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 ❤️

@MarmaladeorJam . Could you post some pictures? I get so excited by new gardens. Are you sure the weeds are weeds, and have you put the ferns in the shade?

I will try to remember to take a few today.

I did put the ferns in shade - they are between two very old cherry trees. There was a mud patch that people cut across and I placed them there as a barrier to stop that, and as a result, keep the place a little cleaner!

The weeds are really long, wild grass. I cut it back. It is all very impacted, dry as bone, and very patchy.

Took some bags of garden cuttings to the tip today, and apparently enjoyed it so much I decided to help my aunt do hers as well. It was a fairly quick job.

Bamboo bastard's bamboo is still there today.

I asked for plants for my birthday last week. DS had dug a new flowerbed for me, I have issues with my back so deep digging is not for me anymore. I received a lovely hydrangea, jasmine, azalea and rose bush. The hydrangea is in and I’m hoping to have enough energy to put the rest in tomorrow. DH installed a water feature as my gift. It’s an area that’s between two mature shrubs with part of an old gnarled tree trunk, between the two. It’s just a small fountain that falls over a pile of rocks. My friends little boy called it an adventure place.

Mowed the back lawn, planted my dwarf bean seeds, bit late but never mind, cut the long straggly brambles in my front garden from next door where they have let them grow to about 8ft.

Really bloody annoyed they haven't done anything to keep them under control as the brambles are lethal if you are not careful and they are spreading over my front room window! 😡

Bastarding bindweed, that is all I have to say about today's garden efforts.

I could kill the old occupiers.

Agree! Ours comes in from the house that backs onto ours.

I go out and yank out shoots a couple of times a week. Even weed killer doesn’t get rid of it.

Hi can I join you? We’ve bought a total fixer upper and it has a what I think could be a lovely garden. It’s not very big and I’m totally clueless but going to try and make it nice.
At the moment I’m concentrating on one area because we are going to start building work in the next few weeks which will obviously destroy some of the garden.
So far I’ve grown a lawn from seed which I’m quite proud of! I’ve tried to clean the patio with patio cleaner which hasn’t worked very well (not sure it’s been done for a very long time) so I’m going to try jet washing instead then re point it.
Then I’ve got to fill the flower beds and add some laurel plants to the little bit of hedge I have as it’s looking a bit straggly.

My friend (not a gardener) rang me last night and said oh jimmy can you help me there's a plant growing in from the roof of my shed.

She sent picture of inside her shed and also all down back of her shed and its full of bindweed that looks like it's been unchecked for decades by neighbour, she's only lived there a few month.

Anyway today shes lopped it all back and I am surprised she managed to get it lopped and bagged up all in one day, but I've said to her best she get her green thumb out because she's never going to get rid of that. It will be a constant work in progress.

My mums garden is full of it and she can't keep on top of it, but she'll not let me in to sort it out of embarrassment even though I'd he happy to do it. She's also got 5 foot sycamore treeling wedged between her house and the concrete path. 😬

pulled up some lemon balm that is taking over and mistakenly pulled up a verbana plant
planted a cosmos

@Tigerbalmshark garden that backs onto ours, first pic, good old willowherb forest. I've been pulling and sticking back over the fence, might just get a proper barrier between as its driving me nuts. First pic. 2nd pic neighbours right of way that they don't use, you folks reckon I can clear it. Dunno what the tall thing is, brambly looking, purple thorns, encroaching on my raised beds.

I was looking over my neighbour’s wall earlier and there is bindweed, willowherb, brambles, a thistle taller than me (and I’m neatly 6 feet tall), three cornered leek and the bastard pendulous sedge.
He is 94 and a lovely man and he used to keep his garden so well but he just can’t do it now. I’ve offered to go round and spent a few hours on it but he’s too proud to accept. I LOVE weeding and spend two mornings a week weeding at a volunteer project and I’m longing to get my hands in it but he won’t be swayed.

Could I join in please. My garden always get away from me and I’m keen to find motivation to do a little each day.

This evening I watered a few pots that have been too sheltered from the rain to get a good drink. Watered two new roses that looked a little sad. After refusing to use weed killer for years I gave in and use it on the paving to keep the never ending weeds down.

