What are we doing in the garden 2024

Oil change?

 

They are from B&Q, and I bought two sizes. The two large ones are 53cm diameter at the top, these were £36 each

Verve Mali White washed Terracotta White washed Circular Plant pot (Dia)53cm | DIY at B&Q


The two smaller ones are 40cm diameter and were £20

Verve Mali White washed Terracotta Circular Plant pot (Dia)40cm | DIY at B&Q


I'm not entirely sure if they are frost proof, to be safe I might overwinter them in the greenhouse or garage.

 

I cut my Grass early on so I could watch my team (Wolves) lose in the FA Cup.

 

My text is a bit longer. I thought I should introduce my garden a little bit. Just in advance in case you are wondering, I'm German, living here for 17 years and still struggle with English grammar.

We had sunshine yesterday morning which was exceptional this winter and for a Saturday morning in particular. Wow, blue sky, and temperatures of around 5 degrees C.
I went into the garden at half past 6 and cleared the strawberry pots. Once everything was prepared, I planted all strawberry plants that I had grown in the greenhouse since November last year taken from the existing plants. It's probably too late, but due to a broken collarbone/car hits cyclist accident in September and a very wet winter, I couldn't do it earlier. I'm not allowed to do heavier stuff in the next 6 months, and projects I had planned for Autumn are now on hold.
I had already started with sowing seeds in February, managed the March seeds last week while it was not raining, and did the final bits yesterday.
Being in the stretch of Oxford Clay, our soil is too rich for Lavender. The French Lavender that I had bought last year died over the winter with all the rain. One of the two remaining Hidcote lavender was partly broken by a fox and cat play over night.
I had decided to give up Lavender and to replace it with Salvia and Nepeta. Over the week, I had moved a Salvia Caradonna from a neglected place to the new place.
At Bampton Garden Centre, I bought another Salvia and a Nepeta for the remaining now empty places, and a red Pulsatilla. I also bought 2 types of Erigeron and some seeds (Erigeron, Gaura, Foxglove for May/June sowing, and another blue Salvia).
Back home, I planted what I had bought and sowed the new seeds. The new Nepeta and the existing three Nepeta got a cloche on top, much to the annoyance of the 3 cats that visit my garden and love to nibble on the new grow.
I'm now finished with sowing seeds, and I can only wait and hope they make it. I generally sow only in the unheated greenhouse and let the seeds decide if and when they want to germinate (apart from chilli and tomato seeds). All together, I have 28 different plants sown, some of them develop but the lack of sunshine leads to a slow start.
Our garden is north facing and doesn't get at all or only little sunshine between mid October and the beginning of March. Mid March, the greenhouse is most of the day in sunshine.
The conditions are very difficult obviously. I tried to have Forget-me-not and Foxglove spreading, but they refuse to germinate and to grow. Whereas other gardeners complain about spreading Forget-me-not, my ones don't even survive. I planted the Erigeron into the sunny side of the garden hoping they will spread.

At the end of the day, I noticed that I had walked 2 miles in my tiny garden of 10 by 10 meters.
I couldn't take a picture yesterday because - guess what - it started raining in the afternoon and is still raining this morning. The attached image shows the garden on 24 February.

 

Now to decide what to plant them up with. I may plant kitchen herbs in the two smaller pots as they are accessible from the kitchen, however the two larger pots might be best suited with some large/tall planting.

Any planting suggestions (bearing in mind the border next to them is full of pollinating plants for insects)?

 

The blue sky in your first photo had me thinking what's that @Busy-Lizzie! Both lovely gardens!

 

Bmw 3 series touring with the stupid xdrive (making it even more expensive to fix). First of all the timing chain went….£3k to replace. Then 9 months later a bearing went in the engine whilst i was on a motorway. Pulled over and got it recovered in september. Had to send crank shaft and bearings away for crack testing/repair job. Turbo needed sorting out too. But car was worthless without doing the work. Just got it back now…

…it has drastically reduced my gardening budget to 0.

 

Looks very neat woo

 

Rosemary is a wonderful shrub and very draught tolerant. It's useful in the kitchen too, in particular if you like baked Camembert (with a sliver of garlic and olive oil on top.... I'm hungry now!)

A smallish Rose could also look good. JParkers had some small standard ones, how posh would that be?

 

What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over…. Apparently

 

Pricked out 90 pot marigolds into toilet roll tubes filled with compost.

and 108, of 2 different colours of cosmos, sweet kisses and apricotta.