What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

What a hot day! I have again acquired the Gardener's tan lines of brown arms down to the wrists where the gloves have protected the milky white hands, and a clear indicator on the upper arms that my favourite t- shirt is cap sleeved. Not the most flattering look in a serious dress but hey, I'm proud of my hobby. And not going to a black tie ball any time soon.

Now that the last outdoors plants are out, it was time to tackle the newly excavated windowsills and houseplants. A lot of re-potting, topdressing, scrubbing, pruning and fitting back in. Funnily enough, plants that are re-potted into larger pots take more room than before.

I honestly have too many plants.

Costus Dinklagei has grown well from seed and is pretty, but why do I need 4 potfuls? Once the first Mango germinated, did I really have to sow a spare? (ok, Mangos were on offer in Tesco ). Tree basil is starting to look quite vigorous, good thing I only have two potfuls. Apparently it grows 8m tall.

Costus

Tree basil (and some Basil Basil)


A few nice surprises turned up though. I had decided to ditch the nowadays deciduous Avocado tree, but it has started to sprout straight from the main stem so is allowed to stay And, I never knew that Tradescantias flower!




Sowed some more Dill and lettuce, this time taking learnings from the fact that "some idiot one" sowed the first round of dill in between rows of carrot. At this height they are indistinguishable. Thankfully carrot leaves are edible. So far the makeshift raised bed seems to be doing fine, Baby plum tomatoes and Cucamelons went in last week and are now perking up.

 

Hi @Selleri , yeah different species have different coloured flowers, white, pink or purple. And then you have the outdoor T Anersonnia/Virginia types which flower in all shades of white, pink, blue, purple and reddish shades.

 

Hi here’s the wisteria now, the branches snap and are dry from top to bottom, the thicker branches have a slight bit of green in the middle.
There is some small shoots at the base, but we do have one other from a cutting we took in 2018.

 

For the first time in years I had to get the hose out so hubby could water all of the hellebores, rhubarb, snapdragons and anything else that he thought of.
Sowed some more cosmos the others were killed by bad greenfly that came off the tithonia.

 

I have 4 butts for the watering cans and a timer on the outside tap to mist the young plants in poly tunnel
As a back up I have a water pump in main butt ( 3 linked together ) so I can use butt water with hose.

 

It's been another scorcher today

I've potted on some Delphinium and Snapdragon seedlings and finally put up some trellis for the jasmine.

Made a new bird feeder and cleaned up a new area for my shade lovers. Oh and 2 lovely Salvia Nemesia fell into my basket at the garden centre.

 

Another hot one here as well today lots more done today in the garden. Emptied more pots for summer displays. planted up my two front pots with my standard Brugmansia maya added some petunia axillaris - lemon trailing begonia to pick up on the flowers of the Brugmansia and some trailing nepeta to include the variegation of the brugmansia , I need some more lemon begonia so sent my dad down to the GC to pick some up but all gone they were loads yesterday , looks like I am back on the hunt for trailing begonia.

Pulled some forget me not out they are starting to look a bit scruffy, planted a Penstemon garnet ( cutting ) I lost the mother plant this year, also move a sedum jose and planted a Agapanthus jacks blue next to it.

They don't look like much at the moment but they fill in , I put a before and after pic on later on in the year .

 

Yes, it does, but of course it all depends on how much heat it can absorb in first place.
The bottom of my garden receives no direct light whatsoever. In winter is really cold and damp.

Basically, this is my garden from afar:


The one with the, hemm, emergency cover on the gazebo. Yet another thing I need to fix, but anyway..

Basically it is very long and narrow. The first section is reasonably well insolated, the left side at least, but for the shadow from a fast growing neighbouring tree.
This is where I grow most things.
Then there is a small section, 10% or so of the garden, which only gets 3 hours of direct sunlight because of the trees on the back. I tried growing tomato cuttings there and a poor courgette plant. They grew ok but the fruits would not mature at all. Same for the raspberry plants, even when pampered and well fertilized, they grow but make awfully tasting berries.
I only grow tubers and leaf veggies there, which kind of manage, albeit slowly. That's where I was thinking of placing the mini pond.

Then, well, there is the bottom of the garden, which makes for a third of the garden, is L shaped and buries right into the trees.
Beyond that there is a railway track. In between there are two lines of trees, 50 to 80 feet tall.
Sunlight never shines on that part of the garden. The canopy is so thick that some parts are never touched by rain either. Even weeds do not like it exceedingly, only bindweed and nettle.

So, well, I thought long and hard what to do with it, with little success. Growing mushrooms, placing my composting bins there and storing all kind of stuff I need to stay out of sight, that's all :D The garden is on a slope, which gets steeper towards the end, so it is not even suitable for a trampoline or other kids things. Also, a bit too dark and humid for woodworking, keeping tools rust free would be a pain.
It is a pity, because the soil is very fertile. If there was sunlight coming, it would be ideal for terraced beds and even a greenhouse or shed on a corner which was cemented on. I coudl grow so much.

10 years ago, when we started renting, the landlords had covered it all with weed suppressing cloth, and presented it as a good place to grow things. I think someone tried too, I dug out quite a lot of little plastic fences and promising labels with pictures of shiny tomatoes, all the clues of a well meant beginner gardener about to plant tomatoes in a cave :D

So, well, I mulched it all over when the weeds started punching through the fabric. It looks way better now than all covered in black stuff and nettle patches, but the woodchips never get much heat to retain.

Sorry for the long post, it does bother me a bit not being able to do anything with that part of the garden..

 

Tidied up the Poet's Wife rosebed today. Deadheading, removing a little black spot, weeding.

Found some aphids there so need to look into the best remedy for those. Ideally something I can also use on the veg. Off to research!

 

Soapy water

 

Thanks Jim, I thought I'd heard that and was just reading about it on another thread! Will give it a go.

 

Planted some more snapdragons but the ground is so hard i gave up and hope that we'll get some rain tomorrow.