What are we doing in the garden 2024

My mini peach tree.

 

In the polytunnel sowed some more carrots and lettuce in the ground and peas in pots. Can't do them directly outdoors as the mice take them all. Put up some support in the tunnel for chinese yams to grow up. Long story but we have some inside as well as outside. The outdoor ones we just leave to grow (lovely foliage and sweet scented flowers). Tried many years ago to dig some up......took hours and many feet down and a broken spade. Leave them now! In the tunnel we collect the yamlets and use them in stir fries.
Filled in blank spaces in the beetroot rows outdoors and then planted out 4 zucchini plants.
Pulled up an enormous bramble from near our largest tree fern. Wow it was huge.

 

Been keeping busy all weekend and this morning. OH has been barroiwng garden compost and horse manure ino the polytunnel for my tomatoes which I've now got planted out with twirly metal support spikes and winding seep hoses.

The left side also has a chilli and I've interplanted the toms with assorted basils - plain, Greek and Thai. The right side ha s acucumber and a tarragon and may get some parsley as the PT has a shade net and the moisture they'll like.

16 Swiss chard Pink Flamingo have gone out into a new bed next to the beets and, at the end, I've planted a Potimarron and a pale Italian courgette in two big heaps of compost and surrounded them with little gem lettuces.

This morning I've been potting up 21 ivory California poppies cos the beds they're going in aren't ready yet and we're a way for a few days from Wednesday. A geum TT has been divided and potted up along with assorted cuttings and divisions i've been growing on.

3 roses grown from cuttings 18 months ago have been potted on. Have to say their foliage and stems are healthier and sturdier and the flowers ând buds fatter than their DA grafted parents in the borders. I shall be taking more cuttings of other roses. I think OH may have forgotten about my new roses bed..........

I also now have to tell him about my plans for the 15m x 30m mostly waste ground behind our terrace at the back of the house. Previous owners buried the septic tank and purification system their and then covered the ground with membrane and then volcanic chips from the local quarry. It is a minefield of annual weeds and thistles plus bindweed with roots that go down to China.

I've been watching Geoff Hamilton DVDs while sewing a patchwrok quilt and have a head full of ideas..........

 

Mini indeed!

 

Indeed!!

 

Now I know what it is... We do have one and it's been around for 3-4 years now and never munched to my knowledge. Ours is currently 1-2 weeks off flowering .

 

Ooh, splendid, @DiggersJo! I feel a purchase coming on.

 

Finished potting up the cosmos and some snapdragons, around the rim of the pots with the cosmos I've spread petroleum jelly with a dinner knife, it was like icing a cake. that's to try and stop the slugs and snails.

 

Visited a local nursery, came away with an oak sapling for our field and a packet of mixed annual seeds to chuck in a trough in the hope of some quick colour. Ordered several scented pelargoniums from Norfolk Herbs, and a persicaria Red Dragon and a penstemon Plum Jerkum from Dorset Perennials, as an early birthday present for me....
Planted the oak and a couple of pheasant berries rescued from daughter's garden in the field (or rather hubby planted while I watched). On the way home called in to Proper Job and a couple of fancy pelargoniums sort of fell into the basket.....
So they're now potted up, now I'm wondering just how to cope with the somewhat wayward and enthusiastic growth of my Orangello tomatoes in the greenhouse.....I know the description said it's vigorous, but really.....!

 

@KayJ just how big is the oak sapling? We pull up dozens of them every year and would be happy to send them out for free if people wanted them! I reckon we could grow them on to get them as big as needed?

 

I was just thinking that too @DiggersJo . I have one in the front garden that I discovered the other day when clearing the small border on the perimeter. We often get all sorts of trees seeding in etc. as we're surrounded by beech, oak, ash, pine etc.

 

How many would you like? The combo of two giant oaks within a few metres of each other and a very active squirrel population means seedlings pop up all over!

 

Is that a pinnate leaf?

 

About 5ft tall? cost less than a fiver..... Our biggest problem will be the risk of deer eating it.....

 

Keeping our bamboo in order, I hope.

The big British bamboo crisis: ‘It invaded my beautiful home’