What have you done in the garden today? Part 7

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

Continuation thread from MereDint's previous threads.

I spent four hours volunteering in a garden project this morning - mostly weeding with a bit of digging. Came home exhausted, made a cuppa, only for my
neighbour to ask if he could come round to trim the massive conifers that overhang our wall. Of course I couldn’t say no as I’ve been wanting him to do it for ages but I felt I had to help so spent another four hours moving pots out of the way and picking up bits of conifer.
I am knackered.
Had the first pepper and some black cherry tomatoes plus a courgette from the greenhouse for tea.

I had a home grown courgette for tea as well, with the first of my leeks and a load of oregano. It’s so lovely this time of year being able to graze the garden for dinner ingredients

One of the things I loved about working from home was that for my dinner I could just walk into the garden, pull something up, or off a plant, stick a boiled egg or 2 on top and sit out surrounded by butterflies and bees.

A Snapchat memory popped up for me today of my giant cardoon. Bloody loved watching the bees nestle into the flowers while I tucked into a homegrown salad. Compared to little old 4'11 me, this thing was an absolute beast! Absolute bugger to dig up though and took up so much garden real estate.

We cooked up our first aubergine the other day. Fabulous.

We went to the National Gardening and Outdoor Living Show at Ingliston in Edinburgh today. We were there in 2019 and it was great, what I remember of it, little show gardens (not quite Chelsea but they were nice wee places), lots of stalls, inspiration and temptation.

This time there were only about half a dozen plant stalls, (the quality of some of the plants was sadly lacking) and lots of other stalls we weren't interested in. There was one garden tool place selling new tools, still in the packaging, that were actually rusty . Now I understand why so many were already leaving as we were going in.

The highlight of the day was going round the garden of my companion afterwards and she had two blue hyacinths in flower . Has anyone ever seen them flowering at this time of year?

Picked 5 tomatoes off the vine (and ate them all)

Dead headed the buddleia ( I don't think I've done before but it does look better without the crispy dead flowers and I'm hoping for new ones )

I always deadhead my buddleia, and it keeps flowering well into September.

We made a wonderful chunky vegetable soup, and im pleased to say I contributed 4 beans and 6 radish seed pods which were actually extremely delicious. The texture of peas but the taste of a radish without the peppery kick!

I'm still waiting for my 2 tomatoes to ripen.

Today I went on a payday garden centre haul to find find some bargains.

Found most of these in the reduced section.

Hmm, I might have to go to B&Q and B&M tomorrow...

Ate some raspberries, led a few climbing nasturtiums in the right direction.

Our gladioli all flopped over so today I went and cut them to put in a vase. Also wood chip mulched the plant pots.

Took down all the beans yesterday, the dwarf beans did quite well but the runners were next to useless. Lots and lots of flowers but virtually no beans. No idea why not, I watered them religiously, had lots of bees on them. Such a failure. Won't bother next year, will just do more dwarf beans.

Tomatoes bit slow to ripen, San Marzano ones are huge but a couple only just turning orange.

Guernsey Cream clematis has another flush of flowers, dahlias very disappointing again except for Fire Pot, blooming fantastically well for the third year.

Today was going to mow the lawn but weather windy and damp so will leave that until further in the week when it looks to be warming up considerably for some time to come. Yay! 😎

@Myblueclematis - having same issue with runner beans strangely as last year was a bumper.
Read somewhere that spraying the flowers with water may help!

Wet and windy here for much of the weekend. Our tomatoes are slow too. My sweet peas are a disaster. The ones in a pot romped ahead and had loads of flowers but now seem to be spent. Of the ones in the earth only two have done anything but at least they are doing well. I’ll give the ones in the pot a few days more but I think they’ve had it.

Ive had the opposite. My dwarf beans just haven't given me a single bean, I only got 10 runner beans, and they have produced but they haven't produced many. I think I've had 8 beans off them, but they are still going.

I think maybe next year I need to do 20 beans.

I'm waiting for the hollyhocks to finish flowering and them im giving all the beds a hard reset. I'm going to dig them over, put some well rotted manure on all of them, and top them with cardboard for the winter.

I always do some sort of squash, but it seems really hit and miss, I either get nothing or I get really prolific fruit. I want to just do cucumbers next year but I can never get them to fruit either.

My strawberries haven't put out any runners either. I planted honeoeyes and some everbearers and they've really slacked.

I tried a new variety of tomato this year, some sort of English version of outdoor girl, because they're meant to be frost tolerant and early fruitless but each plant has given me a single tomato. Last year I did rapunzels and they were extremely prolific even though the tomatoes weren't the most flavourful, still better than shop bought.

I didn't pot on my artichokes in time, and they drowned in their seed trays, but that couldn't be helped, I was having a huge flare up at the time and didn't realise that the pain in my foot was actually a bone that was dislocating.

I am a leaver, so I leave all my gardening tools where they're accessible to me, but I live with a putter, who can't cope with things being left somewhere, so she has put everything away into storage and it has made things really inaccessible this year when you're battling multiple chronic illnesses and disabilities so we have been at odds in the garden this year.

Today I am ordering some long handled litter scoopers, because I need to get some things scooped up before the end of the season.

