What are we doing in the garden 2024

Not done a lot since Thursday, but this morning is pencilled in for leaf collecting and this afternoon wither weeding or maybe plant a few things as the soil is still fairly warm.

 

Yesterday I cleaned the greenhouse glass in and out and had a good clear out of pots etc. One of the GC near us takes pots for recycling so a visit next week is on the cards. We started to empty some of the summer containers read for tulips to go in. It's still relatively mild but they have to go in soon . There was a glimpse of brightness earlier but it's disappeared now so not sure what we will do today.

 

Hi @fairygirl ! Glad you weren't too badly affected by the storm. We thought we'd be ok, because the wind was from the SE, but during the night it veered to SW and sent huge waves up Loch Linnhe. No great damage done, though the end two cottages got a bit of seawater in them, and a neighbour's boat, complete with its trailer, was washed up half-way up a small island further up the loch. It looked like Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat... and was later recovered undamaged.

Gardens in our row of cottages tend to be planted with low-growing stuff (ours is just grass) as strong winds are frequent. A neighbour's rowan tree was stripped of its fruit, which were dumped on the ground like a carpet.

 

I've got to brace myself for chain-sawing some hefty oak beams as they're needed to make a new raised bed and there's no chance of moving them as they are. I don't mind using a chain saw on living wood, but very wary of using ex-construction timber, even if everything here was traditionally 'joined' using precisely-angled cuts and wooden pegs. It's also extremely hard!
Oh for a willing, capable OH I'm getting tired of doing this sort of stuff....

 

On GW on Friday, MD said tulips were in short supply due to the weather so we should get a move on and get some. I don't do tulips that much as the squirrels chew the flowers off leaving just stalks (well I think it's them).

Saw some for sale in ASDA at £2 a bag. Splashed out on 2 bags. They seem to be sprouting already, but will put them in a terracotta pot and leave them in the GH. Will have to stop the mice though. They're two different light pinks.

 

I had the luxury of my daughter and son in law coming for a couple of hours to plant my tulips and reclaim some grit ready for me to plant my lilies. The weather was horrible, dark, grey and very wet. There were some self sown forget me not seedlings in one pot which were divided and shared between the two pots for the tulips to grow through. I did the same thing last year and it worked quite well.

 

That surprised me @cactus_girl when I watched that episode as I've been able to buy tulips from the usual suppliers on line and at local garden centres. Many were offered at discounts so I'm not sure that would happen if they were in short supply (or maybe they were the previous year's stock and won't flower .)

 

I got my shrubs planted out in the front garden. Found there was a load of rubble and gravel under the area I cleared - my house is more than 50 years old but I guess the grass hasn't been touched since it was a new build. I also found a piece of rotting fabric and was concerned for a bit I might have unearthed a body - turned out to be just a sock!


Have put it in the compost bin to continue the process.
The stony ground should be good for herbs - the patch gets full sun in the summer. I planted out a lavender, thyme and rosemary that were all looking a bit miserable in pots - they were very wet when I tipped them out. Also an Eleagnus and a Cytisus, and three red salvias I grew from cuttings.
I've now got a blister on my finger from digging so will give it a rest this afternoon.

 

Worked on the neglected herb garden this morning. Amazing the plants that you want to grow don't and those that you don't do! Cut back the Moroccan mint (makes lovely tea). Continued cutting the wood for kindling.

 

Got the leaves raked up pruned a couple of Buddleja, then moved Platycrater arguta to a spot where it may be happier. This has moved into Hydrangea as Hydrangea arguta since I bought it.
Also planted a couple of Eryngium and then sowed the rest of the chitted broad beans.

 

Hi,

You're both very welcome and thanks for your kind comments @fairygirl .

Have a look at all the huge American houses with masses of wooden cladding; this is where I got the idea from; surely these huge houses wouldn't need repainting every year so I researched the paint being used; there's Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore mostly used in the US with only Benjamin Moore available in the UK.

I need to concentrate on my violin practicing; I like forums but posting takes up a lot of my rare spare time; I've been setting my recording studio up today moving things around to make me more comfortable.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Enthusiastically tackled the felled fence armed with measure tape, straight angle thingy, saw and pencil ready to discover 30 mins later that my plan to build a rustic bench using the free timber was highly overoptimistic.

I couldn't even separate the 4*4 posts (I had heroically sawn through when getting the mid- garden fence down) from the planks. No amount of hammering, kicking or other physical violence got me anywhere.

Amazon it is then, £24.99 solid wood bench. How disappointing!

Anyways, the timber will come into good use when I build my raised beds, assuming that I grow strong enough to chop the lot into a right size. Surely that will work! What could possibly go wrong?

Cuttings and seedlings seem to be doing just fine in the greenhouse and the duct tape plus sturdy plastic I have used to cover the missing or broken panes are still there.

Is it too early to start seeds?

 

Did some pots of bulbs this afternoon, the last of my Narcissus. Not a minute too soon, a couple of the bulbs had already gone soft. Also had a good tidy and sort out of the pots on the patio.

 

Definitely not Roman, I would say.

I wish I had to report something, but apart from raking the leaves twice in the recent days, I had nothing else to do.

I will have to move my Salvia into the house entrance. I had taken it into the flat after discovering that a snail had eaten almost all green. It has nicely recovered and grows happily.
This was the only Salvia April Night that made it from 10 cuttings. I had it on the window sill in the living room, but now it's getting colder and with the heating underneath, I don't want to pamper it too much.