What have you done in the garden today? Part 7

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

Continuation thread from MereDint's previous threads.

Busy afternoon planting up containers in between showers. I planted one large one and six medium ones. Three of the containers are new and I recycled the others. I could do with a few more fillers. Watered everything. I put my solar lights back out. They hang from hooks and they've been in my utility room since Storm Eowyn.

I don't know what the weather is like in the UK, but it's really unsettled here - lots of wind, rain (some heavy showers) and then a bit of sun in between.

I have never heard of step over apple plants but they look amazing! Something I might be able to do with my self sown and grown apple trees.

I managed to get out today for a short while between showers to tie up my sweetpeas and cut another vase full of flowers.
I have two peonies in flower, one Miss America a beautiful white bloom and one unknown but has fascination flower and smells almost like a rose. Both made it through the downpours.

Last night after dinner I trimmed the lawn edge and used a hand rake to scarify the edge. I got so much dead grass and moss out. Very therapeutic. I need to do the whole lawn, but for now I just threw down some weed and feed high I hope the rain washed in and it can do its work.

All the plants I planted out at the weekend are looking so happy in their growing positions. I need to plant up a whole load more but so much more to do before that can happen. The fruit bushes I moved from another bed are in pots on top of a raised bed but I need to move some gravel before they can go there...and on and on it goes...

Cut some dahlias for the kitchen table and had a trip to Asda for some jasmine plants in 9cm pots I spotted the other day. 3 pots for £5. I took my seedlings into the house as strong winds were forecast and my grow frame keeps blowing over. They can hopefully go back out tomorrow.

I went down the bottom end of the garden to discover bindweed has grown about 12 feet in a fortnight and has swamped three small fruit trees.

That far end is an endless battle against being completely overgrown, and I am definitely losing.

I'd love some step over apples.

Bought a new heavy duty weeding tool to hopefully get some of the weeds up. Don't think it'll help where the dock plants are as they're just too deeply rooted but we've got some thistles in the dogs patch that he keeps laying on so I'm really hoping that I can get at least those up. 85

Bought a new kneeling stool as well but mostly for support getting back up as I'm really wobbly these days.

We didn't have a torrential downpour yesterday but did have a few bouts of rain, so I'm going to leave it until tonight to water everything.

Been ill with a bad cold for the past week, so pleased to be able to do something in the garden again this morning.
Dug up some dying tulips to replant this autumn (because Monty Don told me to while watching GW on my sickbed...I rarely take his advice). I made a mistake putting them somewhere too dry last autumn, they were very small.
Moved some what I suspect are foxglove seedlings to a more visible spot.
Put some sneaky snails in the wormery. That's where they live until I dump them in the local park every few weeks.
Put a plastic bottle cloche on snail-devoured sad dahlia stumps.

@Agapornis sorry to hear you've been ill.

It is like a tonic for the mind being able to get back out and do something though isn't it

We also have a snail problem, it died down for a few years after we had our conifer removed, which made me sad at the time because it was clearly an ecosystem unto itself but that sadness disappeared quite quickly when the snails returned and my seedlings got devoured.

Take it easy while you recover and stay hydrated. Hope you feel much better soon.

Got around to moving the gravel so I could move the fruit bushes in pots so I could actually plant things in the raised bed!

I have planted my baby watermelon plant and two gherkin plants in the greenhouse.
In the raised bed I planted out the 5 sweetcorn plants which grew, the two snowball cauliflower plants, and two broccoli romanesco plants along with some beetroot, a rogue sunflower and my crown Prince squash plant. I moved the lettuce plants in the pot so they all had a bit more space, weeded the pot I sowed carrot seeds and in amongst all the weeds are 3, THREE carrots that actually grew. I planted them back into the pot and will sow some more. We shall see what happens. I can usually grow carrots so no idea why they are so problematic this year.
In between showers tomorrow I hope to sort out a hanging basket and plant up the plants I bought to go in there, and plant out the rest of my tomato plants, and some of the other flower seedlings, and then continue to do a bit more weeding. It's so much easier now the ground has had a good soak

Good weather for ducks here today.

Yesterday I managed to get the thistles up, and did try to get the big dock plants up but because theyre deeply rooted in compacted gravel the tool couldn't grip it properly, it was like coarse wet sand.

Won't be doing much in the garden today, might make a trip to a garden centre but more in search of local honey than anything else.

On the next good weather day im going to sift the compost and bag up what is useable and discard the rocks. Not my favourite gardening job but needs doing seen as I've accidentally created compost by not having the energy to take the garden waste to the tip.

I'm also looking for some good gardening gloves that are thin, still give me enough dexterity but fit quite tightly against my hands. Not sure if the product exists as I've tried various different gloves and struggled to find one that meets all of my needs. They've either been too thick, too baggy, too clunky, too tight or a combination. Perhaps I'm just being too picky.

I like the Niwaki gloves, @Jimmyneutronsforehead . Very thin and lightweight so you don’t lose dexterity.

No good for dealing with brambles, obviously, but I have leather gauntlets for that job.

