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 use a clean washing up bottle to carefully water seedlings. They can easily be over watered, so the targeted nozzle enables you to water in a controlled way. Once they have a few leaves on, their root system is strong enough to take the water from below, which is better than watering the surface.

ETA, nasturtium grows like weeds, they pretty much bomb proof! Mine come up on an area of border each year as they often self seed from the previous years ' plants.

Potted on loads of herb seedlings. Planted thyme in my.new pebbled area, weeded one small shaded bed. Watered the pots. Admired the tulips.

Tulips...

I weeded a flower bed today, there weren't that many actual weeds but I dug a load of grape hyacinth out as it was getting a bit much. I was pleased to find a clematis and astilbe I planted last year but thought had died are back. I have a small fuschia that looks dead, is it too early for it to start yet? I have a vague memory of thinking it was dead in the past then it sprang to life. I also watered the garden!

My fuchsias that overwintered in the greenhouse are only just sprouting, so give outdoor ones a little longer.

I mainly enjoyed the garden today and played some badminton with DS, ate lunch in the garden and read in the garden. At the end of the day I did some hoeing and planted a raised border with a mixed selection of seeds (some of which are out of date). Chaos gardening I believe is the fancy name for it.

I tidied up my little postage stamp of a garden and sowed peas, french beans, dwarf French beans, borlotto beans, two different kinds of cucumbers and I’m trying cucamelons for the first time this year. Peas and beans will be split between the plot and the tiny garden eventually. Also nabbed some sweet peas from Lidl - I’m utterly shit at growing them for some reason.

I salted the weeds again, heavily, and it will be the last time I do it. Used a dozen bottles of roundup over the past year on them and the sods keep coming back but I've brought out the big guns and used a 25kg bag of rock salt. Going away for a week so if this doesn't finish them off I don't know what will. I've lost track of how many times I've walked in and out with a kettle of boiling water to drown them with too.

Going away for a week so wish my seedlings luck in the care of my non-gardening plant sitter. I'm desperately hoping to get things in raised beds when I'm back. Already put out my cucumbers which were outgrowing their pots and growing tendrils. Worried that a frost will come and get them but they will have to take their chances.

A dozen bottles of round up?Wonder how much wildlife in the food chain that killed?

Planted out my pea seedlings, and some more sweet pea seedlings. Pleased that cosmos seeds are starting to sprout. Planted out cabbage seedlings.

We finally received a bit of rain which I hope will help the wildflower seed to sprout. And, happy days, rhubarb to harvest.

I made two hedgehog feeding stations as we have a new visitor and have just released two that we fostered over winter as they were too small to hibernate. Also spent time digging up ground elder, again.

Found a pigeon poo in my lettuce patch so have added a load of sparkly twiggy things (left over from Christmas) to deter them from decimating my lettuce crop.

Spent 4hrs digging out the rest of my bed of those wild onion weed plants. Think I got them all so fingers crossed. I am definitely taking a few days off from gardening

I know. Shameful and reprehensible.

Fed the rest of the roses - bit late but better than nothing. Fed the crown imperials with Vitax - one clump is strong and flowering but the other two have been blind. They are such buggers to keep going, especially in mild damp gardens.
Weeded in the woodland garden and found Ariaema sikokianum coming up strongly - finally might have got it in the right place after several bosh shots. Today's priority now that it's raining is to get some beer traps out.

I planted out some fairly pot-bound chrysanthemums yesterday. Trying to get more autumn colour in the garden - so am experimenting with them and also some asters. We shall see how successful they are (or not)!!!!!

I have been mostly pulling up sycamore seedlings. Every day. All the time. Drives me nuts.

I'm always weeding out sycamores, but can't see a single sycamore tree from my house.
I've just dug out some lovely compost from the bottom of the heap. Its gone on my favourite plants.

Ah, the dreaded ground elder. My nemesis is cow parsley.

Raining heavily here, but supposed to clear this afternoon. At least it will well water in the peas and sweet peas.

When are you all putting out your tomato seedlings in their final pots in the greenhouse? I have some beauties, but now think I started them a little too early.

We had a bit of rain overnight, but nowhere near enough to refill my barrel ponds. There’s a bit more forecast over the next few days but only the one raindrop symbol on the Met Office, not 2 for a good downpour. So I’ve got the dilemma whether to top them up with tap or not.

Raining here too. Might go for a mooch round the garden centre. I was supposed to be volunteering in a local gardens but will go on a better day.

When do you all buy wallflower plants? I thought they would be available at my local market but I think I may have missed them. Are they normally available in the autumn?
Anyway, I bought some Nemesia Wisley Cream as I love their vanilla scent

You buy the scented biennial ‘bedding’ type in autumn. You should be able to get the perennial type eg Bowles mauve now though.
I got a wisley cream in my weekend haul too, I’ve not had one before.

Thanks @ErrolTheDragon It's been a while since I bought any and for some reason I thought it was in the spring. I'll have a look online & see what's available now.
Wisley cream is so nice isn't it. As each flower stem finishes I trim them off and you get flowers pretty much all summer. I'm going to put mine in a hanging basket near the kitchen window so hopefully I'll be able to smell them inside