What are we doing in the garden 2024

Stayed dry today! Cold wind though so pottered in and out. Pricked out some seedlings, rearranged the greenhouse so the trays get maximum sun, moved a rosemary into a different pot to free up a smarter one for the recently-bought and rapidly growing daphne, deadheaded a few narcissi. Put the little tomatoes out, brought them in again. As you do.....

Tomorrow I need to stock up on compost and topsoil, and maybe a bag of grit too.

 

It looks excellent to me, FC, well done! Slap a coat of stain on it and then high-tail it over here and build me some tomato and cucumber frames in the polytunnel

 

I wish I had your low levels of craftsmanship @Fat Controller. I have the inherited skills of old-fashioned German engineering (didn't need to the read the instructions for assembling the greenhouse), but I'm too weak to handle hardware. That makes me to a very critical customer who knows everything better but can't deliver.

Yesterday morning, I found at Waitrose 3 good looking foxgloves which I planted after we were back. My ones had died over winter. I bought already new seeds and will keep the new plants in Autumn in the greenhouse and pot them on to avoid winter damage. I also gave some of the Gypsophila seedlings a new pot.
Once this was done, we went to our favourite farm shop in Cirencester. Hooray, they start with selling plants.
I bought 2 very strong Verbena bonsarensis plants (my self-grown from last year didn't survive the winter) and planted them straight once back.
I also bought this Indian dough-kneading bowl made of hardwood, decades old, for £45 (I hesitated to spend that money for many weeks), but it's perfect as a bird bath. It's close to the new view panel which will allow the little birds to sit and wait until the bath is free.

 

Just finished potting up the Dahlias, 65 in total now in the cold g/h. They won't be watered until I see shoots emerging.

 

This afternoon I'll be scarifying both lawns to remove the moss which has now blackened after last week's treatment. Make hay while the sun shines!

 

No hope of doing anything in the garden, despite the sunshine. It's totally waterlogged.

 

That shallow bowl looks perfect for the job @simone_in_wiltshire . It fits in very nicely.

The forecast for today and tomorrow - sunny intervals and dry.

At least I managed to cut back the penstemon and Verbena Bon. and plant a Veronica "Nanna Blauteppich" before guess what ?

At least all this rain makes weeding and planting easier, I tell myself.

 

Just cut the grass and potted on a few overwintered echiums.

 

Have been sieving little flies out of compost. Tedious, but seems to be working. Didn't want to waste the bag as it has precious peat in it. Have done about 30l so far. 20l to go ...

 

I've finished off removing the bark chippings and whilst working around the camassias, I could have sworn I heard something move.I had a quick peek but couldn't see anything so I carried on. Not long after, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and saw this little one!



I worked around him but at some point he jumped off to take care of frog business. I've also seen a number of ladybirds which is an enormous relief. This time last year, my Csar plum had an aphid infestation and not a single ladybird was to be seen. It got to May and out of desperation, I bought some and some larvae as the aphids were now spreading to my green gage and Victoria plum. Managed to avoid to much damage to them but the Csar looked like a Savoy cabbage for the rest of the year. I was not happy. Fingers crossed things will work out better this year. Just having a short rest before going back out to move the bags of topsoil ready topping up the raised beds.

 

Great day today, it started off with wall to wall sunshine, such a treat.

The promised consignment of compost, bark chippings, and grit arrived from B&Q on a pallet. The delivery men asked me if I wanted the pallet. As it was a smallish one, and looked fairly new, I told them to leave it. I've been looking for such a pallet for the shed to act as holder for tools, rakes, brooms etc., tools will slide into the centre of the pallet nicely, and save me continuously getting my feet tangled with the tine rake.

I screwed together some wood off cuts from the raised beds we made last autumn, they made 3 small handy troughs. Painting them with Cuprinol will be a job for tomorrow, together with filling them with some of the compost received today.

Transplanted about 20 chrysanthemum seedlings, (Mayfield Giants) in batches around the garden, together with Hollyhocks seedlings (Summer Carnival Mixed), and transplanted bunches of Alyssum seedlings (snow carpet) into 3 seed trays to grow on a bit for planting in containers and hanging baskets.

Soaked some saved dahlia tubers for a couple of hours in water before putting them into some damp compost.

Then I had a good tidy up cos I'm such a messy worker!

 

Thanks a lot AnniD.

At last, we had a marvellous sunny day with hardly any clouds and no rain. Our first Spring day.
We went to Dorney Garden Centre for sentimental reasons. While living in Maidenhead, I used to cycle to Dorney regularly. Back then, the garden centre was owned by a family and a real pleasure to visit. They sold it to Crocus a few years ago, and the quality went down, not worth visiting it.
We the went to Stubbings Garden Centre and we enjoyed sitting there at the cafe like in old days. I bought path bark and my favourite garden shoes. I will deploy the bark tomorrow morning.

 

I sowed more seed Potatoes in bags.