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.

Still getting over this lurgy, post viral fatigue I guess so am not up to anything strenuous. I managed 10 minutes weeding this afternoon but there is so much I need to do. Plants to move, plants to put in plus I was half way through doing my Mums pots when the lurgy hit.

Visiting FIL, made inroads into his Welsh poppy problem. Took off about 1000 seed heads just from the ones in the back garden I could easily reach from the paths. Need to tackle the dandelions next then start on the front garden. It’s neverending!

Potted up sweetcorn and tidied up a bit.

Saw this bee on a flowerpot - is this a regular bee? What are the orange side pouch looking things?

@Maggiethecat that’s a red-tailed bumblebee, and the side things are full pollen baskets.
Bees have hairs on their legs that collect pollen as they visit flowers.

Hadn’t a clue 🫢

It was so still while I took the photo - probably too full to move!

I would love a Welsh poppy problem!

I also saw an interesting bug today, some sort of beetle, I had never seen one of these before.

I also thought I saw what I can only describe as a long Dalmatian beetle which took my interest, but when I adjusted my glasses I could finally see it was just 3 white ladybirds getting jiggy with each other. Wished I'd kept my glasses off.

Not done anything today in the garden but DP has contacted a gardener to see if anything can be done about his mares tail problem. I loaned him the strimmer last week, and this week it's back and higher than ever.

He's had a letter from the housing association, though dated before we strimmed it back last week, saying his front garden is looking untidy and he needs to keep on top of it, but it just seems wildly unmanageable without digging the lot up, and we're not sure how deep the front beds go.

They're only about 1x3m patches but there are 2 of them.

The biggest bane of it all is the bloody holly that the last tenant planted and the random stumps, making it impossible to just keep running a mower over it, and meant stopping and starting with the strimmer to rethread the strimmer wire every 2 minutes after it had snapped off on the stumps.

Honestly @Jimmyneutronsforehead cardboard is the answer. Lay it as thickly as possible straight over the weeds , water it, cover in at least 4 inches of compost, then throw some cosmos and marigold seeds down. It will take an hour and look great till October, and give him time to think about what he wants there. If he wants to be rally fancy , he could buy some bedding to give colour until the seeds grow.
i wasted today doing boring housework. Ran out at 8 to water my greenhouse, and see all the urgent tasks I should have tackled. But yesterday I finished thinning my bamboo and tidied up the pond area.

I've watered the plants out the front in tubs while I waited for the kettle to boil earlier, I can't really do anything at the moment as the garden is still not back to normal, there is still some grouting of the path to be done and I was hoping it would all be done by the end of this week.

I've got plants and pots everywhere but where they should be but I'll just have to put up with it until the work is finished as I can then order my new garden furniture.

On the plus side, my back is much better but I am still doing the stretching exercises as it still pulls down the left side when I get up out of a chair. Hopefully be back to normal by next week.

Another beautiful day ahead so I am debating going down to the beach hut again around lunchtime, it was gorgeous yesterday. Never can get enough of the view of the Isle of Wight sitting in the hut with a cup of tea, my friend and a good pair of binoculars.😎🌞

Oh , my blue clematis, I was down at Steamer Point last week admiring the beach huts and their view. Not a bad alternative to a garden on a nice day, lucky you to have that.. I’m just writing my morning list with a cup of coffee. The veg patch is a mess, and I really need to get right to the bottom of it by sorting out the shed, but I can’t face it. So, I’m going to pick up all the empty pots, pull the weeds that prevent access, then weed my pea and bean bed and get them sown. I used bamboo trimmings to make little slug barricades around my brassicas, so I’m going to see if they worked. Probably they will just see it as an enrichment.

Thursday i went to a garden centre, went a bit mad and bought runner beans, butternut and sweetcorn seedlings. Just need exH to come and build the summer trellis so I can plant them in.

Also I finally planted my raised trug with tomatoes, peppers, squash, spinach and marigolds.

My potato plants are coming up, exciting!

I’m a bit worried about my veg plants, all alone and unwatered in scorching Manchester while I’m up in Edinburgh. I gave them a good soaking on Thursday which is all the water they’ve got to last until late Tuesday.

I put some supports out around my hollyhocks and I cut off my baby spider plants and stuck them in little pots.

