What have you done in the garden today? Part 6

[MereDintofPandiculation]

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

I always have a few onions go to seed, so just leave them to get on with flowering. They have good solid flower heads and bees love them.

Spring onions, too. I always plant the roots in a pot on the kitchen windowsill and get multiple cuttings from the regrowth, then plant them outside once they're past it. They grow surprisingly large.

I've got 2 bunches in water on my windowsill at the moment.

Last year whenever I wanted spring onions there were never any in the supermarket so this years plan is to save all the ends for any I do and plant them out for use throughout the year but I think you've inspired me to let them go to seed as well.

My chives are ready for splitting and moving too.

I've ordered my salt for the pesky dock plants and I think next week I'm going to be making a concerted effort to go and start doing the garden tidy up jobs that I really should have done at the end of last season.

Today for the first time, my crocuses on the lawn look really bright and colourful.

They've definitely come up more than they did last year which was a very disappointing year.

Feeling the joy!🤗

I have a new order of snowdrops arriving next week. I'm quite disappointed that the 200 in the green bulbs I planted last year don't seem to have come up at all apart from a few individual ones dotted around here and there. Hopefully if I plant successively for the next few years it will eventually become a thick carpet of snow drops. I know gardeners need to be patient, but it's very difficult!

I planted up a load of strawberries from a raised bed into hanging planters, in some hope that I'll get a few before the slugs and wood lice carve chunks out of them.

I have finally cut back the lavender which I have been meaning to do since September Also went round and mashed the Spanish bluebells again and was reminded how much they were taking over.

Was joined in my work by a giant bee, making sure I didn't miss a bit.

Excited to see the irises I planted last year are out, and that loads of bulbs are peaking out.

Less excited to see that the unkillable rose that I put root killer on is busy growing again. It's a very old rose, has no black spot resistance and spreads it like wildfire on the rest of my roses.

Yesterday I dug out some iris Siberica which were encroaching under a small acer, planted some elsewhere and some into a pot. Pruned and tied in climbing rose, and started on hacking back some of the dogwoods but the anvil part of my loppers got displaced from its seating. DH has tightened up the bolt for me so hopefully they'll be ok now.

Nasty day here though, too much wind and rain to want to venture out.

I dug up a 1m Euonymus (to replace w/ something else), and one of my neighbours is transplanting it to their front garden. It was v tough to pull out! Hope it survives, will enjoy walking by to see it grow in its new home : )

I have repotted one blueberry bush into a larger pot & replaced all the soil - took one whole bag of ericaceous soil! Thankfully the ants nest was dormant & the ants very sleepy & didn't bite me! Hopefully they're now all on the lawn ready for the waiting robins to pick them off.
Unfortunately I have at least another 3 bushes to do & only one more bag of compost, so that will be for another day.
Also chucked some leftover grass seed on the patchy bits of lawn. It may all get eaten by the birds but oh well.

Ordered my bare root strawbs. Gone for an everbearing variety this time, but also wanting to pad it out with some early and late fruiting varieties. Trying to convince DP he really wants to play with some power tools and build my new strawberries a new home.

Getting the itch to start some seeds but I think it might still be a bit too early even for the ones that recommend a February start on them, as the weather seems to be a bit up and down.

Started my seeds: early peas, lettuce, radish, beetroot, radish, celeriac, parsley. Celeriac will take forever and the others go into the shed window as soon as they germinate and then outside under fleece a la charles dowding. I love having a steady trickle of seed trays from now- these are the ones which have worked for me as my first batch!

Had a ton bag of compost delivered, which has given DH the incentive to fix the raised beds and build one of the two new ones for this year.filling up the existing raised beds used up about 1/4 of the compost, but the new raised beds should make a big dent in the rest.
Also, bought a new gate as the old one is falling apart, and painted it blue and pink (because I'm an adult and can paint my gate any colour I want ).
Planted out red onions and garlic, looking forward to filling up the raised beds in the next few months as spring warms up.

