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.

Unfortunately, I have a winding path and pebbled border on the side where I need the privacy most of all which I only had done a few years back, there are a couple of tallish shrubs within the border but I don't have room to put anything like a well established tree.

I will have to sit on the left side of the patio as I am completely private there. I may be able to use pots with climbing plants to give me some protection outside the utility room - or else move! 😆

It's not entirely up to the home owners - have you checked whether there is a Tree Protection Order? Unlikely, but you never know. Also, if there were any nesting birds, it's definitely illegal.

Appreciate it's too late now though. I would definitely plant a revenge willow.

@Castlerigg I bought the cheapest one from Argos. Own brand. Has lasted years and my neighbour is envious of how short it cuts the grass.

@Agapornis do you have a Home Bargains near you? These were even cheaper than the B&M poppie

@ismiledather sadly no Home Bargains, thanks though - closest one is an hour away. Tbh I'm just being a bit greedy - I'll have to made do with the 10ish self seeded foxgloves 😅

Yesterday I helped DGC sow giant Atlantic pumpkin seeds, then to scatter wildflower seeds in the new bed opposite the greenhouse. Took my pelargonium outside to smell the smells. I hope to re-pot it today. Should I cut it right back like Monty did to his, or just let it carry on? Undecided.

Today I sowed about seven varieties of zinnia, they will be covered in the greenhouse at night but still, hope it's not too early. Held seeds back in case I need to resow.

Very sad to read about the willow tree Myblueclematis. As my MIL says, where there's no sense there's no feeling.

@ILikeDungs be prepared for your garden to be completely taken over!

I've been avidly following giant pumpkin competitions for a few years and really want to give it a go but we've no good sunny patch big enough, plus the daily maintenance of straightening out vines, rooting hormone, fertilising, and fending off pests just seems like a lot of responsibility.

I am excited to see their progress though so please keep us all updated. I really love pumpkins.

Just not the ones I poisoned my family with.

You can apply to have TPO put on trees in gardens if they have cut it down with nesting birds in it - that is illegal.
our garden looks like a saw mill as DH is happily cutting wood to make some huge shelves on the decking. He started with a huge bit of wood and it’s now a third down and he says he has finished making shelves(!) so I guess we have lots of spare wood. He’s very proud of himself and his jigsaw, saw, metre rule and set square etc 😂

I’m resting after a long hour at the hospital this morning doing hard physio.

I've had a busy hour in the garden moving pots around and I also half emptied the compost bin to mulch the south facing border. I've planted up three more geums and another verbena bonareinsis as I lost a couple of them over the very wet winter.

I'm going to scale back vegetable growing this year to keep things more manageable as other than the rhubarb in the border I exclusively grow fruit and veg in pots and the watering gets too much in the summer...... especially as we usually have a hosepipe ban! I have however planted a chilean guava as an experiment, I've never grown one before so I'm interested to see if it survives.

I am also interested in sweet peas as I’ve just come back from the garden centre with a tray.

I've lurked on this thread for a year or so and maybe posted once or twice, but I just had to comment here. You have my sincere sympathy. My neighbour across the back cut down a beautiful tree a couple of years ago. I just came home one day in June (yep, June - arseholes) and it was gone. My privacy was ruined and yet another piece of wildlife habitat wiped out in the space of a couple of hours. The idiot then tried to take the one out next to it but had to postpone as wood pigeons were nesting in it. As soon as they were gone of course, then that tree was obliterated too. For what? Nothing. They don't even appear to use their garden!

Chopping down a beautiful tree and replacing it with the ubiquitous 'as long as the kids are out from under my feet' trampoline symbolises everything that is wrong with society right now.

I'm a beekeeper and I could cry with all this wanton destruction. Yet another neighbour has just destroyed a beautifully mature front garden by having it all dug up and completely tarmacked. Bare, grey fences and grey / black ground. Soulless. It looks like a bloody car park. But then I guess that's what they wanted. 🤷‍♀️

So many people just don't care, don't think, dont see past their own apparent 'needs' and are so spectacularly selfish and lacking in awareness.

And so I just buy more trees and plant more things. I am also planning some guerilla gardening this year. Needs must!

My house and garden look very different to me with the tree gone, it's just an open space then it's the two houses behind me. Before that I could look out the window and see a lovely mass of billowy green, it virtually hid the properties from view during the summer months.