It’s hot out there!
I’ve dug up a climbing hydrangea that I planted in the wrong place last year and put it in a big pot. We’ve got a north facing wall at the bottom of the garden with a foot of concrete in front of half of it so I’ve put it there in the hope that it will eventually cover the breezeblock wall.
I’ve also dug up a salvia Amistad as the slugs were just demolishing the shoots as they came through and put that in a pot high on a table with lots of wool around it in the hope that it might get more of a chance to grow.
And finally planted two other salvias in the border.

There’s a load of deadheading and weeding and mowing to be done but it’s too hot.

I managed to get half of my bedding plants into pots and baskets yesterday, intending to put the rest into the borders today but it is very hot. I may just plonk them in the shade until later this week unless I can get up early tomorrow to plant them when it’s cool.

Hostas in their pots have been moved to the front garden into a shady spot, and I have done some weeding in passing, including pulling some more bloody bindweed. Finally chosen a spot to put a shrub I bought; I’ll get DH to plant it this week.

Only other thing I plan on doing out there today is sitting down with a chilled glass of fizz! 🍾

No gardening today but we have got the pool up, cycled, and the filter and heater all plumbed in.

We are still pool noobs and we can't agree on when it is best to run the heater.

For context, I am the one getting in the pool with the kids and I feel this is entirely relevant to the argument as it's me that's going to feel the temperature compared to other adults within the vicinity.

I keep saying the heater should go on in the morning to give the water the best chance at heating up, with the solar heating cover on, and turned off later.

Other people are saying it only makes 1-2° difference so not worth the electricity - my nipples disagree. That 1-2° makes all the difference. Other people are also saying it should go on in the afternoon an hour or so before getting in, which is what we've done today but the water is a stagnant 22°.

The heater we've got is probably the biggest one you can get for casual usage.

I think I'm going to have to make a thread just for pool advice, because I also think we should employ some solar dome heaters into the system but again, it's not something we can agree on whether it would be beneficial.

I'm an in for a penny in for a pound type of person and this is causing some serious clashes.

The weeds are loving the splashes from the pool though 😓😓😓😓

Hi, would any of you clever gardeners know what this is, and if it self seeds? It has appeared in my garden - I didn't plant it but would like more because it is really nice. (And the slugs don't appear to eat it).

Gladiolus illyricus | Pacific Bulb Society

Wow, thank you!

Mowed the lawn yesterday evening but not as well as usual as the bench normally on the patio was put on the lawn when the gardeners were here doing other work. I can't lift the damn thing so just had to move it slowly so I could mow under it.

Today, not going to the beach hut, it will be too noisy down there so we are going down tomorrow instead. I will try and move a few more pots around and have a couple of plants that need putting into a larger container so I will do that.

I also have to do the tyres on the car as the warning light about tyre pressure came on yesterday driving home from the beach so car is in the garage and I'll go down and do that shortly.

It's going to be a glorious day again today. Enjoy! 😎🌞

Yesterday I picked herbs for drying. My drying net is full of nettle,plantain,thyme,sage,marjoram,lemon balm and mint. Smells fabulous. Also pulled cleavers for a refreshing spring tonic.

Feeling hugely frustrated that the builders have yet to finish the lean-to, with work restarting on Tues. I had hoped 2 weeks before half term would be enough but it hasn't worked out that way.

Am also doing no mow May, possibly more by design than choice as I couldn't get to the garden for a few days of last week due to the works. I can now get outside but there is a huge amount of builders tools and buckets and sand bags everywhere so it isn't inspiring me in this heat! I have been focusing on my houseplants and trying to keep my window boxes going. My self seeded tomato and delphinium plants have popped up which is exciting.

Love the sound of this, what will you use the herbs for?

Some will go in teas,others into skin salves,tinctures or oxymels( with honey).
And of course,some for cooking

I'm weeding my Victorian brick path. It looks wonderful but Good Lord, absolutely every weed in the area gets between the bricks and as I'm organic, the only answer is to physically dig everything out.

So imagine me bent double with a kitchen knife digging dandelions and grass from 10 metres of bricks whilst quietly cooking in the heat (my path is shaded which is why I chose to do that particular job today).

The dog kept coming out to stare at me and then going back inside,