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 love bluebells as long as they're the English variety. I'd happily come and help if I could have the bulbs.

I have created a new flower bed I the corner of the front which has just been a weed area ( plus a few bluebells).
I had a lucky time at the tip this morning. I was going down to the garden centre afterwards to get some shears and there was a lady throwing some away. I asked her if they worked and she said she didn't know was just clearing a shed, so she let me have them. Wire brush and a whetstone and they're going to be perfect!

My wisteria umbrella required a bit of extra support in the rain so I've made the stems some slings with twine but they're by no means a perfect solution, so on the next dry day I shall have to go and rectify that.

We have about 20'x4' of garden now we've cleared those hedges out, and it just looks so bare it feels alien every time I step outside.

We have a few English bluebells that were rescued from pots in my late great grandmother's back garden, and I'd really love some more.

I've also offered to go and help my mum clear a plethora of weeds from her garden but that will have to be next week's job so I don't just throw myself into a flare up straight after having one, but she works away a lot and I think she really deserves to have a nice garden to come back to. Nothing fancy, just something easy to maintain.

Fed and watered everything yesterday and just popped down to the green house to see the heliopsis and gerbera have finally germinated. Tomatoes have settled in and look healthy so hopeful of a good crop.

That will probably be the extent of today’s gardening as I have a long list of indoor chores!

Really need to move some pots into their final positions, sow some more seeds, and weed and plant up the shadiest border but they will all get done at some point this week (and I have earmarked the weekend to plant up the hanging baskets).

Yesterday I potted on loads of cosmos and zinnias, but I´m not sure how many survived the movement :( ...I also planted my seed potatoes in time for one final frost, I think. The tomato and pepper seedlings are looking good.

However, I am really tempted next year to just fork out for flower and veg seedlings from our local garden centre. I visited this weekend and their seedlings look really healthy and someone has put in all the hard work babysitting germinating (I don´t yet have a greenhouse and my utility room is looking like the Eden Project!)

I understand the temptation @user1469565563 and I am very glad I bought a couple of ‘back-up’ tomato plants from my local garden centre, given none of my tomato seeds germinated.

I was also concerned at how sad some of my salad seedlings looked when I potted them on, but after a few days they are now growing wonderfully well and some will be ready for eating by the end of the month, so I’m going to persevere with seed sowing (but do some a little earlier next year to give me time to buy replacements if they fail!)

My bluebells are the Spanish variety, sadly. For years i have allowed them to just carry on, because I love blue in the garden. But for the last two years I have been trying, often failing, to remove the seed heads quickly after they flower. Now I realise it is time for a clear out. There were easily thousands of them. I finally decided to get rid because they slow down everything in regards to planting out my flower seedlings in the spring. The leaves also cover over the resurfacing perennial flowers and every year the clear out of bluebell detritus takes longer. Worse, the bulbs get amongst my good plants and are horrendous to remove. I have just had enough.

But honestly, some of those bulbs! A foot down at least!

Yesterday I potted on loads of cosmos and zinnias, but I´m not sure how many survived the movement :(

I have read that zinnia hate to have their roots disturbed. As an experiment I have sown some in the ground. Mid summer I will compare and contrast with my greenhouse raised pampered zinnia, which may get root shock when planted out.

Cosmos don't give a tinkers 😀

Ooh, that's interesting! Let's see what happens.....

Re: buying seeds or buying seedlings. I have settled on going half and half. Some things are SO easy to grow that it's seeds all the way. Lettuce, chard, runner beans, carrots, squash.

I always buy chilli plugs because they really really need heat when I don't have it and need a long growing season so it's no good starting them when I do have the heat. I have a greenhouse but no electricity, nights are a killer.

I used to buy grafted plugs of aubergines and cucumbers. I decided to sow my own this time (cost saving) and I'm pretty sure I won't get any aubergines this year. The plants are alive but pretty small still, and of course not grafted on sturdy root stock. The cucumber plants are small but they grow like the clappers when it warms up so I am not so worried about them. But of course, it took careful attention with the propagator then covered in the greenhouse with a paraffin heater...buying plugs would have been easier. Maybe even cheaper.

