What have you done in the garden today? Part 8

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

A continuation thread.

Thank you to MereDintOfPandiculation for threads 1 through 6. We wouldn't have built this lovely gardening community without you.

No gardening job is too small or too big to tell us about.

Spring is springing into action, let's get mucky.

I also do an annual sprinkle with the boiling water, much better than weedkiller, although my much more established weeds seem resistant to any sort of method.

I think they'd still be here if the earth became scorched at this rate.

Sorry for your loss @Jimmyneutronsforehead

I weeded a bed yesterday and now I'm copying everyone with the boiling water on the weeds that are stubbornly growing through my tarmacked areas, weedkiller seems to make no difference.
Enjoying the sunshine finally 🌞

It's a miracle - the Brunnera I planted yonks ago and thought had died has popped up again - just one leaf but it's there.

Planted rhubarb (3 varieties) and a Mother's Day present of a Camelia (which I was told was a rose by ds)

@Jimmyneutronsforeheadsorry for your loss 💐

My mum brought me this as a little gift today to cheer me up.

Oh my goodness. I finished a new path (wheelbarrowing bark chippings) mowed the allotment, edged some path, weeded a bed of rampant wild strawberries and sycamore seedlings, and walked the dog. Am done in.

Made up a raised bed I ordered online at the allotment. The compost in it is our own homemade compost. Planted the foxgloves in one half - the ones from B and M and need to think about what goes in the other half. Is supposed to be my cottage garden. It was hot today 25 degrees. So they got a good water. Harry enjoyed picking over the fresh compost.

Hope everyone had a nice day and hope you are ok @Jimmyneutronsforehead what a lovely mum you have to buy that - where are you going to plant them up?

I'm going to get a big oak barrel planter and put them in there and put them in a nice sunny spot where the dog liked to lay. It will make the garden look a bit hobbledygobbledy though but hopefully it will keep the grass and the weeds out.

His most favourite spot was in a quite shaded spot so I'd need to get some shade loving plants for round there but I just don't want to look at those spots and they be empty or I'll just imagine him there and be sad when really I want to be happy when I see them.

My Nan is on a hunt for dog daisies but every time I've shown her dog daisies she says no, the ones she wants are bigger. Dog daisies themselves are pretty big anyway so I'm not sure what type of dog daisies it is that she has seen and neither is she really.

Ah @Jimmyneutronsforehead, sad times. Your forget-me-not idea is lovely. Sounds like he had a good last day, and it was his time to go.

We’ve seen the sun today, for the first time in ages, so I’ve been outside most of the day. I’ve continued weeding the raised bed at the front, but I’ve dug quite deep down, to pull out as many of the ivy roots as I can. Then I planted a couple of the shrubs that I’ve had in pots for a few years. I was so pleased to get those in the ground. It’s been a long time coming.

I’m exhausted, my hands are aching, and I’m beginning to cease up. But I’ve had such a nice day, and am really pleased with what I’ve achieved.

Yesterday I mowed the lawn, it was very long and I thought I might have a bit of a job getting my mower through it but no, actually it cut it quite well and has made a big difference to how the garden looks today.

I may give it another mow on Monday as the weather looks to be ok for the next few days. The garden border is rock hard with the amount of rain that has flattened it down so I am going to have a go at loosening the soil up a bit today or tomorrow, I know I will probably see more weeds but I really hate the look of the flattened soil, it makes the border look really untidy.

My alarm woke me up today to say it would be foggy all day today but at the moment it is just grey skies.

I'm hoping the weather picks up tomorrow and I'll do some weeding in the garden.

Looks like a lovely day here again so I suppose I’d better cut the lawns. They are soaking wet at the moment with dew so that will be an afternoon job. Meanwhile some weeding and topping up of pots.
Coffee first though.

Lawns mowed, all but one small border weeded and I nipped out for something and came back with a small Erysimum 'Bowles's Mauve'. I love the colour of it against the Delft blue hyacinth so I've found a similar coloured pot for it.

My lovely gardener has finished sorting out my garden, I am ridiculously happy with it!
Tomorrow I will tie in the climbing rose on one side of the back garden, it’s got 15’ high whippy branches that need looping down and tying in, what fun!

