WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

My raspberries seems to be more happy if they're left to wander, if I dig some up and put them where I want they don't do much. I know how to plant them but they don't seem to like it.

Put the nematodes for vine weevil in the blueberry pots and the potted rhubarb.

 

Today I cleaned the kitchen windows - the big 10ft long one! Well at least as high as I could reach from standing on the floor! Leaves a foot or so at the top I couldn't reach. That was inside the kitchen - tomorrow I will do the outside & hope it doesn't rain any time soon!

What's this got to do with gardening you are asking yourself? Well what would you put on a 10ft long windowsill that gets full sun from 1pm till the sun sets???

Yes, exactly, lots of plants!!!

Many Pelargoniums & Geraniums have spent the winter there. I kept them as stock plants so that I could take cutting later on in the spring, so as we are now in the spring I took lots of cutting & removed dead leaves & so I took advantage of the empty windowsill to clear the windows.

Between the cleaner glass, at least on the inside, & the reduced height & width of the plants more sunshine can now flood the kitchen!

 

Aphid attack

It's a sure sign of spring, aphids and whatnots appear on the new growth on houseplants. They must be dealt with promptly to allow garden seedlings to wander around the house safely.

Aphids are oddly satisfying pests, they don't do too much harm to established plants and don't grab tightly so are easy to shower off. The joy of taking a smooth leaved houseplant to shower and see the little buggers go "weee... look at me goooooooooo"

I hope they enjoy a lovely afterlife in the North Tyneside sewage system.

Anyways, living room and kitchen are now pest free so tomorrow the seedling Tetris can start once again- finding the best light/ temperature aspect for each repotted or sowed seedling.

I'll make this a computer game and become a millionaire, just wait!

 

Having taken enforced time out for most of last year due to an arm injury, I've now taken back the reins and given my back and side lawns their first mowing today. They are full of moss and will need scarifying in the coming week or so. The front lawns will have to wait until Monday.

 

Planning on checking over all our Strawberry plants , giving them a soak before replanting in fresh compost. Just in case of any lurking Vine Weevil grubs.

Then I will wander around the garden re-homing all the self seeded Primroses, they get everywhere and I so hate walking on them!!

 

Not much today, checked on the rose grafting that I did a couple of weeks ago and it's taken.

 

I've checked over ,bathed and repotted 8 Strawberry plants but its now too hot in my work area. So far not a Vine Weevil in sight. Only 15 more to go...probably won't get them all done today as I want to go for a slow walk soon. I also want to select some flowers to make up a little bouquet to take up to the cemetery tomorrow in remeberance of my lovely Mum on Mothering Sunday.

 

Fir tree started its dusting today looks like it’s on fire when I gust shakes the tree

 

Potted up some new strawberry plants
Made a new compost bin so we can have rotation with 3 bins now.
Shredded all the old branches I had piled up in the garden, also need to plant more in the poly tunnel but it so dammedhot in there

 

Worked my way across the raised bed that runs across the bottom of our garden and back up the side to my garden shed, cleared all the twiggy bits away, lightly loosened the earth around the shrubs and plants, then spread a mulch of homemade compost around said plants, jobs a goodun....

 

Started off with nothing to do so I went out and made some work for myself, preparing hanging baskets with compost and sowing some Kniphofia seeds. Then the post arrived with 72 perennial plug plants.
There were six each of:
Echinacea Nectar Pink
Aquilegia Mrs Scott Elliot
Leucanthemum Crazy Daisy
Digitalis Dalmation Mixed
Coreopsis Golden Joy
Doronicum Little Leo
Delphinium Dark Blue and White Bee
Dianthus Rocking Red
Achillea Cerise Queen
Salvia Salvatore Deep Blue
Geum Lady Stratheden
Verbena Buenos Aires

The plugs were tiny so we planted them in 24 cell seed trays and stuck them in the small cold frame. To make room for them the boss planted out Pelargoniums and Fushia she had raised from cuttings started last autumn.
No sooner was that done than a pack of Sweet Pea "Scent Infusion" arrived so we planted them out into prepared tubs and what was leftover I put in my personal garden (the damp, clay bit, out the back, that doesn't get a lot of sun).

 

I cut the grass and watered the plants.

G.

 

Pruning day!

I'm a hesitant Rose newbie as I understand that pruning is a form of art following strict principles. Today I tackled my Climbing Icebergs and hey-ho, I'm an expert It goes like this: select a stem, hold it, say "ouch", place the secateur blades around it and snip. Easy! If anyone needs near- professional advise, please don't hesitate to pm me.

Whilst I had the secateurs in hand (very risky, The Teenager suddenly decided to go for a walk ), I pruned back everything in sight. Buddleyias are now looking fine and needs-must- cutting of some damaged Rosemary branches gave us a vaseful of flowering stems. Beautiful.

Potted on seedlings, split my indoors Blue Star Fern that was totally out of hands (who would have guessed that a 99p plantlet from Wilkos will grow into a monster with 1m+ leaves? I had it in a tight space on top of the stairs and it grew to the walls and was nearly cube shaped ), potted up Dahlia tubers and enjoyed the lovely sunshine.

Found the Christmas wreath (ivy, rosehips, conifer branches woven into round plant support frame) in the garage and dismantled it, keeping the fir cones and carefully rolling up the battery wire lights. I take pride in clearing up Christmas decorations well before midsummer