But then I could only have a couple very limited varieties if I only went for plugs. Online is better but my local garden centers, whether posh or practical, have all the same plugs from the same distributors. Not good enough.

The dahlias are finally appearing! They took their bloody time.

Repotted a few succulents (houseplants). I think I'll move the aeonium outside soon. Deadheaded a bit, tulips and osteospermum. Put some sticks up to support the comfrey that is getting very tall with the rain from the last couple nights, after weeks of dry weather.

What does one do with a gasteria that keeps cloning itself and filling up pots? I try to give them away but not that many people seem to like a warty tongue shaped plant.

I bought two new tubers this year and was also trying to grow again quite a lot that I had stored over the winter.

interestingly, the new ones have sprouted, but the overwintered ones are doing nought 😬

still hoping that I’ll get a few of the old ones coming back, especially my café au lait.

I am a lazy dahlia grower @Maggiethecat and leave them in the soil over winter, with a little mulch on top. I'm down south though and it's usually no colder than -5 overnight for a couple of days a year. I got it from my gran's garden a few years ago, and she's been growing them for over 40 years. They'll probably outlive me!

Had a poor year this year with seeds,apart from cosmos. I think next year I'll just go for plants. A lot less hassle.

The best thing I ever did about 2 years ago was buy a massive bag of zinnia seeds and just sprinkled them into a flower bad and lightly raked them over. It was dense but it was so beautiful. I've been looking for a bag just as big ever since but the supplier I got it from only sells smaller commercial seed bags now.

Tempted to do that but really like to get them started off to a good size to fend off the slugs.

I'd love to do that as I am right down south but the one I did leave out this year, actually in a pot though, hasn't shown any signs of coming back so I think I've lost it totally. Also, I think I'd lose them early on to the slugs so potting them is probably best for me. My dream of having a huge clump of beautiful dahlias is just that, a dream.

My other dahlias I had in the garage have all come back, next year I need to be more patient with them showing signs of growth, I nearly ditched the lot as I thought I had lost them all. They are safely repotted into a much larger pot now and looking good.

One of my new dahlia tubers has sprouted. The other, I can see what might be a bit of root so fingers crossed. The over winter one which I left in a pot has sprouted too.

My salvia Amistad has shoots coming from the bottom too. I’m chuffed as I thought I’d lost it.

Now to begin war with the slugs.

My salvia Amistad has shoots coming from the bottom too. I’m chuffed as I thought I’d lost it.

Me too! The little leaf I saw last week has got bigger and I can definitely see it's not a weed as I first thought.

I'm really pleased as I did lose another salvia this winter but glad the Amistad is doing ok so far. 😄

@Myblueclematis I definitely wouldn't leave dahlias in pots, it has to be in the ground. Pots are much more likely to freeze all the way through. Try a sacrificial one in the soil next winter.

Amusingly I also have a bedding dahlia that's come back for the third year.

Checked bin days yesterday, it said no green bin collection until 20th, which I thought was odd as it's usually every 2 weeks, but I know some councils have been making changes to monthly.

Double checked this morning and it says it's today so I threw on my knickers and ran outside to put it out, and twatty penis man had already come round and done it, but that's made me look like a twat running out of the house like a mad woman in my night dress with no shoes on and my hair still looking like a troll doll.

I have something in a pot that might be a bedding dahlia. I emptied it onto the compost pile a few weeks ago thinking it was something dead but there were definite roots and shoots. I put it back in the pot quickly but nothing’s come up yet. Mysterious.

Lovely friend gave me some salvias and a rose geranium yesterday so debating where to put them.

The robot mower we bought years ago and never used is out on it's dock. I am skeptical that it will be there tomorrow morning.

I used some of my Hazel coppice to make a plant support for the courgettes and cucumbers I’m hardening off. Also used some twiggy Hazel to support pea plants in hanging planters.
Then I totally overdid it by repainting the top of my fences, now laying on the sofa regretting my impulsivity.

That sounds amazing. I buy little packets of maybe 20 seeds 😮

😂 @Myblueclematis - just checked today and 2 more have sprouted including the cafe au lait.

I’ve started to tip them out of their pots to check if there are roots forming before even thinking of binning them!