What are we doing in the garden 2024

For me i have had a dreadful time with seed sowing this year. In spring everything i sowed failed to germinate or having germinated grew about half an inch and stubbornly decided to grow no more . Added to that my slug population discovered that carrot seedlings are tasty and decimated every last seedling - never had a problem before.
On a whim , i bought some cheap sweet pea seeds in a diy shop , my carefully chosen sweet peas had failed so i gave a last throw of the dice.
They grew.
Planted late , so they have only just started to flower but they are now in full production and now Mrs B has flowers for her sweet pea vases in the house - they may be cheap but they look good and smell wonderful.

 

Yesterday i could wait no longer and summer pruned my cordon apples , i was fed up of the row looking like Cousin It on a bad hair day. They were planted in December 2020 . The red apples in the picture are a super variety called Eden , flesh is snow white and doesnt brown , dual purpose , excelllent keeping qualities and tastes marvellous - this cordon especially is festooned and has cropped well each year , this year is the best yield so far.

 

Clearing weeds from an uncultivated spot, very hard dry soil and the remains of a tree stump all rotted away apart from rotting roots; there hasn't been a tree there for nearly 30 years as it wasn't there when I moved in.

 

Cut down and dug out one of the conifer trees this afternoon.

Okay, so it was the one only one foot high!!

 

On my forth wheel barrel of limbs and twigs just in the front lawn area, from all those days of rains and storms, the fun about a wooded property. then today, maybe will cut the grass. Suppose to be dry all week. Pict. is just front .

 

Looking like winter?
Or early spring.

 

Your trees look much better than mine @redstar
Mine are short scrubby willows and sycamore nearer house. My lovely big oaks are not visible from the house.

 

My neighbour took out the north hedge dividing our properties and replaced it with a fence. So my autumn task , or at least one of them is to plant a hedge against a south facing fence - the local bird population especialy robins , wrens and dunnocks will be missing their hedge-home but i aim to remedy that. To be fair the hedge was a horrible mix of rampant ivy , ash , chesnut ( too close to the house for trees)and the prickliest holly i have ever experienced . So i am glad to see the back of it and i still have my south and east hedges so the birds are not without opportunities to stay local.
Big hedges are very hard work so good luck with the rest of yours @Rowlands Castle.

 

Well carried on where I was this morning, found the rotted tree stump plus a buried plastic plant pot, a broken jam jar, a plastic bag, a length of plastic conduit, length of barbed wire and some other bits of plastic all buried 6 to 18 inches down.

 

Those trees are very very tall, about 130 feet. and in the fall, as you can imagine, the leaves that drop are a nightmare to get up, takes months work. We start October and don't finish till February. Front and back. Few years back we did cut down 6 of them.

 

It could be worse NigelJ , in my last house i dug up a collapsed rusty corrugated metal structure at the bottom of the garden - it might have been a home made Andersen shelter as it was 150’ feet from the house

 

A lovely view you have there though @redstar. Hope you get your jobs done
Surprising what folk bury in gardens, isn't it!

I did some jobs yesterday that I hadn't intended doing [as usual!] but also enjoyed the nice day we had, which was more suitable for me. Not too hot, and with some shade, it was pleasant to sit and chop up some fennel that I've removed from under the kitchen window. Attracts too many flies, so it'll come out completely later on. Plenty more of it in other sites. Sanded the box and gave it a coat of paint, painted the bench, got the grass cut, and a few plants planted out. Daughter was over, so I stopped earlier than normal.
Not much will be happening today until the weather clears, but more bits and bobs round the shed and maybe a bit more paint on the storage box. The gaps under the box are being filled with stuff for insect to shelter in. The bits of fennel stalk were put to good use in there.

 

Goodness! Ok, maybe mine being further away is not so bad. Anyway it rains so much here that leaves turn to sludge and can't easily be cleared.

 

I checked the greenhouse, the sum total of my gardening yesterday. Still only one tomato set, the flowers are dropping from the plants. I must get my rabbit's foot out and try some tickling. I have never had to do this before. More cucumber setting, in pots next to the tomatoes so have the few pollinators a preference for cucumber flowers?

I was all set to be impressed! Not so sure now!
I didn't go outside all day. Too hot.

 

Well here we go again. Managed to get a good germination of some dwarf french beans that we sowed in pots indoors. Today we planted out the seedlings and MAYBE we will get a better harvest than we have had so far.
Another pea has germinated! Think that peas will be on the back boiler next year after 4 pkts produced 5 in total plants.
Had to repot an orchid that was suffering and it still is. Roots nearly all gone.