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 mowed the lawn as I think it's going to rain tomorrow, all day too according to the BBC weather map. I've also transplanted five zinnia seedlings into individual pots. They are really nice plants in the summer, quite tall and very bright colours, I was surprised how much I liked them when I first grew some about four years ago.

I've also emptied another couple of pots that have finished flowering and sorted out the primroses that were out the front and moved them into the back garden.

There's not much else I can do now until probably Monday, the weather is supposed to be ok then.

My fruit trees have arrived and I am very pleased with them. Bigger than I expected and the nectarine has blossom!

They are now in buckets of water in the shed and I’ll take some pics when I (well DH, I’m not up to digging holes) plant them tomorrow.

What is that?

I'm making a little green area at work where people can sit out and have lunch, so today planted sweetpea wigwams and a climbing honeysuckle, and put herbs such as rosemary,lemon balm,lavender and various mints into half barrels. The calendula and chamomile are still too tiny to plant out but at least its a start. I want it to be fragrant but also colourful and staff can use the herbs in their lunches or drinks. What else would be nice? The area is flagged with a short flight of stone steps down to the grass with 4 enormous ( ugly) stone urns at the bottom and top of the steps ..its an old building.

Went to the Botanics in Edinburgh today looking for inspiration. It's free entry and plenty of toilets but the Queen Mother Garden, the Alpine Garden and the Hothouses are all closed medium/long term.

I had a right good go with my patio knife today but fear what I have mostly done is destroy the pointing between the paving slabs! Oops!

@Hedjwitch how about some mixed salad leaves and regular sowings of peas for pea shoots?

Ooh we were just talking about pea shoots! Might do that.

I tidied up the potting shed. It was bloody hard work, I moved everything around and swept out a fair few bugs. But I’m so pleased with my work, I’ve gone to peer inside five times this afternoon, and admire how tidy and airy it now is.

Such a shame that I didn’t do it earlier, before I spent hours in there pricking out seedlings, barely able to move sideways because of the mess.

I put some vine eyes in a few fence posts. I've been tying the honeysuckle to the fence with strings for a couple of years, but it's time for a tidier solution. I'll put the wires in over this long weekend.

Tied up a climbing rose. It's been there for two years, looks like it might finally have a fair few flowers this year (last year it had 3).

Lots is getting ready to flower - I'm quite excited! This is my fifth year in this garden and it feels like it's finally maturing a bit. Counted about 250-300 wisteria buds (in its third year of proper pruning regime - plant is about 20 years old I think?). Last year's new black lace elderflower is growing new shoots and has some tiny flower heads. Double tulips are getting there. Ginkgo has lots of tiny leaves. Perennial sweet pea has some good shoots. Feels like Real Spring has started!

It was a beautiful afternoon where I was yesterday and I had the day off. Spent the whole day in the garden. I sowed grass seed on the scruffy bit at the end of the garden that I ran out of time to do last Autumn. Dug out all the weeds first, and they were numerous, then raked the soil through, distributed the grass seed and feed mix and covered over with top soil.

I also planted out my sweet peas. I have put them in a large pot and have covered the supports with a huge clear plastic bag, as it is going to be chilly and windy for a few days. Once that passes, I'll take that off and leave them to it.

My camellia looks so sad, despite me feeding it and cutting off the dead twigs and small branches. Not entirely sure what the problem is with that!

Weather looking a bit rubbish here at the moment, so not sure how much gardening I will get done today. Might have to be weekend cooking prep instead!

I have a day off, I have compost, I have empty pots to fill, I have canes and twine for the sweet peas and I have plants to put in the pots. And it’s chucking it down. Grrr.

I love the sound of this! I am also growing chamomile from seed (I had grand plans for a no-mow lawn) and was wondering if you will be doing a lawn or if you will have it in a pot? I was a bit excitable in that hot week we had and peaked too early with the planting I suspect but as you say it feels too early to plant out now.

My daikon are going great guns - to the point I have run out of pots deep enough. Heaven knows why I thought I would need a whole seed tray of radishes but there were no duds and I was surprised at how hardy they are! I am hoping for a day of pickling them with dd to use up my jamming jars (will be a 3 year wait for fruit from my sticks if they survive!).

Edit because I forgot to suggest creeping thyme for your workspace!

I have creeping time and a trailing variety of rosemary,as well as the bushy kind. I want interesting trailers for the urns and have some trailing nasturtiums - or nasty urchins as my.mother called them. Folks can eat them in their lunches too.

