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 ❤️

Came across a YouTube channel called Garden Marcus. It's for kids, but it's slow, unstimulating, educational content about gardening but teaching things like kindness and patience.

We are not a screen free household on account of needing a moment of sanity every so often, but I am always on the hunt for slow content instead of fast paced content and brain rot.

Hoping I can use it as some sort of operant conditioning for the next generation of young gardeners. DNephew aged 2 has recently shown an interest in eating dirt... I think we can work on that.

I really need to get going and do something out there this morning before it gets too hot again. Our garden faces due west, quite enclosed, and can get like an oven by mid afternoon.

I forgot to water the plants this morning, so it'll have to wait til this evening when the sun isn't beating down on them. They look ok though even though I also forgot to water yesterday.

Some are set up automatically, but I dont think it's pumping like it should as the soil still seems pretty dry.

Yesterday I did some more savage pruning of the wisteria to train it round it's umbrella cage. Very fast growth now, hoping to have it trained fully by this time next year.

@Jimmyneutronsforehead You can water plants when the sun is on them, it much better to water at what people believe to be the 'wrong' time of day than it is to leave plants to go thirsty.

It is only things like petunia flowers that don't much enjoy getting wet.

I've moved all my pots to the shady side of the garden as I'm in the red zone of doom for the next few days. There are some that are too big to move and obviously all the plants in bed will just have to stay where they are. We had some rain last night with the thunder storms, so I have topped up my water butts a bit which is good news, as we are also being asked to only use water for necessary tasks. I am trying to be as economical as possible and keep all my plants alive too!

My sweet peas have been AMAZING! They are just the joy that keeps on giving. Can't say the same for my dahlias or zephyranthes, but I guess some you win, some you lose.

@MargoLivebetter I read a good tip on a gardening forum the other day about pots in full sun. It's not the heat affecting the top of the plants that's the issue, it is the extreme heat that builds up inside the pot which basically cooks the roots. The tip was to drape something white over the side of the pot, like a wet towel or similar. The white reflects the light, the roots stay cooler and the evaporating water cools the air around the plant.

@Yamadori - what a good idea. I will do that, thank you.

OMG the horseflies this year!!!

I was out deadheading at 6am. It was lovely. Ate my first strawberries and blueberries for breakfast.
DH did a good water last night and has positioned the sun umbrella over my best pots.
My dwarf sweet peas are fab but the rest are not so good.

I've watered the tomatoes and the dwarf beans which are just poking through the compost. I'm watering the pots about 9.30 pm now as it's cooler.

Just put more water out for birds.

Today I have been mostly pulling up sycamore seedlings. Again. Pulled these from a far corner of the allotment where I am growing giant pumpkins. This is not nearly all of them sadly (as you can see to the left)

I’ve not done a lot other than watering in the last few days, luckily we’re not in the hottest part of the UK but there’s still a few plants I’m a bit concerned about.
Most of my strawberries got eaten by slugs, and the peas got ransacked by birds (I suspect the pigeons) so I think I’ll be looking at netting structures this autumn.

in exciting news my new greenhouse should be here in the next two weeks. A bit late in the year to start anything in there but plenty of time to get myself in gear for 2027.

Picked up dog turds, scowled at the bindweed (that helps, right?) and then turned on the sprinkler and stood in it. Then turned it off again and hung out the washing.

The pool water managed to catch up to the 32°c air temperature so it's been a pool day for us.

The plants got a very uneven watering from DS.

Yesterday I rescued a house sparrow(?) from dying of heat and exhaustion in our conservatory and it came back several times today to thank me, by dive bombing me and sitting on the fence with it's mouth agog.

Are those hydrangeas in
the background? Which type?

Annabelle. I've used it as a hedge along the road side of the allotment.

I inherited our garden 3 years ago. It has this collection of large spiky leaves which has just sat there quietly minding its business until this year when it grew like jacks beanstalk. It’s about 10foot tall now and the flowers are nearly over. It’s a yucca called Spanish dagger apparently. What do I do with this massive stem once it’s flowered? It’s amazing but I don’t want it collapsing on my car!

It’s very pretty.
Thinking of hydrangea in a section of my garden but heard some are very slow growing. How was this for you?

The RHS website says 'Remove spent flowering stems'.

This one isn't slow growing. I started it from cuttings stuck in the ground one year, to a pretty full hedge the next. They get cut back (if you choose to) in the early spring so the spent flower heads can overwinter. Then the stems shoot up. I cut this one back in early March? The only issue with them is supporting the large flower heads through the season.

The weeds have bested me in this heat I am afraid. They live to see another day.

I went out to water early this morning but other than that there is no gardening being done. Though I have popped into the shed once or twice to admire the rows of freshly washed pots and trays 😋

My future self will thank me for getting that chore done.

I’m planning on doing a bit of an inventory this weekend if it cools down a little; there are a number of plants that need moving from pots into borders, others need to be in different pots, and some will go to the great compost bin in the sky as they are not earning their keep. All jobs for autumn but will be useful to get a plan together.

Just some tickling of the tomato flowers today.

A few years ago, I noticed there were hardly any bees in our garden so I was having to manually pollinate everything. My friend was feeling down at the time, going through a separation with a critically ill child, and she loved hearing about my garden updates as a distraction so one day I bought a bloody bee costume and started sending her videos of me doing the bees job for them.

I live on a main road, so in the background to these videos all you can see is people who were going about their day not expecting to see a fat 30 year old in a bee costume up a set of step ladders rubbing male and female pumpkin gonads together on a 6 foot high trellis, chuntering and huffing and puffing about the bloody bees not doing their bastarding jobs and if you want something right you should do it yourself.

Anyway my friends been asking for gardening updates again but I am without a bee costume so remembered whilst ticking my toms earlier that I must purchase a new one. I'm thinking the bodysocks inflatable bee costume.

Sweating mostly. It's like an inferno here in Central South England. At 9pm last night I mowed the lawn when the temperature dropped to 28 degrees and it felt cool!

I draped the large pots that I couldn't move in some old white shower curtains that I had and that has really helped, so thank you @Yamadori for that tip.

Other than that just watering and more watering. My little alpines need watering 3 times a day at the moment. They are in full sunshine and not enjoying it at all.

If ever there was a need for a photo on a gardening thread, this is it!😂