What are we doing in the garden 2024

I dragged the two echiums, I tipped over, down to the compost heap and chopped them up split the sawn up trunks. Cut back a couple of overgrown bushes and then dug over an area in the fruit cage. In the fruit cage I discovered that the badgers had been in there and attacked the gooseberry bushes so ended up pruning off the broken branches.
Picked some raspberries and ate more.

 

Still being surprised by this place. We have three jasmine trees (I think). Two white, and one doing nothing - until today

But not white!!





Cream? Apricot? Lemon yellow? Honey?

What do you think? Whatever it is, I rather like it!

 

" Am I anthropomorphising too much? "

Just a little @shiney

I can't talk - I have a chat with the new resident wood pigeon [Bob] when I'm out there.

 

Removed loads of ivy that was taking over a pathed area in front of the house. Found loads of brick work that we hadn't seen for a long time.
Harvested the garlic. Not as good as others have shown. Maybe we planted the cloves too deep?
Picked some loganberries, strawberries and rhubarb.

 

Dug some spuds for supper, harvested some pathetic garlic, sampled the strawberries, staked outdoor tomatoes, sampled more strawberries, watered the pathetic courgettes, checked the beans, fed the pathetic tomatoes, while hub collected blackcurrants.

 

A bit of pruning as the side entrance has very tall shrubs/mixed hedge bordering next door so that needs to be kept in check (no birds in that bit but there seems to be a bumble bee home in the wall). I tidied my back porch area, which is a multi-season winner as it serves as a shelter from the rain, has late afternoon shade from any sun, plus a holding area for tender plants (like lemon verbena) overwinter. There’s a seat and some pots of fragrant plants and herbs.

 

More hedge trimming.

 

Pruned a couple of shrubs back to their designated areas, stacked prunings for shredding, dead headed a couple of roses and then spent the afternoon cutting the grass, followed by an evening of watering .

 

They never thank you for their meals, do they @shiney ? Ungrateful s*ds.
That Bob character is becoming quite bold now - but mainly when he wants his face stuffing.
I did a fair bit of hacking and slashing yesterday too, as the brown bin was emptied on Friday. The rest of the Eleagnus which I hadn't been able to reach from inside the garden, so that's it looking reasonable now. It had shot up over the last couple of years, so that'll keep it going for a while.
Potted on some basil, potted up a couple of seed grown dahlias -in with a new sibirica Iris to grow it on, and moved a dahlia into a moat as it was being annihilated in the pot it was in. That wasn't easy, because I had to put it into another pot, and generally faff around with it. I think I might give up with them again. Too much messing about because of slugs. The old safe [it was in a cupboard here when we moved in] that I turned into a container, isn't enough to keep them off the seed grown dahlias and marigolds I have in it either. I've just picked off the tiniest slug in existence from them. There was nothing in the soil when they were planted, and no plants are near enough for them to bungee in. It's infuriating.
Today will be a bit of deadheading and contemplating....

 

A new "job to do".
I tried to give my niece a large clump of water iris yesterday but it is too big for their tiny pond so I am going to 'sort it out' ie. remove the grass and weeds growing amongst it, repot it in fresh soil and pot and pass it on to my daughter to plant on the edge of the river tributary which runs along side their garden. .
Many years ago I saw an iris called Papillon. Loved it but when I eventually tried to buy a plant of it could not find it listed anywhere. White with purple veining. I must have another trawl 'ont net'. I think it may be an old variety now replaced by more modern ones.
The runner beans behind their wind break seem quite happy with leaves intact. They are already beginning to climb the poles and obelisk.