What I do hope is that all the little birds and even the couple of wood pigeons who used to sit in the tree, will come and sit in my tree a lot more. I feel so sorry for them as mine is the only tree in a square of four gardens.

I'll get over it I expect, I will see what I can do about getting some other shrubs to go on the patio and make a bit of a screen, it might help obscure the unattractive view somewhat.

On the upside, my new blinds look very nice though so that's something I guess. 😃

Jimmyneutronsforehead: I am excited to see their progress though so please keep us all updated. I really love pumpkins.

I will do. Even if we bomb.
We do have the space, happily, borrowed from the group that manage the allotment. I can use the space, but it's not mine. I'm fine with that. We dug two deep holes last winter that we filled with kitchen scraps and soil to house the seedlings when they are ready.

I had a tough medical appointment this morning. The part I had an operation on I’m recuperating well with bad news is the x ray shows huge damage to other areas. I had an hour of intensive physiotherapy and then came back to sit in the garden. DH persuaded me to go to the allotment and I harvested some nice rhubarb and washed and diced it and stuck it in the freezer.
DH has reminded me we are young 50s and one of the blessings of the garden is to sit and do nothing which is what I have done this afternoon. The healing power of nature can not be underestimated.

@LiquoriceThyme it sounds like you've had a right old day. I'm sorry your appointment just brought bad news.

I do think home grown rhubarb is one of the most wonderful little pleasures of life, and it sounds like your husband is very lovely to encourage you to spend some time out in the allotment doing something you love, even if that is just sitting and watching the plants grow.

First time here so hello gardeners. Today my DH and I have been treating the patio, paths and driveway in order to keep moss, lichen etc at bay. Hard work but then got to sit and rejoice at the wren that is building a nest in our tit box that is sited on our bay tree. We’ve had the tit box for too many years to remember but never had any occupants so this is such an exciting development.

That sounds really exciting.

I don't know much about birds, but when I see a bird I don't know about I'm straight on Google trying to find out more about it.

Is this how bird watching starts? One day you aren't the least bit interested, the next minute you've got a birding book.

I'm definitely trying to make my garden more wildlife friendly this year though.

It's been years since I've seen a hedgehog around here, and they used to be everywhere, so I'm starting with the pollinators to encourage the birds, and then hopefully a pond for the frogs with lots of damp patches for slugs and snails that will hopefully draw in some hedgehogs.

I put in some new plants I bought at the garden center yesterday, a foxgloves, perennial wallflower and aquilegia. I live in a new build but have a cottage garden, wildlife friendly garden.

@MargoLivebetter A moss pole is a support for a plant to grow up. The monstera (cheese plant) doesn’t really have a central trunk, but it sends out aerial roots. The moss pole is hollow and stuffed with sphagnum moss, which the aerial roots grow into for both moisture and support.

@Jimmyneutronsforehead I read Farmer Boy recently (part of the Little House on the Prairie series) and the boy grew a milk-fed pumpkin. He poked a hole in the vine near the pumpkin, and put the end of a string into the hole, and then the other end of the string into a cup of milk. Of course he won the prize for the biggest pumpkin. I am kind of tempted to try it! (Having never grown a pumpkin myself.)

I'm not sure how well it will work, but usually when encouraging new roots, the supplement powder does contain bioavailable calcium. I've seen people in the states also inject stuff directly into the stems of their pumpkin plants to help fend off vine borer larvae, so they do seem to tolerate their stems being manhandled a lot.

One day I'm going to grow my giant pumpkin.

My family all want to know why, because they're not edible and we don't really have county fairs or pumpkin festivals or pumpkin boat festivals but maybe I could be the first person in south yorkshire to set one up. Maybe my real calling in life is to encourage people to turn their giant squashes into rowing boats for the amusement of dry and bored patrons.

If you want something compact for instant privacy, pleached trees could work. Paramount do some for a very good price. So sorry about the tree being cut down though, hate that people just destroy them

@Jimmyneutronsforehead - have you tried the Merlin app? It listens to the bird song in your garden and identifies the birds in real time. Delightful, peaceful and addictive in equal measure!

I second the Merlin app, I love finding out which new birds are in the woods behind our house.

I'm going to the garden centre tomorrow to see if I can get some inspiration and see what they have in the way of trees/shrubs that I could possibly use as a screen to give me something nicer to look at than rendered walls, windows and a trampoline.