What are we doing in the garden 2025

I hope your back gets better soon @shiney. Please be careful!

 

Today was bundling up faggots of the laurel hacking from yesterday. They have to weigh no more than 15kg each - I reckon I did 15-20 bundles. Now just need to fix the chainsaw, so we can chop the branches that are too thick for collection, to make another bug and amphibian hotel.

On a completely different scale, I had an enjoyable 30 mins wandering around the garden to harvest herbs for the local weekly foodbank. I managed to pick new marjoram and bronze fennel, to go with the thyme and rosemary bunches.

 

Pricked out the 12 tomato seedlings into cell trays. Hubby finished pruning the roses and did some more weeding.

 

Weeded an area that we call the dry area...but nothing is dry in our garden. Tackled a very old black currant bush. So many dead branches but still some new growth, so hopefully it will give us some fruit again this year.

 

Had a look round to see if there were any gaps where I was expecting a perennial to burst forth. No sign of Geranium Alba yet ... or a Polemonium. It was a very weedy specimen on arrival last yr. Just had one flower spike. Am thinking it might not return. Should it be showing signs of life by now?

 

Sawing logs by hand (well, by bowsaw actually), from trees previously cut down.

Checked my garlic, and I now have 15 plants growing.

Checked my Cosmos - nothing showing this morning, but by evening, two now have shoots. Isn't the concept of growing from seed, such a wonderful thing? It surprises me every time!!

 

It is miraculous. So deeply satisfying somehow. As is growing a whole new plant from a tiny cutting.

 

Got into the garden for a while yesterday afternoon. Planted my potatoes and prepped half a dozen seed trays ready for seeds. I use my own garden soil from the mound of turf we have taken up over the years creating new beds. Takes me a while to dig a barrow full and then pick out any unwanted debris (the mound is covered in ivy) and then create a fine tilth. Our soil is quite stony but I’ve given up sieving it, my back and arms object too much. Much easier to sit in the sun and riddle it with my hands, a bit like rubbing butter into flour but on a much larger scale

 

So far today I have
- moved the laurel branch stems that were too thick to go into the faggots to my branch pile under the laurel hedge.
- put the chain back onto the chainsaw, cleaning out the worst of the gunk first (thanks for the tip!)
- used the lawn mower to tidy up all the stems, leaves and hop stems from cutting the laurel, by mowing that little patch of lawn
- mowed about half of the garden, putting the full “grass-box”-es of last year’s oak leaves into the leaf-mould clamps

now pausing for a whiff, and a cuppa, before finishing the other half, which may have more grass, as the lower half of the garden is not quite so sandy, and the grass does grow there.

 

I'm still not doing much, most of my gardening starts after we can rely on it being frost free, I did repot the Sinningia tubiflora pots, they seem to grow massive amounts of tubers each year.
Once the cannas show signs of growth I will be dividing them along with the gingers.

 

I spent 2 hours in the garden this morning and 2 hours this afternoon, weeding the big shrub bed and doing bits of this and that. I'm getting slower with age! It took much longer to do the shrub bed than I thought it would.

 

I have brought my potted Rhododendron Impeditum round to the back of the house and replaced it with two potted Hellebores.
Then I cut back the rhododendron in the hope of finding some life, but no sign of green, so it has been declared dead. I have ordered Rhododendron Azurika as a replacement.
Then I came in and potted on some Cosmos and the put them back on the bedroom windowsill. Also potted on some Lobelia and Viola, which have not moved since they came through. I've pretty much given up on them so they've gone in the cold frame.
Thought about sowing tomatoes but decided it's too eraly.

 

Hubby filled 5 compost bags with garden waste and took them to the recycling centre, not much else today.

 

I finished putting bark mulch on the north facing border in my main garden which I’ve been working on over the past few days. The bamboo has now gone, I’ve replaced it with a Euonymus Green Spire and a Griselinia from elsewhere in the garden and I’ve realigned the sandstone steps to create a better planting space for a Clematis. I then used Patio Magic on all the paving and steps and planted up a container with some violas and parsley, an idea from Carol Klein, it looks quite good near the back door .

 

Today, I was pleased to see the petunias germinating. They will be the focal point of the large blue pots on the deck by the stream, underplanted with trailing lobelia and night scented stock.
I plan to spend as much time in the garden tomorrow, as the weather and my back will let me.
The Patio magic is working its... err.... magic here too @Plantminded
An interesting concept, violas and parsley. I can see how that would work. I have quite a few pansy plugs coming on.
And isn't there an interesting old wives' tale about parsley only growing well where the 'woman wears the trousers'? It does well here ...
I think my OH may take umbrage...