What are we doing in the garden 2024

It has actually stayed dry here apart from a very light shower (just a couple of spots of rain on the paving).
I managed to check through the pots of cuttings and divsions in the coldframe, potted on some Salvias and Heleniums .
For the ones I've decided to keep, I channelled my inner Carole Klein and top dressed with grit.
Apart from keeping them looking smart, it means that when I'm going around with a load of boxes for the plant sales I'm not wasting time trying to remember which ones l wanted to keep. I have made the decision and I'm sticking with it. At least I think I am ....

Dug up some sections of Shasta daisies and potted them up. I believe this is what's known as Irishman's cuttings. As far as I'm concerned, the Irishman has the right idea.
The first plant sale is in around a month's time, so that's a month of keeping the slugs and snails off them. Wish me luck, it's a never ending battle.

 

Bit of a first here. Today I planted a - wait for it - mobile phone battery in some sand. I haven’t gone doolally (yet) but when I removed the battery from my (dumb) phone in order to replace it with a new one, it was quite swollen and misshapen. I believe this is due to gases in that type of battery and is a bit of a hazard. No wonder the charge wasn’t lasting very long

 

Not much its raining again and to wet to be walking around in the garden . Took some seed trays to the GH . While in there I inspected some plants to see if they are shooting, looks like I've lost a Canna - Gloriosia some salvias and some other bits .

Popped to the Garden centre it looked like it had stopping raining for the day when I set off there and back it rained on me . Didn't see much but I did like the look of a new Mahonia called Volanco must of been 20-25cm tall £45 I couldn't put that hot stuff down fast enough . I did go for some dahlias but garden centre's don't stock them like they used to 10 year ago they'd be full walls space full of them , now you'd be lucky to see more than 12 .

 

Well I decided to get my early potatoes and onions in today. My planter was a bit damp but at least it didn't start raining again before I came in …. They’ll either grow or they won’t.

 

@That mahonia looks good, @Perki, though a bit pricey. Was it in flower? My Soft Caress flowers in late autumn and it’s quite slow growing in a pot.

I’ve been in the garden again - I have to take full advantage of the days off. I’ve finally got around to planting The Poet’s Wife rose in a pot, not a large pot, but it should be alright for this year. Planted out even more geum divisions that should flower in a couple of weeks (Samba Sunset, Coral Tempest and Totally Tangerine). Planted some interesting hemerocallis I’ve ordered bareroot last summer. Moved an agapanthus that seems to have survived the constantly wet soil. Looking forward to seeing everything in bloom again.

What does one do with an ivy that has been used in a mixed pot but now has grown too large?

 

@pitter-patter the mahonia wasn't flowering looks to be a orange version of Soft caress , I've been eying ones of these up for a bit as well as sweet winter but they are expensive . Could take the Ivy out and split it / rip it apart and replant or go for a bigger pot.

 

I've basically been doing things to assist the OH this afternoon.
Our vendor left us a huge patio planter, full of dying plants. OH would like to replace them with some of the herbs we bought, so could I "just" extract the soil, sieve it all, remove the weed roots, and prepare the pot for the new plants!!
Love is . . . . . !!!
The soil was severely compacted, it had old bits of polystyrene halfway down (which had to go), and as I reached the lower half, I found two holes in the side.
So OH decided to put the plants in smaller pots. Fine by me. Less work - although I still needed to sieve all the soil from the large pot.
On a wander down the garden, I glanced behind the shed and found - another enormous planter!!
OH informed, she decides to swap the new plants from the smaller pots to the one found.
Extra work!!
Then, I've been dividing a chrysanthemum that has become pot bound. Already got four new ones, and I reckon I can get another dozen from the old plant.
So, with everything sorted, I get my rest - only there's still the hydrangea to dig a hole for, a lavender to remove and replace, and a couple of digitalis to find a spot for.

 

I have been using my own compost since 2023 to be sustainable and did so this year, but the soil is so wet and there are millions of earthworms in my compost. I bought a sieve today but got hardly useable soil, because my soil is so wet and heavy. I need to fine a way to get the compost drier.

 

The list of gardening jobs just keeps getting bigger, @RowlandsCastle! For one thing I cross of my list, I add another ten.

@Perki I’ll try to split it and replant, I didn’t realise I could do that.

 

Wandered down the garden to find that our gooseberry, tayberry and blueberry bushes have all settled in nicely, and I must take some photos of a plant which has spread across the garden on several upright posts and cross pieces above head height. It is just starting to flower, and I've no idea what it is.

Tomorrow!!

 

I have hopefully sorted out my very small pond ina plastic barrel pot. New plants arrived today in a kit supposedly including a pot and soil and gravel, but I decided one pot would not be big enough for a Pickerel weed, Iris Laevigata and something else. So I rescued two baskets from other plants that I had taken out the other day and sieved some garden soil to fill them.
Then I did a balancing act with bricks for them to stand on, and added Nymphaea Pygmea Rubra, which will hopefully flower this year. It has been in 2 or 3 years but never flowered, but it looks healthy with new leaves coming.
Not sure how good a job I did as it is blowing a hooley here and things kept blowing around the patio, but at least it's done and I can cross it off my list.
Now inside with a coffee and trying to get onto Dobies website which seems to have crashed - they have a free postage offer.

 

It turned out nice yesterday afternoon and the wind had dried the grass so I went out and cut it, trimmed the edges of one section and trimmed my gold lonicera mini-hedge while I was down at ground level.
This afternoon's garden jobs: potting up last year's cutting/seed raised plants and another bout of bluebell-removing (I spotted some yesterday).

 

@JennyJB Our mower went for its spring service too late - OH forgot I suggested December and left it till mid March. It came back last week so the grass is now far too long and is also too wet for both our sit on and the motor push-me mower. 2.5 acres of grass with occasional beds is too much to strim so OH is getting a man in to get it under control.

I shall wait and see how that goes and also book the thing in myself at the end of the year and I'll also get him to raise the blades to the highest position and not say a word to OH who believes in scalping.

 

I start my grass cutting as early as I can because my little push-along cylinder mower doesn't do well with long grass, and I don't own a strimmer so it's a hand shears job if I let it get away. Sandy soil helps (it dries quickly) and only small areas of grass. Also, no motor involved so I can (if I want to) carry on if it starts spitting with drizzle while I'm doing it.