What are we doing in the garden 2024

Good photos @Escarpment and pretty little birds. I think we've seen them here but not sure about this year.

I put the nestbox up on a ledge on top of a wall to see what it looked like. The hole looks far too
small for a robin and I doubt whether any bird will actually use it - what was I thinking of, £15 down the drain!

I also planted one big blue pot on the front terrace with the red (Istanbul) and white Tres (Chic) lily tulips I bought yesterday. Only just realized that's going to be a patriotic picture in the Spring. The other pack were 4 blue Hyacinths (Blue Star) and 10 Triump Tulips (Apricot Foxx)
so I planted those in two matching terracotta pots on the back terrace. I've had to squirrel proof all 3 pots with either glass sheets or plastic domed cloches tied down with string. What's the betting the squirrels will win?

 

I hope they don't @lizzie27.

I spent 3 hours in the garden yesterday, weeding, mulching and pruning.

Too cold and grey to garden today.

 

We pruned back a magnolia which has been in situ for decades and having grown very well but coming too near the house. With all the storms we have watched it and decided some branches needed to be removed. Quite sad to remove all the branches that had flower buds on but then hopefully the remaining ones will develop next year.

 

I'm planning on removing some more tall grasses when the borders and lawn dry out. I've noticed that my Camellia has its first flower and there's some green shoots of Iris reticulata starting to appear, definitely good signs!

 

Perfect gardening weather today - very mild and only the gentlest of breezes. Have been pulling down masses of dead bramble and huge woody honeysuckle, which is all a section of my hedge at the back seems to consist of now. Storm Darragh alerted me to this by bringing down a tangled chunk of it. Have managed to two-thirds fill my green bin this morning - just checked collection dates and we have a collection on Monday 23rd.

I don't think I'll replace that section of the hedge with anything tall, because I'll now get more sun in from the west in the afternoons.

 

Today i have checked my dahlia tubers stored in the shed - they all seem ok. Also pruned the blackberry and raspberry and removed all the buds still on the roses. Deadheaded the violas.
Also took outside a bowlful of Narcissus Tete-a-Tete which are already in flower. They were a surprise gift which I found outside my back door yesterday morning. I don't know who they were from, but I suspect the neighbour to whom I gave the Helianthus "Lemon Queen" when I dug them up to make room for the standard rose. She had been admiring them when they were in flower.
I wasn't sure if the Narcissus were meant for indoors or out, or if it matters, but I have put them on the garden table where they look very cheerful next to the small collection of dwarf conifers which were already there.

 

Silly wind again so just checked the bulb situation. The first Hyacinths are showing buds so moved them indoors from the porch. Fortunately they look pink-ish and white-ish, so the three remaining ones in the shed must be the garish yellow and red that came in the super-discounted 5-pack from JParkers. But they were dead cheap!

Took an experimental Narcissus Minnow pot from shed to porch, they have now been about 6 weeks in the shed with foil caps and are sprouting well. Not sure if they will flower or just grow foliage, it's the first time I'm forcing Daffs.

Amaryllis are showing signs of life too.

I also washed the dustiest houseplants and wiped the shelves to prepare the house for Christmas. Lemon has plenty of buds and the loyal Aldi cactus (Astrophytum of some sorts) has some blobs that just might be flower buds, or possibly pests formerly unknown to modern science .

I start my holidays on Wednesday so am planning to make a start with the gravel path when I'm in during the daylight hours. The plan is to dig the path to see where the pond and the planting will go, and once the main digging around is finished, lay a root membrane and fill the path with gravel.

We have dug up plenty of edging bricks so I'll put them in to be out of the way, and add paving slabs for now to allow relatively mud- free passage. No point of finishing the path before the main digging of the pond and the planting is done, but I'd like to see the shape and test how intuitive it is to walk on.

 

At Allotments today, tried burning some of the tree prunings but despite them supposedly being dormant I think they are still a bit green. I spent most of the time spraying the fruit trees with a winter wash, as its one of those rare days when there's hardly any breeze, it's dull and dry too. I'm trying an organic approved spray, they suggest to repeat in March, I also have a garlic spray for spring / summer. I'm trying all this as I had virtually no usable Apples or Pears this year. Almost all fell off early and or rotted on the tree. If I get nothing next year I might consider removing them as there's no point. The Pheromone traps deal with the moths etc the issue is with bacterial and fungal disease. I wonder how commercial organic growers keep their fruit so clean??

 

That's interesting @Allotment Boy, we also didn't get many eatable apples/pears this year either. I've decided I don't really want a washing basket full of apples to deal with next year, particularly as the taste is a bit wishy-washy. I plan to give all our fruit trees a severe prune in January (or rather OH will have to!) to keep the height in check. Going up ladders is getting too much.

All I did this morning was to sweep and tidy the courtyard but that took well over an hour.
Ditched some pots, moved others, put canes in the greenhouse to keep them dry and generally tidied up.

 

Gingerly watered some things in glasshouse - some were a bit dry, but too much watering and botrytis gets out of hand.
My cornus Midwinter Fire had become a bit cheeky and was layering itself around. So I dug them out for a friend, and reduced some of the thicker branches. This gave me material for a seasonal pot (with other branches and holly) in lieu of a door wreath which I couldn't be bothered to make (and the ones in supermarkets are poor).

 

It was cold and foggy today so needed warming up gardening. I dug up the rest of the potatoes, about a bucketful, and then dug over the area and removed the biggest weeds. I'll put weed suppressant fabric on it tomorrow.

 

Checked the greenhouse over and watered as required.
Then washed the windows again after Storm Darragh left them caked in dust. On the windward side of the house (westish) I'd notice on Friday that the dirt was oddly crystalline and also appeared to be wet when it wasn't raining. A quick taste test showed it to be a salt deposit.
This high level of salt (note the sea is East of me) probably explained why the scorching I noticed was so bad on some plants.

 

@NigelJ - does that mean the salt deposits weren't coming from your normal direction? I found around here that the winds were swirling and knocked down fences and plants in all 4 directions

 

@CarolineL I normally get salt damage and deposits after an easterly storm. The wind here was swirling around as well, but still mainly from the western side. This was the first time in 20+ years I've seen a thick deposit on that set of windows (upstairs west facing).
Also most of the scorched plants were on that side of the house and sheltered by the house from the easterly winds that normally do damage in spring.

 

I also checked the dahlias I stored in the shed @katecat58, and they're ok. They're in a clear box with some shavings, and all of them seem firm.
It was certainly worth rebuilding the shed earlier this year to make it watertight, and the extra layer of the box/shavings should also prevent them being frosted. We've only had a small number of frosts so far, and nothing too severe for any length of time, but it's looking promising.