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 had no idea such a thing existed. Yoink, I'm downloading that right now.

I've always failed at growing verbena borenensis from seed. Trying again this year but not hopeful :/

I have just downloaded the app and i can see how it could become an excuse to spend yet more time in the garden!!! Thanks

@Jimmyneutronsforehead “Because I want to” is a perfectly valid reason to grow a massive pumpkin. Followed up by “I can do what I want, you’re not the boss of me!” if you’re feeling particularly childish 😀

@MyblueclematisWhat about putting up a bit of trellis, or one of those free-standing planters with trellis attached? Hard to know if that would do the job without knowing the garden and proportions involved, but it certainly would be nicer to look at than a trampoline.

I tried to upload an image but it says the file size is too big, but the spot where my dog used to lay and soak up the sun is absolutely flourishing with whitlow grass.

Our front lawn is about 20% grass and then 80% random flowering weeds with the odd dock plant, but usually we don't get much whitlow grass except between the cracks in the flags on our driveway, and every spring I think it looks really pretty and I wish there was more of it around, and this year it's everywhere in abundance.

It looked really pretty in the brief sunlight we had this morning.

Thank you for this, I have ordered the book for my DGS 😃

@Castlerigg

Yes, that's what I'm thinking of and am going to look for that tomorrow at the garden centre, weather permitting, it doesn't look that lovely, very windy

I go to the garden centre a lot so I've plenty of opportunity to look for something suitable.

I agree on the Merlin app, and I find once I know what I’m looking for it’s easier to spot the bird too.
It can also do photo ID.

I picked up some strawberries last week in Lidl, but now I need compost and soil to fill the planter so I best do a wickes order.

I'm doing a seed order today, and I'm going to attempt cucumbers- again.

Can anyone recommend a variety that seems to grow well? I'm wondering if it's just that I keep choosing bad varieties for a yorkshire climate.

We've grown cucumbers for years here on the NE coast of England - mini varieties and standard ones. The only thing I'd say is that they have to be in a greenhouse if you're in the North. (Sorry, I can't remember if you have a greenhouse or not. If not, then that's your most likely reason they are failing)

@ILikeDungs Hope they like it, I find the books really nice, gentle, effortless reading, but I also find it fascinating what is completely normal to them, that would now be considered a lost art (or a trendy artisan pastime). For example when mother casually makes new hats woven from oat stalks.

@Jimmyneutronsforehead I have grown Marketmore cucumbers when I lived in Sheffield. I only had a couple of plants, but I did get a couple of small cucumbers which were absolutely delicious. I didn’t have anything like a cold frame or greenhouse, I imagine I could have got a better crop if I’d had something like that.

@Jimmyneutronsforehead have you tried the Burpless tasty ones before : try burpless tasty green https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/cucumber-burpless-tasty-green-f1-hybrid-seeds/388TM
people here say they are pretty hardy. People on our allotment say they are really good.

We have finished putting like a guttering proof thing for leaves along the guttering for a garage (which is huge) to do the other side we need access from the neighbours garden. So only one side done all 10 m of it. So no leaves in the guttering hopefully this winter.

The Merlin app is great I’ve had it for years.

We have just ordered more 4 large raised wooden beds and 1 small one for the allotment. We got one last week and honestly it was a godsend and they have currently dropped the price of the smaller one to £40 but it isn’t that small. It was actually a reasonable size. It’s a bed with two sections and omg it slot together so easy and it was perfect. It took less than 10 minutes to put it together and it looks good so we have just ordered 5 more !!! For me it’s perfect can assemble them totally on your own in less than 10 minutes.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yaheetech-Horticulture-Divisible-Elevated-Vegetables/dp/B0CVKZNXVY

After yesterday’s awful physio appointment I want to sit outside but it’s too cold today. I have cleaned the guinea pigs out and looking forward to an evening with my knitting friends.

love to everyone ….brrrr chilly here!

I dug up and moved about 8 verbena boniarensis yesterday. They seed themselves pretty freely in my garden. I’ve put them all in a bed together hoping they will partly hide an ugly seven foot breezeblock wall.

Planted up some little alpines and some gladioli bulbs as well.

Chatted to a friend who has an amazing garden and she assures me my sweet peas can go in now. If it wasn’t raining then I would.

I've just weeded about 3m of fruit bed, removed loads of strawberry plants, even more couch grass that had grown under the sides of the beds from the lawn, cleared the space around my 2 Japanese Wineberries and pegged the ends down and trimmed any random bits off. These are the only spiky bastards I tolerate in my garden. I'll plant in some oregano and thyme another day, to fill the gaps in between and around them.

