What are we doing in the garden 2024

Did some more weeding and helped hubby with pulling the ivy off the back wall over the other side.

 

Like summer here today, so have been planting out my little Impatiens. Very unlikely we will get a frost down here now. If we do, they will have to be swaddled in situ.

 

Warm sun but windy, night-time temperatures are forecast to be 9-10 minimum for the foreseeable, so I bit the bullet and potted on the rest of my tomates, they can all stay in the greenhouse now. Potted on the cucumbers too, but they will have to continue the shuffle. Had a sort-out of growing-on plants, moved the ones in the cold frame to a sheltered shelf at the side of the house, and the hardiest young plants from the greenhouse into the cold frame. Penstemon, scented pelargonium and salvia cuttings from the potting shed are out on the shelf too but can go back in at night for a while.
Inspection of the garden showed shoots coming from the base of my Golden Jubilee agastaches, hooray!! Nothing yet on the adders, either black or little. Nor on the heliopsis(es?).....I still live in hope....

 

Nothing as rain rain and rain. The "breeze" is very very windy and when the sun does pop out it is gone in seconds.

 

I put my tomato babies out in the sun (and wind) this morning and hope they're enjoying it. Just a bit more admin to do and then I'm off to the PT to pot up more cuttings and small plants from last year. Lots to check, encourage and pot on.

 

It was still very blustery, but warm, and I went to try to reclaim more of my veg beds that were neglected last year because work on the field drains meant they couldn't be made sheep proof. 2 of them are nearly finished and got a dollop of muck to top them off.
It turned out to be a great day for wildlife. I've been enjoying the wild call of the curlew for days and he was there again today. The blackbird sang for us last year, but he has added to his repertoire and now can do trills. He is clearly very pleased with them as he sometimes repeats a successful phrase like a thrush. Daughter spotted a hare from the kitchen window down near the pond and a bird she didn't recognise turned out to be a wheatear, a first for us. She and her partner were digging yet more drains in the little paddock next to the veg garden when she got another - the first swallows this year. Only 3, but hopefully more on the way. I got the first butterfly, a red admiral and there were some pretty little bronze glittery beetles pootling about. The best though was saved for the end of the day. D and A were relaxing by their completed trench when a little face appeared at the end of the veg garden drain and a polecat popped out. We'd seen one on the webcam one night, but a daytime view was amazing. Hunting by day suggests it is a female with kits to feed!

 

I ordered some extra perennials from Crocus last week, tempted by their total discount of 50% off due to surplus stock. They were sent on Friday and arrived today so a little travel weary. The Salvia Amistads were quite advanced with flowers already. I decided to give them a Chelsea chop to beef them up a bit as they were a bit tall and possibly prone to wind damage. The Heleniums and Rudbeckias got a bit of a tidy up too plus some water and about three hours later all the plants looked a lot better. I have kept them overnight in the garage for more recovery time.

I then moved some Hostas in containers from being stored on a bench over winter to their positions around the garden, added extra grit to the soil surface and gave them all a drench of seaweed extract which seems to help at this time of year. I also mowed both lawns and decided that the 4 in 1 treatment was probably not a good idea as I’ll have to reseed some rather large bare patches .

I also deadheaded some Geums which had started to become untidy, removing all the flower stalks that were not upright. I won’t allow sprawling unless this is intended and I don’t like using visible supports, so be warned other plants!

 

Not a great deal done but I did get all my tomato seedlings pricked out. Teeny roots on them so not sure what's going on but they are only 3 weeks old so maybe they'll be OK. All tucked up in the polytunnel now so will be warmer and brighter by day and no colder by night.

The heat mat under my chillies has died so i'll move them down there tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed.

@Plantminded I live 20kms from the Atlantic coast but can't find seaweed extract in any shop and no seaweed on the shore either. Fortunately I have nettles and comfrey for teas.

 

A truly brilliant wildlife day for you @ButtercupDays .
I'm surprised you don't see wheatears regularly though. Perhaps you're at too much altitude? I often see them when out on hills, but mainly on the lowers slopes, as that seems to be their preferred type of habitat. Saw one on Friday when I was out. I think they're another bird that's in decline. I believe curlews are as well. There's plenty in the Glenshee area up here and you can often hear them, even if you don't see them.
I'm hoping to get some boring jobs done today, if I can strap up and protect my hand well enough. A fence post on the old, original boundary needs fixing. I don't think concreting will be very good for it!
Like you @Plantminded , I succumbed and bought some bare root sibirica Irises the other day...

 

It's easy to be tempted @fairygirl, but very important to fill any gaps!

 

Other than taking the ungerminated chilli seed pots down to th epolytunnel and checking all the seedlings in there I shall be doing a lot of nothing in the garden.

It has turned cold again and very grey and damp altho we're dry at the mo. The rain radar shows it coming up from the south with a V formation along the west coast and we're sat in the dry centre of the V for now tho it won't last.

 

I did my morning window sill patrol which led to some potting up of artichokes and Uchiki kuri squash and a trayful of Echium seedlings and some Giant sunflowers that D wanted. I also did a tray of sycamore seedlings, which I know some of you will think is madness. I never saw the Sycamore Gap tree, but it was on the news last night and I know how important our old sycamores are to this place, so I thought it was prudent to have some youngsters as possible future replacements. Though there were masses of seedlings last year very few survived.
It's lovely and sunny at the moment so after my break I am going to mow the 'lawn' for the first time this year. It is full of daisies, celandine, dandelions and the yellow theme continues. There are still some daffodils, preserved by the cold, the Marsh marigolds have seeded themselves all over the place, with a huge swathe in the Dell, where the Skunk Cabbage contributes its own yellow. There is yellow Kerria growing out of an old wall and the latest arrival is the cheery faces of Doronicums.
@fairygirl You may be right about the Wheatears and the altitude. We are inside the Peak District Park boundary at around 1300ft/400 m and get lots of upland birds. The curlews nested in the sheepfield last year, but the lapwings stay nearer the top of the hill. We have seen a pair of Ring ouzels 2 years running and there are snipe too. D said she heard one doing it's burbling call a day or two ago, they like our wild boggy triangle.

 

It sounds idyllic @ButtercupDays tho I know the terrain is not always easy for you. Good idea to save some sycamores as insurance.

I'm doing something similar with ash trees as we've already had to cut down 2 mature ones and have 2 more that may not last many more years. We have some younger ones which seem less susceptible so far and will be left to mature and some bairns I shall nurture.

 

My tomato plants were getting leggy so i planted them in large containers and covered them with fleece because i hadn't hardened them off.