WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

Firstly out for a wander with the camera and 2nd large mug of tea. Then prune grevillea, prune a buddleja and Cestrum parqui (last is basically remove bits that aren't shooting). Shred prunings from today and earlier in the week. Weed, water and deadhead, Aquilegia are going over.

 

Ooh I forgot about tiger balm...I've got some, it might help with my cold!

@Aldo that was my old girl dotty who passed away in April. She loved blood fish and bone. once caught her with her snout in the tub eating it!!! Could never be angry with that cute face!

Hope the plants have survived the night. Nice of you to provide medical care for the foxes ha ha

 

Foxes are red,
Violets are blue,
I have been quite kind.
I could have smeared glue!

 

Took out the two lupin plants that were by the apple tree, then entangled within that was a bunch of couch grass. So thats been sprayed with glyso, ready for the marigolds , chives and rosemary to be planted there instead………

and now im having a nice breakfast cooked in the outdoor kitchen……embracing my inner james martin

 

Well, my local gardening centre ran out of soil and I am down to my last sack, so it is time to dig into that long forgotten composting pile and see what a few years of rotting can deliver, or not..

 

What Geum are you growing @Snorky85 ? Quite a few do tend to fall over like totally tangerine or the old variety's like lady D and Mrs Bradshaw.

@Nikolaos My Salvia Uliginosa popped its clods this winter, I did remove it from the border and potted up to have a think about it, its very unruly / gangly and seem to pop up where it wasn't suppose to be. Nice colour but flowers are much smaller than expected .

Its another grand day here again I am getting fed up of watering its all I seem to do at the moment . I've been putting some plant supports in today to late as usual but it doesn't matter. My wisteria finally leafed up I were starting to get a tad worried , no flowers again this year probably the cold spring damaged the buds I haven't seen any wisteria around here flowering properly but for the odd sporadic flower.
Think I'll plan out what's going in the large pots at the front door thinks at the moment dahlia thomas edison with some salvias plus trailing petunia and others.

I've got to pop round next door first I've dug a peony out from one of her friends garden to give to her ( not an ideal time to be moving a peony ) but first I've got to bribe a Cheese and Onion pie out of her first , A little section of the peony broke off so its mine now muahahaha

 

Jolly good idea, my favourite ... and you deserve the broken off bit.

 

First salvia I've bought I'm really not keen on Perki, as you say the colour's nice, a lovely true blue but it flops about all over the place and having to support it defeats the object of it being in a low-maintenance border! I'm surprised yours died as it's an H4, would've though that was fine in Lancashire! I already have 6 salvias in there anyway, I think if I add any more the overall look of the border will start to be a bit insubstantial and bitty!

Not much, just watered a few plants in my new border, I will have completed about a third of the work when I add the 2 Lathyrus latifolius 'Albus' which arrived from Naturescape the other day. Potted on my Abelia grandiflora to get its root system a bit more substantial before it goes in the ground after I move a rose and geranium from that area, then gave the Abelia a prune as it was growing a bit asymmetrically.

Nick

 

Being in a pot doesn't help they freeze even harder and its were quite a cold long winter , I am relatively high up at around 800ft.
Abelia are great plants not enough planted in my opinion , I did buy one for a client called Confetti really nice nearly kept it for myself.

 

My recently repotted cactus has small red nodules... I think this means its either flowering, dying or has zits. All I know is if its the latter then I'm not applying its wretched clearasil.

 

Ohh, that reminds that I have just received my potassium bicarbonate!
I will be spraying the courgettes and see if it really helps getting rid of the damn white mold.
Tiger Balm did not help for that, for some reason!

 

Apparently I have turned into a bird holiday resort Hoteliere. My new pond today saw an orderly queue of young sparrows and Starling fledgelings taking refreshing dips in turns. I was very tempted to cut some old beach towels into sparrow size and hanging up the kind of signs you see on sunny holidays "no sunbed bookings allowed" "please shower before drowning in the pool" and the like Good grief young birds are entertaining!

Anyways, got the strimmer out and strimmed everything that needed strimming, including the naturalised bluebells in my lawn. Naturalised bulbs are lovely, especially if they have been chosen by you and not by the previous tenant. My bluebells are great when in bloom, but after strimming look and feel like mushy peas gone very wrong.

Raked out the debris.

Cleaned the solar pump in the pond (friendly piece of advice- when cleaning a jammed solar fountain pump, cover the solar panel first).

Pruned the bird feeder, Lonicera Henryi is getting out of hands. Photos to follow.

Now it's wine'o'clock, a good day of enjoyable jobs behind

 

After all the rain we had yesterday the ground is bone dry and the pots/tubs too so I did some watering and also some weeding, got rid of lots of ferns that were taking over and cut back some of a Geranium phaeum that was trying to block the path to my shed. Pulled up some raspberry suckers that were coming up in the middle of my onions. Dead headed a Felicia and some Violas.
More weeds to get rid of tomorrow ... or sometime