WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

I have tried to fork over...still very claggy clay soil...and planted 17 broad bean seeds from last year straight into soil. Attempted to weed round gooseberry bushes, but only did one as the dustmen go through brown bins and won't take if they say too much soil attached to roots.

 

Planted out my broad bean plants that I sowed last month.

Do your dustmen really have "that" much time on their hands to go through the bins before they empty them?
I guess weight could be a problem if it was excessive.

Maybe they need a time and motion study doing.

 

Potted on a few seedling and plants today ( toms / cucumbers / lobelia / salvia and others )and kicked out some plants inside the GH to outside. Sowed some more seeds , got the urge to grow some more plants from seeds so may look at some online catalogue later .

Started some work on the lawn the other day , the plants kill the grass around the edge so that has to be spun around . recut the lawn edges while I was at it . Its a tedious job and not fond of but it makes the garden and lawn look neat

 

Not done much lately though as our granddaughter wasn't able to come on Wednesday (her dad was ill) I got on with repotting my succulents in the new Cacti & Succulent compost that arrived on Monday.
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I also repotted my ancient Dragon tree. It's been a few years since i last did it & since then I've taken & rooted at least a dozen cutting. Now I have a "forest" of Dragon trees! Some of which are now 4 years old & some are 3 years old while there are about 4 that are just 2 years old! I've decided to let the poor mother tree rest as it must be quite exhausting work having to regrow her branches every year just so that I can cut them off the following year!
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A job well done Balc. I like the Dragon Tree. We are overrun with Spider plants. Gave one away yesterday to friends we met up with for lunch at a Chinese by the sea and also gave a pink Brugmansia I had rooted.
PS Actually, I have a Dragon Tree (Dracaena marginata) next to where I sit out front. Must get a pic.

 

I sowed seed I got from Italy of Salvia coccinea Rosa ...

 

It is the season for aphids to rejoice and embrace the fresh growth of windowsill seedlings. The love herbs so we are going through an alarming amount of Fairy. It's usually enough to keep the aphids under control and by midsummer they tend to move outdoors. Just need to remember to rinse the herbs well before use or everything will taste like Coriander.

This made me laugh- a kind of "grow your own" approach perhaps? I left the aphids there and am watching with interest.

 

Did some weeding in the front garden while hubby cut the back hedge.

 

I sowed some more seeds of African Marigolds as the first time they germinated badly. Not sure what I did wrong. Anyway I've sown the half packet I had left & hope to get much better results with the weather warming up & the days getting longer.

 

I used to find venus flytraps always get infested with green fly.
In the spirit of British rail, it's the "wrong kind of fly."

 

Pricked out the celeriac. Planted some onions grown from seed not expecting much from them as they looked rather sorry for themselves. Potted up some lettuce plugs of four different varieties, which I will attempt to save seed from. Not saved lettuce seed before.

 

Yesterday I checked out the Geranium & Pelargonium cutting in the mini-greenhouse. As I couldn't see any signs of new growth yet on them I emptied out a cutting from each of the 4 tray of small pots they are in. I couldn't find signs of any roots at present even though they have been in the mini-greenhouse for a couple of months.
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Perhaps I'm too impatient as I see from the dates on the photos that I only took the cutting about a month ago!
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I've also got several Spider plants as I divided my big one up & so I now have 4 pots of Spider plants!
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We have three in hanging baskets and two sitting after giving one away yesterday.

 

I tidied and cut back some of the plants on a trellis, The tall roses need tying in now.




Did some other jobs as well, like tidying the raspberries, etc ...