What are we doing in the garden 2024

I’ve been looking at a rather sad alpine trough for a few weeks now wondering how to cheer it up. I’ve decided that Sempervivums are tempting when you buy them but they don’t look good after a wet winter so they’ve been extricated from the trough today and been banned! I’ve filled in the gaps with a Campanula portenschlagiana, an Arabis alpina cauc. Rosea and a Thymus Camphor chosen because I like their leaf shapes and leaf colours, with the added bonus that the Arabis is now in full flower with very attractive dark purple flowers. I’m waiting to see if the bees like the new additions too, as promised on the labels !

 

Managed to get outside at about 4.30pm when the rain stopped finally. Got the two trellis’ up on the wall and the horse shoes up. Will get a couple of climbers now-probably passionflower or something.

 

I've been in the GH today pricking seedling out and potting on , it were a bit cold in the GH so went back inside until the sun popped out , finished off later on in the oven of a GH can't win . I did venture back outside later on and had a wonder round I fear I've lost quite a lot of salvias this year hopefully they haven't come through yet seen as its been rather cold, I didn't stay out long the slight breeze went right through me .

 

I keep tugging at one or two of my shrubby Salvias, too, @Perki, in the hopes that the roots are still alive Do you prune yours hard? I'm sure that I don't savage mine as much as I should, but always wary of chopping into bare wood......

 

I committed double murder today . After discovering horrendous cracks in the retaining wall at the back of the house, there was no denying the culprits were the two beautiful Italian cypresses that stood sentinel either side of the steps leading up to the drive. One of the few areas that really 'came together' as planned, but they had to go .
Being a big Clematis fan, I couldn't bring myself to chop them at ground level, so I now have a couple of totem poles to cover with Clematis ternata and probably Clematis 'Chalcedony' if I can track it down here. Bonfire accomplished to get rid of the evidence and some of the guilt

 

This afternoon I planted 2 dahlias and 6 purple sprouting broccoli that a friend gave me. I had to plant the dahlias as we are going to the UK on Tuesday. Then I started doing supports for the broad beans and it started to rain. Not forecast, should have been sunny periods. I finished the broad beans and tied several other plants and clematis and honeysuckle to their supports and the fence, got rather wet.

 

I decided to 'loose' small bits of turf I'd dug up last week on the downward side of a new short path to our small garden gate at the top of our garden. I call it the 'compost' gate as it's far easier to unload the car at the top, get the sack-truck out and trundle the compost bags to where I need them by my potting table. I also had two old large paving slabs I needed to find a home for., perfect for the job. I dug up the weeds on the verge outside, roughly levelled the ground and just plonked the slabs on top as they are heavy enough not to move much on our clay soil. Filled in the gap with some smaller slabs and called it a day, very pleased with our 3 hours work.

 

I don't grow shrubby salvias but for 1 I bought late last year which has been living in the GH , I've lost verticillata endless love probably some V. Alba my carradonna aren't looking good either and a few other hardy perennials type it the wet which has seen them off .

 

I have a day off and you can find me at 6 in the garden.
It will be the first time this Spring that I get a chance to do something in the garden. I will take out some plants I can see trouble coming up and going to correct that now before it's too late.
I bought 13 plants over the weekend for a change in the garden that requires less work in the future, and that means less soil compression.
I'm expecting bags of compost and will prepare the bed in question for the day of delivery in a few days time and then I can drop the plants into the prepared area.
If I'm lucky, I get also the greenhouse cleaned today.

 

Ooh, I get terrible Gardener's Guilt and always prefer the evidence of my cruelty to be disposed of immediately. It's a funny sort of hobby. So much pleasure from the careful nurturing ... and then you go round deliberately curtailing life when it suits.

 

That's a pity about the cypresses @noisette47 , but hopefully the clems will materialise and you'll get a good effect with those.
Salvias are a waste of time here where I am @Perki. I've had S. caradonna but I pulled it out earlier this year as it had been struggling, even in the raised bed it was in. It's not temps that are the problem, it's wet cold. I'd have to grow them in large pots or similar, and overwinter them, and it's not worth it. Other plants that work just as well and give the same effect.
I planted a couple of things I'd been growing, and did a lot of repotting of small shrubs I've grown from cuttings, and some seed sown perennials etc. I also managed to take a chunk out of the palm of my hand, up near my thumb, when pushing a supporting branch back into the ground, which broke.
This gardening lark's a pain at times - literally!

 

I agree with others over problems with Salvias this year. None of my Amistads look alive, although I do have cuttings in the g/h, and even the Carradonas are not showing signs of life. It has just been so wet.

 

I wonder how my salvias are in Norfolk. I will find out tomorrow when we go there. They do well in Dordogne and I think the only ones I lost this winter were the shrubby blue ones, despite the cold and wet and clay soil. The Norfolk soil is sandy, but dark in colour, though it's in the south and an hour from the coast.

 

The only Salvia that survives overwinter in my garden is forsskaolii aka Woodland Sage and is also in light shade. Apparently it can be a bit of a thug self seeding, but I have plenty of those anyway so one more won’t make much of a difference. They can all fight it out together

 

Over the weekend:
Did more weeding!!
Also did a snail hunt and relocated them to the rain garden down the road. I tried a recipe found online for slug pubs and caught quite a few. Its 2 teasp sugar, 2 teasp flour half a packet of yeast and a pint or so of warm water.
Also planted out plugs of shallots from seed which I am trying for the first time and some night scented stock and viscaria sown in plugs. This was 2018 seed but still germinated.
Lastly filled a bucket with seaweed and nettles and covered with water. I used an old blood fish and bone bucket with a tight top as it is supposed to stink. I had a look this morning and it was already a bit smelly. First time trying this, hopefully I will never need BF&B again!