I've also ordered some solar powered irrigation, and my plan for next year is to have a few, in rows, each with their own fertiliser mix in the water buckets, but hoping the well rotted manure will tow the line if I can't get out there to fertilise.

Another big difference from last year is I used manor house compost, but last year I had an abundance of home made compost.

I do still have some home made compost but I've been reluctant to use it as it has had lots of weeds and grass that has gone to seed mixed in with it. The last thing I want is more weeds and grass where it shouldn't be, so I think I'm going to give it another season before I use it, just to make sure everything is truly broken down.

I only got 10 runner beans, and they have produced but they haven't produced many. I think I've had 8 beans off them, but they are still going.

By 8 beans, do you mean 8 pickings, or 8 BEANS? I thought my runner beans did really badly this year!

To be fair I hardly watered them considering how hot it has been. But we did get many additions to meals out of them. I usually get so many we have to freeze some and give some away. Not this year. But we have had enough for many veg side dishes and soups.

I did plant them in a new untested bed. I just put cardboard and compost over the grass in the fall, and planted into that this spring.

I found the beans this year were prone to weird shapes when they usually grow straight and long. I blame the weather, my lack of watering, and less than ideal soil..

I always do some sort of squash, but it seems really hit and miss, I either get nothing or I get really prolific fruit.

Agree, I usually get not nearly enough or way too much. This year I really wanted sweet dumplings so started loads. Most failed to germinate, now the ones that did are fruiting veeeeery sloooooowly. Frustrating.

I have developed a plan for next year, to put some squash in a flower bed that I can no longer cope with because I have too much flower garden now (having taken on an allotment). Even if I don't get the squashes, the leaves will suppress weed growth. Possibly an odd way to cope but this year I was stretched too far.

I love a cardoon - are they easy to grow?

8 But I am factoring in the fake hosepipe ban into their failure to produce. They've put out loads more flowers since so their fruiting season has only really just started. Ive picked off another 6 today. They're enorma runner beans so they're quite big, and we've been using them in soups.

I want to try red orientals next time.

Extremely easy.

I bought mine at my local garden centre as bulbs that specifically said globe artichokes on them.

When they reached about 12 foot tall, and had thistle like spikes all over the mature leaves it became really apparent that I wasn't growing the worlds largest globe artichoke but it had been mislabelled and was a silver cardoon.

They put out pups like crazy.

If you want my advice, don't plant it in a vegetable bed, it will need a 2 metre spread space, don't plant it near your house foundations because the roots really are tree like, and don't plant them anywhere that you have other plants that earwigs like, because all the nooks and crannys make perfect homes for earwigs, as I found out when I tried to cut some to dry for some dry flower vases. If you're going to get one, make sure you have a forever home spot for if you have to dig it up it is like digging up a young but established tree that makes more baby trees from the roots.

That said, I would grow one again if it was in the middle of a wild flower bed for insects and pollinators. It was really good at self supporting it's weight, and the foliage dies back in winter and is much easier to do a hard prune then, you just need a decent hand saw for the thick stems. They're heavy feeders, and will leech away nutrients from the soil so make sure you're regularly feeding during growing season.

We have a hosepipe ban here but look at your water co. website. Thames water specifies the ban does not apply to back garden crops grown for food OR allotment food crops. You can't use the hose to water flowers though.

People with mobility issues are free to use the hosepipe during the ban.

And I think people 67 or older also exempt.

https://www.thameswater.co.uk/help/water-supply-and-drought-update/hosepipe-ban-faqs

We are Yorkshire water, but I have applied for exemption, which was difficult to navigate because you have to apply through northern power grid. I've also registered my nan for exemption because she's 73, so there should be 2 of us that can use it.

I have used it a few times anyway because things have gotten crispy and I just can't lug watering cans round but we've been lucky enough to have scattered showers so it hasn't been as needed.

The beans have luckily started bucking up their ideas though and at the end of this month while the weather is still warm I'm going to be taking everything down and focusing just on the perennials.

Well, thanks to the wind that's the hollyhocks sorted!

Went and bought a new hoe the other day to hoe the beds over at the end of the month but might as well crack on this week.

My 2 tomatoes have started blushing so they have come inside to finish off ripening.

We chopped back the dogwood that was smothering the grape vine, and now I've seen the state of it, I think we might just be getting rid of the grape vine too and getting a new one next year. Or even a new one this year if Asda still have them out for £5 a plant.

I don't think my beans have actually been slacking. I went out to check on the current bean progress and all the beans that were developing have magically disappeared.

We have a lot of birds visit our garden, mostly next doors fancy pigeons. I've a love hate relationship with then. Beautiful birds, even more beautiful when they stay out of my fruit and vegetable patch. Had a similar issues with peas a few years ago, at the foot of the plants there'd be loose pure brilliant white feathers left as calling cards.

Bit awkward to net too, without risking trapping moisture.

Think my only solution for next year is to plant enough to feed us and the wildlife, which I'm happy to do.

We have pigeons but not the fancy ones. We live on the edge of farmland and have the dirty old rats-with-wings type of pigeons, and lots of them.

The loud and endless noise of them copulating in the trees gives me the rage.

They eat veg that is not covered and get in my greenhouse and wreak havoc with their panic and flapping and window bashing.

They poo ginormously, everywhere.

I have a hate/hate relationship with pigeons.