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?

Have planted out the next lot of plants which are going to supplement my rose border. One Nepeta possibly dead from overwatering but have crossed my fingers and stuck it in.

The miniature border plants look very happy.

Plan for tomorrow is DH to cut down the pyracantha next to the house which is now full of ivy, while I attack the furthest bed which is supposed to be 'woodland glade' but is currently more 'actual woodland' by the number of sycamore saplings I've seen in it.

@Hatty65 the purple flower one is aquilegia. I have a blue one.
The pointy leaf one might be lords and ladies

Storm Kathleen has been behaving herself over here. I thought today was going to be a write-off but I've done quite a lot.

I've had a clear out of all my disparate packets and jars of seeds that I've collected over the past couple of years. Most of them were in date(to 2025) with a few expiring this year. I've categorised them into veg, wild flowers and border flowers,

Planted some seeds I fancied for the summer in some recycled seed 'pods':

Teasel
Viola
Gypsophila
Zinnia
Lobelia

I also slung a mixed collection of random seeds in the small slip of land between us and the farmer's field. The soil is not enriched so I'm hoping some if not all the seeds will take, last year we had quite a nice summer display including honesty, nigella, cornflower, cosmos, and a couple of other flowers I can't remember the names of!

it was very sheltered at the side of the house so I attacked a couple of very overgrown hebe, 2 hydrangea and a pyracanthas which was all over the place. It looks a bit better now. I'll need to sort out the remains, but I ran out of steam

I think the variegated ones are a type of Lords and Ladies. I recognise the other but can't remember the name

@InMySpareTime Thank you so much! I'm pretty sure you are right about both - and that will explain why the Lords and Ladies is growing so well. It's about the most prolific thing in my border, so likely to be a nuisance. 😟

Soaking sweet pea and morning glory seeds ready for planting.

Bijou - dwarf sweet pea
Royal
midnight blue
morning glory - heavenly blue
Star of Yelta (bright mauve)

Cleared my revolting greenhouse of wild animal poo, and last years mess, washed everything down. Dh kind of fixed the door with polythene. Sowed snapdragons, zinnia, peas and beans. I feel so much better for having done it. Might do some more tomorrow.

Emptied a couple more pots of failing to thrive bulbs. Ripped out some more weeds and planted a hydrangea in a pot. Might aim for more tomorrow, if we’re not being blasted by the storm.

Some of my seeds are sprouting! I have about four nasturtiums and three sweet peas so far. And the sweet peas I bought as backup have shot up so much I’ve had to put them in bigger pots and stake them. Unfortunately can’t plant them out yet as the bed they’re going into isn’t filled and the topsoil it needs is delayed. Also had all the stuff we ordered arrive today- an amawagana cherry, a little apple tree, a climbing rose, a pack of heucherellas and some sea hollies. Unfortunately the heucherellas are very small and sickly looking, so we’ll have to see- but they’ve gone into the greenhouse for a few days. Also not strictly garden, but I divided up an aloe vera- took four little puppies from it and potted them up.

Checking in from Melbourne and the sweet pea seeds planted a fortnight ago have begun to sprout. I expect winter will slow them down a bit.

You've reminded me, @Zebracat I must plant some Snapdragon!

well done to you and MrZebracat for sorting out your greenhouse. Now you can get started with some Spring planting.

what sort of temps do you get in your Melbourne winter @echt ? Will your sweet pea survive outdoors or will you have to keep them under cover.

I love sea holly @LoobyDop it didn't fare well last year, there wasnt enough warmth and dry, and they just stayed in the ground with a tiny bit of foliage but no holly heads. I've got a few roots in the greenhouse and they look a lot more vigorous so I'm going to wait a lot longer before I plant them out in the sunniest part of our border, to see if they grow better.

I know I'm going to have the same problem as you, I'll have a whole load of mature seedlings doing fine in the protected environment of our greenhouse but unable to plant out because the conditions continue to be appalling.

Storm Kathleen has picked up overnight and it's raging where I am. Wind and driving rain is not good for tender seedlings. Fingers crossed the coming weeks will improve.

So yesterday I lifted the weed-proof membrane outside our shed as it was looking a bit shabby and discovered what I believe to be knotweed. Will call the experts in - hard to tell but I'm 80% sure. Was really quite upset, we've lived here for 2 years.

