What are we doing in the garden 2024

Resist!! A stream needs a source and an exit. If the water isn't 'cycled' via a pond or two, with all the pumping that entails, you'd end up with a long, thin, stagnant, mossie-and-algae-ridden puddle. Trust me

 

No, no, it would be like this... surely the two tiny Chinese solar powered fountain pumps would do the job...



OK, path it is. Probably.

 

Hello @Plantminded What I wanted to ask you is, we will get heavy rain with 12c on Wednesday, but Thursday 5c and -3c during the night to Friday. Do I wrap the tree fern before it rains or on Thursday after the rain?
My thought was that if the crown is soaked with water, it will freeze in the coming days.

 

I was thinking exactly the same thing @simone_in_wiltshire, as we are going to get rain tomorrow and on Wednesday, followed by freezing conditions on Thursday. I'm going to wrap mine this afternoon as a precaution. As yours is quite a young plant, I would also wrap it before the rain as the crown will be lower to the ground than an older plant and more vulnerable to freezing. I'm going to put some extra insulation in the crown before stuffing it with horticultural fleece and then wrapping the trunk. In the past I've used dried oak leaves and dried fern fronds. Good to compare notes and thank you for the prompt!.

 

I have just been thinning out my big clump of hazel, I now have a large selection of hazel poles of various lengths and thicknesses.

There's so much bittercress growing at the bottom of the garden I'm going to have to start eating it.

 

As it's a nice sunny day I was planning on rigging up some kind of cover for my nectarine tree to stop it getting peach leaf curl. But I can't find the very large sheet of polythene that I bought months ago for this purpose

 

Just done my one and also used old leaves for the crown to rinse the water sideways.
I also gave some salvias a cloche

 

I've just cut two very thick bramble canes in the bottom of our front hedge whilst I can see them and also pruned some of the hazel branches, trying to make it thicken out sideways as we have a gap in the hedge.

As wind is forecast, I took the viola pots off the windowsill again and stashed them safely away in the greenhouse. Some of the Iris ret. Harmony are showing through so gave them a water.

 

As for others, a dry day at last so I managed to get into the garden . Although I've moaned about some bulbs being too advanced at least it meant we could find a new spot for the last six species Tulips that we want to let naturalise. After a bit of random pruning (had to try out the Christmas prezzie) I emptied another container to put some Ranunculus in. Had to relocate the existing plants too. Though not particularly warm it was quite pleasant working up on the patio.

 

I've been tidying mum garden today just cutting back and planting some bulbs.

Back home sweeping the GH floor / general tidy round inside before seed sowing

Planted out some crocus and done some weeding , while weeding round the cardiocrinum giganteum notice they wasn't even there rotted off already didn't even make it to winter . pulled out all the antirrhinums and put them on the spreading pile .

Yesterday I got the stone cut for finishing off the flagging but with the weather looking poor I'll postpone until a later date unfortunately. I've got another little path to lay some more stone down so thats another job and the concrete flags inside the GH have sunk something else to get on with.

 

In preparation for more strong winds and freezing night temperatures this week I covered my tree fern with fleece again and cut down all the dried Hakonechloa beneath my Acer before they start shedding everywhere. I noticed a few weeds appearing in the borders plus a capping of moss so I hoed them all lightly and removed some more fallen leaves. I then reduced the height of a Griselinia by a foot to allow more light onto a Buddleia nearby. After walking all over the damp lawn I gave it a light raking to remove more leaves and twigs and tidy it up. It was quite a pleasant temperature and afternoon, ending with a colourful evening sky .

 

It wasn't so cold and dry today so i emptied one of the compost bins and put it in bags until the spring to use as mulch.

 

Potted up a new Braeburn and Conference pear. To be used hopefully to cross pollinate with a James Grieve and random Asian Pear tree. Not getting any fruit off the Asian at all. Was hoping neighbours pear tree would work but recently found out he had cut it down years ago

Collected a nearly new Vitopod,the biggie, happy as a dog wagging tw0 tails.

 

I was pleased and rather surprised that I managed some actual hands on gardening on the 29th and 30th.It felt so good to be outside in pleasant weather and working with the soil again after too many lazy days indoors, but today is not so congenial. Though dry at the moment it is already quite windy and cold with rain forecast for later on.
Still, it will be nice to enter the New Year with at least one bit of border looking fairly tidy. Most of the other borders are fortunately invisible from the house, thanks to the downward slope
I had to dig out some of the roots of Euphorbia Fireglow, which had got rather too enthusiastic while I wasn`t looking and needed reminding that its role, as a low hedge at the back of the border, did not mean taking over the entire space. Digging required care as the daffodils are already coming up and other plants showing signs of growth, but they may well change their minds later this week!
All the debris cleared and the path scraped and swept to clear the moss, though it looked very pretty. It will be getting a spray from the pressure washer asap, as will all the rest of the terrace, as one dose has not been sufficient to ensure safety after this very wet summer.

 

I put the lid back on the day to day compost bin. Does that count?
Fortunately it hadn't travelled too far as the shed caught it nicely.