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?

Got my geraniums planted up. Love having them on the back steps during summer. Planted some sedum for the butterflies and tied up.the few beans the slugs have left.
Manually scooped loads of green slime out of the pond,carefully picking out the tadpoles tangled up in it.
And then lay on the grass reading a book.

Another glorious day today. I've been busy in the garden again but REALLY need to stop buying plants now. It's getting a bit daft. The trouble is that I have started both the front and back gardens (and an allotment) pretty much entirely from scratch, so I do need lots of plants. But...my bank balance is suffering. I'm just wishful thinking hoping that once things get more established I won't need to shell out quite so much!

Anyway, today I've potted up 20 geraniums, planted out some pineapple sage in the veg planter, then ripped up some more turf in the 'herb garden' (haha) to make room for green and bronze fennel, garlic chives, marjoram and more sage.

I've also planted two passiflora - one to climber across the front garden wall and one to scoot up the pergola in the backyard. They were half-price on the sad plant shelf at the garden centre but they have plenty of buds so hopefully just need a bit of tlc. And lastly, planted a hydrangea petiolaris in a shady and unloved corner by the front of the house, with the hope it might look less unloved in time.

I noticed a couple stop by our front gate yesterday and they were having a good old natter and point at the garden. I choose to believe they were being complimentary towards all my efforts!

I pulled out loads of common stock self-seedlings that were smothering everything else and topped up the border with old compost from tubs mixed with chicken manure pellets. Planted an orange climbing rose and potted up 80 plug plants that arrived this morning.
The summerhouse farce continues, goodness knows if it will ever get done. I’m considering emailing one of the company directors as talking to anyone else on the phone just leaves me utterly frustrated.
I wish I had never heard of this company.
Anyway, I have some very healthy dahlias growing in pots but I’m not brave enough to put them in the border because of the snails 🐌. Have any of you planted yours out yet?

@TheSandHurtsMyFeelings I feel your post in my soul, the only caveat is that the allotment is our orchard.

We have nearly 4 acres but very little 'garden' other than lawn. I've started multiple massive beds in the last 2 years. The compost/top soil/manure alone has cost me a bloody fortune.

Your username also suggests your kids may be similar age to mine (or you've been here a long time) in which case your time is almost as precious as your funds. It's hard going. But fun!?!

This week I've dug out some more bed (now about 20 metres), cardboarded, mulched and planted 2 more lupins, a philadelphus, Vibernum Tinus Eve Price, aqualegia, geranium album and 2 blueberry bushes.

I've also (finally) planted my potatoes, sowed beetroot, got the bed ready for courgettes when they've hardened off, potted on 10 chilli plants and pricked out 8 tomatoes plants.

Pricked out mallow, dianthus, stocks and snapdragons and started hardening off my cosmos and hollyhocks (NE Scotland).

And I have the tan lines to prove it.

Meanwhile DH has done a valiant job of mowing the moss, which is no mean feat at the moment.

Have spent the last hour with a drink (or two) wafting in the fabulous BBQ smells!

@Muststopeating 4 acres?? Blimey, respect to you for managing all that. It sounds fabulous and yes, great fun despite the never-ending cost 😀

My in-laws are in NE Scotland, a stunning part of the world but a very different gardening prospect to my little patch down on the Kent coast!

Today I was mostly just admiring the garden, but also went to the garden centre and picked up another foxglove and two super cheap sale plants which looked unhappy but rescuable! A campanula and an alchemilla mollis, both of which I have already so hopefully can bring them back to looking great.

Potted them up and did a bit of watering where essential, but mostly letting everything dry out until tomorrow's rain does its thing!

Had a lovely browse round some garden centres today, bought some lovely plants and plant pots and was excited to get some things planted tomorrow but have just seen yellow warning for thunderstorms in our area.

Can I join? I’ve been trying to regain control of my garden on mat leave, we’ve got 1/3 acre with a lot of fairly formal planting so it’s a bit of a beast to manage at the best of times, we only moved in 2 years ago and it‘s been an extremely steep learning curve.