@ungarden why not post a picture? It’s quite pretty stuff, pink tinged and heart shaped leaves, came as a prized plant originally. And it is definitely possible to eradicate a small amount that’s been under a membrane. The good thing is that it’s sterile, so not spread by seeds.
yesterday was lovely here, warm and sunny with a slight breeze. Today is cold wet and windy. I’m staying in, unless it changes.

In between the rain and resting my arthritis I've managed to divide and replant a Hosta and take out a bucket full of weeds and grape hyacinths.

I've got loads of ground cover plants to get in, to help suppress weeds, I've decided to get the plants in this week and then tackled weeds otherwise I'm never going to get the plants in. Hoping to get some more plants in later.

It’s really frustrating, isn’t it, @daisychain01. I hate having plants hanging around not in the ground, it feels like I’m failing them. It’s not actually raining here for a change, but the wind is so strong it’s still horrible to be out.

Well I went out and weeded the 'woodland glade' and it was more of a sycamore plantation. That I can deal with but there is some sort of hideous shrub that has spread through half of it via roots and suckers. I did my best to dig it up but it's impossible as it's all spread through massive tree roots.

So next week the shrub is being killed, as are the tree stumps that think they are making a comeback.

Done very little recently due to incessant rain and cold.
Today potted on the dwarf cornflowers which are about the only seeds to have actually germinated and thrived. I love cornflowers but our garden is windy and they become a straggly mess so hopefully dwarf ones are the answer. Only other life in the greenhouse is calendula seedlings, lemon balm beginning to show and about 3 chamomile out of a whole tray. Removed yet more frogspawn from the tiny pond. Bloody frogs must be exhausted.

Managed to beat the rain, cut the grass and started pruning the buddleia, a mini chain saw on a pole coming later to help with that as there’s loads of it plus a very tall bay and another big green shrub I don’t know what it is but has lovely orange berries in winter. Yesterday I swapped some small bay, pittosporum and holly seedlings with friend for Achilleia, Foxgloves and Veronica.

There’s loads of that variegated lords and ladies in our new garden. Snapdragons over wintered and are out already. The blossom now out on the cherry tree outside our house on the pavement though the white one opposite is being slow to come out. First spring here and it is lovely.

It’s Arum italicum, a relative of Arum maculatum which is our native Lords and Ladies. If you want to get rid of it, offer it around, it’s generally considered a desirable plant.

The last few days were very dispiriting. I planted out three types of lettuce babies only to find them eaten up the next morning. That’s why I grow mine in the greenhouse, one to a pot

I dug out a load of stuff that had self seeded in the wrong places and foisted the plants on people at church. Passed on a load of mint, oregano, phlox, spiraea japonica and several raspberry canes.
Saved me loads of green bin space and recipients were very grateful for the free plants. Win win.

Planted up some 'Mrs Bradshaw' geums into a large patio pot to sit outside the kitchen doors and hopefully be all cheery and spirit-lifting in a month or two. Did the same for some more erigeron as I'm mildly obsessed with the stuff. I'm determined to get it to take in the crevices of our garden wall at the front, so spent quite some time dividing some of the plugs and shoving them into nooks and crannies - doubtless they'll all fail.

Planted two alstibes by the front door, shoved a nameless grass into a bed where hopefully it'll be happier. Admired the solitary snakeshead fritillary in the lawn.

Tittivated at the allotment, probably pointlessly. My broad beans and raspberry canes are looking good though.

It's bloody exhausting starting a front garden, back garden and allotment from scratch, pretty much all at the same time. My knees and back are complaining.

@Zebracat it’s hard to identify as the leaves haven’t developed some of the root was orange some wasn’t. Root snaps like a carrot. I dug up 3 plants all in line that were growing under the weed proof membrane before suspecting it might be knotweed. Previous owners left behind Round Up - mind you they left behind a lot of stuff. I don’t know if they knew or not.

MereDintofPandiculation That’s why I grow mine in the greenhouse, one to a pot

Don't they get too hot? Lettuces like cooler temps so I am (used to be) glad to send them out to a bed in the spring. From the end of April/ early May the greenhouse will be chockablock with runner bean, french bean, corn and squash seedlings for planting out, and cucumber, tomato and aubergine plants to stay in. Oh, and chillies.

But I suppose it is better to have an intact hot lettuce than a slug ravaged lettuce.

Goodness I wish the weather would settle a bit.