What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

As we can't open our garden for charity this year we have cut down a lot on propagating plants for sale (we usually sell over 1,000 plants in a day! That's apart from all the veggie plants we sell) but still want to raise some money for them. So I have started by sending a list to the members of my bridge clubs (closed for the duration ) of what plants are, or will be, available for them to pick up.

To comply with distancing they will need to order in advance and we shall have boxes made up with their orders for them to pick up at a set time (when nobody else will be coming) and the charity box (we have a few of them from the charity) will be there for them to drop their money into.

I sent out the first list late yesterday afternoon and there is already £45 in the box

I have also already received orders for 200 runner bean plants (when they are ready), 8 bearded Irises, 8 Iris sibirica, 5 Hostas, 20 Foxgloves and 2 Salvia turkistanica. A quicker response than I expected

 

Well, the Tulip is still Queen of the borders........

 

Yesterday started with setting up the sprinkler in the front garden and followed by half an hour of brushing the freshly laid compost, in a lot of the beds, back into the beds after the blackbirds have thrown it everywhere! I now limit that job to every third day.

Mrs Shiney did a lot of sowing, splitting, potting up and potting on. So I had the job of finding the right size pots for her. We normally don't have a problem with pots as people are always dropping them off to us or we can pick them up from one of our local nurseries, but those sources are no longer available. I shall put out some messages for people to drop off their pots if they are passing.

I'm still on light duties so did just a little weeding and then trimmed the edges of some of the bedsand finished setting up the second ShineyFrame for the beans. I'm now waiting for delivery of the 100 metre balls of plastic twine that I need for finishing off the overhead parts of the frames. They're supposed to arrive before the weekend but I shan't hold my breath.

I hope to have permission to do the mowing today.

At dawn this morning I moved the sprinkler from the front garden to the rhubarb bed as the rhubarb is suffering badly from the drought and I have a lot of orders for it. The blackbirds obviously recognise the sprinkler and they followed me all the way to see where I was putting it. I set it up, walked all the way back to the tap to turn it on and by the time I got back there, to check it was covering the right area, there were six blackbirds playing in the shower from it. They always love the sprinkler.

 

Another catch up from yesterday as I was too tired after a solid 9 hours in the garden trying to do one job after another.
I managed to get most of the rose prunings that had fallen into the pond, the day before yesterday, out using a long pole and fishing landing net while the Frogs sat on the West bank and watched, but I will still have to go into the pond for a wade, wearing Chest Waders, to get what little is left in the pond while also clearing out the debris left over from the Winter.
The Green House is bursting at the seams right now and the Carnivorous Plants are putting out flowers








On the right there are 10 Phlox from bare root along with a pile of other plants waiting until the end of the month for planting


There's 18 Lupins raised from bare root waiting to be moved out into the open, plus some Thalictrum also waiting to while growing on.


While out in the garden


The first of the Bearded Iris are put out flower stems

 

I was planning on having a wade in the wildlife pond but those little jobs in the garden seemed to eat the day away. I tidied up the Oak Barrel by the Kitchen door which has the climbing Rose "White Skyliner" in it, but it also has Sweetpeas, Blue Bells, White Bells, Cyclamen and Daffodils in it. They all seem quite happy growing together but they do get a weekly feed and water.


On cutting back the razor sharp leaves of Pampas Grass "Sunningdale Silver" I found this old pot that my Wife and I bought at Brookside Nursery in Stockport. I've emptied the old plants and compost out of it and it's now standing on the Patio waiting for a new plant to go into it.


Yesterday I found a Lily Beetle on one of the Fritillaria "Radean" which has finished flowering and dealt with it (RIP) and then today found another on the same Fritillaria which had the same fate as the first (RIP).
But then I found two more (RIP) on the Peony "Karl Rosenfield" and then over the day, on keeping a check on the same Frtillaria, I found another 6 which were dealt with (RIP). So, over the next week I will be keep an eye out for our scarlet coated friend.
I've had to pull some of the "Tissington Giant" Rhubarb as it overshadows nearby Hardy Perennials if not kept in check.


The Phlox, Japanese Anemones, Perennial Poppies, Alliums, Peonies,
are filling the borders and I've planted some small Anemones into the old Cottage stone sink in the bottom right of the pic.


The young Skunk Cabbage by the pond is flowering fully now but as soon as it dies back I will carefully dig it out of the bank and put it in another area of the pond.

Seeing the new fronds of the pond Ferns appearing and starting to uncurl always gives me that excitement of anticipation knowing that Spring really is here.