What have you done in the garden today? Part 7

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

Continuation thread from MereDint's previous threads.

It’s not just gardening tools either is it? I mean, knitting needles, embroidery scissors.

Basically any blade/sharp-ish deemed 'no good reason'. I'd be interested in seeing a prosecution, can't imagine the CPS going ahead with this.

Today I've removed a bit of ivy. It's growing on a shared fence, I removed my side when I moved in a few years ago. Electric chainsaw and loppers - thankfully I have sensible neighbours who don't call the plod 😅

Today I gave broken the ice in one of the bird baths incase the birds want access to water. I won't do anything else in the garden as its too snowy and icy for anything else.

I empty my bird baths when it gets dark so the following morning, I only have to fill them rather than trying to get rid of the solid lump of ice first.

I have animals using it overnight! I can’t quite see what (I’m looking on the security camera and can just see eyes). Probably a rat! But anyway something is in it at 2am. Also DS enjoys picking the disc of ice out in the morning and using it as a frisbee 🤷‍♀️

I'm a bit jealous that some of you have snow.

Today I put my big fluffy socks on, boots, coat, scarf and gloves and walked out into the garden to see what needs to be done. I looked at it and walked back inside. 😂

At least it was a sunny 1°c.

I think the 'feels like' temperature is bloody freezing. About 1mm of ice on the cat/fox drinking bowl here. Icy wind.

I only went into the garden because I had to cut some wood to fix a hole in the ceiling above the (new-ish) boiler. I do love my jigsaw. It's nearly fixed now - only took me 4 years and a month. So probably a bigger achievement than anything I could have done in the garden!

(Is there a What DIY have you done this week? thread?)

Ooh I'd love a what DIY have you done today thread. Happy to make one.

DP asked me if we are going to decorate his house. I asked we? He said yes the walls need sanding. I asked have you got a sander, he said no we will just do it all manually. The entire house.

... Anyway my new sander is coming on Sunday and I can't wait to use it while I watch him manually sand with his little sanding block.

Ooh, as a new homeowner I’d definitely join a DIY What Have You Done thread - although it may be more an “Argh, What Have I Done?!” thread.

In that vein, I have put a picture hook on the wall in DS’s room, for his framed Doctor Who poster.

In the garden, all I did was collect a couple of crisp packets and beer cans that have appeared. There’s a little lane that goes past my garden, not sure if the rubbish has been chucked over the fence or blown in on the wind, as it is a fairly windy spot.

Aha, I shall start a DIY thread in the morning. Seems like the slow garden season will be filled with DIY.

I think us folk in the South West have been luckier with the weather over the holiday period. I've been able to get out every day for the past week. But it has been really really cold. When the sun is out, the greenhouse can just about muster 10C but it quickly drops to 3C by about 3 pm.

last of leaf raking today only 2 piles to go and will plant up a few troughs with the remaining mixed miscellaneous bulbs that were thrown into a box last summer.

got a nice bargain down at the local garden centre - all bulbs half price, so being a sucker for a bargain I bought 10 parrot tulips, 10 yellow tulip Sunny Prince and a couple of packets of Muscari Grape Hyacinths. Plus more bulb fibre. Realised I may have run out of pots lol.... I'm sure I'll find a few lurking around the place!

I also need to wash the outside handstanding but that will have to wait until the temps get up as it could end up being an ice rink. Not a good idea!

good luck with the DIY - we are planning a wet room and redoing the shelves in our pantry but not until about Sept at least!

dont forget to wear a mask and eye shield with the electric sander, @Jimmyneutronsforehead they make a lot of dust!

We’ve had a dusting of icy snow the last two days and it’s clear but very cold so nothing is thawing. Luckily I’ve potted up my new bare root rose but I wanted to empty a couple of pots and put some tulip bulbs I found in the shed - the pots are frozen solid.

Still freezing. Not even been in the garden. Today I got my seed stash out and sorted it and ordered stock for planting. Not much this year as I've far too many bigger projects and beds to move. I have a tendency to buy the plants to plants in the beds today in going to create, thinking it will make me do it. It doesn't. And then I feel rubbish. So this year I'm going for acceptance that I probably won't plant in the new beds until next year.

Have bought peas, beans, tomatoes and cucumbers and sweet peas for the garden. Thought I would try the perennial sweet peas on the pergola. I've still bought the annual ones though because I can't be without the fragrance!

Tomorrow if it is still this cold I will bring my tools in and clean and sharpen.

