What are we doing in the garden 2024

Our garden beds are frozen and under snow so I did my bit indoors. I have all of my Kelsae onion seeds and super hot pepper seeds sown into soil blocks. I hope to see some action in about 3 weeks

 

Nothing today the weather has been terrible, but there's things i have to do.
Yesterday i ordered my seeds.

 

Today I planted out my newest shrub - an Edgworthia Crysantha - and then replanted the bulbs that got dug up in the process. It was a drizzly day and I got very muddy.

 

I planted the paperwhite Narcissi that I picked up half price in Waitrose.

 

Nice interesting plant I fancied one a while back , didn't think it would survive here unfortunately I were under the impression they wouldn't take a hard winter .

 

Yes, I've planted it in a sheltered part of the garden; might have to find some fleece and cover it up if we get any severe freezes. It's supposed to be OK down to -5C, and last year I think we got colder than that a couple of times.

 

There is an Edgworthia at the Gardens where I volunteer. It survived the frozen snow a couple of winters ago. ( That same snow killed lot of other things at our gardens and half the Hebe in an RHS trial at Wisley) So I think once established it should be OK.

 

Nothing much going on in the garden but I must soon transfer my daffodil bulbs from the big sacks (they go into after their show) into pots for the patio.

 

I cut down both Cosmos plants this morning and staked the two other Verbena bon.

 

Made a start with the gravel path.

Paths are difficult because they have to be intuitive to walk. I have been marking the approximate route with paving slabs for months and moved them around so that it now feels right to step down from the patio and step again into the playground between the greenhouse and shed. About-ish.

The curves look silly as curves without a purpose do, but once the pond appears it will hopefully make sense.

It was a joy to dig, the soil is clay but has obviously been improved so I'm reaping the fruit of someone's labour My back dislikes digging but my soul rather enjoys it so we made a compromise and carried on with my Grandmother's digging mantra: go slowly and have breaks.

The width is handily defined by an old IKEA drawer, 70cm feels about right. The narrow slabs marking the route will go upright in the drench (scalloped edge down, I'm not a scallopy person) to form the edging and gravel will go on top of root barrier thingy.

Plenty of levelling and adjusting to do tomorrow, but I'm happy with the start

 

That's looking good @Selleri, but also hard work.

Good luck with the project.

 

Wow @Selleri that's a lot of hard work. I'm not a scallops person either. I sure wish I'd had your smarts when I was doing the cementscaping last summer/fall. It might have saved me some heavy lifting because of the weight of the slabs I selected in order to avoid curvy ones.

The leveling part is tedious and I noticed after the snow melted that I have more corrections to make come spring.

Thank you for sharing your pictures.

 

That's looking good @Selleri

 

Great job @Selleri

 

Thank you all for your kind comments Messieurs Blackbird and Robin have also been most encouraging, egging me on to unearth more worms and conveniently chopping them up with my spade. I choose to believe that earthworms regenerate into two when chopped.

Anyways, some levelling got done, more is needed but so far things look ok. The width and the curves feel right.



I must say that the previous owner was very serious about his dog fence. It took us a good while to get this stump of the post up.



The Child and I sat and looked at the path and simultaneously said that the path would make a brilliant stream. A bit of pond liner and rocks... Anyways, one could always have some stepping stones along the "river", it would be just fine...

Common sense prevailed (for now), perhaps a path is a good idea and I will anyways make a large pond to cater for my watery needs.

But it would be wonderful to have a proper stream... Temptations!