2 ends have already rooted so I'll have at least 4 to take to the new house.

I've just chitted my second earlies but there's been sleety snow up here in northern Scotland so glad they're not out

Well it’s blowing a right flipping hoolie here. It’s a bloody catastrophe on the decking plants and egg chairs everywhere. A really heavy bird bath over and smashed - bloody hell!

We headed to Dunelm and ended up popping into a lovely huge garden centre we have never been to before on the way back. It had a huge section of ornamental fruit trees. We had long planned to put a Japanese flagpole ornamental cherry at the bottom of the garden and to our shock they had a beautiful one that was new and a much older one. They grow tall and thin so perfect for up against a fence to block out the view of the neighbours house. We ended up meeting a lovely staff member who had just taken over the ordering of new fruit trees. And she gave us a huge discount 50% off two other trees. An older stock ornamental flagpole cherry and a prunus serrulata shirotae which is also a Japanese cherry. So we got 3 trees that are each already over 9ft high for £170 (huge fruit tree poles and ties) included in that a delivery. DH is very happy as we had budgeted £300 for a flagpole ornamental cherry just one. So for nearly halve that we have 3 trees. It means the view of the neighbours house is almost completely gone and more importantly perhaps we always wanted a cherry tree for the dogs ashes to go under if and when they go and it was important to me to get some Japanese trees as DH loves Japan and his late wife loved cherry trees so it was very sentimental and important to me that she is remembered in this garden.

This is the flagpole cherry we have got two of these beautiful pink colour

and the prunus Prunus Shirotae is a beautiful white

all of them are over 8 ft high and should get up to 4m

can’t wait for them to get here on Monday !

Today I ordered the seeds I've been putting off but it all seems a bit... bare. For veg this year all I'm growing is cucumbers, tomatoes and courgettes.

I've oodles of flower seeds, but need some inspiration for the veg patch this year.

Pumpkin? Butternut squash? I must admit I’m put right off growing my own carrot - don’t know why!!!

radish? Red onion, onions and garlic and of course potatoes?

I'm banned from pumpkins this year. I've conceded as I could do with the space anyway for cucumbers if they take as we eat a lot of cucumbers.

I had forgotten that I have already planted some onions. Radishes are a good shout, I think I've still got some seeds, and I've got garlic growing out the wazoo. I planted it one year, and no matter how often I try and pull it all up it just keeps coming back. A good problem to have I suppose, as long as you're not a vampire.

I am going to do the pvc pipe carrots and if it doesn't work out then I shall also not be doing carrots again.

It's times where I'm planning the veg bed that I realise my family just don't eat vegetables. We eat a lot of salad greens so I shall order some, but even that is divisive in this house. I love rocket, everybody else hates it, everyone else loves baby chard, I can't stand anything remotely beetroot-y and I'll never again be conned into beetroot brownies under the premise "you can't even taste the beetroot", everybody likes little gem lettuce, but call me basic, I absolutely love an iceberg lettuce, which I am mocked for as it tastes like crispy water, but to them I say you always notice it's absence in a cheeseburger and they're a fab substitute for when we make bunless cheeseburgers or wrapless wraps.

I think I might fill the gaps with some edible flowers this year. It usually gets to about June and I see videos of pretty cakes adorned with edible flowers and kick myself for not planting them.

Exciting times in the garden today. The gardener came back for the first grass cut of the year. (I did it a total of once last year, my first year with my own garden, hated it, sold the otherwise brand-new lawnmower and signed up with the guy all my neighbours use)

He looked terrified when he saw me marching towards him WITH A LIST!

He will wait til the ground is warmer before installing the new flowerbed at the front.

He made appreciative noises when I showed him all my plant purchases and told him about watching the last 3 series of GW and Beechgrove!

@Liquoricethyme I was very sad to leave my flagpole cherry behind at my last house, and it was only a little one. I have been trying to decide on a good spot to plant a new one.

We bought a new lawnmower as well today - and cleared the garage. All systems go.

Funny you said this as I did the same yesterday and ended up returning with 2 fruit trees for £12 (tbh they looked more like sticks and probably half dead as they were inside...) so I felt I had to rescue them. Considering most online fruit trees are £12+ each I thought x2 for £12 was worth a punt.

My sweet peas have sprouted but I think they are growing too fast. They are about 2 inches high since Saturday.