What are we doing in the garden 2024

Definitely you can prune it. It does not take offence. Do so straight after flowering. When mine has got too large, I simply start a new one from a cutting. Reckon I am on my 4th generation in 24 yrs.

 

Lets have more of these sunny day, we have been waiting long enough!
Plants are looking good; my mind is acting as if I can achieve anything “it’s just my body that isn’t reciprocating


Nevertheless, my tomatoes and lettuces are in the cold frame through the day which is a pleasure to see when sitting on the patio sipping my coffee.

I have finally managed to grow some spring onions (4th attempt) and cucumbers with be going into 5 inch pots today… plus my Sea Lavender Mix have just germinated, a little bit late in sowing but seeing that I have now got the bug I thought “ Why not try”

Hope the weather is good for everyone

 

Ahh, how well I know this feeling.

 

@simone_in_wiltshire do you take magensium supplements for your muscle cramps? I find that helps a lot. Garden looking good and yes, prune after flowering finishes. You can do it three ways - take out every third stem from the base every year so the plant is renewed every 3 years or shorten all the stems to keep it to a uniform size. You can also combine the two, taking out the oldest third and shortening what's left to keep the plant renewed and compact.

No gardening here yet today. Thursday is weekly shop but also, every time we step outside we get a drenching. Showers due to stop in an hour or so tho.

I did rescue a bonzai Hapanese maple from LIDL for 12€99. I've soaked its pot and will liberate it this pm. There were about 20 so I couldn't save them all, poor things.

 

I will keep that for the time when needed. The shrub itself looks really nice and has a fantastic colour. I wouldn’t have expected to get long branches like launched firework

No, I didn’t take magnesium. As a cyclist my leg muscles are different than non-cyclists have but it was the use of almost all body parts after such a long time that let muscles and bones hurt. It’s over today

 

Mainly in the greenhouse this afternoon after another wet night and morning. Took some tomato cuttings, pricked out some seedlings, potted up some dahlia cuttings. Moved the finished freesias outside. Sowed some Tithonia seed and did some watering.

 

You can cut prune that Spirea at virtually any time and it'll respond well @simone_in_wiltshire
I would say it's more upright than the early S. arguta types though, which have much more of a natural fountain habit.
I did some bog standard stuff outside, as we had a lovely day, with a good strong wind which stopped it being too hot for me. Mostly re potting but also sowed more sweet peas, and also started the bit of renovation needed to keep the gr'house limping along for another year. Bit of painting of one of the raised beds, and grass cut, as there's some rain to come over the weekend, and I probably won't be here tomorrow to do it.

 

You have a lovely collection of plants there @simone_in_wiltshire! I like Geum Totally Tangerine too, it has a nice upright habit. Yours looks very good with its purple neighbour, one of my favourite colour combinations.

 

This afternoon I planted another Clematis Etoile Violette on the left side of my arch to match the one on the right, replacing a yellow flowered Clematis which didn’t survive its first winter. I didn’t really like it anyway and I think it knew! I then attacked the lawn again. About a third of it needed a second scarification as I hadn’t removed the moss properly the first time. I started with a rake but then resorted to my old electric scarifier as it was hard work in the unusual heat. I lightly topped the bare areas with topsoil, reseeded them and covered the seed lightly to disguise it from the pigeons. There’s a pair who are nesting in my neighbour’s laurel hedge again this year but using my garden as their entry point, feeding ground and fooling around ground which includes bouncing on the roof and calling down the chimney. I watered the reseeded patches and now have a lawn which looks like a contour map. I’ll try not to look at it for a while.

 

Looking at all the views about what you are doing in the garden.......well we aren't! The weather has been so bad that we cannot do what we need to do. Just putting our veg plants which have to be started indoors and then transplanted is a no go at the moment. Sowing flower seeds...what is the point outside at the moment and we are now into May. Surely we aren't the only ones so far behind.

 

First day in the garden since last week's cold damp weather, and feeling like the pits thanks to a bout of chesty cough/sore throat/flu. Just about coming out of the worse, I can't remember feeling this bad when I had covid. Wasn't going to do any gardening today, but when I went out to hang the washing something caught my eye and before I knew it I was sorting out urgent stuff in the garden. I've got loads of seedlings that need to be planted, but before I can plant them, a raised bed, several troughs, and 4 or 5 hanging baskets has to be filled with a compost mix.

Wrapping some wire mesh around a water to grow plants as a camouflage is something that's been rattling round my little brain, like how to do it. After cutting the thick grass in the lawn, I got stuck into solving the water butt problem. This year I hope to grow some magnolia peas (they're pretty) along the mesh. Next year I'm looking to come up with something that's possibly thicker and better.

Tomorrow looks like it's a wet day, so back to my 'other job' of reorganising my craft/sewing room, now that's a real nightmare!

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It was warm and sunny in Norfolk today. I weeded most of the long border, mostly sycamore seedlings and nettles from next door.

I also dug up the Solanum Glasnevin as it had died. I thought there was something wrong last year when bits kept dying. It was totally rotten including the fat and ugly root.

 

I don't think we need to get despondent just yet. It may be wetter than we like but here its been a fairly warm March and April, albeit windy and dull.
Its the dullness , lack of sunshine, thats been the difficulty, limiting growth of transplants,- and thus enthusiasm.
Which crops are you holding back ?, that you would have had out by now in average years. The problems this year here have not been more than an explosion of slugs (sadly, not literally!) and the emergence of a population of really small snails which I have not been seen here in the previous years.
Soil temperatures are high enough to sow annuals, carrots, parsnips, salads etc,.
Its protecting seedlings from the moluscular ravishing that is the challenge, now that the permitted pellets are safe.

 

Today labelling and slug checking 50+ plants grown for our village garden club plant sale. It's not for another couple of weeks but I have officially run out of space so these are being passed on to a very kind friend with a greenhouse to look after whilst I babysit all the rest of my seedlings. Is it me that hates to part with my cuttings/plants. I feel like some kind of stalker when I ask and quiz people "what's happening with that plant I gave you?"

 

I know That's what I said to OH when I was asked to risk it "This is what plantminded has got and they always say in Gardeners World to have contrasting colours".
I hope it doesn't fall over like the Mrs Bradshaw from 2017 or the Hitcote Lavender since 2021 (only 1 is left in the meantime).