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 ❤️

He’s been more responsive to my gardening requests, but it was only this spring we discovered the issue, so he’s only had this crispy summer to express his remorse.

Spinach update, it’s germinating! I’ll probably plant out the first lot and sow another load for the window ledge. I really wasn’t expecting collected seed to actually work.

Also, my leeks are regrowing from the base of the flower spikes, so I might also have a perpetual leek supply. Sometimes my extensively neglectful gardening style pays off. It seems that failing to pull up leeks that bolt means they just make pretty flowers, leek seeds (I have like a thousand seeds!) and also more leeks after only a year. It’s just two leeks regrowing so far, hopefully the rest will follow.

Bamboo wankers combustible pile seems to be getting bigger, I have expressed concern to him, he says it's fine. Rang SYFR for advice on fire prevention and explained the situation and they basically said there's not much they can do but did give me details for the council to contact if I have concerns as they may be able to force removal of it so that is probably something I'll be doing on Monday. It's a concern because he isn't considering that other people around us are still using things like chimneas and the lit debris fallout could easily cause that pile to go up and take all of our gardens with it and it was only a few weeks ago the field opposite us also caught fire.

In my garden, my tomatoes are tomatoing. My thornless blackberries are still ripening, and I am just desperately trying to keep my potted wisteria alive. It is due a good prune which I may do tomorrow.

Good call on contacting the council @Jimmyneutronsforehead It’s a tinderbox round here and people are still doing stupid things like lighting fires on the cliffs 😡

As soon as I woke up this morning I saw the light was different and we are under a blanket of cloud for the first time in weeks. Forecast says rain is possible over the next few days (35 to 70% chance), but I’ve fallen for that before and as it’s feeding day everything will get well watered.
Still in the high 20’s for a few days, but no longer any 30’s on the forecast. My dahlias are happier, one or two are able to stand upright and bloom properly for the first time this year! Must take a pic.

Other than the feeding and watering, just more deadheading today. I’m itching to get started on my September plans; lots to be moved and lots of cuttings to be taken. I’m tempted to give up on the tomatoes; just two plants rambling all over the greenhouse but producing next to nothing. I don’t need the space yet so they can ramble on for now.

I've just been out and watered the pots out the front of the house as it's cloudy at the moment but still warm and no wind. I'll do the back garden a bit later on.

I inspected my tomatoes, the ones that are supposed to be cherry ones and they are almost the size of beef tomatoes. That will teach me to buy a cheap pack of tomato seeds in future. The San Marzano ones are still ripening off, they have been quite successful but I'm not sure I will bother with tomatoes next year.

My beans have been a real success story, I only had 10 in a packet and didn't expect anywhere near the amount I have been getting. I even gave some away yesterday as I already had some in the fridge and will pick more again today.

I've cut down my roses, they were getting really leggy and straggly and getting caught up with other plants. It's probably not the time to cut them back but it's usually quite hard to kill off roses so I've given them a boost with chicken manure pellets and some fresh compost and see what happens.

Next door's mahoosive extension is now taking light from my patio in the afternoon, I'm horrified by how big it looks, the plans give no indication of size until you actually see it being built. It's in my eyeline when I open the doors to go outside on the patio and walking up from the garden it's looming above me. As Prince Charles once said "a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend". I think I know just how he felt 😣

Can you use planting to hide the carbuncle, even just a bit? Although anything that hides the extension will block more light. Maddening.

Its a first floor extension so it towers over my garden. I'd need something about 30ft. high to hide it, believe me, I've tried to think of something, anything to hide the size of it.

A friend saw it yesterday as she drove up the road and couldn't believe how big it is.

Once it's finished I'm hoping that it won't have such an effect on my property in the way I see my home and garden, I may be able to accept it but if I really can't live with it, I may well have to think about moving.

@Myblueclematis , can you post pics? We may have suggestions

I'd better not just in case any of my neighbours are on here and will most certainly recognise it, it is quite hard to miss but thank you though. 🙂

We have rain! I could run outside in my Bridget Jones apple catchers and dance I am so happy.

We have rain too! There’s about 1/2 an inch of water in the bottom of a bucket so a proper soaking. Hurray! There have been serious wildfires in our part of the world so relief about that too.

No rain. It might rain on Friday (38% chance of rain, but where we are it often passes to one side of us) and maybe Saturday.

With the hose ban and other stuff that limits my ability to get around and carry watering cans without pain, I have had a hard time in the garden this year. If DS had not installed the soaker hose at the front...well. That would have been TOO MUCH if I had lost my flowers at the front. OMG. I feel a responsibility to put on a good show at the front (self inflicted) and it is a challenge I embrace. One elderly man saw me in the garden last year and said he comes to our village every year, and always makes a point of coming to see my garden because it makes him happy. That was amazing.

That sounds like bragging and I am sorry. What I really was posting to say was a rant! I wanted to rant against the water companies, their misuse of our money and neglect of infrastructure. £900,000 bonus on top of their bonus, 1 million signing on bonus, and yet their customers are paying for water they are told not to use. And now they are allowed to charge even more for our water!! So maddening, and meanwhile my plants are dying. I didn't dare reseed in veg beds I had emptied because I was not sure I could keep them watered, they are really too far from the tap.

