What have you done in the garden today? Part 9

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

Welcome to part 9.

We love hearing about all of your gardening adventures, purchases, tips and tricks and very worthy boasts about what has gone well for you, as well as all of the behind the scenes bloopers.

We're well into the growing season, after a long wet and windy start to the year and a fast and hot spring.

We also love hearing about what you've made from your garden forage.

We are just about out of peony season, but this recipe was beautiful especially in a sponge cake, mixed in with a glass of lemonade and with my morning yoghurt and oats.

Wipeywipey's peony jam (soft set, syrupy) recipe:

I removed the petals and steeped overnight with 1 mug water per flower head, squashed the petals through muslin in the morning (no longer than 12hrs). I did a rough recipe of 1 good mug of sugar to every 2 medium heads, and 3 tablespoons of lemon. It is a wonderful golden magenta colour and tastes a lot better than it smelled when steeping and cooking (quite woody).

for a firmer set

per 1 head of petals, 1 cup of water
Steeped in freshly boiled water for 10 minutes- a large French press works
Brought back up to a boil on the hob
Add 1 cup of sugar per head of petals (or a full bag if you use 4 petals), reduce to a simmer and gently mix in the sugar until dissolved
Add 2 Tbsp lemon juice
Add 2 Tbsp pectin powder, seived in slowly
Bring to a boil again for a minute or 2
Let cool just enough to jar up safely without burning your hands.

We are also out of magnolia season, but if I can find the magnolia syrup recipe for drinks, mead and wine, I shall post that once I've found where I got the recipe from or the book I wrote it down in. It's very similar to Wipey's peony recipe, with optional additions like ginger and spices.

Please feel free to share any of your garden favourites ❤️

I'm still weeping at the sorry state of my lawn. I know I should bore off about it, but I worked so hard on it last year and this Spring and it is DESTROYED. No one will persuade me that the areas where the grass has died completely and there is bare earth will it grow back!!!!!!!

We still haven't had enough rain in central south east england. Hope pipe ban remains and I am still watering every plant with the watering can and my long gorilla arms.

I am desperate to reseed the lawn, but until more rain is forecast, it would be a waste of time. Still can't plant anything either, because the ground is rock solid and bone dry a few centimetres below the surface and I cannot face lugging any more water from the tap to the ground in a can.

Anyhow, moaning aside, I have enjoyed reading other people's posts and getting some inspiration for what I might be able to do at some point.

so happy that my viburnum is showing signs it may flower,
it hasnt flowered for some years
so i reprimanded DH for his pruning. told him to leave it!
seems to have done the job

We have a woods near us that was once part of a big estate, The house is long gone but the woodlands have been reclaimed by volunteers and it is the most magical peaceful place. A river runs through the bottom with a waterfall and although the car park gets busy you can wander round and not really see anyone. It’s lovely there.

I’ve employed someone to re turf my front lawn. There’s virtually no grass but plenty of weeds now after this summer. If he does a good job I’ll get him to do the back.

Resident lawn bore here, with what I hope is exciting news!

As soon as I clocked off from work yesterday evening, I worked like a lunatic to plant the lawn seed, as there was significant rain the forecast. It was a real struggle to get it done before it got dark (and because I was partially sighted - a whole other story on a whole other thread) so I wasn't able to do the entire lawn. But the very worst bare areas have been aerated, seeded, sanded and top soiled! AND, we have had a decent number of hours of rain. I'm really hoping that this won't be the only rain between now and the end of growing season. Please keep your fingers crossed for me and for you all, so that I can desist with my endless lawn lament.

I'll do a rain dance for you!

Thank you @Jimmyneutronsforehead 😀

Finally some rain here - a good 8 hours so far! Think it's the first real rain in a month. About the third day of proper rain since the end of June. I think I'm giving up on any thoughts of a grass lawn. With the reduced heat, watering hasn't been on my mind as much so I've had some more drought victims, poor clematis.

Do normal garden centres sell clematis in autumn/winter? I only live near a B&Q and B&M, they only sell them in the late spring when they're flowering, so I never get the cold temperatures needed for them to establish.

I suppose the succulents are doing well, at least. Found a few things dumped in the streets - a small planter (30*70ish) that goes with my blue shed, and some broken furniture on castor wheels. Planning to make it a movable succulent container. I've spotted a dumped tree trunk I might use to support lean-to storage behind the shed. Yes I'm on a budget 😅 and I like to improvise.

I wish I'd known about the Hairy Balls plant 2 weeks ago because I would have loved to have gifted that alongside the Frilly Knickers.

Discovered it yesterday, and I really enjoy that it's a very textured plant. If we didn't currently have our eats-everything-it-sees foster dog I'd be having one for the garden.

@MargoLivebetter I will join you in your lawn boring - I've got two small lawns, have reseeded one and covered with topsoil but the other I ran out right after I scattered all the seed and then realised I didn't have anymore topsoil in the shed - and of course it was after 5pm on a Sunday so no nipping out to get more. I'm hoping that the birds don't eat everything before I get home tonight. I tried to rake the seeds in but the ground is still so hard despite going over the whole thing with a garden fork that there was not much to rake. We were forecast rain today (hence my rushing to rake out all the dead moss and reseed yesterday) but so far it's a very disappointing 1mm of sprinkles.

Other than my lawn achievements, yesterday I lifted, divided and re-sited some bearded iris, raked up huge amounts of dead leaves, planted a David Austin Eugenia Vye rose which was a housewarming present, turned the compost pile with a garden fork (why is that such a good workout) and finally started filling a massive pot with hugelkultur principles which will hold a Japanese maple.