V excited to see that the gladioli I put at the back of a v tricky border (discovered when I went to dig it over that there was an entire brick wall in pieces buried in it…so I cleared out the top c.2inches of topsoil, chucked a layer of compost on top and just started planting) have started to come through.

Potted on my sage and thyme for the raised herb garden.

Went to a plant show across the road and picked up 6 tomatoes and a pumpkin, the latter I’m now regretting because my vegetable patch isn’t huge and I don’t want to lose 1/4 of it to pumpkins when I don’t even like to eat the damn things, I just want one at halloween for the kids. Might put it in a container somewhere else there’s a bit more space.

Sowed some more wildflower seeds into the modules, hoping to create little plugs that are big enough to put into a section of lawn - this time wild carrot and mallow.

Spent 5 mins grabbing as many weeds as possible from the bottom of my clematis/climbing roses because it’s getting a bit damp and soggy at the base.

Pulled the avens and a few stray brambles/wild strawberries from the edge of my box hedging so I can do a more effective spray job because our first box moth caterpillars of the year have arrived.

Wrong thread, sorry.

Gave my cacti their first water of the year, potted up lots of lettuces. Spent whole day in garden doing this and that. Tired after aurora chasing yesterday

Oh, I love Voodoo! Pretty. That's really annoying about the euphorbia!

I planted my window planters today and I'm amazed how much it has lifted my mood. They had been full of rather neglected winter planting - they were casualties of my relationship imploding, and felt like it - and now I have lovely calming whites and greens. White scented geraniums (upright and trailing), glechoma (which has a smell I love), surfina 'lime green' (which is a much subtler colour than it sounds), plus very simple single white impatiens. I let DD choose for the planter by the kitchen window, as per tradition, and she has a lovely riot of clashing colours (also as per).

I have started planting up pots with tender pelargoniums and fuchsias, and began the really irritating job of taking a garden knife to the knotted grass/plantains/dandelions infesting the brick paving where they stand. I've either re-planted finished spring bulbs in the garden or put pots of them to rest out of sight. And I have done a ton of weeding, planted some of the veg out (tomatoes into big pots, etc.). I spent £60 in the nursery where I work and filled the car, so I have more to plant over the next few days.

Its funny - I had a garden in pots for years when I was renting and never had much by way of bulbs or annuals, which I thought were a bit naff. But because my house is a cottage it feels right. I'm going to do a white-and-green hanging basket if I get time.

Your garden sounds lovely! We are sometimes robust in criticism of Monty Don around here, but I will say, one of his best tips is about growing squash/pumpkins up a frame rather than on the ground. It's a game-changer space wise, and I think they do better too, with more air flow. You could make a tripod for it with hazel poles?

And boo for box moth caterpillars.

SarahAndQuack - Yes, really annoying about the euphorbia as it came as a surprise. I love euphorbias and thought they were all bombproof. Not this one!

Visited a friend’s garden today and was impressed by (and slightly jealous of) masses of box topiary untouched by caterpillars or blight. I’ve just acquired a yew and will attempt some topiary (but not of Monty’s dog Nigel!)

Presumably it's Silver Fog or similar? I've always found it to be bomb proof! I would think euphorbia sap would give any slug a hard time. But glad of the warning to take care!

Good luck with the yew!

Home from our break in Northumberland in time for me to water seedlings and DH to mow the lawn, not much else. Except to notice something has eaten all the leaves off the Nellie Moser I got a little while ago. probably slugs, although the geranium leaves around its pot are looking a bit flattened.
The clematis Montana is smelling gorgeous in the warmth.

We broke the journey home at Dalemain, which we'd not been to for ages - it's in Historic Houses so hopefully we will visit more now (we get excellent value from that membership). It's got a nice group of meconopsis in flower at the moment.

I got home from a few days away to find many things burgeoning - seedlings, like the foxgloves, had almost doubled in height. Evicted a slug from the hanging basket intended to provide sanctuary to my sole hosta and sprayed it in my pungent, homemade garlic spray. Happy days!