Planted a few more bulbs,sowed chamomile in a tray in the greenhouse. Cosmos seeds are sprouting already. Frogspawn in the pond!
Foraged cleavers,chickweed and tiny nettle tops for a healthy spring cleansing drink.

Can I still plant cosmo seeds or is it too late?
I saw a video online that they are quite easy and should just scatter them in the ground

No, it's not too late for cosmos. The pack I've got says sow feb-May. IME sowing too early they are inclined to get very leggy. That's for germinating indoors though, I think they can be sown direct outside but not sure when.

I'm still just on sweet peas, put the last lot of seedlings out into the growhouse yesterday and filled pots and soaked the next lot of seeds ready to do today.

Put in 6 hellebores and 100 snowdrops.

Also needed to water the pelargoniums overwintering in the porch for the first time since putting them in there - it was actually warm!

The mahonia I don't like was covered in bees so I have re-appraised my opinion of it, if the bees like it then so do I.

Last year I noticed a clump of some sort of allium in one of my borders which I didn't remember planting but that's not unusual. Didn't notice any flowers, rather forgot about them.

Yesterday realised they'd spread .., I think they must be an invasive wild one. Dug out the main clumps - packed masses of little bulbs - but couldn't ferret them out of clumps of Michaelmas daisies. Those also had achillea growing among them. So I dug them out, got out as many of these damned little bulbs as possible and also bits of the achillea, potted those to hopefully regrow and replanted the MDs. I think I'll have to be vigilant and dig out or at least rigorously defoliate the alliums... I foresee a long battle.

Also dug out an iris which was in the wrong place.

Today started on taking out some old overgrown stems of a dogwood but the loppers totally broke - managed to get a couple out with the pruning saw and secateurs.

Anyone got a recommendation for good, very sturdy telescopic loppers please?

Been out admiring the weeds.

Love it when the spring draba start popping up on the drive.

I'd actually like more of it but not sure how I can encourage it.

Emptied all the dead plants out of the plant pots on the patio ready to donate plant pots to school along with last year's seeds that have been kept in dry and dark storage.

Will be doing round 2 of salting the weeds tomorrow as I don't think round 1 did very much, but may couple it with boiling water.

DH has retrieved our package of bare root trees from the garage of the wrong house.
So tomorrow will be tree planting.

Got a delivery of some bare root plants today so tomorrow will be planting them all. Plus I got some calla lilies (plus a pretty terracotta pot to put them in) delivered earlier this week so they will need planting as well. The aim is to have them looking gorgeous for our wedding anniversary (I had calla lilies in my bouquet).

My new box of snowdrops in the green arrived a few days ago, so I'll get them in the ground before they dry out,

Went into the greenhouse after a few weeks and found that 4 troughs and pots of tête a tête are in full flower so I put them out on the patio - instant colour! Also few little splashes of blue and purple in there from grape hyacinths and crocus , nice.

Anyone got a recommendation for good, very sturdy telescopic loppers please?

@ErrolTheDragon i tend to take a dual approach nowadays - if a branch or twig is thick enough, instead of using loppers, that can become blunt or damaged trying to cut through such tough wood, I use my ARS folding saw that has a very comfortable handle on it and can cut at an angle, rather than loppers that I find get worn down. Also there's risk of injury/repetitive strain on arm and wrist. The ARS has a serrated edge that slices through wood like butter!

Loppers - I've got some Darlek retractable loppers but as per above, I don't need them to be very sturdy, I use them for softwood branches and twigs that don't need brute force! For Dogwood, my loppers would be fine for most of that plant but they can get really thick clumps at the base, for which I'd find the saw easier to use.

@Patterncarmen , hi have you used trainers before? I have just bought some of these deep root trainers for sweetpeas. I hope they are effective. Sweet peas were a disappointment last year.

I have spent an hour watching and willing the rest of my daffodils to open up.

I dug up a dead rosemary bush, and now I'm staring at all the ivy in the same spot that needs pulling up.

I have finally pruned the lavender. I think it's abit late but here's hoping it grows back again this year.