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've saved my boot potatoes and will plant them and see what grows.

I’m in happiness tears here our beautiful trees have arrived! So sentimental and so ridiculously happy 🌴 🌳 🌲 I’m in tears. Love them already and they aren’t even planted in the ground.

What are they???

Pulled up and hoed many many more sycamore seeds.

My wicked cat has been sharpening his claws on my little ginkgo, poor thing. Will need to get a protector for it.

DS is at present installing a second greenhouse in the allotment wa-hoo! It was a "you can have it if you dismantle and take it away" job-- not in great shape, lots of glass broken and we just discovered the door glass was smashed in the last hugely windy day but DS is very capable and all will be well I'm sure. .

This is the first, she will be higher once the ground comes up. Mount Fuji Cherry Tree. She’s just beautiful. She’s 2m high but can grow to 4-8 m, but will probably will cap her height to about 4m. I’m in love 🥰

I grew them in a garden patch for that reason and the area did seem less claggy after one season.

You may need to grow them for a few seasons if really bad condition but maybe someone with more knowledge can advise.

@Liquoricethyme that is a beautiful tree. Where did you get it from?

I had a blissful day off and spent the entirety in my garden. Did loads of weeding, which I find really satisfying.

I moved a rosemary bush out of a pot and into one of the shit beds out the front. If it takes over, I’ll be thrilled!

I pruned various shrubs and fed them.

Finished the day with a lawn mow. It was lovely and warm when the sun came out too. Perfect day, so happy.

Went to our NT site today for an Easter egg hunt, hoped to get some garden inspiration but clearly I am seeking inspiration too early as everything was brown.

Lovely day out though, haven't been to our NT for about 10 years, all the staff seemed just as jazzed about the Easter egg hunt as the kids were and made it really magical.

I think I might have dried my dahlia tubers out as was too lazy to wrap them up in newspaper. Only one is sprouting so far 😓. When can I plant out sweet peas? Midlands…

I’ve done nothing in the garden myself, but DP did bring his chainsaw round to cut down the ivy. It started out growing up a fence, but having not been touched in years, it had overtaken the fence and was growing up, around, and through itself. It was up to about 8 feet high. It would have taken me 100 years with my little pair of secateurs, and actually some of the older trunks are as thick as my wrist, so I’d never have managed it. He’s made excellent progress but there’s still plenty to do.

I started weeding. DH has no interest in the garden which thankfully I guess is small.

A couple of years ago, I dug out the edges, put down new soil, and planted shrubs which are all well established by now.
Every year I add more decorative bark to help deter the weeds.
But this year, I had huge mushrooms/fungus and I'm wary of adding bark again.

I've realised I messed up one side of the edges as I put down some flagstones to walk to the shed, and the bark spills onto them and they are now just mossy and I need need to be redone. I've no idea how to 'contain' it. I like the look of brick but its just me doing it and I've no idea how......

I'm not sure what to replace the flagstones with as they are placed on coarse sand. I'd like to just have grass in between them but the garden is so small and shaded, I don't think the grass will grow properly.

Its so overlooked, and the weather has been so wet, I'm yearning for very low maintenance.

What’s this about?

I've seen it. Freezing poppy seeds in ice cubes and just putting the cubes on the surface of the soil.

Not tried it, but have tried cold and wet stratifying poppies in the past and just get terrible germination despite them needing cold and wet stratification to successfully germinate. I know it is variety dependent though.

Worth a try but I'd consider it an experiment.

Mushrooms are great for the garden if you haven't got pets or small children that like to try and eat them.

The mycorrhizal network between mycelium and plants helps transport nutrients between plants, break down dead matter back into bioavailable nutrient dense compost and gives slugs and snails something to munch on that isn't your seedlings.

They can be a nightmare if you've got pets that like to munch them though as there are still a lot of varieties that can cause a lot of stomach upset.

Must pop out in a minute and take the fleece off my baby plants, but so far my gardening has consisted of ordering four fruit trees to be delivered tomorrow 😁

Two apples, a pear, and a nectarine. They are dwarf varieties so I may grow a couple in the two very large pots that are currently empty, but I hope to put a couple in one of the beds at the bottom of the garden.

