What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

Old thread here. What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019
Thought it was about time we moved to 2020; as I've been sowing the first of 2020's seeds this afternoon.
Also inspected some pots of seeds sown last spring and was pleasently surprised to see shoots of Arum orientale, Galanthus and a number of cyclamen species poking through.

 

I sowed my begonia seeds this morning and also put my cracking cannabis seeds in soil blocks too.

So now I've got all of my hot peppers except the manzano but including the Shineybrids, catnip, basil and basil tree (Dec 27) and not the manzano sown . My Kelsaes (yesterday), the Sarracenia and Spatulata (Thursday).

Dont think there's much else to sow until late next month

 

Seed sowing here as well, some indoors plants: Costus Dinklaegi which should be fun I hope, Blue Cereus cacti v.2. (last year neighbour's cat dropped the pot ), Tree basil (snap Lori), and some stuff for kitchen windowsill: basil, dill, rocket, lamb's lettuce and something that I believe could be some kind of lettuce. Only the foil bag was left and the abbreviated text said LETTsomething. The seeds don't actually look like lettuce seeds but hey ho, what could possibly go wrong? I also stole some Chia seeds from The Teenager just for fun. I mean, they are seeds right? Have seeds, will sow

Contrary to my lifelong conviction, this year in a spur of recklessness I decided to label the pots! We'll see, we'll see...

 

I don’t think we’ll be working in the garden today, but we did well yesterday.

First hubby held some wooden stakes to shore up the sides of one of the compost bays. Then we climbed over the fence into the neigbour’s garden (she’s now been taken into a nursing home, and the garden has been more and more neglected over the last few years).

There were a number of “seedling” trees growing up near the boundary, which have actually started scraping against the side of our house! So we cut them down, lopped the side branches off, and put the useable stems/whips where we can easily get to them. The rest was tidied up off the “grass”, and put on the hedge-cutting/tree-lopping pile in her garden.

One of the long whips was quickly put into use. Our washing line pole finally gave way, where the woodpeckers have been hunting for grubs!! A full line of washing was rescued just in time!!

edited to give some idea as to the size of the “seedling trees”.
They were taller than our house (a pseudo-bungalow). Some of the trunks were over 10cm in diameter, and one “whip” selected to replace the washing-line pole was too long, being over 5 metres in length, and with a diameter of 5cm at the top....

 

Dull damp day to wet for anything outside even the lawn still squelching.

But my seeds arrived yesterday so I've been in the GH sowing seeds including the new unusual ones - Verbena ( bedding ) - bulbinella Cauda felis - Crassula .C - Salvia Hastata - Tacca.C - veronicastrum album. I got my Cobaea alba/purple seeds soaking in luke warm water at the moment I'll sow them later.

 

Finally logged back in today after an unintentially neglectful couple of months! Hope everyone has been keeping well and no-one was too severely affected by the ridiculous rains before Christmas.

Not a lot going on in the garden here, the lawn is waterlogged so I'm trying to avoid it as much as possible, and there is yet more scaffolding all over the patio due to ongoing roof issues with the top floor flat. I suspect I've lost this year's forced hyacinths as the door to the leanto where they've been sprouting has seized shut so I've not been able to get in there since before Christmas. There were a few uncovered dahlia tubers out drying there too, no idea how they're faring at this point! Landlady has promised to sort it but no sign of any progress on that front yet...

 

No gardening today, just popped down to my allotment to see how everything was doing. My tender plants in the greenhouse are fine. Strangely, three of my honeyberry plants (of upright habit) seem to be flowering, and one of them is covered in flowers! Seems odd because I also have a prostrate type which doesn't usually flower until early April. Has anyone else here grown these and have they had decent harvests? My prostrate one has never produced many berries in three years (typically two dozen), but I suspect this is partly due to the corvids nabbing them!

Honeyberry / RHS Gardening

Nick

 

I managed to do 2 trugs full of weeding each working day last week, and have done another 2 this lunchtime. It’s a lovely job, at this time of year.... Pulling away the spent stems of last year’s geraniums, etc, along with the fallen leaves trapped between their stems. As the soil is exposed, so are all the emerging bulbs. A sign of the promise of colour to come.

 

Nothing done today still wet from yesterday's rain but next week should be drier but colder.

 

Too wet to do anything today. I just looked at the AccuWeather website and it looks like March is going to be very rainy here in Notts. I think I'll make my wildlife pond at the allotment in February, it'll still be quite cold when I'm doing the work, but at least I won't have to fill it!

Nick

 

Hallo! Thanks for directing me to this new thread for 2020.

Done NOWT today - the rain was horrendous last night and the grass in the back garden is flooded again. Went into the greenhouse to check all was ok and tape up some of the insulation sheeting back up that had fallen down.

Also not holding out much hope on our planning application to put fencing up in our front garden to block out the absolute nutcase neighbours. Been looking at instant hedging at Majestic Trees. We've got ground source heat pump but I think we can get away with planting some hedging by doing a raised bed around the border.

 

@Snorky85 You have all my sympathy when it comes to nutcase neighbours Snorky, I've just had 2 absolutely nightmarish years with the guy upstairs who was a troublesome, aggressive drug addict. Had his telly blasting out all night and then he decided to move his 2 junkie mates in as well in the last 6 months! All of them shouting about until 4am nearly every night. One of his mates crashed into 3 cars on my crescent one afternoon, completely off his face. Opened my back door at 11pm one night to find him right outside it trying to climb into the tenant's kitchen window, he would've had to climb over my 7ft gate to get to the garden/access path area in the first place since they managed to lose the key I provided them with. Drunken brawl between them on the pavement just added to all the fun! The tenant died eventually, don't think it was drug-related but a lifetime of hard drug use was probably a contributing factor, I think. It's horrid when your home, the place where you should feel most relaxed, is blighted by inconsiderate, selfish people. Hope your planning application is successful!

Nick