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.

Our pond has a leak, I filled it from the tap. All the frogspawn has disappeared. I sowed some asters and edged the lawn. I really need to put in a shift out there. Storm Dave is here now.

I spent 3 hours ystd helping my neighbour sort out her large planter she has in the front of her house. Hadn’t anticipated it being such a big job tbh but we ended up needing to go to the garden centre for more compost and plants.

My neighbour is quite a bit younger than me and I’m hoping to pass on my love of plants to her, I did feel like a gardening mentor 🙈

Ive also just realised how easy it is to separate my large bleeding hearts plant, I managed to get 3 new plants from it, gave one to said neighbour, one in a large pot and one in my front garden. It’s one of my favourite spring time plants.

Quite windy out there today, not as bad as last night though.

I've watered all the pots as they dry out quite quickly in windy weather, put the sweet peas in their pot outside, I think I'll leave it out there now and put the wigwam in the pot probably tomorrow or early next week.

All the roses getting much bigger, lots of healthy looking leaves. I hope it might be due to my liberal mulch of farmyard manure giving them a real boost.

I have seven tomato seedlings, I am watching them carefully as they are in the hall on the telephone table as there is a lot of bright light there. Zinnia seeds are doing ok but my dahlia tubers are still doing absolutely nothing which is very disappointing. I'm checking them every day so I will keep hoping they are a bit slow and I will see something sprouting very soon.

The clematis Montana I planted two or three years ago has lots of flowers, a couple are already open. It's not as big as the one the builders (Vandals!😡) next door pulled out but as this is my side of the fence it's quite safe.

Mainly sowing seeds today, some in the greenhouse, some in the propagator in the kitchen:
Basil, parsley, coriander, parsley, radish, rocket, mixed salad leaves, cos lettuce, spring onion, snow peas, tomatoes, chillies, for the edibles.

Then for the flowers, calendula, mixed marigolds, nasturtiums, sunflower, pansy, cosmos, zinnia, malva.

Have noted the dates when they should have germinated (some of the seed is older, but still technically in date).

Also noted when to make repeat sowings of the edibles so we keep a constant supply rather than a glut!

Three of the rhubarb crowns collected, two more to go tomorrow.

Today I have potted on some tomato, cauliflower, cosmos and zinnia seedlings that germinated while I was on holiday last week. I also planted some carrot seeds in my trug alongside some onions that were already in. Im also hoping to plant the carrots in batches to avoid a glut. I think I'll have loads of onions, but a gluten of those can be managed more easily but slicing and freezing, I imagine.

I had to buy some wildflower seed mix yesterday to put on top of the Easter decorations in our basket so I have sown a box around our caravan. I don't expect it to take but I won't use it at home.

The only reason it went in the basket in the first place was because it was the only thing nearby when DS was running back down the aisle as I was panic buying. Some silly numpty (me) left the Easter things at home!

I swapped the wormery trays around. I have a Can-O-Worms so it's pretty heavy, always a job I put off for too long. Found a tea spoon in the bottom tray, whoops. One of a bunch of ugly souvenir spoons inherited from my gran, sorry gran.

I set up a new compost bin, then scarified the front lawn. The bin is now full and the lawn is bare.

What a lovely thread! I wish I was a better gardener.

Completed a project that was started last Autumn - a double sided wall around our seating area which has space for planting climbers and aubretia. The soil I'd put in there last autumn had sunk down leaving a gap so I use two large bags of compost and a few barrow loads of leaf mulch, which topped it up nicely. Will add a photo later.

today is a good day for potting up the dahlia. We had quite a frost overnight so I will keep the troughs in the greenhouse until mid May so the frost doesn't damage all the tender shoots.

Tulips are looking lovely. I lasagne'd them and it has extended the life of the pots as there a second layer just starting to flower now.

The weather is going to be lovely for the coming week, getting up to 20C in the south west. Lots of extra daylight now to get out there after work!

Planted potatoes yesterday in bags. They are in a sheltered but sunny spot so hopefully they’ll be ok. I’ve also planted some alpines (Aubretia, saxifrage, armeria, lithodora) that I got in B&M. 4 for £10 and they are good sized too.

