What have you done in the garden today? Part 7

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

Continuation thread from MereDint's previous threads.

Hoping to get out in the garden tomorrow before snow is forecast. Won't be doing any intensive jobs, just moving things around a bit and working out how much compost I need and giving the plant pots a bit of a wash.

Not in the garden, but in the conservatory, my lemon tree is finally blossoming. After 5 years LIFE IS FINALLY GIVING ME USEFUL LEMONS!

A couple of days ago I bought two small pots of tete a tete daffs in Morrisons and yesterday at the garden centre I bought two little pots of very pretty pale peachy/red primroses.

Today, as so far it hasn't rained although I know it is going to, I have planted them up into a terracotta tub ready to go out the front of the house in a week or so.

I also bought in Morrisons a peony, Shirley Temple, I have also put that into a pot, it had roots and small bud so I am hopeful that I will get a plant that I can put into the garden a bit later in the year.

That is amazing! My MIL has had one for 8 years with not even a pip

Reading my seed catalogues, thanks to those who recommended them.

Is "likes moist but well drained soil" the gardening equivalent to "start by frying a chopped onion and some garlic"?!!! Ie - the default?!

Love that analogy, and pretty much. Unless you're setting up a bog garden, but that's a big exception. Stuff like Flag Iris loves to be boggy, but I don't think we've talked about Flag Iris for quite a few threads so it's not very popular.

Have done nothing in my own garden except tut over the state of the lawn and wonder how hard it would be to returf.
spent a glorious morning in the project where I volunteer, digging and planting bare root roses. It felt so good to be out and doing something.

Last year I spent £80 on bare root strawberries and hardly any of them took.

My goal for this year remains at getting a successful growing of them and automating their watering system. We must go through a punnet and a half a day in our house so I feel it is imperative that I get this right.

Yes it is! As well as “full sun or partial shade”. So, practically anywhere then?

I've just ordered more heavy duty pot rings so that when the weather improves I can move some of my pot and container plants out to the front of the house.

The pot rings keep them off the ground so drainage is better but more importantly, they seem to stop the foxes trying to dig in the soil and ruining my plants. Win, win!

Hello - wonderful thread

I am going to be doing a long overdue tidy up - lots of leaves to rake and tidying beds.

Hopefully sow some seeds

I haven’t done anything in my garden for a couple of weeks 😕

I saw seed catalogues mentioned, but I missed the posts with recommendations - can anyone give me a couple of suggestions please? Thanks!

I haven't done anything in ages either. Got some new bird feeders and put up a new bird feeder but no actual gardening. Enjoying watching my bulbs emerging though.

Done nothing too, but I am sat looking at it. My daffodils are in full bloom but being flattened by the sideways rain we are currently experiencing. Oh for a still, dry day soon 😔

I went out to check on my daffodils after seeing your post and I have one in flower, practically on the ground from wind.
I also miss wrote earlier we put up a new birdhouse and birdfeeder not birdfeeder twice.

I've been collecting bird houses this year, and I want to make one of these bird house pole things with a tree stake. The bird houses I've collected a bit more eclectic though.

My apple and cherry trees don't look like they've survived the winter this year, I will hold out hope until spring but I'm quite confident that they were on their way out last year and I should really have gotten them in the ground somewhere rather than keeping them in pots. It's no bother though because I will swap them out with some blackberries and train them up the arbours I got last year instead.

@TeamToeBeans - seed catalogues:

Plants of Distinction
Dobies (not to be confused with Dobbies)
Suttons
Thompson & Morgan
David Austin (Roses)

This thread really resonates with me. I miss being out in the garden so much during winter. I’m in Yorkshire, and today the temperature dropped with solid rain all day. The forecast is sleet and snow later in the week too.
I’ve been pruning my climbing roses by the French doors. I pruned Double Delight yesterday before it got dark, and tackled Strawberry Hill today. I got absolutely soaked, and by the time I came inside I couldn’t feel my hands at all. I jumped straight into a warm shower and instantly regretted it — my hands were in agony!
It must be love for the garden… why else would we do this? I might try another rose tomorrow, but only if it’s dry!

I'm also in Yorkshire and I don't think I'll be going back outside until after pancake day. Possibly even mothers day. I do have a lot of tidying that needs doing though and hoping to get some gutters up for strawberries.

On mother's day I go and get my seeds for my annuals and vegetables, and start my slow growers and frost hardies, and around Easter I do a round 2. They all live in our conservatory where I can up-pot them out of the weather, and by my birthday which is in the middle of May, everything starts going out in the ground.

I'm right down on the south coast and for the next ten days it is nothing but solid rain. I've only managed to get a few opportunities for at the most, an hour or less out in the garden for the past two to three weeks, even going to the garden centre is not quite as good as usual as if I buy anything, it's difficult to get round to planting it.

My shed roof is leaking too which doesn't help! 😡

I bought a scrap book yesterday so I can utilise my stocks and green and J Parker catalogues that keep getting posted as well as prints some bits off from Pinterest and put them on some pictures of the garden.

Last year I used AI to visualise what the garden will look like when it's done but I'm moving away from that.

Plus I think it will give me something tangible to do while I'm pining for some gardening activity and not able to do it.

I have ordered some seeds. I don't normally grow from seed, though last year we turned a very small patch of poor quality land into a mini wildflower meadow with seeds, was very pleased with how it turned out.
Ordered some night scented stock seeds and nasturtium seeds as they are both so pretty.

I love growing from seed. I'm by no means a gardening purist, but I think growing from seed and seeing the progress over the year really helps me overcome how bad my mental health gets in winter. It's really therapeutic.

Nasturtiums are something I've only ever had to grow from seed once though as they're extremely prolific self sowers. We get a spring flush, they flower, the caterpillars decimate them, then an autumn flush from the seeds that dropped from the spring flush and they last until the weather gets frosty.

They're overtaking my lawn, but I'm not mad about it. My lawn at this point is about 10% grass, 50% daisy, 20% moss and the rest is just weeds. I got a heavy duty weeding tool last year that is good at pulling them up, but there's just that many that it's about population control rather than eradication.

That bird house post looks pretty, but most of the houses are too low down and facing the wrong directions.

Yes I'll definitely not be hanging them quite so low. My feral child would be all over them if they were. It will be mostly for fancy anyway.