What have you done in the garden today? Part 7

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

Continuation thread from MereDint's previous threads.

Spent the last two days planting up the pots with tulip bulbs, narcissi and forget me nots, repotting azaleas, pruning some of the shrubs and moving massive containers of plants around.

My back is not thanking me at the moment.

No gardening recently, though a few days ago I potted up some bulbs I hadn't been able to plant in the ground and they seem to be doing ok despite me leaving them in trays without drainage holes after all this rain! Dh and me have been trying to build our conservatory and it had really tested us today. Parts that should just clip in just wouldn't not matter what we tried. In the end we called in the cavalry my dad who gave us suggestions so tomorrow is another day and we shall try again. But we felt really down today.

We did get the door in place though!

I have a couple of pots of dwarf daffs and narcissi that have bulbs coming up! I'm now scrutinising all the pots each day.

Spring is not far away now 😀

@Myblueclematis mine too! I was very worried when I saw them but apparently it should be ok as they will stop growing when it gets properly cold- is that your understanding?

@Tintarella I didn't know they stopped growing if very cold, I've learnt something today then.

I think in past years I have seen them quite early and I wondered if it was because they are in pots and not in the garden as none are showing that are in the borders only the muscari.

My pots are covered with grit so I really had to look to see them. I'm thrilled they are coming through though.

lol @Myblueclematis don't take any gardening advice from me- I'm a complete newbie to all this. But I did read that. It might not be true though! Here's hoping. The biggest of mine are about 10 inches tall already- I fear they are doomed...

Can I (re)join you? Even if I tell you we have a bat roost and the little bastards are always getting into the house and I hate them?
Lifted and boxed my last half-dozen dahlias ('Wizard of Oz', 'Romeo', 'Honka Pink', 'Honka Black Obsidian','Bishop of Leicester'). My good dahlias in fact. The nameless ones and the ones that come free with Parkers plant orders, were all lifted a couple of weeks ago. Put away the remaining gingers, cannas, species pelargonium but the greenhouse needs some panes of glass replacing before we get proper frost.
Had a visit last week from the British pteridological society (ferny folk).Some were from Kew, so picked up plenty of garden gossip.

We had some landscaping done on our garden in October (cleared a derelict shed, dead tree and dead hedge, put in a fence and retaining wall). We rotavated and seeded the new bit of lawn (previously under the shed) two weeks ago and I have been anxiously staring at it wondering if we’d done it too late (it’s been a bit chilly recently).

Well apparently not, because we have little grass seedlings up everywhere!

Spent this weekend putting fleece on my pelargoniums, repotting our patio olive tree, and weeding our new border (beside the fence, used to be dead hedge and bindweed).

I do still need to lift my dahlias (will probably do it next weekend), and plant some bulbs.

I have been collecting leaves. Collecting them, mowing them, storing them in a corner of the allotment.

DGC love it and help but wear me out!! Beautiful day for it, now off for a soak.

I have been very good today and did actual gardening in my own garden. I planted two yew to replace a time-limited fence by my gate, mowed my lawn, and ripped a load of grass out of the box hedge. I have also raked up a ton of leaves for the leaf bin.

I hate bats in the house! My cat brought a dead one in and hid it under the laminate behind the washing machine ... it was grim; I ended up having to take the whole floor up (I was planning to, but in a rather more calm and organised way). I love them when they flit about at twilight across the garden, and I don't even mind that I am sure they roost in the roof as well as the outbuildings - but I do not want to encounter them up close! (And this is very sensible of us, since they are a rabies risk, aren't they?!).

I'm so jealous of your dahlias. I just don't manage with them, and I am so sad because everyone else's seem to have been absolutely beautiful this year. There is even a farm near me that grows dahlias - you imagine how gorgeous it looks. And mine ... just die.