I repotted my eucalyptus tree too. I’ve had it for years and it’s very temperamental, dies off if you look at it sideways but always comes back from ground level and is now about 14 feet tall. I love its its gracefulness and its colour. I’m a bit sentimental about it as DS chose it at a country fair when he was tiny (he’s 28 now).

If you've ever grown cress on some cotton wool in a tray you're a good enough gardener to be here.

There are much better gardeners than I on this thread, grab some seeds and a watering can and join us.

I am a rubbish gardener in reality. I cannot propagate or take cuttings to save my life. I’m full of good intentions though and I love things that look nice in pots.

I love reading this thread and the gardening section in general. There are so many wise and knowledgeable people here.

I am (1) a beginner, (2) cursed with terrible stony, compacted soil, and (3) divided between actually enjoying the processes of gardening, the successes and failures etc and just wanting a peaceful, green outdoor space. But enjoying other people’s expertise.

@Coracao
I take rather an easygoing/inattentive approach to gardening. Nothing is in straight lines, there are always more weeds than I’d like, and my garden is small with a propensity towards moss.
However, I have several established fruit shrubs/trees and lovely soil (loamy and well-drained)so I don’t really need green fingers to get stuff to grow.
Things want to live, just poke them in the ground (rooty end down ideally) and see what takes.
Look at other nearby gardens to see what grows well in your area and work from there.

Today I supervised DH securing canes to support the raspberries that are too far from the fruit wires.
I repotted the strawberries from last year and dislodged hundreds of grubs from deep in the planters. I left the grubs on the patio pavers to either die or get eaten by birds (or ideally both).
Planters look nice now, I combined strawberries with parsley, peas, chives and mint so I can snack on something all summer.
Patio currently looks a mess covered in soil and grubs but that’s a problem for later.

@InMySpareTime thank you. I did manage to grow a rose from a cutting by poking a pruning into the soil and the cuttings I took from my mum’s hydrangeas have taken but all the salvia cuttings I took last autumn died! None of my dahlias and very few of the seeds I planted and tended religiously last year came up either.

I’m great with things in pots (we have loads) but still feeling my way round things in the actual soil (clay). And slugs. I am good with roses though. Looking at neighbours, hydrangeas do well so I will try planting those out when they are a big bigger.

I do love it though and I’m learning all the time.

I use the rooting hormone for rose cuttings, currently have 28 new ones, 2 a year old and 3 that are 2 years old.
I certainly don’t need them all so will gift and sell some on eventually.

Have come in for a break.

DH has emptied my shed and swept it clean, including of inhabitants I did not want to meet (I’m an arachnophobe). Everything is now on the deck ready for me to sort and put back tidily.

While he did that, I top dressed six potted hostas, top dressed some other pots with fresh compost, planted out half the sweet peas, pruned some shrubs that had got too leggy, watched numerous bees feasting on the rosemary flowers, and then fed and watered everything that needed it.

I’ll have this cold drink and then get everything back into the shed, make a list of what is still to do, then put my feet up for the rest of the day!

Garden centre day today. Bought some enorma beans, some pre-made rapunzel tomatoes seen as I am a bit slow to sow, some erigeron profusion and some cytisus.

Everything looks lovely and green here.

And @HeddaGabbles - have given it a go!

Will see if it makes any difference ...

Doing a little happy dance here as I finally found my best leather gardening gloves! They were in a tea caddy in the shed; I had obviously popped them in there to keep critters from creeping into them and then completely forgot. They are my favourite ever gloves as they actually fit and I have been mourning their disappearance since last year.

Everything is back in the shed now and four bags of garden rubbish and general crap are ready to go to the tip this week. Feels like we have had a very productive weekend.

Ready to enjoy leftover roast dinner now, expertly warmed up by DH 😍

I grew Enorme a couple of years ago, they were really big beans. From memory they were very nice.

Last year I grew a different variety but got virtually nothing. Lots of flowers but the tiny beans just dropped off before they got going. I believe the weather may have been to blame as it got so hot despite me watering two or three times a day, they must have dried out too much in between watering.

I'm sticking to dwarf beans this year, I'm pretty good with those.

Last year there were lots of flowers but no pods for a long time on my beans.

Read somewhere to spray the flowers when watering and shortly after loads of beans appeared. Don’t know if this did the trick or if they would have produced anyway.

Thank you Maggiethecat I might try runners again and try that out. 😀