@Xiaoxiong I hope the birds haven't eaten all of your seed too! Even with the topsoil, the pigeon's are feasting on mine! I'm just hoping that there is enough to go around. I did another section of clearing, aerating, planting & covering over the weekend, but I still have half the lawn to go. That isn't including the bits that I carefully planted and nurtured last Autumn that are barren desert and I'm going to have to have a rethink completely.

A very annoying family member keeps persistently insisting that grass never dies and that I am just being impatient and it will all grow back. I cannot see how bare earth can grow back myself. Can anyone confirm one way or another?

@Jimmyneutronsforehead I love that you would have a garden full of frilly knickers and hairy balls. That has really made me laugh.

I think your family member is right only if it's brown grass on top but still has quite a bit of good coverage and solid roots - but most of the bits of my lawn like that have greened up already. I don't think patches of bare earth are coming back without help!

@Xiaoxiong agree. I think that there is a difference between "dormant" grass, which still has a root structure and passes the 'tug test' and "dead"!

Have you tried covering the freshly sown seeds until they germinate, a bit like carrots?

Keeps the soil moist, and keeps pesky birdies away.

I’ve mostly been weeding, but when I was out there yesterday I noticed that the self-seeded potato plant had actual potatoes showing partly above the ground. I know they’re not supposed to be exposed to light, so I thought I’d better collect them. There were about four that were a useable size, although they might not actually be useable, having been in the daylight? They’re a lovely red variety, but you can see they are brown where they were poking out of the soil. There were also several tiny ones, the size of the end of my thumb. I chucked them in a bag of compost to try and figure out what to do with them. Will they keep until next year, to use as seed potatoes?

Today I've been down the garden in glorious sunshine, not too breezy and fairly blue but with big clouds, sky.

I've planted up another low planter with some of the assorted dwarf daffs I kept from last year, once they start showing signs of life they will be moved to the front of the house. I have lots of forget me nots that have self seeded again in the garden so I will put a couple in the pots as the combination of yellow and blue is really pretty - and it's cheap, I don't have to buy them first.

I will be planting my tulips at the very end of the month/early November, hoping for a lovely display again this year. They are my favourite spring flower, I absolutely love them. I buy Darwin or Triumph bulbs as they have the strongest stems and don't buy doubles, as soon as they get wet they droop which is a shame as some of them are very pretty.

The days of lugging mahoosive tubs through the house have now gone due to my back being rather more tetchy these days and my arthritic hands making it more painful to pick things up, especially heavy things. I can wait for my brother to come over and he will do it or at least help me do it but he's not here that often due to living so far away.

I've also cut back some of the Phildelphus and three of the Salvias as they are taking over the border and blocking the light for the bulbs that will come up underneath them. They still have flowers so I've left some of the plants for the bees as they are still around.

There is still a lot of colour in the pots and tubs that I have but my Acers and my Japanese cherry are changing colour and starting to go orange/reddy colour, soon the leaves will all be gone until Spring.

I picked up some daffodil bulbs. Some lovely pinks. I need to decide where they're being planted now, but I can't wait to see them pop up next year.

So annoying. I have been waiting to plant up some bulbs in pots, bulbs I ordered back in June from Sarah Raven as I wanted a particular variety of narcissus.

They were due to arrive last month and I have been chasing them since the beginning of this month.

Just had an email to say they are refunding me, no apology, nothing, just the refund.

I know a number of other posters have had trouble with them.

So now I have to go to the garden centre and there is absolutely no chance I will come back with just bulbs! Pfft.

I'll never order from Sarah Raven again after I ordered some pastel freesias and they were basically dust in a box.

Harvested a lot of grapes, the more we looked the more we found. Sorting, washing and freezing them on trays to put in bags took all day and a fair proportion of the freezer.

After saying I was not going to buy any more bulbs to plant up, today I went to the Range and they had 3 packs for £5 (they usually have this deal for bulbs). I noticed they had a three bulb selection in one pack. Muscari, dwarf tulips and tete a tete daffs.

Obviously, I was unable to resist and I bought three packs for the fiver and spent a pleasant but cold half an hour down the shed planting them into a low dark blue, round planter. I've sort of divided the planter into three and put the daffs at the top, then tulips and muscari on either side.

I am hoping they will flower altogether and make a lovely colourful display on the patio as my vision of what they will look like flowering all at the same time and looking really pretty will probably not match the reality when they actually bloom.

Here's hoping though😆

planted my new plants including a patio rose and two cyclamen that were my birthday presents
please don't tempt me with bulbs!

Well I'm only doing daffs. I always plan on planting out bulbs in the front because it's away from the dog, but the front of the house is where the rest of my bonkers neighbours ambush me, so I don't know when I'm going to plant these daffodils but I need to do it when I'm not going to get collared to talk about penises and catheters and heart attacks which will probably mean after tea time when it gets dark one day this week.

Headphones, Jimmy. Great big fuck off headphones and something really absorbing coming through them,. If they penetrate that just point at the bulbs and say, lots to do, no time to chat and crack on. I’ve done so little lately, new and nervous dog, but just spent 30 mins pulling weeds and dead things in my paved and potted front garden.

It is hard to get stuff done with a nervous dog in tow isn't it?

Beginning to think there's no hope for our foster but him relentlessly barking is another reason I've not been in the garden too.

The benefit of my bonkers neighbours is they're all very deaf.

This summer the tulips that I planted in the ground all went down with something, so I dug them all out and decided not to get any more this year. Of course I've just gone and ordered some, so now I have to prepare a few pots, because I dare not put them in the same ground.