I've finally put my spuds in. I've been putting off but it only took me 5 minutes in the end. A bit late but their chits stopped growing a couple of weeks ago and I'm not sure they're big enough.
Oh well - we shall see

Too hot for anything else

Yes, Neverending, it has been a hot day.

Planted out 38 corn plants after re-mulching the bed. They went into the bed that I have had to dig, and dig, and dig again to get the raspberry roots out. And I am sure I haven't got them all. But we do our best.

Two more varieties of corn to go out yet, about 40 Special Swiss and maybe 30?Picnic (their germination was spotty).

Watered many things. Weeded a few places. Set up the hose for the GC. DH then filled a paddling pool for them and they were about to empty it because "there was a bug in it." It was a poor struggling beetle and I said "save it!" and in no way must they let the water out. A lesson learned.

Moved the chicken pen with help from DGC. Introduced DGC's singular chicken (rest of his flock died of old age) to my now singular chicken (rest of my flock died as well) in the same pen and Hallelulia!! they get along well enough. Sarah (DGC's chicken) and Mr Pink (our remaining chicken) were originally siblings and that might make a difference.

Also planted out more night scented stock.

Am happily spent.

I moved about 50 foxgloves which had all self seeding in my vegetable bed to my woodland bed. No idea where they all came from as I had not planted any. I was going to throw them out before I noticed how much they were charging for them in the garden centre!

@SarahAndQuack that’s a good point re the pumpkins up a trellis and would certainly solve my problem. Google suggests though that it’s only suitable for the smaller varieties and this was just labeled “pumpkin”. Might try it anyway and get DH to engineer supports for them if needed.

Today I’ve sowed attempt 3 at courgettes (FIL promised me a couple but then when he brought them over they turned out to be cucumbers, then I sowed some which the mice ate - this lot are now indoors), and French beans. Done a bit of weeding and Xentari-ed my box hedges - the amount of damage the caterpillars have managed in just 24 hours is immense but the plants will be fine they’re growing crazily fast at the moment. 2 of my clematis cuttings have rotted so I’ve cut a few more.

I rather haphazardly sowed about 100 seeds into a 20x30cm sheet seedling tray, and I think now I have 100 foxglove seedlings all in super close proximity to eachother and I'm trying to work out the best way to separate them and where to plant them but the weather keeps working against me.

I'm sure there are worse problems to have but I'll be damned if I have to pay garden centre prices for foxgloves.

@Jimmyneutronsforehead

Can I ask how long your foxglove seeds took to germinate? We have hundreds of self sown wild foxgloves in our garden which we keep moving to more convenient spots but they are all the common purple variety.

I've tried growing a cream foxglove (name forgotten) from seed and nothing happened and am currently trying one called Dalmatian Peach. I only planted the last one 5 days ago in the greenhouse so obviously am not expecting results for a while. I know it won't flower til next year but would love to know when I can expect seedlings.

As an aside, I am always amazed at how tiny foxglove seeds are and then they go on to produce such a huge plant! The miracles of nature eh? 😅🌱

@catwithflowers they only took about a week at the most, they're just mixed foxglove seeds and I think sometimes the mixed seeds do germinate faster than hybridised ones, but we've got a big conservatory that is always above 20 degrees and I think that had helped. I don't cover my seeds because there's no need to in there.

I also have been mixing coco coir and compost about 50/50 because I think it retains moisture a bit better for germination and the quality of locally available compost has gone down hill in recent years.

I'm by no means a plant expert, but I am good at getting seeds going. It's the keeping them alive bit that I struggle with.

@Jimmyneutronsforehead

Thanks so much for your reply! Interesting. Our greenhouse is unheated and although the last week has been very warm, it can often stay fairly cool (NE England) so maybe it's a temperature thing?

Very possible, you could sow a few and keep them on a warm windowsill to see if they germinate any faster. Just don't do what I did and sow them all together. Think I might just get the scissors to the root mat at chop it into bits and plant in clumps and hope for the best 🫣