What have you done in the garden today? Part 5

[MereDintofPandiculation]

What have you done in the garden today? What went well? What surprises have you had? What could have gone better?

I love toadflax too, I have a pink version as well as the purple one. It seeds itself around very nicely.

I was torn on this - I wasn’t going to, but by the time I’d taken out the moss and weeds there was basically no grass left and the soil was so compacted I could barely get my fork in so I figured it needed mulching anyway (and explains why the apple tree is looking a bit cross). I was thinking of trying to get the flowers established, and then add some sort of native grass mix next year?

I actually keep my pomegranate for the blossom!

If grass isn’t growing there at the moment, there’s no guarantee it will later.

I keep my pomegranate for the pea-sized pomegranate it produces every year! I think I’ve said before that I’d always been told they don’t fruit in the UK, but a friend reports a magnificent fruiting tree in Bristol.

Today I’ve sown coriander and foxglove seeds.

Had a visitor today who came and took pity on my sorry state and then took pity on the gardens sorry state and brought their petrol mower and mowed. I couldn't believe that little mower managed to get it done without strimming first. Our little electric mower could never.

So even though I do feel absolutely disgusting I'm glad the garden is being seen to in some capacity.

I also forgot about some yellow patty pan squashes I sowed but they popped up, and the chartenais melons that the dog tipped over also survived I just forgot about them too. Tell me you're a gardener with adhd or what.

I wish I had got some slug pellets in though now because I've had a glimmer of hope for the garden and I don't want them to steal it.

Our little electric mower could never. mine will manage up to 30cm. If it’s dense 30cm, not just a few stems, I tilt it on to its back legs. It’s a splendid beast, i’ll be sorry when it finally packs up. It had a bit of a wobble yesterday and cut out 5 secs after starting, but I checked its fuse. It saw me eviscerating the plug and it scared it so much that it started working again.

I've just dug up a mystery plant which was at the back of one of the flower beds. I thought it was a dwarf elderflower but now it has matured, Googling suggests it is a saw wort which I had never heard of before. It has thistle like flowers but no prickly parts. It was quite pretty but I read it is quite invasive if left to seed so I pulled it out. Now I'm feeling guilty and wonder if I should have left it 🙈

I've just googled them and they're lovely. Shame they're invasive.

If you have space you should definitely grow some artichokes (in big pots, learn from my mistake), they're absolutely stunning in bloom and as I've been educated by mymsnet the bees like to get very drunk and merry on them.

The flowers make lovely cut dried flowers so you can chop them before they go to seed and use them as a decorative centrepiece if you want.

@Jimmyneutronsforehead my husband has tried to grow them several times. Whenever he plants them out they seem to get eaten 🙈. They are stunning though and we will keep trying. Maybe he's planting them out too soon?

I pulled the saw wort out by the roots and am now wondering if I should replant it elsewhere 🙈. Does anyone know quite how invasive they are? @MereDintofPandiculation do you have any idea?

They don't like to be transplanted as far as I know, so they like to be planted in the spot they'll stay in.

This year I'm trying (being the key word) to grow some from seed but when I planted what I was sold as a globe artichoke, it was a tuber and I just planted it late summer in the spot I thought it would stay in, it did wonderfully. So wonderfully it turned out to be a giant cardoon with stems like tree branches and roots as thick as taro roots.

It surprises me that they’re invasive. This is the distribution in the uk They’re a plant of acid to neutral soils, declining across the UK and now described as “a very localized species, even in its core areas in south-west England, and almost exclusively confined to ancient, undisturbed habitats.”. Unless you know it’s that, because you planted it yourself, I’d be looking at the possibility that google was mistaken.

unless there’s some other plant also known as sawwort

You’ll realise I know it only from the wild and not as a garden plant

I’m watching baby sparrows being fed by their parents on the front lawn, no wonder we’re having to refill the feeders every day! There are at least a dozen babies.
I have weeded the back border, dug out wood avens by the bucketful as well as a very invasive plant I bought years ago. It looks a bit like a nettle but no stinging, with bright blue flowers but it is absolutely rampant and seeds everywhere 😵‍💫
Anyway, the border is looking better now. My peonies are huge this year, the best they have been for years.

This is it, looking a bit sorry for itself after being pulled up 🙈

I've potted up some geraniums, planted some more lavender plugs and (incompetent gardener alert!) dug up a very miserable-looking hydrangea from a border that I think is really far too sunny and dry for it. I've put it into a pot in the shade and drenched it - it will probably sulk massively and may give up the ghost completely, but it was pissing me off where it was!

I only seem to have any luck with hydrangeas when I keep them really cool and shaded, despite the face that the sunny front gardens around here seem to be full of them, all happily growing away in blazing all-day sun.

Watering pots. They are all surprisingly dry considering all the rain we've had lately.

@Yamadori it's been windy too, so plants in pots are losing a lot of water to evaporation

Yes, some of my perennials in pots have started to droop. I’d quite like some overnight rain to fill the waterbutts.

I've just had new roses delivered, after seeing them on Chelsea flower show. £30 each 😬 but they look as if they'll take off as soon as I plant them.

Climbing rose 'iceberg' really hoping it will takeoff and cover a south facing fence

Sounds fab! What other varieties did you get?

David Austin dealt me a blow this week when they said all their standard Vanessa Bells had failed quality control and wouldn’t be going on sale. Sigh.

@InMySpareTime I am finding everything very dry due to the wind too. I planted up pots with annuals in today. Potted on my sweetcorn and watered. A day well spent in the garden!

Yes, I've got a lot of bonsai trees in pots, and the deciduous ones in particular need a lot of watering when it's windy. More so than on a calm sunny day.

My courgettes surrounded by strulch are untouched, so I’m going to risk planting out my newly sown French beans this weekend and use the rest of the strulch around them! Cat kept pooing in the wigwam too so it’s stopped that .