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?

Thank you so much for all your help, I really appreciate it ❤️ I’ll keep you updated!

Thank you, thank you!! X

After two days of rain I finally got out to finish weeding the paving nearest the house and to give the clumps of erigeron in the paving around the sundial a good haircut - lots of lovely healthy growth under the dead stems, which bodes well.

I do love how erigeron or Mexican fleabane elbows weeds out of the way while being so pretty, fitting into such unpromising spaces, and being so little effort to care for.

We have two silk tassel (garrya elliptica) bushes inherited from the previous owners. They are the size of small trees and this year they are absolutely dripping with beautiful long grey-green catkins. I have never seen so many before.

There are now four tiny wrinkled leaves in the container of not as dead as it seemed mint and something has had a bit of a chew on them!

Hooray some sunshine! We got back from today's walk (sizergh estate, fabulous views and a brief walk round the castle garden - that's one for Erigeron lovers in season!) in time for me to nip to the local nursery for compost and then repot the scented geraniums and also refresh the compost on my umbrella plant - it's looking a bit sad and its lower leaves are gradually yellowing and falling, not sure why.

Then put some of the sweet pea seedlings into larger pots and expelled them to the growhouse to make room indoors.... I don't have enough space for growing seeeds in the warm. Moved some of the cosmos seedlings into larger modules and planted some more seeds in the gaps in the tray. I was going to sow some morning glories but one of the websites said to soak overnight, so I've filled some pots with seed compost ready to dibble them in tomorrow. Maybe better that it'll be room temp rather than cold anyways guess.

And as the light hadn't yet gone I hacked off a bit more of the buddleia where it was shading the mini bog garden and a chunk of the leaning sorbus as DH hasn't got round to it yet (tbf he's had flu or something) . Enough that I don't need to duck walking across the lawn now.
I didn't come in till nearly 6 - it really is getting like spring despite the cold!

Today was bamboogeddon part 4. We acquired a garden full of bamboo last year. We hacked it all down and put root killer stuff on it in October, and then covered the stumps with plastic over winter. Today we finished digging the roots out of one of the three beds it was in. We filled five Ikea bags and I am TIRED. The bed is still absolutely full of rocks and pebbles ☹️

My best laid plans of a productive gardening weekend were scuppered by a big dump of snow overnight Fri/Sat. Yesterday it kept snowing on and off all day but it was thawing even so. No gardening was done 🙄

Today the sunshine really helped with the thaw, but I had jobs indoors to do. Thankfully I have a day off work tomorrow so I'm hoping to get some snowdrops in the ground, and the last of my pots cleared of straggly old plants and start to plant a few dahlia to bring on in the greenhouse waiting for the temps to rise consistently.

I read the greenhouse thread which reminded me of the seeds I sowed in the propagator last weekend, so I rushed out fearing the worst, but I think I got there in time, soil varying from still moist at the surface to dry at the surface but moist underneath. So I gave them all a good water, also the jasmine which was flagging a bit, and the lemon verbena for good measure.

Nice one @MereDintofPandiculation glad to have been of service
If there was a time to have forgotten your seeds, this week probably was a time when least damage would be done, given the temps were low but not too bad, and definitely not too high which would have turned them into burnt offerings lol.

Ive put my propagator by our patio doors so they get a nice dose of sunlight and I can keep an eye on them. I'm also liable to get sidetracked in the week and forget them otherwise. I'm quite excited about the ones I've planted as I added some peppers for good measure which I haven't grown before. Plus 2 types of basil.

what are you growing?

I'm also growing peppers and thai basil for the first time this year. I found two tiny self-seeded tomatoes out in the mini greenhouse yesterday, I potted them on and wished them luck.

Hi everyone. I'm redoing my back garden - a Victorian terraceSpent the day ripping up the beds in preparation for a re-design. I'm going to have to learn as I go...but what's the worst that can happen? So far a day of destruction.

I pulled up about one hundred Spanish hyacinths - more to be done.
Broke two forks! One was apparently tested to 100kg! Second one the fork is now deformed. Any recommendations for stronger forks?
Moved 6 clumps of bamboo,
Some black grass, some green grass (can't remember the name)
An acer
All the snowdrops
And they've all been moved to big pots whilst I decide where to put them.
The Garden now looks like a building site!😂it's the breaking eggs stage.