@DameProfessorIDareSay who are you ordering your fruit trees from?

I got them here @MargoLivebetter

https://www.rootsplants.co.uk/

DH ordered a ton bag of well rotted manure for the garden. I took a few bucketloads off the top for the roses out front, and DH will move the rest to the back to top up the raised beds over the weekend.
One moment you’re young and fun, the next you’re giddy about shovelling horseshit all over the garden!

I posted the link up the thread a bit. A local garden centre. In Hewish in N Somerset. It’s cold here and not exciting to be outside. I have struggled with pain the last few days. We’ve been to B and M and got two water butts for the allotment, we’ve also been back as we saw some garden gates and realised with a tape measure that these are exactly the right (odd size) size for our bit behind the garden it’s enclosed on 3 sides (our garage wall, our fence and neighbours fence) so we’ve got two doors and we are going to make a little lean to and plastic roof and collect the rainwater to drain into our raised beds that will have the fruit trees in. Then we can store stuff inside. A local company had quoted like £2K plus to make a lean to (it’s shady so can’t be a greenhouse or anything) / but you always need garden storage right? I think it will cost us 2 doors -£120 total, guttering £50 and we already have batons to make a slight slope and maybe £30 for clear roof and a few pounds from some off cuts of wood. We have chased up delivery of our sleepers as without them we can’t more forward really.
All a bit boring here!

We are back to B and M tomorrow for trellis to level the fence up as the ground is coming up fence needs to go higher. I am wondering if we need to buy shares there the amount of time and money we spend in the garden centre! 😂

I took the last of the seasoned firewood inside, and tidied and swept the wood shed / general garden storage area. Then I made a start on cutting up the pruned branches from the pear trees, and putting that in the wood shed to dry out for use as kindling next winter. Then it started raining, so I called it a day. There’s still a pile of branches that need to be moved, but they’ll wait a few more days.

The grass had its first mow yesterday, apparently XDH’s mower actually works fine, so I don’t need to buy one. Result!

I found two lilies in a pot I thought was empty. One was actually coming up, the other was still buried in the compost. I've emptied them out of the pot they were in and repotted them.

I'm not sure of the colour as I thought I had thrown last year's lilies out so these may be from the year before. Be a nice surprise when they actually flower to see whether they are white or deep orange.

We're at our caravan this week and I'm most excited about going to the garden centre round here. It's the one that lays all their Heucheras out in a huge rainbow and completely transformed my opinion of them.

Just had a lovely hour in the sunshine. Fettled one side of the greenhouse and pleased to see some pelargoniums I bunged in there over the winter have some new growth on them, so that was worth doing.

Cut back some old twigs on one of the shrubs (whose name escapes me) in the bottom bed and lots of green growth there too. Deadheaded cyclamen, primroses and pansies and they all look far more cheerful.

Ornamental cherry is beginning to blossom, birds are singing their hearts out, and I am now having a coffee while I wait for my fruit trees to be delivered.

Mulling over what to do with my strawberries; they take up a whole bed that I would like to use for cut flowers so I might stick them in the empty window boxes attached to my shed I think. Be easier to pick too. If they all don’t take it’s not a big problem as there are loads.

Really must feed everything that needs it this weekend.

Oh do post a picture! a rainbow sounds cool!!

we went for a walk at the seaside about 10 minute drive walked through a market and I got:
two salvias (hot lips)
3 alliums
2 snake head plants
decent size plants for £16 total and have dropped them off at the allotment for planting.

Ooh @Liquoricethyme you have reminded me that I must take cuttings from my salvia Hot Lips! It was spectacular last year and I’d like a few more around the garden.

That was a good haul of plants.

I love heucheras @Jimmyneutronsforehead but they don’t seem to do particularly well in my garden. I really like the lime green ones, so vivid. I’m tempted to try a couple again this year, I can see a spot where they would be perfect.