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 dug out some irises that were growing on the path and also reduced their area. I gave some to a neighbour but told her to plant them in a container!!!
i planted two azaleas, one in the front garden (orange) and one at the back (red)
i planted two rose bushes in my front garden too.
i added more compost to my newly planted blueberry bush.
i have filled my amazon basket with plant plugs and seeds but i havent bought anything.
i have removed a millions of sycamore seedlings from everywhere
i have added some compost to some indoor plants… i need to repot a few but that will be for another day.
i took me around 4-5 hours of pottering… what a nice way to spend some time outside in the sun… dont feel like going to the gym now!!

More organising of pots and general tidying up. Made wigwams for the sweet peas. Then relaxed,wreathed in woodsmoke and satisfaction.

Pulled out more dreaded russian vine an endless and thankless task. Took weeks clearing it last year but we can't actually get rid of it.
DH cleared our little wildflower patch and sowed the seeds. He also mowed the lawns and did a stage one clear of a very overgrown bed.
I did some weeding.

Oh and I transplanted my nasturtium seedlings into pots in the garden they will hopefully takeover from the daffodils as they fade away. Muscari still going strong.

Potted up 24 box cuttings taken last year? the year before?, they are looking sweet.

Helped DD plant a row of step over fruit trees in her garden (apple and pear) in a spot that is wild atm but will be incorporated into a flower bed once the patio flags are laid. Patio base to right in photo. About a quarter of the flags went down today.

I planted some alliums today, along the fence where I put the shrubs the other day. Then I put the herb plants in the spot I’d allocated as the herb garden. Finally, having moved indoors, I repotted my monstera, having 3D printed a moss pole, which I’m delighted about.

Good work everyone. It’s our wedding anniversary today and my lovely MIL gave us a sizeable cheque which we weren’t expecting. So we have decided to put it towards some more raised beds for the allotment.

We went to our local NT place this afternoon we find it really useful for inspiration as what grows well there grows well for us.

Things that are missing that we feel we need so far we have decided on:
a couple of big cardoons - I’ve found a nice one but they wanted £5 for the plant and then £14 for delivery
alliums - currently don’t have any!

we did get a little pottery sheep that has holes and is full of sheep wool for the nesting birds to take - and have hung it up in the garden.
After hours of walking around we came home had endless cups of tea out on the decking and watched the sun go down in our beautiful garden. Very blessed. Not strictly our garden but it’s close by!

I cleared 1 fence panel width of border today ready for planting up, and aerated the 'lawn' ready for seeding. We've had it re-turfed twice and both didn't last, so this time I've got a micro clover mix from meadow mania to try. I'm hoping the deeper roots of the clover mean it takes, and it'll be good for wildlife.

@LiquoricethymeThat sounds like a lovely day. My alliums came from B&Q, a pack of six mixed varieties for £8 or two lots for £14. I’d been looking for bulbs but hadn’t seen any anywhere, it hadn’t occurred to me to look for them already planted and growing.

Happy anniversary my lovely ❤️

When I bought my giant silver cardoons, they were just in a bag of 3 bulbs for £5 at my local garden centre and they did manage to grow quite big in their first year, but I only had about 3 flowers.

By the second year, not only was the plant bigger that flush, but it had also sent out pups, and between the mature plants we had over 20 blossoms for bees to snuffle around in.

So if you're willing to grow from bulb, I'd say it's worth it because they can do really well in their first year.

Ooh I can do get in this thread!! I dug 5 or 6 pulmonarias out of my lawn and moved them to the shrub bed, they are the best free weed that keep other weeds down so they actually aren't really weeds at all! Weeded the dandelions and prepped an area that we need to seed, but gotta get the weeds out first. Spent the day also doing house and shed sorting but garden very much just looking so lovely in the sunshine!!!

I'd die for a garden wall like that. Also your little helper looks like he's got a promising career in supervising when he grows up.

Re-fixed the willow trellising at the rear boundary. Wove in shoots from the hawthorn hedging.

Dug up five thistles and a sapling of some kind.

Bought a bleeding heart/dicentra, some willow trellis, and a bag of orchid compost. Repotted my single orchid (it's a survivor, I kill them all). Picked up some free wildflower seeds from the council.

They're handing out free compost near me, so I filled a bag for life and topped up a few small trees. Not entirely sure about the compost though, it smells of coffee, wasn't entirely composted (some citrus peels). We'll see.

After yesterday's adventures in fence post erection (see the DIY equiv of this thread), I didn't do an awful lot. I meant to put the trellis on top of the fence back but...the neighbours and local cats can wait for another day.

ETA: oh and I went to B&M to get foxgloves and poppies after people here mentioned them - not a foxglove in sight!! It's all primulas and pansies/violets still. Do they do a leaflet? Their plants don't seem to be on their website.

