WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

It's been a beautiful day so managed to get back to the allotment preparing the beds for this year.
The potatoes are chitting nicely in the cold frame there too.
I sown some chilli seeds this morning that my allotment neighbour gave me last year. He's grown them for years. They were a very tasty chilli too. He's forgot the name so they have been labelled "Wally's chillies"

 

They look good Jasmine Star! I couldn't eat them as would be too hot!

 

Saw Monty last night - he way saying that now is the time to get mulching - so I nipped down to B&Q for a couple of bags of bark chippings for the front garden - under the hedge.

Cor, a 100 litre bag ain't half heavy. Will be spreading it out tomorrow. I need to rest today as I overdid it yesterday.

 

I went for a wander earlier and it was warm in the sun but the wind was not so pleasant. The Hibiscus in the ground are all doing well and budding. The two new Brugmansias in pots are growing nicely and in general all looks good. The Poinsettia needs cutting back to a meter and the gravel needs de-weeding. Ben normally comes the end of March to do these things which will be good should we get rain all next week.

 

Uncovered all my sleeping Dahlias that were left in the borders, I will recover if the nights dip too low.

As all the Giant Lillies are on the move I removed about half their soil and topped up with fresh.

Moved most of the plants and seedlings out from the greenhouse as it was too warm in there despite having the doors and windows open .

The other thing we've done out in our garden was to have a BBQ .....lovely!!

 

I've started digging out my 5 year old compost bin,yeah I don't do it properly I just keep putting stuff on top until it stops going down.
But there is some good stuff in there.

 

I have learnt something new. Daffodil bulbs come with a free, inbuilt 3-month precision timer I bought a fair few bulbs last autumn and planted in stages, the first ones in early November and last ones near Christmas. Now they are faithfully flowering in sequence which is handy, I can replace the front doorstep delight pot with a fresh one every two weeks. These should open next week when the previous are starting to fade. Tete-a-tetes are nearly done now, they have been lovely for several weeks.



The strongest Agastache seedlings went out for daily walkies for the first time. Nights are still cold but daytime outings will hopefully man them up a bit. How I wish I had a cold frame!


Blackbirds are nesting which is nice, and using my moss around the pond for insulation, which is not. I swear he has a very guilty look:


After a morning pottering about, tending to seedlings and watering bits and bobs, (and, against my own best advise, planting a mango seed- a houseplant that is not very showy, attracts every pest-inclined lifeform on earth and once it finally starts to look decent, dies on you ) I will soon tackle pruning of roses and Buddleyia.

A lovely day

 

Today I did a pile of weeding. Looks like I have lost one on the Oseospermum I planted out midweek. It has started to go black so the frost must have nipped it.

 

I filled 2 wheely bins with logs so I had more room in the shed, which has since been filled again.
Tried to empty the back part of the garage so I can rebuild it to a better quality.

 

I chopped away at the buddleia, fuchsias, ferns and herbs. It was very satisfying and such a beautiful sunny day!

 

Not to much yet but I do seem to have a growing list of things to do . But I did empty the compost bins today , not as rotten down as I'd like probably due to me not turning it , and I need to make the compost bins bigger . Don't know whether to attack the old one with the chainsaw and detach them ( 2 bays built as one section ) , I can then remove one and build a bigger one or try and extend the old , I don't fancy doing either really but I do have a endless supply of green waste and with the cost of compost rising it might be worth it .

My seedling are coming on well orderd a few more today .

I think blackbirds always have a guilty look always up to mischief .

 

Funny you should say that Perki. I was watching them in the front garden yesterday probing around the remains of the stone boundary wall. Pheasants are my problem, they're destructive birds.

 

but there's better eating on a pheasant.

 

Plant onion sets and shallots, put fertiliser on the garlic. Cut up two Douglas fir branches found stuck in the Lawson's cypress.

 

Good day for a prick to give the Nicotania, Korean Mint, Aubrieta, Angel’s Trumpet, and tomatoes a pot for a while with the expected overflow mess of compost, and the regret of no potting shed to save the house from the usual unwarranted mayhem.