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?

Another very disheartened gardener here.I’ve given up on vegetables, strawberries and flowers this year. Too slugged and too wet. My patch of herbs was a disaster too. I visited the National Herb Centre, and spent too much money on curiosities and not enough on basics, but it has kick started a much needed overhaul. I dont like killing things but the area was so overrun by slugs and snails that I put them in a salt water bucket. The bastards mainly climbed out. Zombie snails. Yuk. It is starting to look better, about 3 more things to plant, these little jobs always seem to take days and days. My roses are very happy though, and doing a marvellous job of making the space look somewhat loved.

My commitment to no kill gardening is wavering, too.

I’m trying to be philosophical about it all but seeing both my courgette plants vanishing over night and my comfrey was quite hard to take.

All my bedding dahlias gone now. Slugged or snailed. I think I need to be more patient next year and wait until things are really established in their pots in the greenhouse before planting them outside. And to grow more slug resistant perennials like salvias, nepeta and geum 😶

I am dead heading alberic barbier which is growing up my catio

Pissing rain again so have pretty much given up on whats left of the garden. So disappointing after all the early prep. Roses still tight buds,no flowers on geraniums,cosmos about 2 inches high,cornflowers and poppies beaten down by wind and rain.

Have been planting!

Initial crisis as some of the plants didn't have labels on so needed to go back through the order emails and try to guess what they were.

Next crisis was that some of the labels had fallen off and DH had done his best reuniting them but clearly got some wrong. A bit of swapping and OK now.

Half are now in the ground, a few are going to have to wait as I don't want them damaged by the tree surgeon.

And of course I've realised I need more plants....

Sorry so many of you are struggling, I’m having an equally awful year with toms, melons and cucumbers. Everything has just stalled completely and I doubt we’ll have a long enough growing season to course correct. Oh well.

Started clearing the back of the garden which will become the proper veg patch (although based on this year I probably shouldn’t bother!)

My Therese bugnet rose is in flower and the John Davies rose has plenty of buds so that’s something at least. Did a huge shop of perennials yesterday so had better do some planting today. Took a punt on quite a few hardy campanulas to fill gaps so hope they like it here. Also got a compact mock orange, another rose (Morden snow beauty I think), nepeta and more max frei geraniums. Oh and a columnar apple to fill an awkward spot near a fence that needs some privacy planting.

Does anyone grow lupins from seed? I have a batch of nice looking seedlings that have yet to go into the beds, all have at least 2 sets of true leaves and are hardened off, do I just bite the bullet and throw them in the borders?

I wait till runner beans are at the top of their poles and flowers are opening before planting out. And courgettes cropping well - but I think this year they may stay in the greenhouse!

@CanaHouse
I grew lupins from seed last year, around September time, but stupidly tried to overwinter them in my non-heated greenhouse. I had 24 which looked strong and healthy into December but then most of them died because they were too cold. The us year I'll bring them inside into a spare room which will be unheated but obviously warmer than the greenhouse.

The ones I managed to save are very pretty. They are a small white version, only around 30 cm tall.

@MereDintofPandiculation our French beans and runner were eaten too, by wood pigeons we think. I've sown more seeds in the greenhouse and will follow your advice before planting out. This is the first time the beans have failed.

The broad beans and courgettes are doing well, as is the beetroot. All that cabbages have been destroyed. I've planted out more cavelo Nero but put it under a cloche until it gets really established🤞

yes, my cavalo nero is a skeleton. Not cabbage white or pigeons - it's well netted, so presumably slugs

Oddly enough (tempting fate) I've not been aware of much slug damage this year, other than some on one of my morning glories. I think it may be that although it's been wetter than usual, maybe not so much more than is normal for Lancashire. My plants have probably already been through the survival of the fittest over the years, ie not Gastropod gastronomy - I've not attempted lupins for decades , and my only surviving hosta is in a pot for instance.

We had to go to the Trafford centre today so visited RHS Bridgewater on the way back. It's developing nicely, especially the Chinese stream garden.

We didn't get home till about 5, but I've had nearly 2 hours doing a bit of putting in supports and planting (some of the cosmos and sweet peas).

1/6 of my broad beans have been eaten. The others seem to be doing well.
I have been given a pepper, an aubergine and a courgette plant. I’m sure it’s probably too late for them to get going unless the weather turns and I haven’t got a green house so I’ll put them in some pots on the patio and cross my fingers.