In other news DH just saved a squirrel from drowning in an almost empty water butt. Lid was off. Stupid squirrel was just beside two shallow dishes I put out for the littler wildlife but I'm still going to blame the water company! 😁

This morning I've been cutting the dead bits off a somewhat sickly-looking juniper and giving it a good spray with fungicide in the hope of treating the tip blight it appears to be suffering from. It is in the early stages of potential development as a bonsai, and if I can get it turned around, I'll do some preliminary styling and then sell it on to someone else.

Woken up to rain bouncing against the window; heavenly!

It’s stopped now but looks like a decent amount fell overnight and it seems to have soaked in nicely.

My dahlias are finally raising their heads after being beaten down by the relentless sun, including this beauty...

Rain!!!!! At last and a decent amount fell too. I know I'm going to have to still keep watering for a while yet, but it does feel like a relief. My sides and ribs ache so badly from hefting the bloody watering can!

Same here but not much. DH knew it would rain if he left the roof of the car open.

@ILikeDungs well a big thank you to Mr Dungs for leaving the car roof open. I have been bringing in the garden cushions each night now since last Saturday and I knew I was jinxing it!

He did have to rush outside at 2:30 a.m. though. He should have thought that through

I think some of my tomatoes are ready for picking today.

I'm going to have a lovely cheese and tomato sandwich on buttered bread with salt... against my dieticians advice.

Feeling a bit salty since she said I'm only allowed 5 portions of carbs a day, and 1 portion is 2 Tbsp of pasta or half a tortilla wrap, and one portion of yoghurt for breakfast isn't 1 bowl, it's 135ml, and one portion of sausages is 1 single sausage.

I said, but I'm a growing boy, and she said well you're not because you're a 31 year old woman who stopped growing at 4'11.

But I am willing to eat my weeks worth of carbohydrates for a nice home grown tomato sandwich. I have been waiting all year for this pleasure and there have been too many close calls as to whether I would actually get there.

It's a very torrential morning here in Barnsley. I hope the plants are loving it. The broom has shot up overnight, doubled in size and has withstood the heat with no watering exceptionally well, so I am happy as that plant smells so beautiful when it's in bloom. I can't remember what sort of broom it is, but it's a drooping one rather than an upright one.

My wisteria has suffered from scorching on some stems and they're just drying and withering off but most are still a nice lush green. It's getting long enough to weave into the top of the umbrella trellis now, so hopefully by spring there'll be some lovely flowers.

I saw a recipe for wisteria blossom sugar that looked lovely for baking with or turning into a syrup that I am excited to give a good go.

I haven’t grown tomatoes this year but my nephew gave me some lovely beefsteak ones he’d grown and I’ve just had them sliced with some sweet onions, salt, pepper, oregano and a little oil and vinegar and they were delicious.

Lots of rain here today. DS had a bit of a moan as he’s off to Green Man festival today and was hoping it would be dry to pitch their tents. Can’t win! At least it’s helping the wildfires in the area.

I made slow cooked marrow and tomatoes last night- really very good(BBC Good Food), followed by buttered plums. Mainly from the garden, very satisfying. I think I might clear my disappointing kale bed and sow hardy annuals in it. I’ve got some things I may be able to plant now we’ve had rain. Grass is green again!

More tomatoes and blackberries today! Didn't even make it inside.

We've got our time-share dog back this week. Poor mite does need a forever home but he will also undoubtedly pick off some of blackberries as they ripen and hopefully scare bamboo wankers bloody fancy pigeons away.

I really want to get a Victoria plum tree, I saw some in reighton nurseries, but we're selling our caravan so I can't see us making the trip all that often and I can't imagine getting a tree plus all our luggage back in the car either, so I best start looking more locally. Our current local garden centres don't seem to stock a great variety of fruit trees.

I also need to re-home the blackberries somewhere else in the garden or find a creative way to keep them where they are but redirect them as I'm getting rid of the archway trellis they're currently growing on but this is the first year they've actually given me fruit so I also feel a bit sad about disturbing them.

I dumped my two tomato plants yesterday, they still had some green ones on them but I'm rather fed up with them this year, especially the cherry tomato that turned out to be the size of a beefsteak tomato almost. I'm going to roast all the tomatoes together and freeze the pulp for using in bolognese style sauces.

I've also cleared out a couple more of the summer pots and redistributed the compost in them around the garden border. I painted the shed door with two coats of garden paint, it will need two more at least as the door looks to be on it's almost last legs. I think it will hold until next year but I'll have to get a new one by early summer I think. The torrential rain we had from last year into this really didn't help the door, it took a real battering.

I also mowed the crispy brown/green lawn to get rid of all those weird straggly bits of grass, it looks a bit neater now and the rain we did get during the week has helped a bit. I tidied up the Japanese cherry too, it looks lovely now and is a very nice shape.

No gardening today, am down the beach hut as the weather is looking very nice with no real wind, tomorrow is a different matter so will be at home for bank holiday Monday.