What are we doing in the garden 2025

I have bought red foxtail millet seeds, planning to sow a few this weekend.

 

You could shred them and use them as a mulch on borders @Butterfly6, like they do at Knoll Gardens.

 

No, it's the garden centre in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland . I know the Holland Arms well, one of my favourite places on Anglesey and visited weekly. . Are you on Anglesey?

 

Sowed tomato seed 12 varieties; including Montecarlo, Black Opal, Sun Gold, Gobstopper, Tonnelet, Orange Wellington Gerald's Mystery and Alicante.

 

After work, while it still wasn't completely dark, I commited pre-medidated murder.

It was 2 plants I had bought years ago, when I didn't know much about gardening (salix integra "Hakuro-Nishiki", a.k.a. flamingo tree). I do think that the target group for them really is people who don't know any better. Their leaves would scorch under sun and then Winter would give them significant die-back and whole branches had to be cut off in Spring. I decided I had had enough with them, even though I hate killing plants. The corpses are now in my garden bin.

 

Serious hedge trimming - and clearing up of the cuttings.
All in the bright sunshine.

 

I tried a bit of prep on the veg patch but ended up six inches taller due to the mud sticking to my boots.
Tried sitting in the sun and that went in so gave up.

 

At last, a lovely sunny day! It's been cold, wet or both in south Norfolk. I was able to garden without my gardening jacket.

I pruned climbing rose Parkdirektor Riggers, finished the weeding, planted 14 violas in the front garden and re-planted Brunnera Jack Frost. The Brunnera had been dug up when the men came to install fibre. I'd put it in a pot.

Tomorrow I'll sweep the paving and spray Patio Magic on it.

 

Got into the garden, cut back a load of honeysuckle, that was growing over the fence from next door.

 

That's not a phrase I ever expect to be able to use!

 

Picked up two compost dalek bins for free from faceb@@k, these will just about fit beside by two existing daleks and the leaf mould cage in the newly named ‘Compost Corner’! Bought (more) pea shingle and spread this around the sprouting bulbs in the little wild flower bed beside the pond. Edged it with block paving so I’m not mowing with stones flying like bullets at me.

 

And there was me feeling fretful about extracting a couple of 6” tall Carex grasses.

Seriously, I understand your pain. There is a brutality to gardening I find tough to reconcile with the nurturing aspect. And the bigger the plant being binned, the harder it seems. I try to tell myself taking out something large is no different from plucking out a small weed, in that they are both a single plant … but somehow I don’t believe me.

Beautiful day here and am itching to get on, but movement is limited. Could just about manage some standing-upright activities, but unfortunately the most pressing tasks need ground level attention.

 

That is so true. I always have to justify to myself and prepare for it, then it's a quick action. As cold as it is though, it's a relief when something that wasn't working is no longer there.

I think it also depends on whether you are a gardener who comes up with a strict plan for planting and executes it, in which case plants are more like materials to achieve that, or whether you are a plant collector who cares more about the individual plants than a formal arrangement. Most gardeners fall somewhere between the two.

In the beginning I was more firmly a plant collector, now I try to stick to a plan, even if it is not a very formal one. Back then, during my first plant purchases, I would also give them names as I thought it was funny. I gave up on that - it makes things worse when a plant dies or when you finally decide it needs to go. It's better to say to your partner "babe, I got rid of the flamingo tree" than "babe, I KILLED MIRANDA!"

 

Not really gardening, but I got the whirly gig out of the shed and hung the washing out for the first time this year.