What have you done in the garden today? Part 7

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

Continuation thread from MereDint's previous threads.

I'm in London and have just grabbed a rare period of dry weather to prune my roses. Have no idea if I've done it right (my first year of gardening). But one of the things I really enjoy about this sort of experimental beginners' phase is the knowledge that if I've done it wrong... who really cares? (Well, me, a bit, but at least I'll have learned my lesson for next time.)

I have a LOT of seeds just waiting to be sown; some of them (nasturtiums, tomatoes and calendula) are from old plants that I harvested at the end of the summer and I'm really excited to see if they work. @Jimmyneutronsforehead I really understand what you mean about something peaceful to do in the winter lull. It's lovely to think that even under these sombre skies you're creating a tiny bit of life.

Not much. Removed some of the old haggard looking leaves off my hellebores. Tried to prune roses but think I need to enlist DH for that one. I can't really reach anywhere and some of the old wood is very thick.

My brown bin finally got emptied. So all the things I killed/changed my mind about last year have GONE and I can have a fresh start this year.

I brought one of my bonsai trees in from outside to do a little bit of work on it, and left it on a tray on the dining table for 5 minutes. When I got back, there were three 7-spot ladybirds crawling about at the top of it.😍

So I put it back into the garden again.

That's one of my favourite jobs this time of year. Hellobores look really bedraggled with all those brown shrivelled leaves but it's amazing how quickly they recover and flower. They also spread around and make the border look a mess. I might nip out tomorrow and give them a haircut 😊

I walked round my garden and enjoyed looking at my tiny snowdrops. I picked a few and put them in an antique ink pot that I use as a vase. They have an incredibly strong scent of honey. Beautiful and uplifting.

Ladybirds are my worst nightmare. 💀🙀😰

I didn't realise they had a scent. I have a lot in my garden. I love watching them appear every year.

Ladybirds are fab. They eat aphids. What's not to like?

Well you know how some people are scared of spiders even though they eat flies and mites and are an essential part of the food chain as they keep populations under control. Ladybirds are my spiders.

Too many legs, PLUS those freaky wings, PLUS spots on that freaky fast carapace💀

I can look at pictures of ladybirds and say oh yeah that is objectively quite cute, like I can look at mice with their fluffy little bodies and beady black eyes, but I don't want to be near them, I don't want to touch them, I don't want them in my bedroom, I don't want them in my house.

In the garden we are just colleagues, they do their job, I do my job, I tip my hat to them, but I don't want to get caught up in office drama so we just part ways. I don't want to invite them over to my house for a chin wag.

Ladybirds can be bitey little feckers and if you do handle them , like to move them from danger , they reward you by leaving yellow goo on your skin.

When my DS was little I would do the whole let them walk up my hand till they get to my finger tip then they;ll fly away thing to amuse him and let him know they are little creatures to be respected .
But in the back of my mind I am screaming "if you weren't red and covered in cute dots , if you had a shiney black shell, I wouldn't touch you , 'cos you;d be A Beetle"

We had 100s last year .
Not stop play at Lords Cricket levels , but 100s

I think it was 2008, we were on a caravan holiday at Cleethorpes and they were everywhere indoor and outdoors.

When I recount the tale, it seems unimaginable to some, but the paving flags on the prom were encrusted in layers of crushed ladybirds so much that you could hardly see the floor underneath them. It felt like a biblical event. They were in hair, on bus windows covering both sides, all over benches and tables, all over the sand.

I was scared of ladybirds long before this, but this took it from fear to phobia levels of anxiety, because I still can't eat a meal outdoors incase there are ladybirds, and if I spot one in the garden I won't go in that spot for days.

This year I accompanied my son as his 121 on a school trip... to Cleethorpes. We were sat on the grass banking waiting for the land train and one of the kids said "OH, and ladybird!" and I had the most embarrassing panic attack in front of 60 4 year old, and all EYFS staff.

Oddly enough though normal black beetles don't bother me. I mean I'd rather not touch them, I think they're a bit creepy and I'm sure they think the same of me as I do them, but ladybirds are just something I don't think I could ever get over.

I used to be that kid that collected woodlice and earthworms and carried them round in my pockets, and now I'm a quivering mess around a universally adored insect.

This image is from 1976, but it was like this and it felt never ending for the entire week we were there.

DH has booked a Tree Surgeon, we have a couple of trees that need lopped and I'll get them to cut back the Pyracantha as it is very unforgiving when I try with the loppers /secateurs , I always get the thorns in my skin even through gloves .

The patio needs jet washed but it is way too cold for that !

Last year I cut back loads of plants ( Jasmine, Buddleia, Hop, Boson Creeper ) they all grew back pretty well but no flowers on the Jasmine or Hop.

I have SweetPeas growing , re-seeded themselves from last year so happy with that

I was late to the "winter flowering" party this year as it was only my first winter with a garden and I was distracted by experimenting with buying real Christmas trees and then putting them in the garden afterwards.

But now I have a couple of Skimmias and Hellebores at the front door like normal people!

Oh I am sorry. I must admit I can't abide daddy long-legs. Ugh. DH has to get rid of them when they come in the house. There's a few weeks in September that I dread every year.

Daddy longlegs don't freak me out quite so much but I have had them fly past my bare legs and tickle me before so whenever I see them I get instantly tickly itchy legs.

Like when someone says their kid has nits and it makes your head instantly itch.

This year though I think I'm going to rephrase one of my large poorly draining plant pots as a carnivorous bog garden.

I'm ok with daddy longlegs, I can pick them up and put them outside when they get in the house. I'm also ok with moths too.

My mum used to be able to pick up in her hands, the huge big brown spiders that used to come in the house when we were kids. She never killed them, just put them outside in the garden to live another day

😳

I love beetles - which is handy, I guess, as there are so many types of them. I'm definitely pro-spider, as they are on our side in the war against flies.

It's the teeny tiniest that freak me out. Headlice, aphids, fleas, that sort of thing. I'm scratching myself just having typed them. Awful, awful things.

I walked down the length of the garden to the relocated compost bins. 80% of the garden is under a good 5cm of water. Some places it's more than 10cm, like the gravel paths between the raised beds.

More rain forecast this week.

I'm absolutely fine with spiders, as long as they don't touch me without me knowing.

We have quite a lot of zebra jumping spiders in our garden, and they are hard to find scary. They are very curious and come and watch what I'm doing and have these cute head tilts.

The massive house spiders and I respect each others professional boundaries. They can be in the same room as me, but if they fall in the bath they're on their own. I will provide a ladder and that's it.

Zebra jumpers are adorable, I agree. Lots of jumping spiders are cute.

Woodlice, the prawns of the garden, are strawberry stealing feckers who deserve their fate of being eaten by my hens like popcorn snacks.

Prawns of the garden 😂😂😂

I took the bird netting off my four beds of onions because they started growing through. The most I can do with a painful knee atm. Lovely and sunny out there.

I haven't seen sunshine for over a week, I'm very envious! I wish you could bottle summer sun and just let a 15 minute burst out every now and again, to feel human again.