More sweet peas (Cupani and mixed old fasioned), as some of the autumn sown ones didn’t like the winter, tomatoes (GD and Jen’s orange), cucumber, Physalis, Anchusa azurea and Nicotiana sylvestris. And I’m pleased to report that the sweet peas have germinated and thrown up shoots overnight.

Mainly stared out of the window at the perpetual drizzle today. Did manage to pot up a couple of erigerons for the outside dining table, which I am hoping will soon be tumbling over our sunny al fresco lunches as per Claus Dalby...probably not though.

Also wandered around the front garden poking at things (I'm sure my neighbours must think I'm weird), picked a few leaves off the beds and marvelled at how the grape hyacinths are multiplying in the grass; there are literally hundreds of them. Luckily, I like them!

It’s been a sunny day today finally so have been tidying . Moved wheelbarrow which was full of soil and was blocking the area I have my potting table in and planted what I think is Osteospermum that was planted in the wheelbarrow. Retrieved bag of compost from garage to put by potting table.

Moved a plastic table behind greenhouse and loads of pots that were randomly distributed around the garden and played around a bit with layout for raised beds.

We moved last spring so still early days yet. I need to get the greenhouse that came with the house mended and cleared so I can get growing. Have planted absolutely no seeds before so need to get going and I have found several self seeded hollies and pittosporum that I’ll pot up for friend who has big hole in her hedge .

I am loving this thread. Much of it is double dutch to me as I'm such a novice gardener. I have a large, untidy garden with no real plan of what to do - I'd love a nice garden to sit in, and last year I made a border near my patio and planted a mix of random things. Some have survived and some haven't.

I'm very much trial and error - I tend to buy shrubs and just stick them in somewhere hopeful and see if they survive. I don't really know what I'm doing, what type of soil I have or anything.

But I'm enjoying very much reading all your plans.

Nothing wrong with a bit of trial and error, and the best way to have a beautiful garden is to get stuck in.

I have also been eyeing the drizzle and feeling glad that I managed to get out yesterday to weed, pull out dead stalks and tidy a cherry laurel back into shape. It is a lovely, dense bush much used as cover by sparrows and tits as they flit backwards and forwards from the bird feeder.

I also pruned the lower branches of an acacia pravissima, reluctantly, as it is about to burst into a riotous froth of fluffy golden blossom, but it was casting too much shade on a southernwood and a lavender.

I didn’t get that much done but every little helps. If I stick to trying to snatch an hour every day that it isn’t raining then I think I will keep it ticking over.

@CatChant I'm now envisaging you in a beautiful garden like Chrestomanci's. 😁

I'm currently re-reading The Merlin Conspiracy and love your user name.

Got out today for 20mins before sunset - only dry part of the day and I spent it bagging up the mess I made on Sunday.
Note to self - tidy up as you go along!

@Hatty65 Thank you, we obviously have the same (great) taste in books! I would love to have Chrestomanci’s garden. And the one in The Merlin Conspiracy. And the one at Green Knowe, Mary Lennox’s, and Tom’s Midnight Garden.

Might have trouble keeping on top of the weeding though.

When they don’t, google them and find out why not. Experimentation is a great way to learn

Mary Lennox's garden would be fine so long as it came with a Dickon. I expect quite a few of us wouldn't mind one!

Ive just had to resurface my driveway and we have put in two large beds next to the house. They are north west facing and they are enormous. I optimistically thought there would be soil underneath the old driveway but Im still pulling out masses. I then need to get topsoil delivered. In the meantime 24 hellebores have just arrived for that spot and Ive bought a cherry tree (but now Im worried there won't be enough depth for it.

It is, you learn a lot.

My main tip is 'Pay attention'. If you can, look at your garden every day and get an idea of what everything is doing and needs.

For a no-digger I'm doing a heck ton of digging this year.

Planting hydrangea annabelle taken as cuttings last year, along a wall overlooking the road. Just thought I should rake level some uneven bits before I planted. The uneven bits turned out to be rocks just under the surface. Many and large. A short task took all afternoon and is not quite finished.

Yes, I'd agree with that.

Ooh, yes! I love Diana Wynne Jones's books, and Lucy M. Boston. I have seen the outside of her house at Hemingford Grey, but annoyingly - despite trying to arrange it the way they say on the website - I've never managed to go look round.