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?

Very productive weekend, despite the extreme heat. Painted an old shabby wooden stool using ZInnser Allcoat but stained to F&B Eating Room Red - doing the same with the bench the previous owner left behind but the legs were hollow with rot - filled those in and now it just needs to be painted. I need to get some feet for it - so it doesn't stand on a wet surface quite so much.

Went to the garden centre and bought big black pots to stop the clumping bamboo from spreading (I've cut the bottom off them). Decided to plant the bamboo in a slight curve to give the casual seating area a bit more of a snug, enclosed feeling - got 3 in, 3 to go - next weekend's job, the semi-transparency works really well.

Also bought a trachycarpus wagnerianus, not sure what to plant with that at the moment - my style is woodland with jungle or prairie on the sunny side - sounds like a mess put like that - but essentially grasses, trees ferns and tree stumps.

I'm planning my planting as I move up the garden - finally getting over my fear of putting the plants in the ground - I've played about with the arrangement so much - fear of commitment had to be overcome! 😂 Hopefully I can finish the planting before winter kicks in.

Checked my nepeta and lavender cuttings which I took a few weeks ago. Some of the nepeta have tiny roots 😀. I've moved them to their own pots. None of the lavender seems to be doing much yet but I'm hopeful.

Loads of dead heading of roses, buddleia, astrantia. Plus general tidying as my husband removed loads of Ivy from a dry stone wall which had to be bagged ready for the tip.

Took some hydrangea cuttings. Emptied some pots of struggling bulbs and decided to attempt propagating from the few survivors. Wish me luck.

It’s drizzling here so not ventured into the garden yet.
Yesterday I sorted out a few planters that were looking miserable and decanted the happier plants into the borders. I have completely given up on growing tomatoes, 5 miserable ones on 4 plants is an insult. They’re all now in the compost bin.
My cucumber plants have 2 fruits so not doing much better 🙄
I brushed down the patio and moved the pots of lilies that have finished flowering into the shady bit behind the pond and emptied a couple of other pots out. It’s looking tidier out there but still more to do.
The runner beans are doing well in their giant tub 😋, nothing nicer than fresh ones steamed and eaten with butter and black pepper.

My tomatoes are blushing!

Going to start snipping trusses off to ripen inside.

This time last year we had overcast after overcast and the tomatoes didn't fare so well.

The caterpillars have munched all the nasturtium, it was mostly volunteer nasturtium any way from last years intentionally planted nasturtium and if it goes the same way, the birds will descend again and the circle of life will continue.

The hollyhocks I started this year are flowering already, I thought they were biennial? Regardless they're welcome to bloom now the nasturtium are done for.

I must have disturbed some settled seeds in the front too as we've got a new and unusual bloom of nigella which I haven't had planted for 4 years!

How beautiful are these trusses?!

I engaged some gardeners. So excited because I haven’t been able to stay on top of it. They are starting in the veg patch next week, cutting back the overgrowth from next doors wild garden, moving the greenhouse and rotovating the 2 main beds. I’ve ordered the RHS veg patch book to plan the next steps.
Then they will overhaul the horribly weedy borders and beds. So tomorrow I will take all the crap out of the green house, and maybe sort out my shed as well. I have hope again

I need that too, Zebracat, I have totally ignored two largish flowerbeds this year in order to spend most of my time on the veg.

On the bright side we are having a sweet corn party on Friday.

Nothing happened in the garden today because it was cool and wet. Started reading The Orkneyinga Saga instead.

Going to start snipping trusses off to ripen inside. Are they outside? Mine in my greenhouse are in full swing. Another couple of months before I bring them inside.

I raked up the rotten apples (thank-you blackbirds!) and put them on the compost heap. Tidied up dead heads and dead leaves from the terrace. The Crimson clover really responds to a post-flowering trim, sending up a whole new lot of flowers. Watered the greenhouse. Watered a few pots even though it's raining tomorrow because I think the rain penetrates netter if the surface of the soil is already wet

Oh, and my clear blue hydrangea has produced a couple of flowers despite my cutting the whole thing down in April for a new boiler installation.

Yes, they are a greenhouse variety, I am growing some cuttings inside which will overwinter for next year indoors and hopefully keep them alive long enough to plant more cuttings out but these ones are outdoors.

I'd love a greenhouse, but instead we've got a rather large conservatory which I have been told firmly is not a greenhouse.

I have heard that they're not as flavourful as other varieties but they still beat supermarket toms by a long shot so I am excited to sample my first ones.

I think the weather has been very kind to tomatoes this year.

I'd love a greenhouse, but instead we've got a rather large conservatory which I have been told firmly is not a greenhouse. What else is it them? What do they think is being "conserved"?

Would filling it with tomatoes expedite the arrival of a greenhouse?

