What are we doing in the garden 2025

I have been out and planted the Winter Jasmine against the fencve. Also brought in a bucket of compost to pot up the Osteospermum plug plants which I bought on Friday - too cold to do it outside!

 

It has been raining all weekend so the closest to gardening so far has been whitewashing my terracotta pots.

I like terracotta pots very much, for both indoor and outdoor plants. However, I dislike that "fresh from the factory" look and have tried various methods over the years to make them age quickly, or at least look aged.

So off I went today with my fresh batch of lovely B&Q pots, a half dried tub of white paint, a saucer, sponge and water.

The Child came downstairs and firmly told me off for making such a mess on her clean floor (the floor is actually mine and Barclays's, and not particularly clean ) but then proceeded to comment on my efforts with "oh dear, Mother, the lovely new pots now look so old, tattered and shabby".

The Child has a way with her compliments



I'm also looking at a bag of impulse buy of Gladiolus callianthus corms, they are not very hardy apparently so I might have them as container one-summer-delight. Or plop them in the ground and see what happens. At £1.89/ 15 I'm willing to take risks

The construction of my new raised bed needs to be finished at some point. If it stops raining before dark, that might just happen today.

 

I agree. Do you fancy a trip over to do some magic on mine? I have some Bronze Leaf I planned on using too, but I can't do such things now due to balance issues. Well done.

 

Nothing today it's raining, but Tuesday and Wednesday should be ok.

 

Yes, I also did some indoor potting up of plug plants. Mine were wild primrose, received during the week. Lovely little plants, if they don't do well I'll only have myself to blame.

 

Actually dry here, so a little light digging in the small veg area ( just to get the weeds out). Also chopped back some flowering shrubs - spheralcea, anisodontea and romneya. Amazingly the romneya was showing new growth in the old stems, and lots of new shoots at the base. I was yelling at it "You're too early - it's been frosty all week!"

 

Update: The raised bed got sort of finished and in this light it looks very proper It will only need to last this summer and was just a way to get rid of some of the inherited wood (we used the side of the ex- kennel) and the vast amount of soil we are digging up to house the path and the pond.

Some fancy type of carrots, kohlrabi, beetroots and radishes are planned, plus something small in between.

ooo... I'm checking the flights. What's the lunch menu like?

 

Not really gardening but I've dug out the channel for a French drain, I'll hopefully get some membrane and gravel tomorrow to finish it off.

 

That looks like it was hard work @Perki - did you use a grinder to get that neat edge?

 

Well done. Ours is filled with gravel.

 

The weather is just too cold for outdoor gardening, but there's plenty indoors to do.

Continuing with seed sowing, this year's theme is mixes. So I've sown hedgerow mix and bee mix in cellular trays and next will be butterfly mix. The hedgerow plants will go behind the back fence when big enough, hopefully they will reduce the stinging nettles there.

The busy lizzies and begonia semp seeds I collected from last year are coming up well and need repotting on.

I have some begonia corms from last year - they are huge about 6ins across. Just wondering where to pot them up in the warm - about the kitchen units!

I find it difficult to garden in cold weather as I suffer from Raynauds and get very cold extremities very quickly. Even thick socks in wellies and gloves on won't be enough. A bit of sun would help. The temps for next week are just 5c or below.

Still, apart from continued leaf collecting there's not much to do in my garden at the moment, but the GH could do with a jolly good clean - it will have to wait till warmer weather.

 

Some were cut and other weren't for the sharp edge no string lines used though just plonked on and done by eye, I started laying the stone from that side towards the wall and dug out the channel yesterday .

Its a bit overkill really @Victoria but hopefully it will lost a long time

 

Today I've been mostly bog snorkeling.

I've bought 25 metres of wire mesh intended to section off my small veg area from the dog, ( he likes to dig holes and generally causes mayhem), but it's far too wet and soggy to even think of walking on the ground ATM, so it will have to wait.

 

In my experience, wild primroses are utterly unstoppable. I have never planted any. They arrived on their own and set about colonising every inch of space.

Really dreary and really cold here. Was going to order some plants today, but if they arrive promptly, I’ll regret doing it so early. Am itching to get on with stuff. February can be very trying to the patience, gardening-wise.

 

I can so relate to the dog problem! My fourlegged fiend likes to lie down on a nice warm, finely-tilled veg bed. So all my veg beds look like I’m expecting triffid beanstalks to arrive at any moment, to stop him. Next garden will definitely have a gated, fenced veg area!