What are we doing in the garden 2025

Yes done some gardening!

Planted a new Escallonia, dismantled my sweet pea canes, pulled up old fern leaves, de-weeded some pots, trimmed bits and bobs and generally pottered about.

 

Been out in the garden briefly today - just general tidying up.
It was lovely to hear and see a pair of robins returning. Hopefully they will nest in their usual place.
A pair of blue tits were also about, hogging the bird feeder.
Spring is in the air.

 

My Ipsahan reaches for the stars too @lizzie27 currently enveloping an 8ft obelisk

 

Visited the new garden centre that replaced the old Dobbies in the morning, saved a lot of money since they a) had a very long queue to the restaurant and b) didn't stock my favourite variety of plants, the "Reduced To Clear sp. "

Possibly as they have only been open a week or so they didn't have any lovely nearly gone ones for a stingy person like me to grab something at a bargain price.

Anyways, came home minus bangers&mash but with a tiny Saxifraga to replace the one Mr Blackbird disagreed with, a Salty Something from the herbs section and a Chamomile because The Child remembered the walks around the fields during the lockdown when the farmer went all out with Chamomiles. All safely potted up.

Sorted out the potting disaster created when we moved into this house last August and just had to chuck things here and there. The tiny rose got nicely potted on with plenty of bagged manure (advertised as peat free- I never knew manure could be or not to be peat based... ) and bravely ripped the two 75p Dianthus in halves and potted them in the large shallow pot to replace the Cyclamen that went into the other shallow pot relocated out of sight.

I do love plant Tetris

Whilst in the garden centre we spotted wellie boot socks with a Pheasant pattern and just had to buy them for The Child who has a thing with pheasants.



And because The Child had a treat, I allowed myself to invest in a Maranta houseplant

Potting and sorting out is all done, and the patio is somewhat swept to prevent at least some layers of mud-compost-whatnots from travelling indoors.

 

That would be ideal though - the reservoirs and ground water getting thoroughly replenished in the winter, giving us plenty to use in the summer.

 

We don't have enough reservoirs and aquifers take a long time to replenish (years). What is more likely is that the heavy rain will result in more erosion, more runoff and more flooding.
Throw in more people, more pollution, more impermeable surfaces and the result is less water availability, more hose pipe bans and higher water bills.

 

@john558 Do you use compostable bags for your kitchen waste? they are so not compostable and remain in our compost heaps for years. So we do have bits of "plastic" which we pull out when seen and put to one side.

 

@NigelJ Thank you for reminding me to do our sweet peas. Had saved seeds from last year and had forgotten about them. So will do some this week. Interesting as well with you saying about chitting. For years I did the same but last year being a nightmare one for the family, I didn't bother and germination was brilliant and flowering was fabulous.

 

I chit sweet pea seeds and some others as it means I only sow seeds starting to grow and if necessary I can start some more off.

 

Morning all

After what seems like months i got into the garden!!!

Yesterday i was passing a nursery and decided on a whim to pop in. They had Amelanchier trees for £30 which seemed like such a bargain i just went ahead and bought one. Id always wanted one but they were always out of budget.

Today i just started tidying, pulling up dead stuff etc. I also got thinking about how I've been gardening up till now. I’ve always planned everything to death, researching, researching and researching some more. But the budget is always so tight i never seem to buy much of what i research.

So i was wondering, how many of you are planners, buying only very specific plants, knowing this and that will work together. And how many of you just go on instinct, see a plant you like, buy it and bung it in the ground in an available space?

 

@latimer, a bit of both I think. I do research and planning most of the time as I usually want specific plants for specific places but have been known to buy impulse plants and bung them in!

Nothing in the garden today unfortunately, it's hammering down with heavy rain and it's very windy.

 

I don't really plan at all. I research what plants will suit my conditions and look out for those, but I also buy a lot of stuff on impulse (never without checking the growing requirements label though. I don't have a lot of "full sun" available).

My garden is currently very much a work in progress and I don't have a vision of how it will eventually look. Sometimes I buy something thinking very strongly of one position, then when I go to plant it out I choose somewhere completely different.

No matter how you plan, external factors can suddenly affect you. Like I was always looking for plants for shady areas, then my neighbours cut back their enormous laurel hedge!

 

Managed to get in an hour and half this morning, before the rain started. I have started on a bit of a project. A few years ago I did a large amount of clearance and had loads of branches to deal with - mostly very ancient sprawling buddleia. I tried to create a dead hedge with it, but it wasn't very successful. It looks awful and takes up far too much space.

So I have started to dismantle it. The nicer branches - Silver Birch and Rowan - will be cut to similar lengths and used to create a new log pile. The smaller stuff and buddleia will be cut up and fed into the green bin system bit by bit. Some of the very rotten bits will be added to my "stumpery".
This wouldn't have been possible before getting my mini chainsaw, as most of the branches are too big for loppers and manually sawing them would take too long.

I found some interesting fungi in the process.

Jelly ear:

Don't know what this is but it looks very coral like:

 

Having got to know the soil and conditions here after nearly 12 years, I tend to research and plan my purchases now. I've had too many disappointments, sometimes expensive ones, but it's not their fault, they don't like shallow sandy soil, despite my efforts to improve it. Sometimes I will make an impulse purchase but usually it's a plant I already know and think I need more!

I often visit my local Botanic garden to see what grows well there and also copy some of their combinations of plants as they have the same soil and conditions.

 

If I see a picture or hear of a plant that sounds interesting I'll research it.
Sometimes I'll visit a nursery with something in mind and sometimes I just wander around and see what appeals. If the label doesn't say much I can always ask. It's the same at plant sales.
Having bought something a bit of research helps me select a space and I can generally find a space in a damper or drier area a a sunnier or shadier spot and more or less sheltered.