What are we doing in the garden 2025

The County Durham slugs may be slower off the mark than the Sussex ones. Down here in the balmy south, they don’t really have an “off” season.

 

They've already woken up in my cold greenhouse and have been going for an imperial fritillary (kept inside to give it a fighting chance)!

 

I used to grow some really pretty good crown imperials, nowdays they just disappear, I assume its underground slugs.

 

Today I repotted a small fan palm (Chamaerops humilis). It was in a “faux lead” planter which looked good when I bought it a few years ago but it had started to disintegrate and fall apart, exposing the plant’s roots and the webbing which held the resin together. I think “useless” would have been a better description than “faux” . I managed to find a similar sized planter in the GC this morning, lightweight and the same colour. Luckily the palm was not rootbound so it fitted well. It took me longer to clear up the mess of the broken planter and contents than the repotting. I should have done this before I jet washed my paving two weeks ago .

 

Pricked out some of the polyanthus and Erigeron seedlings.

 

Bought a new rambling rose this morning - The Lady of the Lake® and planted it this afternoon. But first I had to remove a large Hebe to make space at the side of the arch and beneath a large Cotoneaster that I want the rose to grow through. We didn't plant the Hebe and it's never flowered so I didn't feel too bad about digging it out.

 

@LunarSea I have a Lady of The Lake. I think you are really going to love her. I have only had mine for a little more than a year, but I really like her already & she gets better the more she grows. Very disease resistant, has lovely bendy canes that are easy to train and the blooms, while not the most in-your-face each one individually, look beautiful together with the range of tones. The fragrance of the blooms is in my top 2 of the roses I grow.

 

Looks like it will be a nice day today so im going to get out in the garden. Is it too early to plant begonia corns into pots or should I wait until spring has properly sprung. Itching to get things going after along winter.

 

Not sure about planting begonia corms this early @Garden Novice, but it might depend on where you plan to keep the pots? Others might be able to advise better.

I managed to upend a large pot with a very rootbound large hosta in it, not without a struggle with a breadknife! Split the hosta into 4 or 5 pieces, replaced one back into it's original pot and will give the others away to family and a friend. Retired for a rest and a cuppa, absolutely exhausted. As this garden is on a hill, doing anything like that involves a lot of plodding up and down steps fetching compost, pots and tools etc.
I also remembered to water some tomato fertiliser onto the struggling clematis I rescued yesterday.

 

Carted a load of stuff to the compost heap, turned the top over on the adjacent heap, pruned the rosemary and the bay. Then cut back a number of climbers on the fence and the invading ivy.

 

Did an inspection for cat mess. Came up blank, but still sprinkled some peppermint oil about as a deterrent.

Looked around and thought “What a mess! Why didn’t I stick to plants that look after themselves?”

The usual late winter angst about it all!

 

This afternoon I planted two bare root roses, one in a border and the other in a container. They are bee friendly open flowered varieties, Amethyst Star and The Bees Knees. I moved a Euphorbia into a drier location and a Heuchera into a shady spot. I mowed the front lawn and then reshaped a border in the back garden, widening it to remove some of the lawn which has always been mainly moss due to being shaded by a large grass. I then raked the lawn to remove a couple of patches of moss, then mowed it, mainly to remove leaves and litter as there has not been much growth yet. More rain tomorrow, so a rest day .

 

I planted my begonia corms last week as I find they take several weeks to wake up and get going. Mine are from last year and are about 6ins across. I have had to leave mine in the GH due to lack of room in the house so they will take even longer. But it got quite warm in the GH today.

 

It was a warm and sunny day so I got a load of ivy out of the front hedge, but some had to just be severed low down. It's impossible to get rid of it. If it's not climbing up, it's running along the ground. Still getting leaves up too. It looks a lot better now it's tidier. Need to dig over the soil, but it's heavy clay and very wet. Just sticks to the wellies.

Noticed in the Times today that Dr Hessayan died last month. We still have many of his Expert books, which we collected when we had our first garden. They are quite old books but they show temperatures in Fahrenheit and the recommended treatment was usually Longlast - that really worked well. I don't think they were printed in the last decade.

 

Thanks @CostasK - all good to know. I wanted a pale pink rose to complement this Clematis which will be over the arch at the same time.




I have removed the Hebe to the right of the arch and planted the rambler there.