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.

Ooooooh, can I join you all! For the first time in my life I have a house with a proper garden and I'm very excited. I moved a year ago and have been holding back from doing too much (other than weeding), partly because it was like the sahara down south last summer and partly because I wanted to get a sense of the garden through the seasons and where the sun fell and where the water lay etc etc.

Anyhow, so flipping excited for spring this year. I did work on the lawn last Autumn and that is looking way better than it did. I'm about to get some lawn feed and moss killer and sprinkle it around. Am I too keen, is it too early?

I have a lovely camellia tree but the leaves are a bit yellow, rather than lovely dark glossy green. Any thoughts on what might be causing that?

I did plant pots with bulbs and they are all coming up, which makes me smile every day.

Oh and I forgot to say, I did the first lawn mow of the year in my lunch break on Monday. Did it on the highest setting and it went really well.

Hello. I had this in my last house and the huge camellia and went on the rhs site link here sorry for posting you a link from the web but I found the rhs really useful https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/camellia/frequently-asked-questions

I then spotted this on my local Tesco which was a seaweed feed you put it in the watering can and it soon came back nice and glossy??

Might be worth a go. Are the leaves just yellow or have spots on. I’ve only recently found this thread so I’m sure will have more knowledge than me! I’m finding gardening has transformed my mental health. Slowly but surely.

@MargoLivebetter cant help with the lawn though I have three dogs and don’t have a lawn !! I have a mud bath!

@MargoLivebetter cant help with the lawn though I have three dogs and don’t have a lawn !! I have a mud bath!

We have a camellia that had done nothing for 2 years. Not grown, not dropped leaves, not gone yellow, not given us any flowers or buds.

I am thinking of just pulling it up.

I've made sure it has nice acidic soil, it gets sunshine, it's roots aren't bound, it isn't too soggy and isn't too dry. It is the most high maintenance plant I've ever had and it has given us nothing to show for it.

Thank you @Liquoricethyme and @Jimmyneutronsforehead . I think it needs some feeding by the sounds of things. I'll see if I have some ericacious fertilizer. It had loads and loads of buds last year but never really came into full flower because I think it was too dry - but that's just me guessing. It is a beautiful shaped tree and in a good spot, so I'm keen to perk it up a bit if I can.

I believe this is a camellia - happy to be told otherwise though! It’s had absolutely nothing done with it in at least three years, so I plan to continue with that care routine. Although, it is quite big, so when it has finished flowering I’ll cut it back.

@Castlerigg yours looks happier than mine!

Fully finished and painted shed! With lock on. All finished and done phew !! Weeks and weeks of work prepping and getting it sorted. Tempted to paint the roof inside blue and the the floor a dark green at some point. But now need to get digging away on the plot and prepping again for planting up.

Camellias need water when the flowers are forming. Poor show now is because of last years drought. Yellow leaves may be cured with fertiliser, but it may be that the soil is wrong for this plant. They need at least a neutral ph.
Shed looks wonderful @Liquoricethyme .

Sowed sweet peas indoors and out. Race to see which does better!
Yesterday I had a great time deadheading my hydragenas in the sun. All the ladybirds have come outnto play. And some of my indigo hyacinths too.

I can take absolutely no credit for that 😂

My camellias leaves are lovely and glossy but it's never flowered 😢
It's it's 3rd year now I think, definitely 2 anyway.

@MargoLivebetter I'm in a similar boat to you. I moved here in Nov 2024, first time of having my own garden rather than shared. So last year was a steep learning curve.

Today I:

1. Used the rust remover liquid to clean the rust stains off the driveway and patio where the roofers left the old rusty gutters when they were being replaced! Gallons and gallons of rinsing required so the lawn ended up sodden and no doubt the grass will suffer from the chemicals etc. Annoying!

2. As I had the bucket and watering can out, I gave my new bushes (planted in autumn) and pots a good soak as it's been pretty sunny here for a few days. I read that you should keep new bushes really well watered in for the first year.

I do see why they say gardening is like outdoor housework. I donned gloves also and picked up some rubbish.

Love this thread! I finally have some time this year to do some gardening (hoping it continues). We live next to a wood which sometimes feels like a lot of the gardening is stopping the wood encroaching on our garden.

