What are we doing in the garden 2025

You can always do both @Mairi Lindsey - do some in March/April and see what works best for you. It can also mean you extend the season. In hotter, drier areas many people have difficulty keeping their sweet peas flowering through till autumn, but it means they start earlier. If you do some in spring, and they don't need much protection at that point, you get flowers till later on in the year. I still have them flowering in October, and it's really just rough wind/rain that sees them off. They'll manage frosts quite well at that point too.

Only topping up bird feeders and breaking ice on the pond and water tray just now. Emerging hellebores have been a bit damaged with the week of colder weather here.

The secret with protection of tree ferns, and many other susceptible plants, is to do the insulating early enough in the season. Insulation can keep cold in, just as it keeps warmth in. Proper layers done early on, will prevent major damage- even in much colder weather, especially if they aren't too wet. Up here, it would be done around November, and even in the north east, that will usually do a good job, although this year the very low temps may see a few of them off up there.

 

As it's comparatively mild here, I wait until the temperature drops to about 3C before wrapping my tree fern with fleece. I remove the fleece once the temperature returns to above 3C as if it is left for too long it reduces the amount of winter light getting to the tree and can also create a potential haven for pests and disease. Insulating it too soon can cause the crown to dry out, so I prefer to leave it until really necessary. I'm not sure that a tree fern would survive for long periods outdoors below minus 5C, regardless of the amount of insulation. In very cold regions, it's better to keep the fern in a pot and bring it indoors into a frost free greenhouse or garage during those cold spells, or consider growing a more hardy fern .

 

My neighbour to the east side of me has a laurel hedge forming part of our boundary; it hasn't been cut in many years (since before they bought the house). Today they have reduced it by about half the height - it's still a good 7ft or so tall. Lots of the cut branches fell on my side so I've been out collecting them and popping them back over the fence. The garden looks very different but still with sufficient privacy. It will be interesting to see how much extra light I get in the spring/summer - hopefully more of the morning sun will reach me now.

 

No gardening done, but I did clear the second half of the drive. Now we have a fighting chance of getting a car up onto the road


Don't reckon much of the conditions once we get there!

as normal, the snowplough turned left at the top of this stretch of our road, leaving us to fend for ourselves on the steepest bit.
(This last photo is taken looking up to the “turn” … the tire-tracks on our drive are where people turn around, when they see how bad the slope gets!)

 

Even the potting shed contents are freezing up - i have aeoniums and a large semponium hanging on for grim death in there with sacking around them but i think the die is cast for their fate. I shall keep fingers crossed and if they have managed to survive i will seek better quarters as it starts to warm up.

 

Stay warm Siân !

 

The nearest thing to gardening today was cleaning, sharpening and oiling the pruning tools. That's secateurs and snips for me and my wife ( one pair of each for both of us) plus the bypass loppers.
I recall on another forum, someone saying they had never sharpened their secateurs, I suggested that he give it a try the difference is amazing. No idea if he took the hint though.

 

Washed the inside of the over crowded greenhouse where I could reach the glass, need the ladder now.

 

I sharpen mine regularly @Allotment Boy and the loppers too. I'm afraid I use my snips for spatchcocking chicken so need to get a pair for the garden.

No gardening today - again - as it is positively squelchy underfoot.

 

@Obelix-Vendée , I do it even more than I used to. The Senior gardener where I volunteer, trained in Japan for a while. He told me the gardeners there clean their secateurs etc at almost every break, and that their masters will fine them if they don't keep tools clean and sharp. In fairness most of the work they do involved pruning, and as you know pines and conifers have a lot of resin that can gum up cutting edges.

@NigelJ the inside of my greenhouse windows are iced up. I cleaned mine in the late Autumn but the condensation still forms.

 

It's almost 11 p.m. and I think I've forgotten to close the door and windows of my greenhouse, and I'm sitting on the bed with Bella by my side, so I'm not going to check if I've done it - it isn't going to freeze tonight so my cacti will be fine

 

Ice free here this morning.

 

Nothing today it's still too cold and the ground is frozen.

 

We woke up to frosts. It's bright and sunny but frost on top of sog and bog means we're not gardening. It'll be like this all week so it's a good job I chose this week to paint my sewing room.

Good timing.