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?

Er... press harder?
Or gently water in while holding them upright (if it's a small number)?

DH hates mowing. But he LOVES cooking and the food shop. Works for me!

Thanks Errol. If I press harder, I seem to snap them , watering them in makes them keel over, so I’ve been prewatering and poking them in with a pencil.
But with the zinnias, I’d grown them in the module seed trays(6 packs?)and there were about 4 seedlings to each square, couldnt separate them without snapping, so I potted them as units into small square pots, tried to pat them down, but it was all a bit unsatisfactory, especially with the very fluffy peat free compost I have. They might have perked up tomorrow although it is even colder here today. I’m wearing 3 layers and under a blanket with the heating on, and I’m not a person who feels the cold.
I’ve been to B&Q and spent £29.00 on a boot full of clearance plants. I have shockingly bad pots in my pergola, so Ive bought some fairly small evergreens and pansies in the hope that I can do them up a bit and then forget them until next year. And some Lewisia and foxgloves for my mainly roses and nettles bed, thought Id replace the nettles.

It's been 9 degrees here today (south). I really don't know how long I can keep my seedlings inside, they need to be planted out. My peas are turning into triffids. If I remember correctly, last spring was very cold and it messed with everything I tried to grow, I got hardly any plums, hardly any peas, tomatoes were only ready by autumn. It was a good year for apples and blueberries but I really don't understand why.

Up here in north Yorks we've just put fleece over the tender perennials that are outside, because it's meant to drop below zero tonight.

Last year was weird, wasn't it?! A hot June, but otherwise just very, very wet. I think it was the wet more than the cold that made the difference.

My alpines seem to be loving the dry chilly flippin freezing temps.

Thanks for the warning - I hadn't realised it's due to get down to -1 here tonight.

Well it was lovely here this morning so I mowed the lawns and afterwards went out without a coat. Big mistake. Ne’er cast a clout and all that. Needless to say I am now home in my fleece and thermals.

My boss said so and he's usually right!

Only down to 0 in my bit of Yorks. Hopefully everything can cope with that

I've shut the roof of my growhouse. The sweet peas in there should be fine I'd think, hopefully the cosmos too though I've been forgetting to slide the roof between sides and some on the covered side have got too dry.

Put the protection back on the tree ferns. One meconopsis deigning to flower but it's not a blue one. It's ivory-white 'Marit'- not desirable telly-people-wise.
Picked up the lawn-mower which the repair people had lost. It took a whole morning on the phone to persuade them they hadn't. Stopped at the garden centre on the way back from the hairdresser and bought rose 'Dublin Bay' and 'Vanessa Bell.' And a lot of oxygenators for the pond which is the colour of mushy peas.

Yeh the fleece went back on tonight

And a couple of French lavender back in the conservatory

That reminds me. I’ve been meaning to buy more barley bundles for the pond and water butt.

I’ve been waiting six months for David Austin to have standard Vanessa Bell back in stock. I fear she’s never going to be mine.

I read somewhere that lavender does as well as barley straw. So when I prune the lavender in spring, I tie the stems in big bundles and lob them into the pond. Seems to work.

Yes, but for someone deficient in lavender, buying barley straw is the next best thing!

I've got no lavender at the moment and my barrel ponds are far too small for barley bundles!

Meanwhile... we've just discovered a lovely nursery near us down some back lanes, which has only recently started opening for retail sales. It specialises in acers (though has plenty of other plants)....stunning varieties.

We've bought a small one, and then went to the big garden centre to get a pot for it and also one for the top of the 'hatch' mentioned upthread, and a pieris 'forest flame to go in it.

Today I planted yesterday's purchases, then pruned one of the dogwoods... needs more taking off still. Made room in the growhouse for some more of the seedlings, but as it's forecast to be fairly chilly (though not frost) tonight but then set to get warmer I'll put them out tomorrow. Filled some more modules ready to start some more seeds in their place. A bit of weeding, of course.

Also put in some canes - a tripod and a couple of 'ladders' leaning back towards the wired fence to see if I can get my Anne folkard geraniums going more up and less sprawling than usual this year.

Today I've planted up some hanging baskets with trailing petunias, done a bit of weeding and swept the patio and washed the furniture down. DH has planted a lot of onions out.

DH mended the greenhouse so I can start clearing it of some of the things of the previous owner .

It’s so sodden here I really can’t do much outside at all, we had an inch of rain last night 🫣
The lawns are squelching, the borders are beaten down. It’s so disheartening and the forecast is crap for all this week, raining every day.

Disheartening is exactly the word for it. I'm getting frustrated with the weather, I don't like feeling like I have to fight the elements, I normally try to go with it. I worry for the farmers and the wildlife.

It’s been miserable all morning. Glorious sunshine now. I’m still not gardening - all the foliage is glistening with drops of water waiting to be dislodged down my neck

Spent yesterday doing my MIL's garden, in the bitter cold. Went home feeling knackered and ill, and have lost the will to do my own in today's bitter and wet cold. 11 degrees C, and that is the warmest it will be today. I am angry and frustrated and fed up!!!

Probably a big mistake but I planted my courgette plants out in their raised bed, under netting to keep the pigeons away. Was just getting fed up of not doing anything! Also direct speed some beetroot and carrot seeds too. Potted on my sweet peppers for the second time and moved them to the greenhouse. And speed some sweetcorn , runner beans, and drawn green h beans on the windowsill inside. Fingers crossed for no frost and that they survive.