What are we doing in the garden 2024

More gardening at the daughter's this morning.....completed ripping out some straggly overgrown bushy things to make room for nice things. Lunch in the sun with the family, then home to remove the two worst (ie probably dead) monardas, though I potted them up just in case, and plant some cornflowers out and pot up another couple of bush tomatoes into their final fabric pots. Ran out of compost....oh dear that means another trip to the garden centre... Moved the young dahlias grown from seed to the cold frame to start hardening off (hoping the slugs don't find them) and watered stuff.
I love wandering round the garden seeing what's going on, things change so quickly at this time of year. Lots of things waking up now....agastache Golden Jubilee suddenly has strong growth from the base, and lots of little seedlings round them as a Brucie bonus! Heliopsis Summer Sun also up and running, though no sign of the other two varieties yet. Salvia Amistad is holding its own in the garden against the slugs, and Love & Wishes is finally putting on some growth, after I turned it out of its pot, raked off some of the old compost and repotted it in fresh.

 

Been out visiting gardens but when we got home, just after 5, I changed into scruffy gardening trousers and boots and trotted off to check all the seedlings and other treasures. Another beeping snail has eaten a chilli and a tomato and some tradescantia I was rooting! It is now a squished snail.

Planted out broccoli and pointy cabbages and watered them in well. Now to get on with dinner.

 

I finally bit the bullet and began "very deep cleaning" the conservatory until it got too hot then retired inside the house. Still loads to do, I moved everything to one end, vacuumed, swept the roof and windows ready for the big wash down. Have a collection of toothbrushes, toilet brushes, clothes and mop and bucket, ready to start again. Because of a blocked gutter I had a very bad attack of condensation and mould throughout the whole conservatory this winter, not helped by the weather so it is not just a quick wipe down.
I will have to do it in stages as my back will not cope with more than an hour or two.

 

Another busy day planting out, mowing, watering pots, and potting on the stuff I'm not quite sure what to do with.
Finally got the chance to sit quietly with a glass of wine. 7.30pm and it's 21 degrees. Lovely!

I do love this time of year. Something new bursts into flower every day, the garden looks great, and there's so much yet to flower still to look forward to!

 

Potted-on last year’s cuttings of pelargoniums, salvia and roses. The rose is an unknown rambler with small white flowers and it is really special to me because the cutting I originally had was from a lovely person who looked after my late Mum. One of the two year old rose cuttings is ear-marked for my Sister as part of her Birthday pressie.

 

Mowed the grass. Trimmed some of the bushes, avoiding the areas where the wood pigeons, magpies, robins, great tits and coal tits are nesting. All seem to be highly active in going back and forth with food, and I can hear the chicks squealing. I'm not sure where the blackbirds are - maybe in one of the trees next door.
If the weather is fine on Saturday, we should have a number of visitors, so the place needs to look tidy.

 

Nothing outside but i sowed the rest of the wallflower seeds.

 

I haven't been to busy in the garden recently very busy working instead .

I did finally get round to sorting the lawn out at weekend recut the edges feed etc I normally do this type of job in March . The garden starting to fill out now but its more noticeable which plants have succumbed to the wet winter, got some salvias to replace and monardas aren't looking to good either but I do take monarda cutting with them being a tad fickle at times, the rudbeckia praire glow looked to of disappeared was hoping for at least another year , a trip to a nursery is in order. Its raining today so I'll venture into the GH.

 

I find that R. Prairie Glow never comes back here. I grow it from seed but get the one year.

 

Got in from work and went straight to the garden to start picking off slugs. First up they went for a swim and any that made it out, got a free flight over the garden gate. Yesterday I planted out rudbeckias, thunbergias and swapped out one of the sweet peas that didn't seem to be making much progress. The last thing I wanted was for the slugs to demolish them, I'm not made of rudbeckias The narcissi that had their buds munched off are having another crack at flowering but some have already suffered the same fate.

@fairygirl We're consistently baffled as to how slugs get in the house!

 

Planted out Cerinthe, cornflower “Black Ball” and a Verbena bon. Buenos Aires. Sweet peas romping away. To deter slugs etc have surrounded the obelisk with copper rings well butted together. Seems to have worked so far. Once the sweet peas have grown more I’ll use the rings for some young dahlia plants.
My clematis sieboldii has taken well and is about to flower. The two salvaged clematis left by previous house owner are doing nicely, they were in miniscule pots and on their last legs when we moved in. Now in large pots with fresh soil/compost they’re responding fine.

 

I often bring them in on my shoes @Februarysgirl , but also on containers - the plants that are out for a while through the day, and back in at night.
If we're not going to get proper winter weather here in future, I'm going to give up on clematis - the large flowered ones anyway. They just get annihilated as soon as they appear. At least with proper winter weather, we get a bit of a chance with them, and can usually get them past that early stage in the year.
I've got two which I've endlessly picked slugs off, and I'm just going to have to dig them up and pot them or something. One has already had that treatment, but I grew it on, and replanted it last summer, and it's got to about 2 inches this year, and I've picked slugs off it three times already today. The other one has had every scrap of foliage eaten. I'm fed up with it - the expense and the disappointment. The early ones I have are well established, and they're fine because of the growth habit, but I got a new Miss Bateman last year, or the year before, which was doing quite well initially - but the one flower that's opened is like a lace doily.

 

I hear you all those with slug issues. I have plenty of birds in the garden and usually hedgehogs and frogs but still a big problem. I go to all sorts of lengths to protect my young plants - my courgettes and sweet peas (and any cuttings/sowings I do) are on a table which is fairly successful. My Lupin is on a moat of water and has tin foil below the flower spike (did cover the whole flower as it was forming as I had a munch out one day).

I’ve potted-on the sweet peas today and trimmed the side of a hedge by the driveway (no birds in that). I’ve also culled my failed courgettes (the ones I have now were bought) and one tray of Cosmos ‘Kiiro’ didn’t germinate (seeds a few years old but disappointed as they are a lovely variety- white/pale lemon).

 

The moat approach is good here @AuntyRach - and I also make a small support and put plants in the pond shallows. I currently have one of the dahlias [which is in a large terracotta pot] in there.
All the lettuces have to be done like that to ensure they survive. It's not attractive though, so I have to pick and choose where I put things.
My sweet peas are mostly planted in pots, and I'm using the metal ones for them this year. I planted a few out yesterday, and the others will be done [in raised beds] when they're bigger. Some simply won't make it though.
I live near a small N.Trust garden. You'd think it would be helpful - but it's the opposite. Frogs have no great need to leave the pond there, and all the other nearby areas of water. Hedgehogs don't visit enough to be effective at all.

 

I think I need to invent pots with a moat build-in! It’s the most successful deterrent I’ve found so I can understand your pond idea @fairygirl