What are we doing in the garden 2024

I'm late with tomatoes, again, so I've put the seeds on wet paper. I wanted to thin out the other fargesias but the bin is full from doing the last one. I might cut the grass again, if I can find the plastic thing which lowers the blade of the awful hover mower.

 

Have only done a quick walk around the garden so far today. This is the geum I was worried about.



Very happy with how it's turned out.

 

Checked the septic tank! Divided and repotted an orchid. Sowed outdoors some parsley and oregano. Sowed in pots indoors sweet corn, chillies, sweet peppers, cucumbers and melons. All late but still worth a try.

 

Not a lot today, other than having lunch outside. After checking my seedlings earlier I spent my morning baking a chocolate carrot cake for dessert cos Possum's study buddy is lactose intolerant and it has no butter or cream.

This pm I'm making a carot and ginger cake to share at tomorrow's picnic lunch with fellow Asphodèle committee members as we're preparing for next week's plant fair - 65 nurserymen and women and artisans, 3000+ visitors and we provide refreshments and the décorations. I shall be making British, Greman and Oz cakes to sell most of next week and not gardening then either.

 

I only went outside to do a bit of edging, and ended up mowing the back moss.

 

Tackled my herb trough, it's been taken over by mint and nepeta and the only way I could sort it out was to tip it up in the wheelbarrow. My goodness had the mint gone berserk, it's had a whale of a time. I was pretty sure I'd planted the mint inside the trough in it's own pot but it was difficult to see. Eventually I came across it, completely fused and bound up with the mint's roots, the pot didn't stand a chance. Several rooted stalks of mint have now been planted in one of those florists display vases after I'd drilled a few holes in the bottom. The vase is now buried back in the middle of the trough where hopefully the mint will behave. I managed to plant up about a dozen nepeta plants after teasing rooted stalks from the stronghold of mint roots. I'm hoping they'll survive so I can put them in hanging baskets.

There's still room in the trough to plant some SM chives, and homegrown dill and tarragon. The flat leaved parsley I've sown is doing nicely in it's own plant pot.

Planted some butternut squash seeds. I've a mind to plant their seedlings at the base of the dalek compost bin where I'm sure they'll be able make use of any residue run-off. Hopefully they'll also help to keep the weeds down in their quest to dominate the world.

Still no sign of Victoria rhubarb, I'm pretty sure I've managed to kill something that's supposedly indestructible.

 

Lovely dry, warm couple of days....feels like spring has finally arrived! I've spent some time potting on seedlings (dahlias, limonium bonduelii, cosmos), sowing yet more seeds (cosmos, zinnias and runner beans), moving the odd plant in the borders into a better position and just talking nicely to everything in the hope it will make the plants grow quicker! I do love a mosey round the garden taking stock of things! No sign yet of any of my agastache or heliopsis, I'm a bit worried about several monarda (one is growing, four show no sign) and some of my geums are a bit slow off the mark, but Golden Joy, Queen of Orange and Savannah Sunset are off and running, with Totally Tangerine not far behind! I have an almost-open bud on rose Warm Welcome, and a lot of greenfly on Blue for You and Grandma's rose, but there was a Little Brown Job in amongst them yesterday taking advantage of the all-you-can-eat buffet! A couple of smaller roses have almost completely defoliated for some reason, and Golden Showers has black spot already....last year it was a nightmare mess! Doing the greenhouse/windowsill day/night shuffle with the tomatoes and cucumbers, but hardening off ammi, orlaya, limnanthes and cornflowers in the cold frame.
Oh, and I had a go at making supports for my asters from dogwood trimmings.....not as easy as it looks.....
I can hear hubby sharpening my grass edging shears, as asked, and he's mown the lawn so Twinkletoes aka Dazzle can pee on it without being a complete fairy.......

 

Assembled my new lawnmower today. Why do they make it so awkward!?
Then, set to, and gave the lawn (if you can call it that) it's first haircut.

I then cut back the tree growing over the shed, as it is starting to rub the roof in the wind. I was able to chop all the greenery to put in the composter, but save a number of the branches to use in place of bamboo canes. I want to be environmentally friendly.

 

I'm assuming you made the mistake of looking at the instructions.

 

@Jenny_Aster I murdered an aspidistra within 4 years of having it. They're meant to be invincible too.

@Fat Controller that's a nice bit of fencing! Do it grey. Have you got chucks?

 

A job I was putting off has now been done, putting a thick bark mulch down on my grasses and perennials border. It helps keep weeds away and retains moisture and I don't really mind if the blackbirds have a play! I got 600 litres of the bark from my local garden centre this morning, very kindly delivered to my car and loaded up for me, excellent service! Then, after lunch I prepared the border by hoeing away any weeds, made sure the soil wasn't compacted and then hoiked the 6 bags of bark up the steps to my upper garden. The contents are always damp and heavy and no wheelbarrow is possible because of the slope and steps in my garden.

I tried a new strategy this time, I laid each bag down flat, removed the plastic on the front and then used a fork to lift and distribute the contents. Three hours later, with some fine tuning around individual plants by hand, it was done. Perfect timing because at 5.00pm there was a sudden, sharp downpour which settled everything in nicely! Here's the evidence (part of it!) .

 

Ah yes, you don't want them roughing up yer veges, lol!