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?

Love the sound of that @Koulibiak . I also went to the garden centre, looking for a winged spindle for my huge vacant pot. Didnt find one. Bought a geranium I’d not seen before, think it’s called Tom Talisman, small finely cut leaves and blue and white flowers. I also bought primulas, because I can't resist them, even though my friend called them care home plants. Rude! Tbf, she is spending a lot of time at her mothers care home. I sowed some basil, dill and needle asters. High hopes.

Planted cosmos and antirrhinum seeds and planted the tree peony and three roses that have been lurking in pots.

I potted on my strawflowers & broad beans and lavender plants, and planted my sweetpeas into their final pots with bamboo cane teepees to grow up. Still taking them in and out of the greenhouse as we have had a small frost recently but hopefully soon they can be outside all the time.

Procrastinated today and didn't plant any of my plants that are garden ready today.

The strawberries I planted a few weeks ago seem to be really unhappy even though they've had a decent daily watering.

Think it might have been the compost. Going to stick with my usual mix from now on. We go through so many strawberries a week that I can't really afford to not be mostly self sufficient with them so hoping I can pull them around. The radishes are loving it though.

The dandelions have flowered so really need to get round to strimming and mowing.

I dug a new bed and added lots of leaf mould to it. It's very shady, and I intend to build a dead hedge to "zone" it off. Will meander honeysuckle through the dead hedge. Have loads of nicotiana sylvestrus seedlings which will eventually go in, and 8 meconopsis babies which I'm not confident about! Will add some ferns too, and maybe Solomons seal. I'm hoping for a soft, wild effect, but am worried it'll be too shaded. I need to do the same opposite, so a path through the middle, but I ran out of steam.
Potted up clematis cuttings, despaired of my miserable looking herbs, turned the compost heap, and admired the creatures in the pond.

Worked on the herb garden today, my daughters a great cook so it seems wasteful to buy herbs, sun is out in central Scotland and it’s delightful to enjoy the garden 🪴

Saw a video on TikTok about making a magnolia soda/wine starter and had a "this is a dream I have had since lunchtime and I'm not going to give up on it" moment, so promptly went outside and started stripping my FILs magnolia (sorry FIL)

I've just finished reducing the syrup which both looked and smelled disgusting. Really struggled to understand how something so horrific smelling could make something nice but I've just sampled the syrup and I'm in heaven!

We've tried growing magnolia in our garden a few times but it never seems to survive. Must not like our soil. But now I'm determined that I need a magnolia tree so that I can make this every spring.

I wonder if it would work with M. Stellata flowers?
I swept under the pergola, which was hazardous as the courting pigeons see it as a display area, and I was dodging their prodigious poos.
I’ve been thinking about buying a rotary edger, the pastry wheel type, but realise it wont work on my grass lawn interface which is heavy clay and either sodden or rock hard. So I got out my traditional edger, and then put that down , because of course the borders are really weedy. Only 2 hours later, I had 10 foot of weed free edged border, just 150 feet to go… Hoping I started with the worst bit. I dug out some sizeable brambles and a lot of Ivy. I’ve read a lot about wildlife gardening, and I know weeding and digging are seen as a bit unnecessary. Just not sure how my borders would not just be wood avens, brambles and nettles if I didnt keep an eye. And I’m not a tidy gardener. My neighbours haven’t touched the top of their garden in 4 years, but have allowed adjoining people to lop bits off and Chuck it back. They are now going to get quotes to sort it, because my veg patch is in almost complete shade. But I don’t think the landscapers will be able to get in to see, probably have to look from my side. We have offered to go halves on it. Has anyone else read the Garden Jungle?

Oh really?! What did it taste like, and do you have a recipe?

I've not finished turning it into a wine yet and I'm following a more standard wine recipe but the syrup tasted like a sugared ginger but without the heat kickback but also a bit jasmin-y. I did reduce the syrup a bit more and it's crystallised a bit in its jar but I think it's totally salvageable.

I have run out of wine yeast but I do think it would go well with bakers yeast as its quite a meady flavour already as a syrup.

But to make the syrup I just made a simple syrup with 1 litre of water and 1kg of sugar, stirred in about 10 flowers in while it was on a low simmer for 10 minutes until the petals had completely softened and the water had turned an orangey colour, removed the petals and then reduced. I've ended up with about 300ml, but I may have to dilute it to help with the crystallisation. I can just count the additional water towards the total liquid volume though so 300ml syrup should be about right for 5 litres. I should really have stopped it from reducing quite so much though so I'll sleep on it before making a final decision.

I've got a 5 litre demijohn and that should make about 6 bottles and with bakers yeast I should be looking at around 10% abv if I have calculated correctly but I'll not know for certain until I've done a before and after a gravity test with a hydrometer.

I've only made wine once before and I forgot to test before so I didn't get a reading for percentage, and I'm also really bad at maths so I might need to wait for an adultier adult to confirm what's right and what's wrong before I commit.

The smell though while it was simmering was unpalatable so if any one else is going to attempt to make a magnolia syrup for whatever applications I will forewarn you that you should not trust your senses until you've tasted it before it's a thickened syrup. Try it when you notice it just getting slightly viscous and then decide, and probably take it off the heat not long after.

Just googled and apparently m. Stellata flowers can be used in syrups and infusions so I imagine they would work wonderfully, but you'd need more to make up the volume.

I’m chuffed with the lasagne pots on the pergola. Grape hyacinths, with double tulips. Worked out well.

Less good were the chile seeds I tried on the warm kitchen windowsill. Not a one came up. The ones in the heated propagators did very well though. Lesson learnt.

my Lasagne pots now have grape hyacinths, white Thalia narcissi and some raspberry and white tulips. Last years pots just have the first two

Removed the moss on the courtyard paving, by hand. A long job, but I don’t use chemicals and jet washing would kill all the lovely random self sown plants.

I attempted to weed a border but it was too hot!

I pricked out strawflowers snapdragons and Ammi - hundreds of them

In a fit of optimism I’ve planted out courgettes and cucumbers in my raised beds, so you can blame me when there’s a late frost any day to kill them off.

Beautiful!

Thank you! My DH who was teasing me for being in the cold pushing bulbs into pots of dirt has admitted I did good work, LOL.

you are going to have quite a show!

I've planted Red Oca (Oxalis Tuberosa), you can eat the tubers raw or cooked. Also Mashua Blanca, they are also edible. Both very easy to grow, the Blanca are climbers. I also have some rhubarb stems coming up, but nothing else is growing yet.

Very excited as all my seeds are now growing into plants.

Dragged DH outside for pruning, all of which was either too early or too late but did it anyway. Cut the lavendar down, some fairly random chopping of rose bushes, and then some serious forestry on the hammellis that hadn't been touched for several years, the over grown Viburnum and some mystery shrubs that were starting to get close to the telephone cables.

Play stopped by running out of green bin space.

Finished pruning one flower bed which has now been sown with wildflower seeds. Consider it an experiment, I opted for some from meadown mania which does have quite good reviews.

Spread some new compost over the raised beds and planted some bare root perennials: toad lily, bleeding heart, astrantia, echinacea. More to plant tomorrow but I ran out of containers to soak them in before planting. I also rather enthusiastically put some canes in to support the beans which aren't actually ready to plant out yet.

Had a gossip with my teenager about the party she was at last night, if I make them sit out in the garden with me while I'm pottering they can't access the wifi and so have to talk to me.

Do you plant your bare root plants directly in the ground after soaking? First time dealing with them and was told to pot them up first to become established before putting in the ground.

Genius idea for your Dd! Roped mine to the allotment to help me do some work, she came back and slept for hours in the afternoon 😂