@Rhosie at our old house I'd wait for the elderly guy next door to go to church to get stuck in or be admitted to hospital to get the fence painted. Though often I'd just sneak round and do it and he wouldn't notice until it was all done then phone me giving me equal thanks and a verbal smacked arse. Was my pleasure to do it, his garden was his pride and glory, done it on his death bed, he managed to the window to wave to me, my last sighting of him conscious. I promised him the night before he died I'd look after the garden. Cruel to be kind.

On that note, the dahlias that I moved from the old house were a joint effort from me and the old guy, Will. I am SO proud of them and worried all winter if they would survive, they're sprouting beautifully. So the bindweed can crack on, once these flowers establish, I'll feel amazing.

@Violentviola all it's done here is bloody rain, no chance of anything being dry. My seeds are not growing, except the poppies dd got me for mother's day.

Spent all day yesterday building a ricketty support for cucumbers and tomatoes, out of catalpa prunings. Looks a bit whimsical but cuter than the stock fencing circle I have used in the past.

Today I have been watering and weeding my pratia pedunculata lawn. I love blue in the garden and if this works I will have a sea of tiny blue flowers instead of a boring grass lawn.

Just been out to inspect the garden as I've let it go rogue.

Bloody slugs! They've eaten my butternut squash plant.

They've made a start on my pumpkin too.

Thought it was a bit quiet in the strawberry patch.

Anyway I also picked some onion scapes so they'll be in our salad with our tea tonight.

Bloody slugs.

pratia pedunculata lawn

I'm not jealous. I promise. 🫣

My first strawberry is looking ready to pick- I may sample it tonight on the patio. I had big plans for strawbs this year and bought a few different kinds from the garden centre- almost all of them have failed miserably. No idea why. The one that's thrived is the same plant I've had for two or three years.

I've finally realised this year just to buy plants or at least plug plants rather than trying to grow everything from seed. I spend that much on seeds that never grow that it's got to work out cheaper just to buy the flowers! Had a couple of orders from Shire plants which I'd never heard of before this year but am now a big fan of.

So I will stick to growing things from seed that just don't fail no matter what you do - Calendula and Nasturtiums mainly!

Last year i lost all my veg seedlings when we went away for two weeks and it was bone dry. My runners are getting taller than me so doing much better this year. My mixed salad leaves have been amazing - apart from the Chinese giant mustard leaves which are really slow, previously they've been my favourite and brilliant. My French beans may have some losses to the slugs but as I was struggling to get them to germinate at all earlier in the year at least I still have some hope. My kale had a bad infestation of aphids but I seem to have got rid of them hopefully now.

My strawberry patch has unfortunately cross pollinated with the alpine strawberries that grow wild around and are now all tiny - a job to sort out next year. Raspberries seem to be less this year but lots of good looking canes for next years crop.

I got the idea from someone on here, don't remember who sadly. Bought the plants at a wholesaler and split them and potted on, more than doubling the numbers. This year I have interplanted with annuals to fill the bed but maybe next year...

@thelongesdayI happened to be looking over the fence into next door’s garden the other day, and spotted what I thought might be wild strawberries. They’ve fruited now, and I was correct. The fruits are small, and pinker than normal strawberries.

When I first moved in, I found tiny strawberry plants near the oil tank, and I was going to leave them there, but I think they might be wild ones too. The leaves just look slightly different.

I've got 4 greenhouses
Tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, cucumbers,cucamelons. Sweet peas,chard, spinach, kale growing from seed. One greenhouse in the shade has my indoor orchids,too hot indoors for them now. Most require watering. DH pruned the eucalyptus, I put the branches through the shredder, just finished that. I've dead headed the roses, climbing and rambling. I'm now going to sit in the garden with my book. He's just cut the grass,oh and discovered ndn,has allowed bindweed and brambles to reach our garage roof.... not happy!

I think it was me. I've been after blue star creeper for years. Nobody local sells it. Been dying to do a lawn with it.

Thank you for being my inspiration!

I spent £40 on bare root strawberries last year that initially seemed to take and then died a fast death.

This year I spent about £20 on them, but planted them densely so that their leaves provide enough insulation from both cold weather and extreme heat to prevent evaporation.

I don't know if it's the method that has worked, or if there was just an issue with last year's strawberries but every one of the plants have taken this year.

I really want to try gutter strawberries but I just don't think I can keep such a small, shallow amount of soil wet enough for them not to shrivel and dry enough not to rot.