What are we doing in the garden 2025

Today I divided a blue hosta that slugs don't like (and therefore I love). But before I could plant the "new" hosta, I had to face my old nemesis again: a root from an old leylandii. This time it was a side root rather than the main one, but it was still pretty substantial and took a lot of effort to break bit by bit using my matlock.

 

At least the bindweed roots are easy to spot, being white. I find it very satisfying pulling a long piece out.

 

I've actually done something in the garden the past two day , think I need to buy some plants to cheer me up and get me spring / summer motivated .

Yesterday or more like evening I emptied the last bit in the compost heap and turned the new now old heap into the empty bay , think I need to build the compost bay better ( pallets one ) or they are to big I am not sure but the keep splaying apart , had a quick think about permanent ones using concrete fencing post but after a quick add up of just the post nearing £200 I thought not for now .

Today tidied the GH something I normally would do months ago looks spic and span now for the coming season. Thrown out some dead pelargoniums and some others bits and bobs , brought out plants in the house into GH . Some good news one of the blue meconopsis I thought had snuffed it has returned its a bit behind its sibling but doing well , and the Gunnera I thought I had lost has got a little shoot coming frost looks to of killed off most of the crown though. My favourite Canna durban has a shoot and the dahlias are coming now .

Potted on the Aralia elata variegata which is also coming into life thankfully an expensive acquisition last year.

@CostasK I had 2 sadly drowned sparrows in my water bin couple of years ago , I've kept a large stick / buddleia branch in it ever seen just something for anything to grab onto and hopefully get out , I've had no accidents since

 

@Fourmerkland and @Escarpment , my OH takes control of the cosmos sowing, he has a definite knack for it and always grows them very successfully. I have tried some this year too and so far have had a decent yield…much to my amazement as the new seeding compost looks and feels awful. Sorry to hear you're both having trouble getting them to germinate well. We have a small polycarbonate greenhouse which is facing west so gets terribly hot in the afternoon. Maybe they like the heat?

 

Need to get on with some pricking out today.
Also need to give some tagetes seeds a talking-to. They are NOT germinating!

 

I find Cosmos easy to grow except for the zingy orange ones. They just won’t germinate for me, I get 3 or 4 at most. I have very poor success rates sowing direct for most things so haven’t even attempted Cosmos.

was in the garden for several hours yesterday. The front garden is my project for this year. We haven’t done very much to it at all, garden wise, since we moved in. Compared to the side and back (overgrown jungles)it looked reasonably sorted so other than the odd addition it’s been left to get on with it. I started tackling the ivy ground over last year but got distracted so that was yesterday’s focus. I’d filled a builders ton bag by the time I’d finished
OH is on the way to the tip with it now.

Most came off a sloping border, which has a row of lilacs along the top. We don’t get a lot of flower, not enough sun, but OH likes the screening they give from our neighbours kitchen window. I’ve left the ivy at the feet of the lilacs, that would be impossible to get completely out and it also runs down the neighbours side. I want to replace it with a mix of groundcover so we get a tapestry of colour and texture. The soil is very dry as there’s also a beech tree and large bay tree as well as the lilacs.

It’s one of those projects that will look worse before it looks better

 

Yesterday started sowing the wallflower seeds into toilet roll tubes with a peat free apc, I always cover them with a bit of vermiculite, not doing much today my back is playing up.

 

Yesterday I didn’t do much, as I was in church all morning and then choir rehearsal in the afternoon, interspersed with running the sound desk for the band to practice.

But when I finally got home, had a little potter around the garden that was positively gurgling with delight, as we had the first good rain in 2 months overnight. Then later a gardening friend called round to collect the pond plants I set aside for her last autumn . Fortunately they had all survived - water lily, pickerel weed and bog bean. We added watermint, meadowsweet and a few other plants to her collection. A French tarragon plant jumped into her trug, along with some London Pride, a dianthus anatolicus, and a wild violet.
A big pot of established garlic plantlets came my way, along with some Lysimachia nummularia to naturalise around the pond. It was lovely to chat with a fellow gardener for a while!

today I praised my round courgette seedlings for germinating, turned the seed trays round, to stop the chillies growing too leggy. I’ve just finished pressure washing the patio, so now I’m literally buzzing!!

 

Dug out trench for the runner and french beans. Set sweetcorn, runner and french beans to chit. Ones that germinate will go into root trainers.

 

Sowed my tomato seeds a couple of days ago and potted on the chilli seedlings. Also potted on the leeks and onions. The seed potatoes chitting in egg boxes on the window sill look ready to be planted.
The Morello Cherry I bought for £7.00 in B&M before Christmas has masses of flowers so Cherry Pie in the pipeline, if I can keep the birds off the fruit. Haven't seen many zzy things on the flowers. I know it is supposed to be self fertile so fingers crossed.
The quince is coming into full new leaf, as usual, as the flowers arrive so we have monsoon gales to blow them off, hence no fruit.
The amaryllis my daughter gave me last Christmas flowered in November so once the flowers had gone over I fed and kept it watered. It has just finished flowering for a second time, 2 stems, 5 flower heads on each stem. Now it has set a very large seed pod so I am going to keep it going to see what happens. I imagine it will take 4-5 minimum for the seedlings to reach flowering size, if ever.
Having left my Myers Lemon Tree outside all winter, it looked very motheaten with few leaves so I brought it indoors, fed and watered it and it is now covered with new foliage. Hopefully flowers may follow in time.

 

I tidied up the rest of the ferns in both front and back gardens, removing all of last year’s old fronds.

I continued my campaign against Spanish bluebells by snipping their leaves and flower stalks to ground level to weaken the bulbs. Digging them out is impossible as they are always deeper than I expect and they seem to retreat when they hear the sound of digging .

Finally I treated my lawn with MO Bacter fertiliser and moss killer, just in time for the first rain for a while.

 

Phew, I always feel compelled to do more when I read what you’ve been up to in the garden @shiney .

 

So lovely to see you posting again @Goldenlily26. Do hope your your quince tree survives and that the birds leave your Morello cherry tree alone. I love cherry pie!

I didn't feel up to much today so just pottered for an hour or so. Tied in clematis and moved several largish dead branches we cut down earlier this year. I have a fancy to try to make a short 'dead fence', primarily to keep bark mulch from sliding onto the back lawn but will have to saw off the knobbly bits to make it fit better. Still didn't get the seed sowing done.