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?

This sounds like wild garlic. Definitely get it out.

Wild garlic is delicious is soups and pasta sauces. I wish I had some.
I have dug over the herb bed and put a coat of cuprinol on the old rocking chair.
Also picked some chickweed to make a skin balm.

The battle against Rosemary Beetles has begun early this year, noticed some adult beetles and a load of grubs ready to pupate. Went out with my trusty soapy water jug to knock them all into and drown them, hopefully I can keep on top of them this year and save my beleaguered Rosemary.

No, nothing like wild garlic (except for being some sort of allium) - that has much broader leaves. These were narrow, something like a dense yet floppy bunch of chives, unpleasant rather than mouthwatering oniony smell. (My chives aren’t up yet.)

Love wild garlic, it makes the best pesto.

I attached a very overgrown honeysuckle, planted up my lilies in a pot and got the cushions for the outdoor sofa out because it was so mild. DD spent the morning out there with her friend gossiping. Got my bare root plants out of their packaging and discovered the tree from Roots Plants didn't have the roots wrapped in plastic. I'm not impressed. So that's having a good drink before I plant it tomorrow.

Hi all, two questions I hoped you good gardeners could help a novice with;

• is it too early to plant summer bulbs? North of England, looks like it will be chilly again next week but not below 0. Do people wait until late March/April?
• I have a small magnolia currently in a raised bed. It did nothing yr 1 (it’s in normal compost not ericacious) and grew some prongs and 4-5 glorious flowers last year. It’s now full of buds but I’d like to move it to a pot and flatten the raised bed (which is wood, and falling apart). Is it a terrible idea to do this now?

thanks! 🙏

Bulbs are fine, they're under the ground away from any surface frost and the point of a bulb is to store energy over winter so early spring frost won't harm them.
Never disrupt a plant when it's about to be pretty. Leave that magnolia until the flowers are finished if you can, or you'll lose this year while it settles its roots into a new place.

No idea for your first one, I'd wait a few weeks if it was me personally, or I'd start them indoors.

For your second one you risk putting it into shock and it might drop it's flowers but it will probably survive if you're careful enough.

I like to move my trees when it's consistently above 6° in the day but there's frost on the grass on a morning because they're likely to be dormant still and it's a temperature I'm not too uncomfortable with being out and about in.

It was probably eatablishing it's roots in the first year, and maturing.

That said, if you leave it another year it will be more heavily rooted, and you might find it harder to move without too much shock.

It might also be difficult to dig up, but less difficult the sooner you do it.

Last year I had to wrestle a giant silver cardoon that I'd let root for 2 years and I would do anything to not go through digging up an established plant ever again.

Today in the garden I had huge regrets about not managing my thornless blackberry bushes more last year, so I have spent all day giving them the heaviest prune and pulling up their runners. Not confident I've got them all, and some definitely snapped off at the roots so they're getting the boiled water treatment too.

I also didn't get round to round 2 of salting.

I did however salvage about 20 strawberry plants. They're all a few years old now though and I have bought and planted new strawberry plants, so I've bagged them up as bare roots and they'll be going to the school for their insects and plant module this half term, along with a dozen plant pots and all my seeds that are due to expire in 2025.

Managed to recruit some free child labour as we had visitors half way through the day, 2 yard brushes, and children that wanted to "help", so I set them on scrubbing the flags, and repayed them in slushes.

Pulled about 5 spiders out of my hair, covered in insect bites so clearly upset something, but overall had quite a productive day.

Going to relax tomorrow with a trip round the garden centre.

Yesterday and today were glorious gardening days. I dug up a new bed, scraped away the spent mulch from borders, weeded, mowed the lawn, pruned the trees and shrubs, spread compost, top soil and Vitax, mulched the new bed, removed winter protections, spread chilli flakes in the spot that keeps being dug up by foxes in my raised border, tidied up my clematis, potted freesias and eucomis bulbs, and dicentra and echinacea bare roots. I fed the Dutch lasagnes with big tom, brought out my new garden chairs, and got the cannas out for a bit of hardening off.

I noticed a tiny bit of growth on a first dahlia so moved it to the window.

Then I rewarded myself with a trip to the garden centre and bought six pots.

I made 1 bed ready in the vegetable patch. It’s very shady, because of my neighbours horrible conifer. I’m planning broad beans and summer spinach. I sowed leeks and calabrese , and planned tomorrow.Im going to try and get 2 beds ready tomorrow.

Planted 5 bare root fruit trees and 2 bushes.

