What are we doing in the garden 2024

Looking good @Snorky85
Plants have to earn their keep far more in a smaller space, which can make choices difficult!
I did a bit of repairing to the growhouse yesterday, just to keep it limping along for a while longer.
Other than that, it was slug removing...sigh...and potting on some smaller plants and cuttings.

Plus - the inevitable contemplating

 

Our local nursery/GC stocks Betagrow. Pretty much the only peat-based one they have now. Seems to be good, though I still find myself amending with added composted manure and grit when potting on..... I've insisted on using various brands of peat-free since lockdown, but even the Sylvagrow doesn't give the results I'm having with peat-based. And since the law hasn't changed on the sale of peat, and it's already been cut and bagged, I feel it's OK to use. Maybe the manufacturers will eventually make a peat-free that's as good.....

 

We live in hope!

 

@Loofah The garden centre equivalent of putting chocolate bars by the till.

 

So far today I've continued to play the in-out game with a number of trays of plants, including the baskets, wall planters and runner beans which I hope can go out permanently by the end of the week. I've planted out some more ammi and annual limonium, and bitten the bullet and planted out my big salvia Amistads. Lots of grit dug in and around the holes, slug pellets scattered, now crossing my fingers they survive! Hoping to leave them in the ground permanently now, they're really too big for me to handle....a couple of pieces fell off as I struggled with the weight of the pots, so I've stuck them in water to see if they'll root. My Love and Wishes is rather slower off the mark so can continue to do the hokey-cokey, or I may replace it with one of the cuttings I've been growing on over winter. No sign of the Ember's Wish, think it's a goner.....maybe time to turn the pot out and have a look....

Still have a couple of baskets to plant up but the bidens and brachycome I've been growing from seed aren't big enough yet. I bought a couple of really pretty nemesias to go in the top, but may have been a bit previous....they're in full flower now while languishing in the cold frame. May need to do something else with them....

 

I have divided a very unhappy Fargesia Nitada bamboo. It was not coping with the dark shade it was in and was looking very miserable with no new leaves or shoots. So, I have taken it out and have the two most hopeful bits potted up. Goodness it has tough old roots. Had to use a knife and spade to get through them.

 

I have moved my cucurbits and leeks to the greenhouse. Cleared but not dug over a cold frame and raised bed, to be moved. Did a bit more tying down of tarpaulin and began removing dead grass from weed matting path. Walked the dog and that was me done. A glorious day, it seemed such a waste not to be out in the garden but I have to do little and not so often. I keep waking up at 3.00-4.00 am so by mid day I am ready for a sleep, which I try not to do.

 

I went to try and rid our fruit garden of bindweed today, having seen at the weekend that it was making its presence known!!
Job done!! Until it grows back.

However, I did notice that one of our gooseberry bushes has had its branches hanging low down, to the point of touching the soil. The benefit of this, is that in several places, they have taken root, and sent out new shoots.

So, hey presto, I now have four new bushes growing. I'm ecstatic. I've never been successful in taking cuttings, and here, nature has done it for me. If they all survive, that could prove a big saving on buying new plants.
Furthermore, I may opt to use this process to obtain more - either to keep, or give to friends and family.

Additionally, I found two stray runners of mint. I have potted these up too.

On the downside, I didn't get any housework done.

 

What is housework please?

 

What I agreed to do today, while my wife was out.

Tomorrow!!

 

Nothing much just watering the seedlings and young plants. I have no problems with the peat free compost that i use, it's Westlands with added John innes.

 

What is this thing with peat free compost ... saving the peat fields? I have watched lots of programmes about reaping/farming it, but am basically ignorant about what's going on. I just buy plain cheap compost about 4.70 Euros for 45 kilos at Leroy Merlin.

 

Yeah, but what is it made from?
Peat being a natural substance that has taken thousands of years to form and it gets dug up used and then dumped.
I've got some peat based and its not growing anything well, but I think people have just got so used to it they have problems changing.
Personally I'd like to see more soil based compost rather than the grainy wood stuff that seems to be replacing it.

 

How so, dumped? All the compost I use is recycled on the garden It's the finest soil-improver going....

 

Exactly, dumped.
And disappears in a couple of years, you should be using leaf mould its more sustainable or even composted straw or manure.
I,m not one to shy away from using chemicals and other so called environmentally damaging products as you know, but I just think peat needs to be eased off on, not banned, but its just too easy, dig it out the ground and sell it to gardeners.