What are we doing in the garden 2024

Sowed some beetroot seeds outside. Weeded in amongst the leeks and shallots. Sowed some more onion seeds in spaces where some have disappeared.
Transplanted aubergines, melons, cucumbers, peppers and chillies in the new polytunnel.
Removed yet more cat mess from the lawn!

 

Not done much yet. Hung the washing out, admired the roses in the back garden so took some photos (posted in Roses 2024). Just found the heating's come on, it's obviously not very warm out there. I really need to plant out the runner bean seedlings but it's quite windy as well so think I'll wait till tomorrow.

 

The poly greenhouse is up! Had to mend the zip first.

All my veg and seedlings can go in there for now. Later in the season it becomes a tomato house.

 

My tits have fledged and I could now freely move around but I have nothing to do. My street cat was stretching out and got a cuddle, if that counts as garden work.

 

Planted last of pelargonium pots once I’d turfed out the old tulips and relocated the Scillas. Painted side and back panels (2 coats) of new shed. No access to them once shed is in situ. Helped OH load up car for tip -garden waste, surplus pallets. Shed construction tomorrow.

 

I hadn't been in the GH for a whole day, so I was a bit disappointed to find my prickly pear had fallen over and split at the base. I had moved it a few days earlier as the top was touching the GH roof (it's a lean-to).



So I have cut off the lower section and will let the top part dry out for a few days and start again. I had grown it from a packet of mixed cactus seed, so it's quite old. I think it had got too leggy.

 

Since it is hot (87f) again, I thought I'd punish myself and pull two rows of brick and lay new, larger ones. The sod I had to cut out to widen the area was tough as old boots having survived for years in clay.


Next I'll have to dig up a strip several feet long to create a break between myself and next door. Once I've done that I believe the possibility of my lawn mower picking up their weed seeds will be eliminated. I think I'll wait for a cooler day. She says...

And yes @pete , I'm on the right side

 

Mainly in the greenhouse, took a few more tomato cuttings and a couple of dahlia cuttings and split up another couple. Planted into their final pots, cucumber Telegraph, rescued freesia bulbs from their growing pots, compost will be recycled and the bulbs will go in the shed for a summer bake (helps with forming/maturing flower buds).
Watered and weeded, potted up melon and courgette seedlings.
Also noticed that another buddleja is looking sick.

 

Dug up the tulips in a border and tidied the edge of the grass, there was a lot of slugs in the edges of the grass and in the border so i picked them up in some kitchen paper and took them to the wood and threw them in.

 

This week has been all about the removal of a large clump of running bamboo that the previous owners had planted without a root barrier which meant shoots springing up all over the place including next door’s garden!

Luckily the neighbour in question has a mini digger so after the tree surgeon had come to chop down the bamboo at my side and used the stump grinder to turn the root mass into dust, the neighbour and I took some panels out of the fence and used the mini digger to dig the rest out which were under the fence and in his garden.

Tonight I’ve been on my hands and knees in the big pile of soil which was left to remove any stray bits of rhizome - I really don’t want it growing back! A few more days of sieving the soil by hand will hopefully see the job complete.

Then it’s a waiting game to see if it comes back …

 

That sounds like a major operation @RM98. Do you know which variety it was?

 

It was arrow bamboo. Apparently it’s one of the less aggressive running types so I dread to think what a more aggressive runner would have been like!

 

Thank you @RM98, that one's got a bit of a reputation I think! I grow others but they are well contained and severely restricted to a small number of canes each year, lucky neighbours!

 

It’s a shame really because I really liked it and it looked great where it was but I just couldn’t risk it spreading all over the place.

I am considering buying a clumping type and keeping it contained in a pot but the experience of this one will have to wear off a bit before I do!

 

Planted out some new strawberry plants in the new polytunnel. Sowed radish and carrots also in the tunnel. Yes I know that everybody sows these outside but if we do on our heavy clay we never see them again but in the tunnel we get a great harvest.