WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

It's been lovely here today. Spent most of it at the allotment but once home I potted up 2 Lavatera clementii 'Barnsley' that I got from the half dead isle a few weeks ago and put them in the sun. Theres new little leaves emerging so fingers crossed. Pleased to see another rescue with buds a Hibiscus syriacus 'Diana' I wasn't holding out much hope for this one so I'm pleased.

Checked in the greenhouse and a couple of the sweet peas have germinated (first time growing them) also I found 1 crispy seed pod on the Cytisus Goldfinch with 3 seeds in it so I've stuck them in some compost see what happens. You never know Growing quite a few new plants this year so a lot of hoping

 

Fought off the urge to have forty winks after an early lunch. Got into the garden and continude potting up my bulbs. Body temperature rose and and I began to itch, due to hives. This problem arose back in 2014 when I developed the cancer. Took an Urtica urens remedy and soon the itching faded. Decided to check the greenhouse. Auto roof vent was open, thankfully. That auto vent control, is worth it's weight in gold. Checked the thermometer. I don't beleive it. 84F. The GH runs East to West, so it gets full sun from the South.

Everything was looking good. The bearded Iris that my forum friend had kindly given me, these are make good progress. I have several pots of various Iris, but they look like blades of grass at present. Then a couple of pots of what I hadn'nt labelled. Ah! these are bulbils taken from Lilium Casa Blanca. Turning to the tub of the latter, the whole surface of the compost is full of well established new shoots. I still have so many Polyanthus that I never got around to planting out. Some lovely colours. So giving everything a good soak, that's enough for today.

 

and here is the part assembled potting shed - stopped at 1 pm - that will do for today:

 

Big BoP is out of its pot, which sadly broke in the process ...



... and Nandini found a nice pot to sit in ...

 

Lovely sunshine with a bitter cold wind, so I sowed my Tomatoes to go in the indoor Growhouse.
I probably sowed too many like every year.

Watched the Capt. Tom funeral on TV, very moving.

 

Did a morning 15 miles bike ride and come back to start on the garden. It is a glorious day!
Cleaned out half the greenhouse and put the new shelving in. Dave is welding the metal to make the rose arch. He's doing a good job. I think he is enjoying using his new welder.

 

Another beautiful day here. Got the lawn mowed, weeded the borders then sown some chillies and Rudbeckia. Checked the onion sets. They are coming on nicely. Got the solar lights out of the shed and put them back up in the back garden.

 

Dug out some raspberries that had died and dug up a blackberry cane and put it in another place. Where I dug them up I weeded it then planted 4 blackcurrants there.

 

Potted up various cuttings that I took last year, .
All the geranium cuttings are looking good, I have now doubled my stock. One in particular has lovely leaves ( hopeless with names)


Most of the Rose cuttings taken from my parents garden last year are showing new growth.
The Hydrangea cuttings are doing the same too.
Choisya cuttings ,again from my parent garden, have all taken well too.
So pleased that they have all taken well. I can breathe a bit easier now.

 

This morning I helped hubs get rid of the unsightly tree, just need to lower the stump now ( hubs wants to remove it) as I want to stand a big pot on it.

I then left him to chop it all all while I continued with my border tidying up.

 

I finished weeding all the vegetable beds yesterday so today it was down to the ex-strawberry bed. I've had strawberries there for last 3 years and they never did very well (? why - sunny, good soil) When I first moved in, I just put sweet peas in this patch to fill up an empty space.....they flourished big time, I was distributing bunches of flowers all round. Since then I have not done very well with sweet peas. So.....strawberries don't like this bed and sweet peas do - this years planting is obvious. Started off sweet peas last week.