Having been away a week, I toured the garden to see what needs doing (too much!), cut some Red Valerian in danger of being hit by cars and brought it into house, moved cacti that have finished flowering back into greenhouse and replaced them in the porch by ones about to flower. Also picked a couple of courgettes and a handful of alpine strawberries. Summer is here!

Picked a small bunch of Emily Gray roses (apricot colour with a lovely smell of fresh apples) and took them into Dad in his nursing home - I don’t know whether he enjoys them, but I know he enjoys all the care staff passing nice comments on them. I like to think it gives him some idea of passage of time as we move from snowdrops through primroses, camellia, lily of the valley, roses, and on to summer flowers then autumn berries.

@ErrolTheDragon I went to Bridgewater yesterday, it's my closest RHS garden so we visit every month or so. It's good to see the planting filling in as it matures, last year it still looked sparse.

@MereDintofPandiculation

I like to think it gives him some idea of passage of time as we move from snowdrops through primroses, camellia, lily of the valley, roses, and on to summer flowers then autumn berries

❤️❤️❤️

There is a local nursery 'pay what you want' end of season clear out in the next village to us here, so yesterday we battled the rain and the huge trays that people had to shove loads of plants into, and got about 40 to put into spare places - so I planted some of them today.

7 peppers, 3 tomatoes, 1 aubrey, 3 pots of tomatillos which turned out to be multi sown [eek], 2 courgettes, 2 uchi kuri squashes, and a range of herbs and other things. Got proper chives which is good as the chive seeds I bought in winter 2021 turned out to be garlic chives, dill for pickles, several agastache, purple basil, parsley, two perennial spinaches [I cannot for the life of me grow spinach here, the soil is too acid and it all just dies]...and a few other things I cannot remember.

Then I went round and worked out where everything else was going to go and I have figured I'm going to have to put loads into the Ornamental beds rather than the veg patch. This always happens to my OH's disgruntlement until he remembers that once the wild flower patch is done he has loads of space.

I'm growing Okra this year so he can have those, they look like hibiscus when they flower

And I picked raspberries, they have just all turned this weekend.

Apart from that, I gazed out the window waiting for the rain to stop.

Yesterday finally felt like summer. Dare I say that?

I planted up the final 2 dahlia that were hiding in the corner of the greenhouse taking up space.

My poor sweet pea that I'd planted out to grow up some obelisks were looking tiny and hardly growing, s I hope yesterday's blast of warm sun might give them a boost to get going. I added another batch of plants that were doing well in the greenhouse to see if they could coax each other along!

sorted out the bonfire area that had become overgrown with all the rain. A couple of days of sunshine should dry off all the weeds and I may be tempted to burn a load of dried wood and the old half barrel. It's surprisingly dry considering all the rain we've had, so I'll give it a couple more days and then check the wind direction. The winds look like they're westerly which is fine.

DH helped me to loosen up the compost in the final growbag and tomorrow I'll plant the last 3 toms and a chilli pepper.

I'm growing Okra this year so he can have those, they look like hibiscus when they flower because, like Hibiscus, they’re in the mallow family.

Yesterday finally felt like summer. Dare I say that? Not if you want to stay friends. Still got the heating on here.

Today I pruned back a bougainvillea. Slowly and carefully. It's the only way.
I was clearing upward growing space for a Peruvian pepper tree schinus molle which I want to screen the west-facing front garden.

I'm also planting one as a replacement tree in the back yard.

Catching up after a busy garden weekend. Lovely re: your dad, @MereDintofPandiculation. DH and I went to my dad's to help clear a big bed in his garden that's become insanely overgrown - DH broke the fork within the first 10 mins so had to go out and buy a new one! I also cleared two planters that were looking very unloved and planted them up with some cheerful and easy geraniums, gave his sad-looking olive trees a haircut and a lot of water, and weeded the driveway. He's now under strict instructions to water the bloody plants occasionally😂

Then I cleared a big overgrown area around our pond at home, moved two small, boring euonymous to make space for some more joyful Hot Lips salvia, planted some African Skies salvia around the pond, pulled out a load of goosegrass, black medic and some sort of ?fleabane from the 'wild bed' (haha it's all bloody wild) and then dragged this mofo of a ragwort root out. It just kept coming!

I've been out and bought most of the local nurseries stock of semicircle supports. Having belatedly propped things up (though for once I've got them round the Michaelmas daisies before they grow/flop forwards), my only regret is not cleaning the shop out.

The sun - at last - is out here. Hurrah!

My roses have the worst black spot. I’ve sprayed them with apple cider vinegar. I suppose it’s all the months of rain.