We've had tree surgeons out to cut back a weeping birch and remove a tree trunk which is growing through a shared fence. Neighbour who is abroad has also given permission for saplings to be removed from his garden which are growing near our house. He's pretty much abandoned the house so we've had to foot the cost - he's given permission for the work to be done though so that's a relief.

Got all the manure spread out and all the raised beds topped up before the rain hit. Now the garden is all ready for my seedlings and all I need is for the weather to warm up enough for them to thrive.
@Wipeywipey don’t worry if your radishes go over, they’re endlessly edible even then, the leaves, buds, flowers and seed pods are great to eat.

I moved my new HRH Princess Catherine roses (in pots) back to the front of the house. I've been moving them back and forth but think they need to stay at the front. The pink of the rose doesn't match the colour scheme there but I think they are going to need the sun (south facing at the front, Scotland) and I'm just going to have to water them every day if necessary!

If only HRH had known that my colour scheme at the front is warm colours when commissioning her rose! (To tie in with the tiles on the fireplace which is visible from the window). Hence they are only allowed to be in pots, they are not allowed to be in the forthcoming flowerbed!

Mind you I suppose the pink sort of ties in with the random glass panel above the door that has a pink rose on it that I've not yet got round to replacing! And also... I need to just put plants where they want to be and stop overthinking...!

Am also debating if/when to move my thistles and seaholly.

I'm going to give the roses the first feed of the season.

Today I planted lots of seeds, maybe a bit late but a whole range of veg and flowers. First time using heated propagators so I’m excited to see how it goes. Someone brought me some seeds that are allegedly from Buddhas Bodhi tree in India, so have been waiting for things to warm a bit to plant them.

Garden needs a lot of work to be ready for them to go in though. I’ve prepped some of the raised beds but jobs are never ending! I know I’m late to prune fruit trees but if I prune an apple and a pear now will it be ok?

Did you listen to the BBC Radio 4 programme yesterday all about soil? It was a fascinating programme, and your post reminded me of it, as they were talking about soil composition and health, including all the microbes, bacteria and spores from all the dead leaves and other rotting matter.

They used a soil acoustic probe and you could hear how noisy it is in there, with ant footsteps 🐜 and the friction and peristaltic action of worms 🪱 as they pass through the soil. it was a fascinating hour if you're into soil as we gardeners tend to be!

here's a link to the podcast in case folks are interested

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vbt0/episodes/downloads

I spent the day cleaning out the greenhouse. After a horribly wet winter there was a lot of green algae on the hard standing and windows in and out, so I pulled everything out and hosed it down, scrubbed the floor and glass. I also sanitised all the staging that gets very grubby over the year after planting up seedling and overwintering dahlia and geraniums etc.

It's a job I like a lot more in hindsight than at the time, but once it's done I feel as if Spring has arrived.

i must plant out all my snowdrops in the green that have been in troughs since they arrived in Feb. I need them out of the troughs to make way for the dahlia which are starting to sprout!

Four large pots filled with new dahlia tubers and various other summer flowering bulbs I had forgotten I had! 🙄 They were all in a box under the potting bench and it was only when I pulled the box out I realised I bought them a few weeks ago. Still it was a nice surprise 😁

Also in there was a bright orange begonia corm, so that’s potted up too and all the new trees have had a good watering. I still haven’t got around to feeding everything yet but I’ve been out there for a couple of hours now and I’m not supposed to overdo it. It’s started drizzling so just the prompt I needed to come in.

DH has dug up some rhubarb crowns; not a great time to shift them but it really was a massive patch that needed to be made smaller. I’ll give them away, they always get snapped up.

No sun at all today but next week’s forecast looking better. Still a couple of frosty nights forecast though.

I have mowed the lawn, some lawn edging trimming and hopefully taken some Salvia cuttings.

Redid the straining wires and vine eyes for the raspberries, espalier apple and pear trees and tied them in (before all the wind hit).
The garden is looking nice at the moment, I’m starting to dream about how nice it will look full of fruit, veg, herbs and flowers in a few months.

I bought some "Himalayan blue poppy" seeds. More in hope than expectation as a) i don't get on that well with wildflower seeds and b) a lot of ppl say they are more purple than blue.

It was lovely and sunny today so I did pottery, but in the last week I've been wrangling compost, sieving it into an old water tank for use in pots and when I plant tomatoes.