I don't love dahlias, especially the ones that look like bath sponges, but, goodness me, they're useful. I've always had them in the enclosed area we call The Autumn Garden (because it's planted with late things) and a cottagey border, but they're starting to infiltrate the main garden now. Curl of lip from DH who is the fern fanatic.
I have a four poster bed and once two bats flew between me in bed and the canopy. Shot out of bed....
Nothing done in the garden today other than sighing about how much needs doing. I did pick a bouquet of new growth lace cap hydrangea, michaelmas daisies, crimson Alstroemeria, salvia involucrata and New Dawn roses. What a very odd year it is. We shall pay for it😕

I've been so disappointed with my dahlias the last two years. I currently have only two, Firepot which is a cactus type and looks fabulous when it blooms and Bishop of Oxford which just does not flower in great profusion.

I have to keep them in pots as the ones I planted in the garden just got eaten to buggery. I've had better success in past years with them but my goal of having large groups of dahlias blooming in my one remaining flower border is never going to happen. I'll give it another go for next year but if it is still disappointing, I'll admit defeat and grow something else.

Regarding bats, we removed some fascia from our garage that was going rotten and to our horror there were four bats under it. Two flew off but two remained so we put the fascia in the garage and left the door open for them to fly off that night which they did.

If we'd known we would never have touched it but unfortunately we didn't. 🙁

It is an odd year. I planted a Zephirine Drouhin rose this time two years ago and it has done nothing at all apart from a few leaves but I noticed yesterday that it’s flowered for the first time.

Where are you @BestIsWest? West I presume. Zephrine Drouhin needs a bit of warmth to do well. I'm SW Scotland and it flowers here, but nothing like as well as in sunnier drier parts of the UK.

South West Wales @MaxandMeg. It’s been warm this summer but quite wet too (as per usual). I can’t complain, it cost me £6 for that and another rose in a sale. I’m actually delighted it’s flowered!

Nothing. I have 600 tulip bulbs to plant but have buggered the tendons in my wrists.

My garden is like a swamp with the amount of rain and I haven't been able to give the grass a last mow so it's rather longer than I like at this time of year.

On the plus side, it's now a luxurious green colour rather than the mottled brown and green it was for weeks during the summer.

I am waiting to have yet another water butt fixed this time on the patio, that will give me three in total so if we get another really good summer like this year, I will have more stored water to use.

All my bulbs are in and have lots of little shoots of the dwarf daffs coming up in the pots I planted up. Looking forward to spring and the days getting longer.

I supervised DH weeding the blueberry bed, clearing a load of ferns and Welsh poppies but leaving the camomile and oregano as ground cover.
We’ll need to move the aquilegia and teasels but that’s a spring job now.
He tied up the raspberry canes too so the back garden is pretty much bedded down for winter.
Next weekend I might get him to tackle the front garden.

I really want some Welsh poppies next year. Do they need cold stratification? Can I just wang some seeds in a pot now for next year? Haven't had luck with any other poppies sadly.

From my experience they just appear spontaneously everywhere, I’ve never knowingly planted any.
I tried California poppies last year but they didn’t even germinate so I’ll stick with the Welsh poppies and calendula to fill the “yellow-orange bee-friendly easy plant” gaps in the garden.

I potted a bare root cherry blossom tree that I ordered online. Am going to bonsai it. (I only have a small garden). I've also potted up tiny oak and maple saplings to do the same.

I also bought yet more massive planters from B&Q (my second home this year) and a second HRH Princess Catherine Rose. Hoping for a nice display at the front of the house next year.

I think that's definitely it for this year so am just working through back series of Gardeners World, Beechgrove Garden and writing notes for next year. (This was my first year of having a garden)

@InMySpareTime you must have had a duff batch of seeds, they’re normally very vigorous. I just tipped a packet of seeds on the border last spring and they were so thuggish they almost smothered my salvias and crocosmias (in retrospect I should have thinned them out a bit more)

@LemondrizzleSharkthere’s a strong chance DH pulled up any California poppy seedlings as he was left unsupervised weeding near there. That (and similar instances) is why he’s not allowed to go rogue on the weeding any more.

Always a risk! 🤣