What are we doing in the garden 2025

Looking lovely, @CostasK. The green of the ferns looks particularly good against the slates. What’s in the huge planters either side of the seating area?

I really hope the “intruder” in my pot of Blue Panda Corydalis is not a Welsh poppy! I spend my life hoiking them out as it is!

 

Yes I noticed the song of the pressure washer most of the time I was out in the garden today. What are people washing so much? How did they wash it before pressure washers, or did we just invent a new chore?

 

I've just spent a while trying to dig out an old larch stump next to where the leafmould pile used to be. I had a good go at it last year and had to give in and fill the hole in again. Today I got a big chunk of it out, but had to admit defeat on the rest and fill it back in.

I finally cut back the verbena bonariensis. I saved all the seed heads, bunched them up and attached them to the fence - it will be interesting to see if the goldfinches find them again. I took a few cuttings from the side shoots that had appeared.

I also cut back some salvias and made a few cuttings. The "cherry lips" I bought as a half-price bargain from B&Q last year has come through the winter fine and has lots of lovely new growth at the bottom. The erysimums have started to flower and I cut back the old dead flower stalks from last year.

 

Trying to keep up with @shiney ’s energetic endeavours , today I worked in the garden an hour longer than usual, totalling 4 hours. I reduced the height of the Griselinia hedge alongside my sitting area by a foot, from 6 to 5 feet, using secateurs to avoid bruising the leaves. I gave some of my shrubs some blood, fish and bone, mainly recently planted or moved, including a Cotinus, some Buddleia, a Hydrangea, a Clematis, plus my tree fern. I then pruned a Phormium which was getting a bit sprawly, moved a Heuchera into a better position and mulched the three remaining beds in my main garden with some bought compost. The joy of having a garden on two levels is that you fetch and carry heavy loads and equipment up and down steps continually and can’t use a wheel barrow. A hoist might be an idea .

 

Thank you @ViewAhead

There is more to do of course and plants need time to grow, but it is nice every time you get to complete one little step.

Those planters have 2 hebes ("Nicola's Blush"). And on the other 2 sides, but in the ground, are two young rambling / climbing roses (Lady of The Lake - which I recently moved from another spot, and The Pilgrim).

By the way, I was surprised at the colour of those "Brass Lantern" heucherellas. Unless they mean brass when it reaches melting point But apparently the colour changes from brass to "chocolate" late in the season. I am debating whether to switch them around with 2 heucheras marmalade I have in a different spot.

 

Some of mine isn't even steps, I have to scramble around like a mountain goat and the paths are really narrow. Today I was idly wondering about setting up getting someone to set up one of those line and pulley systems between top and bottom.

 

They are most probably washing their paving/patio @Escarpment. Ours needs doing very soon as it's very green but I find it very tiring, so usually end up buying Patio Magic or similar.

Just pottered around after lunch as I wasn't feeling too good this morning. Cut down a wild rose reaching for the sky in technically our NDN's 'hedge', although as they had laurel planted in front of it their side, they probably don't even know it's there. I know the flowers are very pretty and good for the bees but it was 8-10 ft high already.

 

Just checked my stepcounter watch and I've managed 8500 steps so far today just gardening. Lots of going up and down the slope, then up and down the external staircase to the front of the house.

 

My neighbours have a laurel hedge too with their old rotted fence behind it. So I get all the joy of looking at the collapsing fence.

 

Your garden is taking shape nicely @CostasK .

 

Thank you @Plantminded and thanks again for the advice regarding the calamagrostis

 

Just a thought, if your grasses were supplied with last year’s growth, now is a good time to cut them down to ground level @CostasK. I use secateurs or a hedge trimmer.

 

Now you’re showing off @Escarpment .

 

It looks like some sort of umbellifer but as you've got space, could you perhaps scrape the stones away and lift it with an old kitchen fork without disturbing the Corydalis? Pot it up and wait and see

 

Well I've been down to B&M now so I'm up to 12500! Time to put my feet up.
The fruit trees in my B&M looked very good and really big. Too big for me to carry home! But I was really there for mealworms for the birds, and they had a good deal at £10 for a 1.5kg bag. That's pretty much as cheap as I can get them online without going up to a much larger quantity. The big bags were in the gardening aisle rather than the pet foods aisle which only had the usual 500g for £5 bags.