WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

Planted out some more Salvia tender ones like Confertiflora . Tip toed around the front garden weeding . Tidied the GH a tad thrown out some plants and planted others . Trimmed the beech hedge.

Been looking at some plants for next year I fancy some Amsonia but other plants keep finding there way into my basket . Ordered some seeds yesterday , think I'll order some pansy/viola seeds from premier seeds .

 

Lazarus Day. It all started with a light rummage in the garage when I came across an old, solar powered pump that failed years ago. Being (very occasionally) a tidy girl, I decided it had marinated long enough in the garage so took it and walked towards the bin when the motor went putputput. It's alive!

After a thorough clean it went into the pond as it is, no tube or spray head, and it's now gently plopping the water around in the corner. For free. If Mr Blackbird approves, it will stay where it is. Mr Blackbird has landscaping ambitions and likes to move things around especially in the pond.

Then I wanted to pot up some troublesome houseplants (Costus Dinklaegi et all), rooted rosemary cuttings and a bit of this and that and discovered I have totally run out of compost. No worries, there are always stacks of potfuls of ex-plants that will give nearly unused compost for me.

Gathered some of the coffin- pots, and found healthy growth in a rather nice indoors fern that had keeled over in spring. Nice surprise, but I would have needed the compost.

Then I found a lunchboxful of chopped up Pothos stems in a shady corner. On their way to the garden bin they turned around to show rootlets and vigorous looking leaf buds. In a pot they went. Lunchbox got washed.

Now I'll cool off for a bit and then it's time for the Big Soak. I'm planning to leave as many shallow water bowls I can find around the garden in preparation for the heat. It's already warming up.

Late last night our hedgehog finally showed itself and came for a drink in the pond.

 

We dug up my Berberis Darwinii, planted a few months back and turning brown with a terminal look to it. We stuck it under the hedge where it can recover or pop its clogs in peace. I have another coming to take its place. I do not know what is wrong there. I have lost two new plants in the same four square meters of garden, but others around them are doing well.

 

@Jocko perhaps you should do a soil testing in that spot, it could be different there, it's just a guess.

 

The big soak is done, and the front garden is decorated with any available shallow dish to give a drink to creatures in need in the coming days. Must say that the lasagne tin and the ice cream tubs do not enhance the attempted stylish atmosphere very much.

Took an Irishman's cutting of my Viburnum, tried another branch, got frustrated and took a blunt cutting to chuck into the Irishman's pot. Technically that was advanced gardening (for me).

Pruned Blackcurrants and picked strawberry leaves and dandelion and hung them up to dry for treats for our Degus. We popped into PetsAtHome store recently to find small treat bags consisting of blackcurrant, dandelion and other stuff for £3.99

Yes, the neighbours no longer wonder if we are mad. They know.

 

I bought a soil testing kit so I will do a test before the new plants arrive.

 

Well! I sowed some cucumber seed yesterday a.m. to replace the sad, virusy plants in the polytunnel with lovely, healthy plants outside. They'd germinated this lunchtime That's a world record if ever there was one! Isn't Nature wonderful?

 

Forgot to mention that I sowed a packet of Hollyhock "Double Apricot" with a view to planting them out next Spring.

 

Weeded, pruned out finished raspberry canes, watered.

 

That's great

 

I hung the washing out & picked the first Runner Beans, now all cut ready to cook.

 

Nothing today it's too hot.

 

Watering mainly, pots are three times a day for the big stuff.
Trickle hose on tomatoes, but don't tell anyone.

 

Yesterday trimmed Salvia coccinea (Texas Sage), White Salvia greggi and Thevetia peruviana in the Courtyard and this morning re-potted the Adenium obesum into a more suitable pot. Trimmed a few Pelargoniums and watered some cuttings and seedlings.

Three times a day? We only do once.

 

Three times for some tree like stuff.
Twice for smaller plants.