Last minute crisis when DH pointed out the half barrel planter was on the verge of collapse. Decided to stick bush in anyway and currently browsing on line for a replacement container. Which might turn in to two containers.

DH mowing the lawn for the first time this year. Apparently he also wants a parasol for the patio.

I mowed the front and back 'lawns' - front is 90% moss. Sanded and repainted two wooden planters for 2 palms bought in sainsburys when I went for milk . Just looking at the state of my nails!

Dug the weeds out of the old wheelbarrow " bed" and added some compost. Not sure what to plant in there this year. Also scraped back the grass encroaching on the stepping stones path and can now actually see the stones again. That's all I've had time for today sadly.

Potted up some summer bulbs into containers and tucked them away in the shed. Will bring them out onto the deck once danger of frost has passed.
Top dressed some containers with fresh compost and tied in some climbers before they get too lively. DH did a lot of tidying, weeding and general collection of debris so everywhere looks crisper now and we made a pilgrimage to the tip along with the rest of the town
Had a lovely hour on the garden bench with a glass of wine in the sun to finish the day. No doubt this is false spring and the weather will bite us on the bum next week but it was very restorative listening to the birds and admiring a tidier garden.

Went to the garden centre today, needed early and late strawberries.

I could not believe the price. £3.50 for a row of 3! Used to get a 6 tray for that!

Must have been popular though cos I wanted 24 plants and could only find 6.

Then after my friend delivered some terrible news affecting her family, so decided I needed some outside time.

Made all 4 raised beds plant ready, washed down some plant pots, covered up the everbearing strawberries that I planted the other day ready for the drop in temperature and swept up any compost that fell onto the patio while I was pottering about.

Pruned the buddleia, which as I’ve not replaced my loppers yet I had to do mostly with the pruning saw. This resulted in me being rather more thorough than usual which was probably overdue.

Also went to the garden centre, bought some lawn edging shears.

Put them in the shed and noticed another set of lawn edging shears lurking at the back.

Bother.

Went to Aldi and bought this: https://www.aldi.co.uk/product/belavi-maxi-raised-planter-000000000000616396

It's brilliant. It's MASSIVE and a bargain for £40.

Then went to Dobbies for soil to fill it with.

I also went to the garden centre. Dh used to wait in the car while I filled my boots, but now he comes in and keeps me to my list. 2 bags of compost, 1 Hinari gooseberry and a small lavender Hidcote. Then we got 2 more veg beds ready for planting, so half the veg patch is now ok. I’ve got seeds that mostly recommend sowing in situ, so I may have quite a lot sown by the end of this week. Lawn and borders are looking pretty scraggy, but they will just have to wait.

Maintenance for me this weekend. Finished off jet washing a path and cleaning up after that, and sanded and oiled (three coats) the outdoor dining table. All of that took a full day.

It’s a bit too early in the season for me to go to the garden centre as I am trying to spend less on plants this year. Famous last words! I know that I’d like two winter flowering clematis though.

I weeded the raspberries . Horrible job, think I need to mulch around them. Dh is obsessed with digging. I asked him to hoe a bed today, it wasn’t too bad, but he knows best and dug instead. So of course , he only managed half of it, and I’ll need to do the edges, hoe and rake now. But I don’t want to alienate him by criticising. I can’t manage it all. Despite buying Charles O Dowds book and watching no dig YouTubers, although I totally get why it’s better for the soil, I don’t get how things grow in rock hard weedy undug clay, still hankering after a fine tilth.
We have made good progress this week though. If we get a decent day tomorrow, I may be ready to sow some more seeds. I’ve got my attempt at a permanent bed to weed tomorrow, then finish the bed my Dh began and then sort the skinny north facing bit where I send pots and broken things to die. Actually that sounds quite a lot, unless he finishes that bed. I’ve ordered some cheap arches, want to grow my beans up them so they straddle the path, but I missed the delivery and haven’t been given a new time. The beans aren’t even sown yet, but I can’t sow the other things till I know where the arches will work best.
Sorry for the ramble, I’m trying to organise my thoughts!

Watered my Sweetpea seedlings which have popped up over the last couple of days.

Only with my everlasting Sweetpeas would make an appearance to compliment them

Painted a gate, then got sidetracked and painted the fence as well.
Now I'm tired.

Dh finished digging the big bed. I weeded my soft fruit bed, seriously pissed off a toad who was lurking by the bramble I was removing. I think I’ll just sow some seeds tomorrow. I’m so cold, going to find some woolly garments.