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?

Can I jump in on this thread please? :)

I have some clematis cuttings on my windowsill which I’m desperate to get outside, they are going crazy and climbing all over my window! Is it still a bit cold for them? They are about 40cm in height with LONG tendrils growing by the day. Would love to get them going in my garden! But would be gutted if I kill them off. I’m on the south coast, it’s not freezing anymore but not too warm just yet either!
I must try and get out tomorrow to get some weeding done. The path and patio need jetwashing but I don’t have one, need to borrow from SIL, going to try & do that before the end of the week!

Any clematis advice appreciated! :)

Welcome @moanafan I am dreadful with cuttings, managed a dogwood once, which is a low bar. Surely someone who knows will be along shortly. I checked my garden carefully for hazards before welcoming small children
I then chalked pictures on my paths, inspected frog spawn, ran round and round the central bed and played doctors and vampires. It felt really good to use the garden instead of endlessly trying to contain it. Cold though.

Thankyou @Zebracat. You sound like my kind of gardener!!👍🏼

While I’m here, anyone know about shed paint? Old wooden shed currently painted dark brown but we’d like to brighten it up with a soft blue or green. Will Cuprinol Garden shades cover the brown?

@BestIsWestcuprinol garden shades is a bit thin, but Ronseal covers well. In this pic, the blue is ronseal and the pink is Cuprinol:

Ooh, thank you. Lovely colours.

I used one of the cuprinol green paints and it was fine over dark grey. One coat of white first, then two coats of green.

The rain cleared from the north today, I think - we went out in that direction for a walk/nice garden (lots of frogs and frogspawn as well as the flowers - spotted my first violets and comfrey of the year), and then had a couple of hours cutting old stems from hylotelephium spectabile, moved an iris foetidessima which had appeared in the middle of a border to the back of the garden, dug out more of the invasive allium and weeded (grass mostly) half a border. Also filled pots and put some morning glory seeds to soak ready to plant tomorrow.

We painted our shed a very pale green, over the original red/brown. Two coats of Valspar completely covered the original colour.

Oh good to hear that most of the paints work. I hadn’t thought about doing a coat of white first. Good idea.

Do you have any advice on growing Cleome from seed? I sowed some in a propagator and my success rate is abysmal, even after cold stratification - I only have four seedlings. Do you think they would do better sown outside? Thank you

Taken cuttings and propagated my dahlias and also attempting to propagate some lavatera.

Never done it before with lavatera, but my great and late uncle used to say you just need to chop off a stem, shove it in the ground and water it, people will think you're mad because it will just look like you're making a stick very wet but then it'll suddenly grow, except I've not taken a woody stem, I've taken a fresh green stem and I've not put it in the ground, I've put it in a jar of water so who knows. We shall see.

Trying to work up the gousto to do some seeds that I should have done a week or 2 ago, but I keep getting called hither and thither and I'm no further forward with it than I am backwards.

I’m trying to do a bit every day and it’s really working. Normally at this time of year the gardens a mess and I’m overwhelmed, but it all looks rather lovely. Today I sowed a row each of chard, radish and Vespa field beans. I bought the field beans from Real Seeds, and it says they are culinary , but I have no idea how they are cooked. Got to do some weeding in my flower borders tomorrow, and sow some lettuce.

Won the battle with the stump and a rose has gone in. I think it’s Zephirine Drouhin, it was one of a few bare roots I paid £6 for and stuck in the ground.

Planted up a big shallow pot with egg yellow primroses and popped it on the deck so that I can see them glowing from the kitchen. Tidied up and top dressed the potted Christmas tree and four of my six potted hostas. I'll do the other two when I open another bag of compost.

I overwintered a potted peony in my unheated greenhouse and it is coming up beautifully. Some pelargoniums also showing signs of life.
Fed and watered hanging baskets and winter tubs but just made a note to remind myself to do the ones on the drive before we go away for the weekend.

DH has planted the two new Camellias, both a vivid crimson so they look very cheerful against a background of evergreen plants. He has weeded a couple of empty beds; I now need to decide what to do with them! Compost bin has been turned.

I think that will be it for me for March, things are fairly tidy. I'll get in the swing properly when we are back. Lots to be done and a big list to be made!

I sowed my morning glories prepared yesterday and also a hanging basket of nasturtiums while still on my PJs. I highly recommend doing prep the day before so you can do a nice little job first thing and feel suitably smug.

I'm going to tell myself that the un-seeded pots of compost I've got in my conservatory aren't because I was too lazy to finish sowing today, it was just preparation for tomorrow 😅

I've quickly found out why you use summer woody stems of lavatera, didn't take long for the fresh green ones to wilt over like dying swans.

Also opened my radish seeds while I was stood next to the strawberry planter and spilled them allover so now I'll have a thousand radishes nestled between my strawbs. Was only gonna plant 10 a week 😬

Today I finished all the tedious jobs of mulching, weeding, pruning, chopping back and tidying. Now I’m all ready for planting. I’ve also made my patio really pretty with soft furnishings, so it’s now the perfect spot for a cuppa while admiring the garden.

@Koulibiak sadly absolutely no advice as this is my first year growing annuals.

I have put them in a propagator tray (Lidl's finest) in my front porch and hope for the best.

@AnnaMagnani thank you - please let us know if you are successful

@Jimmyneutronsforeheadradishes are endlessly edible so don’t worry about eating a glut. If you miss the optimum radish moment you can still eat the leaves (like peppery cabbage), then the buds (like sprouting broccoli), then the flowers in salad, then the seed pods (like spicy mangetout). I found this out a couple of years back when I threw an old packet of radish seeds into the “fuck it” raised bed hoping a couple would germinate and hundreds came up.

@InMySpareTime oh thank God because I was not about to pick 1000 radish seeds out of that planter and I like radishes but I can't imagine eating them for breakfast dinner and tea all spring and summer.

Have been having visions of becoming a radish saleswoman and having to explain that to HMRC.

Planted out a few herbs,watered the seedlings in the greenhouse. No life from the Comfrey but the chamomile has germinated well.

Hauled yet another bucket of spawn out of tiny pond. Bucket load number 6! I've never known so much spawn and so many frogs. We are overrun with the stuff. Traded the latest bucket full for fresh eggs so a good deal

Sowed some globe artichoke, kale although not sure if it's the right time for sowing it, and Chinese cabbage in some cell trays today.

Left my lavatera cuttings in with my dahlia cuttings even though they flopped almost instantly yesterday and Google confirmed it should be woody stems but today there are some lumps forming on the stems, like primordial roots. Still feel like I might be getting my hopes up.

Put the cloche on my strawberry planter last night and took it off this morning and can already see lots of little radish shoots 🙈

Was trying to only sow as much as I needed this year to break the habit of having enough seedlings to run a farmers market stall.

I’ve never known anything like it for frogs - I mentioned one lot upthread but we’ve seen lots more elsewhere.