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’ve been delighted to discover that the ‘wrong’ hardy geranium included with my latest mail order splurge is phaeum ‘Joseph Green’, which is lovely. I’m hoping that my tentatively-identified-as Anne Folkard will flower soon. (She’s currently sulking, as she’s the only geranium I have in a pot and droops when it gets too dry.) Mrs Kendall Clark is currently doing her thing, as are nodosum and macrorrhizum. Did I ever mention I like geraniums, ha?

@BuggeryBumFlaps my sweet peas aren't flowering yet either. Lots of growth but no sign of a bloom! Tomatoes have a few flowers. Roses are out in force now but I agree with you that lots of flowers in our garden are well behind. We are in the north of England and it hasn't been very warm with evening temperatures dropping to 4 degrees most of last week.

@MaxandMeg oh I have Tottering By Gently - is lovely! My first DA rose.
I've been weeding, dug out an overgrown sage that was just swamping everything; trimmed back some plants.
Planning to put in a couple of roses & some ground cover where I removed the sage.

@ErrolTheDragon L henryii is not like other honeysuckles

I bought 11 discounted dianthus yesterday and planted them in the low wall in the front garden. Very delicate and a lovely crimson colour. They were reduced from £3.99 to £1 each so a real bargain. It pelted down here last night so they have been watered in nicely 🤣

I’m loving dianthus this year.

i just stumbled upon a few plants which escaped my get-everything-planted blitz, so they’ve gone into one of the few vacant pots. I’m hoping they’ll get watered in this afternoon, when we’re promised more rain.

Today I will be mostly thwarting berry-hungry blackbirds.

Not in the garden but have booked the tree surgeon to grind out 6 stumps.

I also have 3 large boxes of plants waiting for me at home.

Yesterday I bought a reduced David Austen climbing rose (Mary Delaney) & some mycorrhizal fungi granules as where I plan to plant it, the soil needs serious improvement & the rose will need all the help I can give it.

It's a beautiful evening after a very rainy day, so I went out to do some pottering - trimmed back some excess euonymus and buddleia, but then discovered one of the lovely gauras I planted a few weeks ago completely broken off at the base, like it had been trodden on. I've put the remains in water, wondering if there's any hope of making cuttings from it.

Ah, sorry to hear about your gauras @ErrolTheDragon .

I don't think it's really the right time to do cuttings from them (and it's not something I've ever done much of, though I know I should!) but I may as well try.

Shoehorned in some of my excess of rose campion seedlings to free up a tray and turned the poor gaura into something that looks like a lot of cuttings plus a small vase of the flower stems. I left on the garden table when I came in to get a coffee, whereat the heavens opened so they're getting a good watering in. I guess I'll put them in the grow house and hope for the best.

All I’ve done is inspect the garden for any damage/waterlogging after last night’s heavy rain. It’s tipping down again now.

Feel despondent having seen Monty’s bushy cosmos last night. Mine are sooooo leggy despite a lot of care and attention. Have planted some out and they mostly went the way of the snail. The survivors have perked up slightly after heavy rain. Keeping the rest in pots in the greenhouse. Verbena and gaura doing ok!

I sympathise. Part of my inspection earlier was to see whether the cosmos had survived the inevitable snail onslaught brought on by the rain. To my surprise, they have (so far) but they are such weedy little plants (despite pinching out) that I don’t expect to get a magnificent Monty-style display from them,

I’ve just come home from a week away to find DS has watered my greenhouse perfectly, courgettes are ready for picking, strawberries are swelling, two fuchsias have burst into bloom. Too wet to inspect the rest of the garden

My cosmos has not even surfaced this year.

As it was raining I browsed the David Austin website and ordered a Desdemona. Without really thinking where to put it. And it’s such a bad year for roses here.

I'm really close to just giving up on the garden this year 😭

It's been a massive WIP but at least for the last 3 years there has been progress.

This year it just feels like we're back to square one.

There's a bit of labour needing to be done and the weather is just not right for long enough to get it all done when I've got adequate childcare to do it. Strawberries and raspberries are doing OK, not great but they're pulling through.

Melons and cucumbers stalled. I don't think they're going to grow any more, and my tomatoes look like they're doing something but I'm not entirely hopeful they'll survive with all this rain. The blackberries are being very disobedient and won't just grow where I want them to, instead they'll grow everywhere but.

Flowers are out of the question really. I might treat myself to a trip to the garden centre but I'd rather spend the money on other things the garden needs.

So today, I picked some strawberries and I ate them while I sighed.

@BestIsWest Desdemona is our most successful rose. We have two and I absolutely love them. They are healthy and vigorous and beautiful and smell divine. 🥰

Here is a close up of her flower.

Gosh, she is gorgeous.

Coo. She’s lovely.

We were in Dobbies yesterday and looking at the DA roses - they had Desdemona in full bloom and the scent was heavenly. I’d gone to get a few bits and pieces so wasn’t thinking of buying roses. Of course I regretted it later on, hence the purchase. I was very taken with Eustacia Vye too.

@catwithflowers glad to hear she’s a success.

Very cold in Melbourne, unusual for so early in winter. I pruned plectranthus ecklonii and buddleia to the ground. Twice-sown sweet peas have sprouted patchily so I've started some more in punnets in the kitchen that have raced away, so mice have been at work. Bastards.

I also weeded the veggie patches and will plant new spring onion and rainbow chard seedlings.