which RHS course did you do? I keep flirting with the idea.

It was the RHS Level 2, but that was 2003-2005 and I believe it's quite different now, though no doubt still just as good. It was absolutely wonderful and I enjoyed every moment. At times it felt more like being reminded than learning, even though much of the content was new to me. I consider that course to be one of the best things I've ever done.

In short, do it!

Had to look up that place in Brighton where the fruit grafting courses was and it's the Brighton Permaculture Trust. They run some tempting courses.

https://brightonpermaculture.org.uk/courses-and-events/

I pruned 8 apple trees.

I've now cleaned my tools during a lull in the rain, though other bits of debris from my excavations are still strewn around. Only one half-brick, surprisingly.

And washed my clothes and the utility room mats!

Planted a 20 foot hedge of hydrangea annabelle from cuttings I took last year. I am a bit worried that they will all die because when I plopped them into compost last year I tried to economise on pots and shoved four or six in the same pot. Coming to transplant them they were almost impossible to divide up, roots were everywhere. Ugh.

They should be fine, @DougAndTheSlugs. When dividing plants up I'll often cut the clump up with a knife and they just get on with growing. Plants are generally very resilient and 'Annabelle' is quite a tough customers.

Oh thank you Veg, that is such a relief. I was thinking I'd wrecked everything.

If you think about the history of plants on this planet over how ever many hundreds of millions of years it is, they've been tossed around by earthquakes and landslides, sat on, chewed and spat out and they still grow. Many have evolved to be periodically chewed down to the ground and will just grow again - for example, the leaves we use in salads do this. Plants are a lot tougher than we imagine.

When I worked in a nursery, I was in a team of three potting on tiny seedlings of annuals and we had to work as fast as we could. In spring, we'd be potting on trays of 250 plug plants at a time and were expected to get through a tray in 15-20 minutes. We'd reach out and gently but firmly grab a handful of plants, wrench them from the tray, plonk them down on the table and then stuff them into the pots of compost as fast as we could. To encourage each other we'd say 'Whack 'em in, girls, whack 'em in' which we did and they all grew.

So relate to this! I was doing 510s of bedding plants today. Pinch one out with each hand, bam, bam, into a six pack. It's amazing how rough you can be and they're fine. No messing about dibbling holes and tucking them in gently one by one!

I got to work on untangling a cat’s cradle of cotinus, a climbing fuschia and bramble (ouch) in the wild section. It’s a job that needs good light, thick gloves and patience. My gloves weren’t thick enough.

DH and I also went out earlier to buy some seed compost, some manure and a replacement lavender for one that has died off in the lavender bed near the house.

And that was all we were going to get because we were going to be sensible and restrained. Somehow we also came back with another lavender, two heucheras and seven small pots of creeping jenny from the half-price section. So much for restraint.

I’m planning an hydrangea hedge too! How many plants for 20ft?

It's autumn here in Melbourne, warm and very dry indeed. I'm going for broke with exotic perennials that can't hack it. If they die, they die and I'll re-plant with natives, which need cosseting for the first year, then they sort themselves out.

I've been tying back bougainvillea and tip-pruning grevillea. Planted sweet peas under the veggie bed trellises as I prefer the flowers to broad beans.

Yesterday I was out in the pouring rain planting herbs that I had bought last Friday. Also some bamboo and angelica. The bamboo is potbound and try as I did, I couldn't get it out. I'll have to break/saw the plastic pot off to get it out today but I'll need my DH to help me.

Thankfully the rain has stopped and it's bright outside today. The rudbekia I planted from last years seeds is starting to sprout and I put my dwarf beans in a raised bed. Still loads to do.

I used 8 plants for my hedge. Was going to do an offset second row and I do have enough left over for that. When I tore them up so much separating them I was worried for the hedge and held back.

I read somewhere 3 to 4 per meter

It's bloody snowing!

I have to go out and plant up the bare root lupins and aconitum that won't survive my neglect much longer. I have some bare root geraniums coming today but can guarantee they'll arrive just after I finish up and defrost myself.

Time to put on my big girl pants and get outside.

Snow?! 😯I'm going to guess you're in Scotland?

Have just planted out what is hopefully going to be my miniature border. Plus some erigeron which I am thinking may compete with the grass in my gravel seating area.

Come in to start looking at plants for my rose border.

Bother, it was supposed to be heavy rain this afternoon and I haven't watered in the plants.

So far, not a single drop of rain.

Am going to have to go out and water in the dark.

I've weeded a border; sown some red clover on a bare patch of soil out the front that is technically council owned but was infested with dandelions & all the grass had died. Hoping the clover will out compete the dandelions & will tolerate the awful strimming/mowing the council workers do periodically.
All been to the garden centre for a plant for a friend & bought myself some gone-over Snakes Head Fritillary); also popped into B&M & got a red broom (cytisus) & Sainsbury's & got a jasmine, honeysuckle & autumn raspberry.
Was very happy to find my evening scented phlox have flowered!

I removed 4 shiny geranium weeds - I’m going to have to up my game - I was working on techniques before getting properly started - definitely easier after the rain.

The moment I went outside to hang up laundry and pot the plants which arrived yesterday, it started to rain. Boo.