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?

Weeded for a bit and felt quite fed up as this is the third or fourth time of weeding out the forget-me-nots this year.

Made a note to myself never to let them go to seed ever again.

I stop weeding them at this point and leave them to flower next year, just after the Early Dog Violets (Viola reichenbachiana)

Dense planting is the secret to avoiding seedlings. The only place mine get a grip is the gravel paths, and it’s easy to hoick them out of there once they’ve finished

Planted an ilex ball near a pathway for definition - on second thoughts it looks like the perfect plant for ddog to use as a toilet.🤔
Extended the stumpery with the roots of the hydrangea I pulled out last week and a few ferns of varying heights.
Got a scrappy-looking banana - musa basjoo from the bargain shelf - not sure it has enough time to get established before the frosts hit us - not even sure when that usually happens - have never paid any attention to frosts BG (before gardening) - I'm only 8 months in.😁

Thanks @MereDintofPandiculation dense planting is hopefully what I will have next year as this year was year zero in the garden.

I have it in some places now - the bits planted in spring - but not in others - the bits planted later, that suffered the week I forgot to water and it was hot and the bits ravaged by slugs.

Nothing to report here in terms of gardening as it has poured down whenever I have had plans to go out there, but DH has been busy getting power and light into my shed so that is a positive.

I will be able to run my propogator out there instead of in the kitchen and have my mains powered DAB radio on (if I can find it, it's somewhere in the house - or in the garage...)

Weather permitting, I plan to take some cuttings this week and remove any more summer bedding that has gone over. Everything is looking very battered due to the really heavy rain 🙁

Bright but cold here, a definite nip in the air. Does anyone have a red Abyssinian banana - ensete ventricosum? I bought one early in the summer and it looks beautiful at the moment, I love it.
I’m not sure what to do with it over winter (no greenhouse) and how soon I need to do something with it. Lots of conflicting info online. Monty Don cuts his back and puts it in the shed but the Gardeners World website also talks about packing it with straw and leaving it out. We’re SW Wales and half a km from the coast so tends to be wet here rather than really cold though we do get frosts.

Just gone out and harvested some blueberries, golden raspberries and mint and have got a pot of fruit tea steeping right now.

I've got my knee high socks on today and didn't expect to be bringing the lemon tree in so early this year but I will be doing that later.

Harvested crookneck and pattipan squash, and some potatoes.

Potted up the loquat tree. I grew it from seed and might plant it out in the garden eventually but I have read that it is unlikely to produce fruit for years, if ever.

@BestIsWest You’ll need to consider the risk of it rotting over winter.

Personally, I’d bring it in (I have absolutely no knowledge on this topic ) - first, because you can keep an eye on it. You don’t know what’s happening under all that straw. Secondly, I like my winter garden to look good, and not have strange tower like bundles. This may be totally the wrong advice.

Thanks @MereDintofPandiculation. I was dubious about the chicken wire, straw and hessian approach. I think I’ll go with cutting it back and keeping it in the shed. I could leave it in DMs greenhouse I suppose. It’s in a pot already. I may leave it for a week or two as we’re supposed to have a warm spell next week. I love it though and will buy another if the worst happens.

Today I've been planting spring bulbs in the front garden - mixed narcissi, muscari & snakes head fritillary. Got more bulbs to plant but not sure where. Might do some pots or hanging baskets.
Also inspected my calemondian orange & limequat for scale bugs & brought inside - the temperature is set to drop to 4 degrees later this week overnight & don't want to risk it.
Did a bit of weeding & deadheading. So much needs doing, a lot of pruning etc but it's not quite the right time yet.
Still got flowers on the buddleias which I'm surprised at.
And bought a reduced philadelphus (mock orange) at the garden centre on Tuesday when I was getting some bulbs. No idea where to put it though.
Really need to dig up two lupins that have been ravaged by aphids. Have a choiysa to go in ones place, & a rose in another. Have one lupin left but not sure I'll bother if it gets the same next year.
Aphids have just been awful this year for us.

Had another go at the bastard Ivy, and ended up drastically pruning the climbing rose, and I know it’s not time yet, but sometimes you have to do the job when you find yourself by it with the right tool, It had been missed fora few years, it was only the Ivy holding it up. Still feeling overwhelmed. I had my green house moved but they just threw a small slab down at the front anda stepping stone entrance to it doesn’t work. And the place where it was is such a mess, with all the weeds I couldnt get at and the old footings. I may just lock the gardeners in there with no cups of tea till it looks like Montys veg area.
I do know that another few days of work will bring it back, but I’ve had a nasty virus and family issues, and we go away in a week. I’m going to try so hard to go a bit low maintenance. All I can see is work , and lots of it stuff I can’t do.

That sounds tough @Zebracat

I have misplaced my leather gardening gloves, sigh....
Took me months to find a pair that fitted as I have smallish hands with short fingers and most gloves just don't fit properly so I end up taking them off constantly, which defeats the object.
Job for today is try and find the flipping things.

It's wet again today and I can't face the garden getting all soggy. So much to do.

Came home to discover mystery parcel, heavily labelled 'This way up'

Turns out it arrived 3 days ago and DH obvious had put it the other way up 🙄

Inside were 50 bellis perennis seedlings I don't recall ordering. So have just planted all of those.

Bought new gardening gloves (in hope best pair turn up) and some grit for cuttings.

Taken cuttings of penstemon and rosemary and planted some winter pansy seeds (bit late but fingers crossed). Never had much luck with cuttings but now I'm home very day I can keep an eye on them. They are in the greenhouse covered by plastic bottle halves so should stay nice and humid.

Cut back one lot of tall summer bedding (whose name escapes me). Still not ready to cut back most of the rest as it is having a last flush of blooms (especially pelargoniums, antirrhinums, and cosmos; such pretty feathery foliage with big purple blooms), but the sweet peas have definitely gone over. They are next for the compost bin.

If I get out there for half an hour a day until end of October I should have everything tidied ready for winter.

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