I've got the last of the bulbs in, just before the ground froze. I planted some coleus and threw some poppy seeds outside. I also ordered far too many dahlia tubers.

Went out to the greenhouse at lunchtime, it was 11C in there! Lovely.

i planted up the last of the loose miscellaneous bulbs into 6 pots. Once they've established I will replant them into my troughs, but it was far too cold to do it today, the compost in the troughs was rock solid!

Just got one last batch of the bargain tulips etc that I will do at the weekend as the temps are back up to 8 / 9 C which is good.

I have cracked and brought my ranunculus seedlings inside from the cold frame. Forecast to be -5C tonight and I think even the cold frame will get too cold for them. Popped them in the pantry, which is always bloody freezing, so hopefully not too warm for them. They had just sprouted nicely and I was planning to pot them up properly this weekend.

I have some plants in the garage, loosely covered with some bubble wrap to protect them, or so I thought. Yesterday I checked to see how they were doing and the soil in the pots was frozen.

Apart from the trailing geranium, the other plants will be ok to stay there, I am going to bring the geranium into the house and hope that it will thaw out enough to not die and I'll keep it inside from now on.

The garden is still rock solid, we've had another hard frost so until the weather changes later in the week, I doubt I'll be able to do anything outside even if I wanted to.

I have pelargoniums outside which survived last winter wrapped in bubble wrap and cardboard and stored on a polythene-covered ikea shelf, not even a cold frame! The house wall provides a lot of warmth, and it is south-facing so gets a decent amount of sun. But it was quite warm last winter, I’m not optimistic they will manage this year. We shall have to see.

I uplift my pelargoniums each year and trim back all the flowers and leaves so all that is left is a healthy rootball and a stem. Then I place them in groups inside Amazon paper bags.

They stay dormant in the greenhouse until around March when I bring them out of hibernation, plant them in new compost and they grow on until May. Saves a fortune in plants each year. They're a miracle really, I don't know how they survive, but they do!

I planted two more large pots of tulips and just have enough bulb fibre to do the final trough tomorrow. A few muscari and a handful of bulbs that I haven't been able to identify, so I'll put them in the trough and see what comes up!

Sorry it's a bit late, but I've made the thread for DIY: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/5471636-what-diy-have-you-done-today

I've not done anything in the garden today but tomorrow I am planning on pulling some weeds from the pots out front. My foxgloves managed to self seed, and I can see a fair few seedlings that I need to try and work around, but there are definitely plenty of weeds to be had while they're dormant.

Can anybody help me with my camellia?

It's 2 years old, and it's planted directly into an old tire, so open bottomed, and was hoping it would eventually root into the earth, and we planted it with 50/50 compost and ericaceous earth, and although it's not dead, it hasn't grown a jot. It's never flowered, it just looks like a leafy twig.

I haven’t done anything in the garden, I’m back at work now but hopefully the weather will be ok at the weekend.

Thanks for setting up the DIY thread. Unfortunately I haven’t done any of that either.

Me neither, but my sander arrived so I am excited to start. DP still insists he's going to do it manually.

My plans got thwarted. Elderly dog on EOL care, medical appointments I'd forgotten about that were booked in December before the fridge calendar got changed to 2026, so never wrote them down, paperwork up to my eyeballs, DBIL in hospital in Uganda, last we heard was he'd had a concussion and his last text messages were like he was speaking in code except nobody else knew the code and his girlfriend has gone AFK and blocked everybody so nobody knows where he is. Honestly life is just such a drama at the moment, all I can dream about is starting my spring seedlings and planning this year's plots.

I am just thoroughly ready for some therapeutic, mindless weeding.

I'm even considering buying one of those dry robes that will cover all 4'11 of me head to toe so I can hide a hot water bottle in there with me while I pluck pluck pluck.

I'm also not usually a rose person, but I really fancy some climbing roses this year. The plot I want them for though doesn't get a great deal of sunlight, so I'm trying to find a shade loving, rose lookalike slow climber.

Today I put a comfy box and blanket on the patio for what might be a stray cat. Like others the soil is frozen solid so I'm not doing any gardening, but I'm tempted by the 50% bulbs at B&Q. I don't have any white pheasant's eye type daffodils yet...

Did a couple of things for the garden though. Volunteered for a seed swap at a community garden in a few weeks (with absolutely no self interest of course), and complained to the council about the bin men constantly plonking the little food bin on top of my plants in the front garden I'd grab my pitchfork except I'm not awake enough at 6-7am to tell them off.

Thanks for setting up the DIY thread.

My first snowdrop is out 😍