What are we doing in the garden 2025

It's meant to get a lot warmer later in the week

 

Today looks dry and i feel the inclination to get outside and do stuff , starting with the first use of the long reach cordless hedgetrimmer that i bought yesterday . I just need to pick my moment as the back of my hedge is against a field which has horses in and they WILL investigate what i am up to. I really like horses but i like to keep them in view if i have to venture into the field. I am a bit over a barrel on this cos if i leave the hedge untouched experience tells me the birds will very soon be setting up home in there and i wont be able to cut for fear of disturbance.
I am also optimistic about the weather forecast for the next couple of weeks , double figure temperatures in prospect , its been a miserable winter with little inclination to brave the elements so i hope the will to get outside today is going to galvanise me into some serious garden action in the coming weeks.

 

@Robert Bowen will the horses come and nudge you in the back? Be careful not to trim their tails off!

 

Morning. the sun is out but i'm not optimistic on it being warm. I might see if I can get half hour in the Garden today before my hands go numb fingers frozenly crossed.

 

Although it's cold and windy, it's dry so a good day to start some border reorganisation today. With warm temperatures expected shortly I'm going to move some perennials around, reshape one of my borders and cut down a Bay and a Griselinia to a height that I can control without using a ladder. I categorise ladders as marginally less dangerous than chainsaws .

 

After putting the washing out...yes a sunny day for once....weeded in the tunnel. Dug up the remaining carrots. As an experiment the ones that were very tiny I replanted them to see if they would continue to grow (probably not but worth a go). Picked some kale. Cut up the last of the oak trunks from what we had to cut right down some weeks ago as too dangerous.

 

I was sitting in the living room enjoying the sunshine with my after-lunch cuppa, then I thought - need to get out and do some gardening / try and reclaim the jungle.

I wrapped up suitably (we’ve still got snow lying, in cold corners, from Saturday night, and I’m taking one-inch thick ice out of the bird baths and trugs). Off out I went, loyal hound by my side. Raked a few of the oak leaves from around the door, so they won’t keep blowing in as we go in and out.
Cut off the spent flower-spikes from some of the sedum spectabilis, where they are growing near paths, doorways. I’ve left some for the birds…
I went to try to remove some of the ivy that’s creeping back up the bank into the patio bed. But the ground is frozen solid. Nothing gives when you tug, and then a huge plate-sized lump of soil/well-rotted mulch comes up with the rooted ivy.

Decided my fingers were freezing inside the gloves, and headed back indoors - followed a few mins later by a grateful dog! The sunshine is much better when enjoyed from the warm!

 

@cactus_girl . You are not far from the truth there. A couple of years ago i was in the field and strimmed the long grass at the base of the hedge , always with one eye over my shoulder intending to cut the hedge afterwards . My hedge is in the bottom corner of a sloping field which slopes up to a slight crest and drops down the other side . This particular day the horses were out of sight over the hill ( but not far away) . So i got busy clearing up the long grass to put in a wheelbarrow to dispose of it.I have to say i must have taken my eye off the ball. I didnt know horses could be so stealthy , one of them snuck right up behind me and gave a nasal snort , which startled me , especially when i turned round to find myself face to face with a big horsey face just looking at me within arms length . Not only that but his mates had also snuck up and i turned just in time to see them nuzzling and circling around the wheelbarrow and tucking into the fresh cut grass. There were 6 of them , at least 10 tons worth , and just me and although i tried to retrieve the barrow and stop them munching the grass as i believe its not good for them like that , they were having none of it , so i carefully snuck around them to get back in through my hedge gate and left them to their spoils.
So , yes , i am very mindful of them , and its the same group now . Interestingly they let me cut the hedge today and paid no interest in me at all but of course the grass is already short. So , they have caught me out once and i dont intend to let it happen again , but i do like them and i miss them when they go elsewhere to graze to give the field a rest from their short cropping.

 

I went out just after lunch when it was a tad warmer at 7.3c to dig up a poorly performing rose in the back garden and planted it into a tall terracotta pot in the front garden. It's an unnamed bright yellow one so it will look better near to my creamy/yellow Claire Austin one, says she, hopefully. I finished by watering it well which may be a sad mistake tonight as the temps are forecast to feel like -3 in the early hours.

 

Nice sun here, flipping cold wind. Anyway picked up and stacked a previously cut load of prunings, pruned a Buddleja, three Cornus, removed several runners from Cornus "Midwinter Fire" before it becomes a thicket, dug up several ash seedlings, then pulled up a load of spreading grass, and dug up violets, dandelions and Japanese anemones.

 

More clearing of tree debris from the corner of our garden that needs major tidying. The council garden waste bin is chokka, and I'm trying to use thinner twigs to create extra mulch, to help keep weeds from growing, and ground from drying out (although the latter seems to be unnecessary, given the amount of rain we've had - and are due).
Still, it keeps me occupied!!

 

Mission accomplished. Pruning the two shrubs has made a big difference, the garden feels bigger and I can see a Camellia in full flower from inside the house now. I moved some Heleniums into the border halfway up my bank where they will get more sun and the soil retains moisture better. I planted 3 Verbena bonariensis near the bird bath and two hardy geraniums and a variegated leaved Iris in another border to add some extra colour. I tidied up some fallen leaves from the borders and spiked an area of the lawn which has become compacted and a bit bare. Bright sun made up for the cold wind .

 

Spent half hour out, made up 2x hanging baskets with lovely pansies. Pot up a nice hellebore and Yeap it is not fun any more when my fingers are frozen.

 

I shoveled out to where I thought the bird feeder base was and after shoveling an 18" deep circle about 4 foot radius without finding it, I realized that the snow under my feet had hardened. So I hacked another 8 inches down to find the top of the tube. The tube only ends about 8" or so above the ground so it was a lot of bother to keep digging to find it.

I got the bird feeder pole in but it is far from squirrel proof because the snow outside the circle creates a nice platform for them to launch from. Not very well thought out. Oh well, they will probably get the last of this bag of birdfeed and then later the birds will have fresh.

Then I noticed a blade on one of the little overhead fans in the greenhouses had sheared off because it must have been loose so I replaced the blade and went around an tightened all of the other blades. So I had to dig again to get to the little greenhouses at the side of the house.

I'm done digging for today

 

Finished digging my little veg patch. Despite lots of added compost (from local recycling) and horse manure, the plentiful worms have not made much difference to the clay underneath. Ah well. At least it looks good, ready for the peas (purple podded), broad beans and later runner beans.
I dug out lots of raspberries and also my strawberries which don't do well there. I thought I'd move the strawberries up to a sunnier place by the house, only to find the bed (ex-lawn) was basically shale! Needs rethinking...