I have heard that they're not as flavourful as other varieties but they still beat supermarket toms by a long shot I think virtually any tom ripened on the plant beats a supermarket once. And I was bowled over by the difference between home grown and supermarket cucumbers - haven't bought a supermarket cucumber since - it's now a seasonal treat.

I've got a terrible track record with cucumbers and melons. I'm very good at growing pumpkins but I don't think that's ode to anything I do, but more the fact that pumpkins can and will grow anywhere especially if it's somewhere you didn't want them to be.

I do dream about going outside and picking my own cukes one day. I must do more research on what it is exactly I do that just kills them.

I am barred from getting a greenhouse until the children no longer want to play in the prime location for it in the garden. The youngest is 2 months old so I think I'm going to be waiting a while.

@Sashikocheck Went to the garden centre and bought big black pots to stop the clumping bamboo from spreading (I've cut the bottom off them). Decided to plant the bamboo in a slight curve to give the casual seating area a bit more of a snug, enclosed feeling - got 3 in, 3 to go - next weekend's job, the semi-transparency works really well.

I'd still be worried about them breaking out the bottom of the pots and spreading and would put a bit of bamboo control in....or put them in pots with bottoms...

Donn't know about cucumbers outside, they're eay in a greenhouse. I tried them because my non-gardening neighbour had them, and I though "If she can grow them ...". My greenhouse has a contorted willow growing over one end, one long side is shaded by a garage and a climbing rose, the other long side by a hedge and a huge birch tree. You could try getting one for a suboptimal position and move it later. And go for plastic to protect DC and gh from each other.

Not sure where you live - I am in SW - but marketmore cukes are exceedingly reliable for me outdoors. You just need to start them indoors or under a cold frame and plant out May/june. Mine had a slow start this year with the cooler spring, but are going gangbusters now.

i think they need rich compost and regular watering (especially early on) but otherwise have been pretty foolproof for me. I returned from holiday to an absolute glut - trying to decide whether I can muster the energy for pickle making.

I'm in south Yorkshire where 2 things are always true. One being it will rain, and the other being it will shower.

I will give that variety a try though next year.

I tried Crystal lemons and my son got gifted some kids tiny cuke seeds and the crystal lemons got one cucumber half pollinated and died. The kids cucumbers didn't even germinate.

A year where all of my salad crops survive would be heavenly.

Me too, very worried 😵‍💫
My friend opposite did this and the bamboo has happily romped away across her garden and invaded the neighbours each side. The capacity for some bamboo to spread rapidly completely puts me off having any at all!

My neighbour has clumping bamboo and it spread to the other side of a large shed of his.

It's close to our boundary so we told him we are concerned, he said he will sort it.

All he's done is chop it down to ground level, I've done some digging online and that basically tells the roots to find somewhere else.

We've got some just poking through the fence and I'm terrified as I've spent thousands on the garden so far and it's a slow project for me as I don't have a lot of time to do it, so I feel like this is going to set me back.

For all other intents and purposes he's a nice neighbour, except he's got a dog called Betty and that is my name so when he's out and I'm out, he'll shout Betty, and I never know if it's the dog or me he's calling over. I made the mistake of ignoring him once, but he'd fallen into an empty pond and needed help getting out as the liner was still slimy.

Oh Betty, that is such a good story😂. I have black bamboo, and it has not run in 12 years. The clump is now very large though, and getting in the way so I may get my ahem gardeners to remove it, they are coming on Tuesday and I’ve been doing so much to get ready for them that there may not be anything left. In which case they can tackle the bamboo.

Went into battle with the stump of an ornamental weeping cherry tree that I’ve been wanting to dig up for ages and emerged victorious. Bloody hard work though.
Going to think about what to replace it with. DH wants to plant a damson he already has growing in a pot in there.

There's something enormously satisfying about winning a battle with a recalcitrant stump.

I've not done much in the last week except a bit of languid deadheading the other evening which turned into quite a bit of buddleia pruning ... it could do with more off. And today got around to digging out some of my turf pile to fill in the hole where I extracted a load of bricks and hardcore from and planted the new astilbe. Not got round to the pair of heucheras yet though.

I dug out five stumps in the spring - I became quite attached to them and decided to make a stumpery - a few weeks in the hot sun and the bark started to peel and they looked like driftwood - really pretty, I planted ferns, moss and ornamental grasses. One came inside - it was so beautiful - very sculptural.

Today I finished painting my garden bench, planted another bamboo and a palm tree to keep the banana tree company. Dh hung the festoon lights on the fence. I don't think we'll finish the planting before winter but the garden now feels like a lovely place to sit in

That sounds lovely @Sashikocheck. I was at a local woodland trust this week and they had a couple of huge trees that had to be taken down and they had cut off the stumps, turned them upside down so the roots were in the air and left them to be colonised by the local wildlife. I might leave the stump at the top of the garden to sed what happens.