WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

I couldn't agree more, lawns are boring and a lot of work. I got rid of them years ago The best place for grass is in a field. Much better to use the space for growing something interesting.

 

Pruned the spiraea and all five buddleias in the back garden, looked for signs of life in my new border in the front one. Got a really strong blast from the Sarcococca confusa when I walked past it after pruning the 'Buzz' buddleia, almost sickly sweet at this time of year. Veronicastrum, astrantia, echinacea, persicaria, echinops, aster and knautia all bringing up new shoots.

I think I vaguely remember the spiraea being a big success with hoverflies when it got loads of sun, but there were hardly any on it when it was in a shadier spot last Summer. Time to pop it in the sunny new border, I think. Does anyone else here get much insect activity on these? This sort of thing, not sure of species/cultivar...

Spiraea x pseudosalicifolia 'Triumphans' | spirea 'Triumphans'/RHS Gardening

Spiraea salicifolia (Bridewort) | Farmyard Nurseries

Nick

 

I’ve topped up the last part of the final vegetable bed at last, using 3 more bags of homemade compost. I had to wait until now, as I needed to lift the strawberry plants, add the compost in, then replant them, dividing where necessary. It’s also an effective way to weed around them.

I’ve also gently weeded around the shady bed (although it won’t be so shady now that the fir trees are gone). The stinging nettles shoots are easy to spot now, even if difficult to tease out of a clump of primroses. Good to see the anemones coming through!

 

Couldn't be without our lawns..let's agree to disagree and leave it there.

Mainly a ' sorting out the greenhouse ' sorta day today.
Potted on some Petunias and Diascias. Sowed some Rudbeckia ' Rustic Dwarf Mix'. Direct sowed some more Poppies in the borders that were cleared yesterday.

 

Hubby pruned some more roses and I cut off dead stems off the sage plants and a bit of weeding.

 

I moved all of the onion seedlings out to the greenhouse as the guessers are saying that the overnight lows aren't going to get below 20f from now until next winter.

The ground is solid and the snow has just melted off of most of the raised beds. Which exposed all the myrtle getting out of bounds so I ripped a bunch of that out, they broke off mostly because of the frozen soil.

Iwas surprised to see this popping up. The ground right next to it sounds like a stone when thumped with my metal claw thinger.

 

I've put all my fuchsias outside to get tomorrow's rain. I think they'll be all right tonight because it isn't very cold.
They are so dry that if I water them with a watering can it will just go right through without wetting the compost.

 

Not done anything today in my garden but to see if some seeds have germinated I sowed 2-3 days ago they best hurry up . I did go and smash in some posts for my mum to make a banister going to the top of the garden , and cleared up the ash and hundreds of nails from the bonfire last week .

I do like my lawns especially my back lawn I can get some decent stripes on, I like the lawn as much as the plants and spend a lot of time on it, to much time I'll mow at least 2-3 times a week . The front lawn is a postage stamp lawn I usually think why do people bother with such a small lawn when I've got one myself , it does have bowling green grade grass on the front but the worm cast is shocking bad , its got to the end of the season before I probably take the plunge I just need to build some plant stocks up and put pen to paper. If the lawn does really well this year I am going to be in a bit of a predicament the shed may disappear instead .

 

You'll have to be careful with them Spirea @Nikolaos I lump them all together as Spirea Douglasii which try world domination if you turn your back for to long. I recently removed loads from a garden last year . When I was a young whipper snapper one of the neighbours had them over take the back garden we used to make tunnels through them until they come out and chased us off . The garden is still overgrown with them but they are easy to remove.

 

Blimey, @Perki! Sounds like I am lucky to have a different species, mine has always stayed the same size and hasn't propagated itself, the only difference where it is now in a shady spot is that it's far less floriferous, it's always one of those plants which I am not sure about deadheading or not but when I've tried has never seemed to produce more flowers! I might just completely give up and chuck the blasted thing away if it doesn't do something exciting soon!

Nick

 

Nothing today it's been raining and very windy. Not really enjoyable to do anything out in the garden.

 

I've sown red cabbage and purple-sprouting broccoli yesterday, and potted on the chilli plants. We need to crack on with building some raised beds sooner rather than later or I'm going to have a lot of plants and no where to put them Was hoping to get out and paint the wall at the bottom of the garden today - the new shed arrives next week and is going to sit in front of it so it's a bit of a pressing deadline - but it's wet and miserable again now so no such luck.