I wrestled with a bed that had been covered in gravel. I don't think I've even done a quarter of it and it was a bit disheartening, as there is not just one layer but two of weed mesh. The lower layer is older and is covered in pea shingle, soil, weeds and rotted leaf mold. It is a bugger of a job trying to remove the weeds, sift out the stones (that I will be keeping as hard core for my small patio) and pull and cut out the mesh. At least it was a nice day, hazy sunshine and warm but not hot, so good working conditions. I shall crack on tomorrow.

I haven’t done much outside today, but I have planted some seeds in trays, and taken cuttings from a euphorbia. They need to callous over before I can plant them. I really hope they take, because I really liked the parent plant, but last time I tried to propagate it I was unsuccessful. So I’ve left it too long and now it’s overcrowded and not in great condition. Fingers crossed.

I weeded a front bed (sooo much creeping buttercup) and re-homed rampant geraniums to another bed. Picked a hundredy-thousand sycamore seeds from an onion bed and dug up some primroses for a friend's garden.

The onion bed had been covered with fleece to protect against the allium fly but the dog walked into the middle of it, made a 'bed' by scraping at the fleece and ripping it, and settled down for a sunny snooze.

Removed the damaged fleece. It is not cheap and I don't have any more so the onions will just have to take their chances.

Managed a bit in the garden today. There's just so much to do after a wet and windy winter. Cleared out pots, planted up herbs and the first sweet peas. Everything else still too tiny to go out and nights may still be frosty here.
Surprised how many people are cutting grass already. Ours won't get a cut for weeks yet.

I got outside for the first time in ages, mowed the lawn a nd watered the bits in the greenhouse.. I have plans for a tidy up tomorrow. I’ve nipped out in dry patches thru that long wet winter for a bit of weeding, but left the buckets, they are really making the place untidy. Ponds full of frog spawn though. Jimmy, so sorry about your dog 🌺

My onions have been taking a chance since they went in. 🙊

Survival of the fittest and what doesn't make it just goes back into the ecosystem and inevitably makes space for impulse purchases throughout the year.

Ours desperately needs it but we do usually commit to no mow may, and then sorely regret it after all the dandelions have released their seeds across all the other beds.

I do have a soft spot for dandelions though, before they built this ugly industrial estate on half of the field opposite us, when I was a child I had the most magical memory of looking out onto the field and the field looked like it was full of gold. It had just rained, so there was a rainbow but it was also really warm, so there was this heat-mirage effect blurring the details of the daffodils, so I put my boots on, and I proclaimed "we're going to find the gold at the end of that rainbow!"

I was a bit disappointed when we got over there and they were just dandelions but I still have this lovely memory of them being as beautiful as gold.

Did a bit of weeding.

It looks as though someone has broken the back willow trellising yet again, by trying to take a shortcut at two separate points.

Shall have to reattach them again and hope that the hawthorn hedge does its thing - I've been encouraging it to weave in and out of the trellising. The intruders certainly don't try to get through the thicker areas of hawthorn.

I sowed some free white Antirrhinum seeds into a seed container and amazingly they are coming up. I chucked some of the seeds onto the garden except I can't remember exactly where so I may or may not get anything from them. If I can get the container seeds to come to fruition I can plant them into the garden or big containers. I don't really have good enough facility to grow lots of seeds so I'm prepared to be disappointed but live in hope of getting something to grow.

I also sowed some tomato seeds that came with a little mini greenhouse that I bought in Poundland for £2. My friend was very successful last year, this one is a cherry tomato so I am giving it a go and see what I get from it. I will also be buying two tomato plants from the garden centre, last year was pleased with San Marzano and a cherry variety so if the seeds I planted fail, at least I will get something with the bought plants.

Today I am aiming to paint the shed door, bit of weeding and dig the soil over to loosen it up a bit. I also have some farmyard manure left so will use that up as I want to put my order in for bags of compost, more farmyard manure and another bag of grit. The lovely man who delivers it puts it into my shed and loosens the compost in the bags making it easier for my arthritic thumbs when handling it which is much appreciated by me.

My sweet pea seeds are coming up, 4 have sprouted in the seed snail. Fist time planting in a seed snail so hopefully it works well.
The lawn will get another trim today, this will be the 3rd this year. I love that it mulches, no more trips to the green tip.
I need to prune the last 2 roses today and maybe move one to a different location.

Spent a few hours weeding & pruning some of my salvia’s & verbena bampton’s. So nice to get outside finally without sinking into a quagmire! Can’t do anymore now as heading out this afternoon but at least it’s a start.