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?

Hello again!

Today, I’ve finished moving the bay and olive trees. I discovered that, in my hurried tidying-up at dusk yesterday, I’d left my Felcos and bread knife (best thing for sawing through roots) in the front garden. They seem to have survived the overnight downpour.

For the most part, I relied on “train not to eat” but aconitum was the one plant I grubbed up when my child was little.

I'm new to this thread (and new to gardening really) but it sounds like we have very similar soil to unsync.

After going on a rose pruning course last week, today has been dry so we've dramatically pruned several old roses that are growing up the front of our house. They've been untouched by us for 25 years and were already old then, so desperately needed a little tlc... will have to see if they reshoot.

Interesting to read about the Hellebores self seeding. I've planted some for the first time and would love for them to spread but wasn't sure they would like the clay.

New here and want to join in!

Very cold where I am. I transplanted hundreds of snowdrops today (my DGS and I dug up thousands yesterday) so satisfying.

Had to move them, where they were is being turned over to the chickens.

Absolutely nothing, it's poured down all day.

I did think about a slight redesign of my veg patch bed layout, for about 10 seconds. Will come back to it when it stops pelting it down.

It's been a lovely dry sunny day here. Sorry if that sounds smug but it's not everyday someone in Lancashire can say that when others are being deluged!

Most of the year so far I've been tackling the overgrown Ivy on one of the fences and subsequent training of the other palnts on it. Today I had a go at the other side where there's a mess of clematis Montana (which I did prune last year though that's not obvious now!), a honeysuckle (Japanese maybe - small but nicely scented flowers) and winter jasmine which invaded from next door. That was looking very scrappy - lots of long bare stems, and then quite a lot of dead twiggy ends. I ended up taking nearly all of it out - fortunately it was possible to pull the stems out from the other plants. I'm sure it'll regrow and I'll try to train it better in future. That left the wires free to train the honeysuckle along. The clematis is a loopy mess but I love it so it can stay till it's flowered.

Oh bugar... I ordered some aconitum cloudy from Farmer Gracy (alongside a gazillion other plants). I had absolutely no idea it was bloody wolfsbane. It said 'may cause irritation, wear gloves'. It did not say 'might kill your child'. I have a 2.5 year old, 5 year old and 6 year old. One ate a rhodedendron leaf when little and the other a laurel berry, but other than that they tend to know better. Am I going to have to give it away?

Re poisonous plants - I've got aconitum and various others. I did try to dig out the aconitum - not sure if it was when I was expecting dd or because we had a dog and I'd belatedly realised the significance of the name 'wolfsbane'. But it regrew and did so well in a shady patch where not much else flowered that it was reprieved.

DD was taught not to eat anything except specifically she could nibble herbs from the pots near the back door. And also to not even touch the wolfsbane.
The dogs helped themselves to the likes of pulmonaria and goose grass and never came to any harm from anything.

The one scare we had was when the second dog ate every single leaf off a peace Lily which his predecessor had shown no interest in. Supposedly they're toxic, full of oxalic acid, we discovered to our horror. Vet said keep him well hydrated and hope for the best. The dog took himself outside and next thing we saw was him scoffing a lot of leaves from a plant which I think is a meadowsweet cultivar .... net result was absolutely no ill effects, not even an upset stomach and he lived to nearly 17 so obviously hadn't damaged his kidneys.

New to this thread but have loved reading!

Really enjoying seeing all the new growth peeking through in the garden. I think I have a complete!y different attitude to the seasons now that I've got into gardening - this time of year is a joy as I get to go around noticing all the buds and shoots, even if it's still a bit chilly, grey and damp.

Loads of primroses and tiny purple crocuses in the lawn, along with a million muscari. I shoved a load of bluebell bulbs under our big cherry tree in the front garden !ast autumn, and I think they're coming through. Cannot wait to see if they actually do anything. I cut back lots of the perennials in the borders and cleared a load of messy old dead grasses from a scruffy patch in the front, which looks so much better now. Roses have all been pruned and are already shooting up new red leaves. My DA Paul Noels that I planted bare-root a year ago are actually sending up some fabulous looking shoots now after a year of sulking and doing sweet fa. Exciting!

@ErrolTheDragon I had it planted for a slightly shady border but I do have a very shady part that the kids never go / its hard to access so perhaps I can plant it there instead.

Shall also give the kids an extra lecture on the fact that anything in the garden can potentially be poisonous.

Stuff in the garden can also be red in tooth and claw. The chickens went after a mouse in their pen when DGS was helping me in the garden and he noticed. Poor lad he is a sensitive young soul and felt for the poor mouse (well, so did I) and I saved it, but by saving it I mean rescued it from the pen to die in peace. The poor thing.

A nice day here and I was itching to get on with jobs but fibromyalgia had other ideas.
The ranunculus "brazen hussy" which I bought because I loved the name,is showing with its gorgeous bronze foliage. I just enjoyed the birdsong and the sunshine. The rest can wait.

Plant it right at the back of the border?

I take it you know it’s a garden variety of celandine?

it’s not a Ranunculus any more, they’ve decided it’s sufficiently different from buttercups to have it’s own genus, so it’s now Ficaria verna “Brazen Hussy”

Purchased and planted 3 hellebore today and cut back new dead stems I had left over winter.

I cleared some fungus away that was growing around the cabbages and chopped some leaves off them. They are doing well, but the onions not so. Oh and sown some strawberries with DD2 indoors.

I didnt know,no. But dont really care. Its pretty whatever its called

Watched the rain pour down just like it did for the last week while I have been off 😭

Had a very satisfying morning - cut back dead things and swept up leaves, turned over my veg bed soil in preparation, mended the little cold house, planted seeds, sewed some forget me not seeds and planted some summer Iris bulbs.

I severely pruned roses last week so I feel smug about that but it's rained ever since and I've got grasses that need to be chopped down by now.

My sweet pea seedlings have been chomped , grrrr, but I really need to deal with my spireas as they're shooting already.

It's like, too cold, wet, windy to do anything yet its suddenly too warm, already budding and blossoming to do anything.

Is this the right time to cut roses back?

Was going to prune some of the roses today but heavy rain all day again. Thanks for the thread.

Our first tulip is out! I don’t think I’ve ever had one out in February before.

Ooh! I have one tulip in flower but the rest, even of the same variety, are a long way behind. I love tulip season. I’m going to scroll through my photos to see when I had my first in flower last year.

Just looked in my diary and it was March 13th last year!

I have a tulip out too. A single clusiana that I don't remember seeing before. I also moved a few things. Probably technically too early but I think/hope they'll survive. So many crocuses that I can't remember buying either, in lovely soft lemon and pale blue.

April 7th here (unless I was just slow to notice)!