What are we doing in the garden 2024

@Perki do please be careful. I speak as someone who has recently hurt her back through gardening.
My garden is a bit swamp like at the moment. Haven't even started weeding the vegetable garden and the peas and broad beans that I sowed in pots are germinating. It was too wet to sow them in the ground.

 

I'm in the late-seed-sowing club too. No greenhouse so I need to time it so that I don't run out of windowsill space before it's warm enough for the young plants to go outside, or at least into a cold frame or mini polytunnel. And most of my windowsills are pretty full of houseplants as well, so there's not a lot of space for seedlings. I have to pick and choose what I'm going to sow indoors each spring.

 

Book an approved tree sugeon who has a Timberwolf & stump grinder, no skip then required !

 

We had very heavy rain overnight so everything is sodden. Sun's out now though, for the moment. Trip to the GC/nursery resulted in a brunnera variagata, a silene Rollie's Favourite and a pulmonaria Raspberry Splash finding their way home with me, now planted (to the accompaniment of nasty sucking sounds as I dug) in place of a couple of dead lamiums. Just off to finish the mulching of the back borders, just one more bag of poop will do it....at least then the dog's feet will stay a bit cleaner!

 

I just optimistically planted some melon seeds, so that undoubtedly means we will have another mild, wet summer. Ironically I didn't get around to growing them when we had the 40c summer when they'd have loved it.

 

Nothing today its rained all day , still time to venture to the greenhouse and sow some seeds .
@Ladybird4 We have a lot of local stone and it was used nation wide back in the day , Trafalgar square / other parts of London is paved with Haslingden Flag, they are used like a fences round here huge slabs stuck on end. I rebuilt my other dry stone wall this January it were falling down , its got a few slabs in it I used for the steps .

Unless you have somewhere to drain the water to you'd have to go with a soak away , could just dig a hole and fill with rubble / gravel but you can get plastic soakaway crates filled with gravel that you bury , they are supposed to be designed not to clog up . I doubt it will solve the problem but its should help it become less of a problem.

 

I, probably being too optimistic, have bought some Cantaloupe and water melon seeds, they will have to go outside as I dont have room under glass.
Plan is to plant through black landscape fabric in a hope that it heats up the soil.

 

@ViewAhead and @Perki, thank you very much for your observations and suggestions. I have only had this problem in the last 6 or so years since they built a new estate up the road from me and I am convinced they have upset the water table. I did write to the Council and they sent out a man with a camera. Of course he came when we had a hot summer and the garden had giant cracks in it and looked like the Gobi Desert. Ho hum! There has now been a planning application made to build in the fields at the bottom of my garden! Who knows but this may solve the problem. I am not holding my breath though and am hoping the application is denied. Until then, perhaps I should just think 'bog garden'

 

TBH, not expecting much, but I like to experiment, according to the climate change experts I should have a bumper crop.

 

Where are all these people waiting for 'desperately needed' houses? We've had about 6 estates pop up round here, 4 and 5 bedroom houses with £40k cars on the drive. And then they complain about flooding..

 

I couldn't agree more @ Mrs. B. I have lived in this house for 42 years and the fields at the bottom of my gardens belonged to the livery stables one house along from me. They had a herd of Soay sheep in the field directly behind my garden (great lawn mowers!) and at this time of year the lambs, looking very much like teddy bears would be chasing each other around making a heck of a din. Since the stables were sold to the building company, I have seen the demise of skylarks, lapwings, hares and rabbits from the fields and I haven't heard a cuckoo for years. We do get lots of roe deer visiting as well as pheasants and foxes. Heaven only knows where they will go. Sorry for my rant!

 

I know that this is the wrong time to do it, but I have been cutting back some of the trees in our new garden.
Conifers, fruit trees - and various shrubs.

Our fruit patch has trees in all four corners, which had all been left to reach into the centre. Unbalanced trees are unhealthy in my opinion. Difficult to get at any potential fruit too. Overlapping branches pruned (I have learned SOMETHING from all those hours watching Monty Don) and dead wood cut out. Maybe we will get a decent crop.

 

Nothing much exciting today. It has been dry but rained heavily last night so everything is wet.

Removed a few dandelions from the lawn, fed and top dressed the grape vine and fed the roses out front. Can't get to the ones in the back garden as the grass is too wet.

 

Hello @RowlandsCastle. Good to see you! Watch out for the pesky little birds that love stripping the flowerbuds/flowers off your fruit trees. I get bullfinches round here that wreak havoc on mine.
@Jess91 you have been so lucky having a dry day. I keep thinking that all this rain should make the soil soft and therefore easy to pull the weeds out. Time will tell.