Yesterday I really got into the swing of things, I transferred a dark pink delphinium, several lupins and a purple lobelia into a large pot, they can live in that for good now, I dug up an Osteospermum, deep orange and put into a pot as I'm not sure if it will survive, it didn't look that good so I'm giving it a chance to survive then put back into the garden.

I dug over a large part of the border, weeded as I went along. I just have a small bit left to do today. I bought a packet of cornflowers from Poundland, mixed them with some compost and sprinkled at the back of the border, hopefully I'll get some of them to come up.

This weather has really given a boost to the garden and I feel really hopeful that the garden and all the pots will burst into a blaze of colour in the summer months that I can enjoy both outside sitting on the patio and inside when I move my lounge into the back of the house from the front so I can see it in all its glory from my sofa with the French doors wide open.

Bring it on!

On a roll this morning. Have taken kale cuttings, fed and watered shrubs. We’re on operation screen out neighbours who keep popping up for a chat over the wall. They are lovely but we want privacy in the back. Planted a magnolia grandiflora last year. Recently have moved and planted a honeysuckle and 2 vibernum tinus, forsythia and planted a climbing hydrangea I had.

This morning I have cleared up behind greenhouse by wall, dug out a big ivy root, planted clematis montana, pruned big pittosporum so for easier access round there. Found a 6 ft tall pittosporum next to it and have dug that out and replanted by wall. Also put in a fatsia I had in a pot and dug a hole ready for a laurel in pot that is in the front garden.

Started digging up a ribes that can go there too and then will plant under existing ribes and pittosporum with some plants I bought the other day.

Hi all, can I join back in? I was on here a couple of years ago..... possibly under a different name but health matters last year meant I did almost nothing in the garden. Things are much better this year so I'm back to it!

I'd been despairing up until the last couple of weeks as the garden was looking a neglected mess but I've made a concerted effort last week and this week and I'm really pleased with how it is doing.

Roses and hydrangea have been pruned and the verbena and ornamental grasses cut back. I've been lifting and dividing my geranium rozanne and have planted some more geums. I'm trying to stick to fewer varieties of plants but have more of them repeated throughout the garden so that it looks more intentional rather than just a random collection of whatever looked good in the garden centre! 🤣

My hollyhocks look to have self seeded a bit and I can't decide whether to move them or leave them where they are clearly happy, even if some of them are at the front of borders rather than the back.

First tulip in the garden!!!

Cleared out the shed, planted a clematis Hagley Hybrid, fed all my roses and weeded. Don’t get to pot on my cosmos and tomatoes or direct sow my nigella. 😫

That said I did pick wild garlic and make cheese
and wild garlic scones. 😋

Pruned and weeded the pots on the patio, and investigated some of the new to me shrubs in the border (only moved in at the end of August). We have a Daphne and a winter honeysuckle which smells amazing.
I spent half an hour yesterday just sitting in the sun listening to the birds which was bliss.

I have for the first time for a long time attempted to mow the lawn. I discovered that I owe dh an apology. I thought he was rubbish at mowing the lawn. Turns out that we don't have a lawn mower. We have a lawn mangler.

It doesn't mow. It just mangles the grass. Dh says it's fine. I pointed out it took me four times as long because every part had to be gone over several times and there's still sections standing up like flags.

I'm thinking of putting it on free stuff after dh refused to take it to the tip:

"Ladies, does your dh mow the lawn? Would you like it to take longer to keep him out from under your hair? This wonderful lawn mangler will keep him mowing and remowing for ever if he's trying to get the whole lawn cut.
Ps if he likes a nicely mown lawn then he's going to get very frustrated."

We had a FlyMo that just mangled our lawn. Never again. Went back to a good old fashioned plug in.

I have impulse purchased 2 dwarf mulberries.

I've no idea if I like mulberries, nor how to care for them, or if dwarf really means dwarf ie. Patio or whether it just means a slower grower, or if I've been completely duped altogether.

I also need to make a seed bulk purchase tomorrow. My soil blocker is completely lopsided and I hadn't remembered this until just today so in the absence of a soil blocker and decent seedling pots I think many things will simply be being grown in seed snails this year.

I've got a few decent sized normal pots that I think I'll start the melons in this year, but I never have any luck with them.

My seedling watering can has also gone talkies, so I think I might be a devil and treat myself to a new one.

That made me laugh a lot @MargaretThursday.

Mine bought a leaf blower last week with the plan to use it to hoover up the grass cuttings. Cue grass cuttings all over the place including my newly washed car. What was he thinking?

Came home with an acer, an centaurea and a lovely bowl that I think I might use for alpines or house leeks.

I spent a fortune on a cordless lawnmower that I used once. It was so bloody heavy. We have a flymo that we use just for the front lawn and a more sturdy proper wheeled one for the back lawns which grow like crazy.