So much still to do as a general tidy up but I’ve done so much cutting back, have started the weeding today and have planted oodles of seeds in the conservatory. The seeds are a right muddle of things we grow every year like cucumbers and sweet peas, and then any in the piles I had from my Mum’s GW magazine sub that DD liked.

@Agapornismy daughter was here the other day and I had to say to her what do you think of the garden to get some encouragement lol.

@Liquoricethyme I’m in south east Kent. We have some supportive Facebook pages. I like to use them to give away plants.

I mowed front and back and painted one side of my gardens fences yesterday.

Today I put last years compost on the front garden.

Im sure someone said to me on this board that the compost from last year will have rotted down more since last summer. I can’t find the post but they were right!

No gardening today, just popping to b&m to buy some new plant pots for the kids to paint. Was going to wash some of my old ones that are stacked up but they appear to have become an ecosystem of which I do not wish to disturb. 🕷🕷🕷

So when they have moved on I shall repurpose those either into designated bug habitats or something ornamental instead because they're a bit tatty and sun scorched to be useful enough for plants.

Or I'll save them for the summer and the kids can make me some plant pot and bamboo cane scarecrows.

Yesterday, I sorted my herb patch out, although, disappointingly, I don’t think the difference would show in a photo.
I also filled one of the 2 pots that sit outside the summerhouse. They are identical and will contain the same plants, but filling pots is such a mission for me, because I don’t just buy a bag of compost. I half fill with the contents of dead pots (always have some !). Then I get some more from the borders, then I get some out of the compost bins, mixed, if I’m feeling fancy, with leaf mould from behind the shed, beyond this years bags and a load of junk. Then I plant. Then I harvest stones for top dressing from my borders which I once, as a beginner, mulched with half a ton of small stones. I really don’t know where I got that idea from, but it was a corker.
Anyway, whole process takes hours, which was fine yesterday with the sun shining and birds singing. I really wish I’d got enough of everything to do both bloody pots, because today is cold and grey. I might just go and buy a bag of peat free. I sometimes ask dh for an hour of labour in the garden, so I could put him to it, but I’m always trying to persuade him that gardening is fun and please take over the vegetable garden. The purgatory of my pot filling routine would put paid to that.

Visiting FIL, we cleared hundreds of pots out of his shed as MIL (now in a care home) was the keen gardener and he’s not going to plant things in pots any more.
We found out that Klondyke garden centres take plastic pots for recycling so they’re getting a bootload this afternoon.
We found and fell heir to a couple of propagators and a few Long Tom pots to take home too, and FIL likes all the space in the shed. Everyone’s a winner.

You've just reminded me I need to order another bag of woodchip mulch.

My last bag served me many years and is a big part of what survives dry weather and flare ups when I just can't get out to water everything.

Last year I got to watch a solitary bee shimmy some about and then dig into the compost below it to make it's little hideaway, and on the other side of the plant pot some sort of wasp did similar. It was lovely seeing the ways mini beasts adapt to garden life.

My brother helped me the other day with the brambles, but he isn't as into gardening as I am. Or at all really. Interest has been piqued though and this year he has said he would like to grow a flower. A single flower.

I said "Ooh, that's lovely, what kind?" And he said "dunno". I asked is he looking for something with a single stem and a single flower, is he looking for something with multiple flowers, does he want a big flower, small flower, pink flower, blue flower. Dunno, he says.

So anyway we're going back to primary school basics and we are growing sunflowers. He can have his little seed in his little plastic cup and he can water it and then he can plant it outside and measure how tall it gets.

It's been a long time since I was 21 so I'm trying to work out whether I also lacked this enthusiasm at his age.

@Zebracat I have a similarly overcomplicated compost mixing process. I need to swap over the wormery trays (should have done it months ago) but have been avoiding it. Remember to soak the packs of coco coir I bought years ago. Add some bits from the claggy clay soil. Spent compost. Sand if I'm mixing for seedlings.

A previous occupier of the house put a load of pebbles in the garden, so I have dug/picked up pots full, but they're too big to be useful as horticultural grit. Maybe it's time for the Roman mosaic patio but with pebbles instead of tesserae.