I have these burgeoning and balk gardening gloves @Jimmyneutronsforehead and love them. That's after decades of the too baggy / too light etc. I paid about £15 but they are on offer in B&Q at the moment (see link) My 13 yo DD borrower them and loved them so much that she asked for her own pair to help in the garden.

Hope you find some good local honey. We can't keep up with demand here at the moment, so no gardening for me today as I'm labelling and delivering our honey. The weekend will be mostly spent sterilising jars.

www.diy.com/departments/burgon-ball-love-the-glove-polyester-red-gardening-gloves-small-2-pairs/5019360015840_BQ.prd?storeId=1014&&&&&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21154715699&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInZztjYLajQMVUJpQBh0P8BYjEAQYAiABEgL2L_D_BwE

Just finished No Mow May and into Let it Bloom June. Best thing ever.
Just mow a path down to the compost/rubbish heaps and watch what wild flowers grow in the ex lawn - just buttercups, clover, fox and cubs, ladies smock, daisies so far.
Will have to wait for others to bloom before researching in my wild flower ( not weeds you know) book. I'm slowly learning to love weeds because the insects love them too (sorry again, I mean wild flowers). Couldn't find names of some last year though.
Waiting for some energy to thin out the teasels which are coming up in their dozens in the main bed. Stopped raining now, I'll have to think of another excuse...
Tomato plants just starting to flower, ditto sweet peas.
Lastly, been trying to identify the bees so I can add them to my BTO weekly entry. Why won't they keep still!!

@Jimmyneutronsforehead thanks for the well wishes. Gloves - I buy them for both gardening volunteers and personal use, so over the past seven-ish years I've tried, in size 6/7/small...

• Burgon & Ball Love the glove - not a fan, fake leather/suede, bit stiff, I get really dirty nails, dirt gets trapped in the lining, cuff is too short. Sorry @RainbowZebraWarrior 😬
• Thin generic rubber dipped - good for dexterity but will wear through quickly at the fingertips if you have nails, so buy a 12 pack for £10-15 or so.
• Ejendals Tegera 106 (blue & white, size 7+) - lighter leather, good for the price, unlined, last quite well.
• Ejendals Tegera 35 (yellow & grey, size 8+) - leather, heavy duty, unlined, love these for dirty jobs involving saws and heaps of ivy.

(I wear both Ejendals over a thin rubber dipped pair).

• Briers smart gardeners (goatskin leather) - very soft, nice fit, partially lined, easy to wash under a tap and recondition with a bit of handcream. Absolutely bargain at £4.99 from TK Maxx. They had quite a few Briers pairs some weeks ago, so may be worth a look. They are pink and white though, so I do feel a bit like a Lady Gardener 😅

This is ignoring the existence of size 'medium' gloves for bloody massive man hands the size of dinner plates, which are all shit and cause blisters to average of hand women (won't start ranting on women's PPE here).

Didn't do anything in the garden today because it rained and my cats wanted me to stay in. That's my excuse anyway.

I'm popping into town tomorrow. Never thought to look in tk maxx but I will have a look tomorrow while im there.

Today I realised my wisteria wants to climb anticlockwise and I've wound it clockwise round the pole. I don't know whether to keep training it clockwise or whether I should work with it rather than against it and undo all my ties.

I did go sprinkle some more radish seeds but it was a chaotic sprinkle because just as I started an ungodly amount of rain just started. Reminded me of this time we were in Javea in Spain, and all the locals looked up at the sky which to me was sunny with clouds, then they all stepped inside in unison, my family and I looked at eachother perplexed when suddenly the sky opened up and within seconds there were streams pouring into the drains on the road. This was before smart phones were really in their infancy so it wasn't like they'd had a Google weather alert ping.

Is it too late to start lettuce from seed? I fear it'll just bolt immediately.

Hi I’d like to join you all as I’ve just stumbled upon this fabulous thread.

Ive spent this week re-potting my roses, potting my new tree and then shopping for more roses and planting them too along with some beautiful cosmos.

Heres a picture of my work so far. Still lots to do and I am always moving things around. My garden is a wind trap so I have to be careful where I put things, hence they are all in pots so they can be moved if needed.

I need to repot a rose. I keep procrastinating over it (I don't know why? lol) Your pots etc look lovely. I have some motivation for tomorrow... :-)

Have done nothing in the garden due to work,illness and rain. Just madly picking herbs and drying them as best I can. Every time I go down the garden I come back with a pocketful of camomile. I think that should be the name of my memoir..."A pocketful of camomile"

Walkingwithdinosaurs.
your pots look lovely.

The fox trashed my round bed last night. Just walked all over it. I’m gutted as I have an open garden with my U3a group next week.

Nothing outside. I did fantasy online shopping for my pots and containers in shade and lusted over euonymus Alatus. I mean I still could press proceed..

Ahem... do it.

No gardening today. Too wet.

Did get some garden snacks though!!

Amazing - actually I lied, I also picked a handful of golden/yellow raspberries last night! Fabulous trousers @Jimmyneutronsforehead

Just deadheaded some geums and roses, fed the birds, topped up one of the birdbaths and it's now raining ... 🙄