What are we doing in the garden 2024

Did some weeding in one of my borders and tidied my greenhouse (a bit)

But then remembered I have a blocked gutter on my house to sort out, so went to sort that whilst the weather was nice. I don't like working off ladders so I've started to fit Petzl climbing anchors on the outside of my house wherever I need to put a ladder, then I strap the ladder to the anchor. Makes the ladder rock solid with no chance of moving..

 

A discount shop near me was selling all sorts of plants for £1.50. Violas, yellow ranunculus, Heuchera and pink anemones. I’ve planted them up but unsure whether they’ll survive the cold at night?!

Apart from the planting up, I’ve spent the whole weekend working on the summerhouse. It’s nearly there-got flooring to put down and the wood burner to fit. Lights are all working now

 

I've had to trim my balls today, they get a bit shaggy in spring.
Mr B the blackbird came and sat a foot away from me, while the two Mrs Bs squabbled over sultanas. He was looking at me all the time as if to say, "hide me!"

 

Had to start putting some stone flags at the bottom of the steps I built earlier this month. When I did the steps I hit solid clay, grassed it over to tye me over for a bit but it's turned into a quagmire. Access to the rear garden become problematic. I did have couple of stone flags left much bigger than first thought, bit bigger than 3x2 four inch thick flag it nearly took me out multiple times

 

We had two days a sunny morning, what a rare moment. But it was a cold and windy.
I noticed for the first time that it's getting light around 5:30 AM. On Saturday, I separated the Dahlia plants. One pot had 3 plants and I have now all together 4 pots.
Maybe I should take my tomato plants upstairs again. They look weak.
I have two little pots as an experiment to see if it works to get new tomato plants out of a fresh, squeezed tomato. It's not a loss if they die. I will buy a tomato plant from our favourite farm shop in Cirencester later on.
We had several discussions in the GW forum about the poor quality of tomato seeds. I learned that there are only 5 suppliers that provide seeds to all companies. In 2016, I had bought a package of Mr Fothergills Red Cherry tomatoes and they were marvellous. In 2021, I had to buy a new package, and the same Red Cherry from Mr F. were awful. The leaves looked weird and the tomatoes had nothing to do what I had since 2016. Either it was the new peat-free compost or the seeds, I said. I changed everything in 2022 and 2023, but the tomatoes were not better.
I haven't really much to do, and I'm just waiting for the time when I can get active again.

 

Watching out for a gap in the rain to nip out and get some cuttings off the Petunia "Tidal Wave Red Velour" that are regrowing in their baskets on the front of the house. As usual I forgot to move them somewhere more sheltered, but it seems they didn't care!

 

I can't even get to the compost bin to put in some kitchen scraps, it's raining heavily. I hope it stops when I go to the shops later.

 

Careful there @Golarne.
It looks just like my front border, more than once I've rolled off it over the wall and into the street...
Working on slopes eh?

 

That does look like a challenging bank @Golarne! I couldn't trust myself there, especially if it's wet. A few weeks ago I fell down a bank in my garden and crashed into and demolished part of a lilac tree. Luckily it was not a new stem so I'll still get flowers this year! This incident was avoidable so it serves me right!

 

After a long walk yesterday and knowing it was going to rain today, I snipped the foliage and flowers off all the Spanish bluebells in one of my main borders, following a tip I learned on another thread here last week. (Thank you @BB3 !). It's much tidier now, I can see the ferns and tulips that are about to emerge and no longer fear an invasion, we hope!

 

Just removed the untidy wrapping that I had put round the M. basjoos.
They look rubbish atm but then they always do at this time of year.

 

I have been digging up my autumn raspberries as I have decided to use the bed for flowers instead. The raspberries were in a 2.5m x 1.5m bed for about 6/7 years and it’s a pig of a job trying to get all the roots out to stop them regrowing. I think I will be pulling them up for years to come.

 

How long is it before they usually look ok?

 

About late June.
They look lovely in september.