WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

Yesterday I repotted the Cyclamens I bought on Saturday and Monday. I put them in the clay pots on the balcony railings. I took down the Geraniums, Pelargoniums & other plants that temporarily took the place of the Petunias that I had to remove due to a mildew infection. I will need to get 3 more plants to finish off the 10 pots on the railings.

 

Started clearing the 3 big tubs under the kitchen window, when it came to digging out the 3 standard fuchsias i broke one of the stems in half but i suppose it will grow back again but a bit thinner.

 

Tidying and mowing planned , so the garden looks ok for the autumn. I've already planned the seeds needed for the new year for our patio pots. The rest is established in the borders; red valerian, verbena, sedums, etc. Thankfully, there aren't many months of the year without any gardening at all.

 

I haven't done anything on the balcony today or inside the flat, with all the plants I have in the house! But I did check the pot of 3 small Dragon trees in the bathroom window. They still have mealy bug even though I sprayed them with Neem oil solution a few weeks ago. As the solution makes the leaves fall off the plants I daren't repeat it for fear of killing the plants quicker than the bugs!
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Yesterday emptied 3 tubs and today put the spring bulbs, wallflowers and polyanthus in.

 

I took some cuttings (too many actually) I can't remember them all but some were Coprosma 'Lemon and Lime', Trachelospermum 'Summer Sunset', Indigofera, Hebe (variety n/k but it's a pretty pink and cream variety) Penstemon 'Arctic Fox' and 'Electric Blue'
I put them in my propagators.
I've got more things to take cutting of over the week end.

Annoyed that slugs have been eating my Wallflower seedlings I've sprinkled slug pellets on them but they are inside a perspex shelter and I don't mind using them in there.

 

I've been busier on the balcony today than in a few days! I started off by watering the tomatoes & removing a few more leaves. I also watered a few pots that were a little dry but not the hanging baskets as they seemed alright. I then started to prune a little the Pelargoniums on the balcony railings. I ended up with 8 small pots with 4 cutting in each! These are now in the kitchen & I hope some of them will root so I can save them for next year to put them on the balcony again. I'm going to leave the mother plants on the balcony railing till the end of October when I shall put them in the mini-greenhouse for the duration of the winter.

I'm reminded now of the Pelargoniums I planted out last year in the church gardens. When I went to plant out this year's rooted cutting in the same place the Pelargoniums were last year I found a few plants had - miraculously - survived the winter with no protection at all! That in spite of having -8C for several nights before Christmas & then again in January!!!

 

Planted more garlic. I now have 132 outside and about 50 in modules in the greenhouse. Spread some compost over the outside garlic. Picked most of the chillis, the sun is too low to catch the greenhouse much now and some fungal diseases were setting in.

 

Indeed I do , a good 40 clove roast chicken is a regular Sunday roast. Also I'll eat a fair number as green garlic/garlic scallions.

 

And here was me thinking I was a fan of garlic, but now...?!!!

 

Mowing and planning for next week's grand tidy-up. It's amazing how a mow makes the whole garden look a lot better.

 

Finally fixed the solar powered motion sensor activated security light to reduce the number of delivery people falling into my little pondlet in the front.

The light has worked perfectly on the back bench so hopefully it'll do the job also in it's intended place. Sadly, during the week I have been a security light owner I have already lost the instructions and the potential remote control (not quite sure if it came with one) to adjust the illuminated time and intensity of the light when they go on so it's possible that our Tesco drivers will be blinded by 20 seconds of military intensity beam and then suddenly surrounded by total darkness.

Sowed seeds and planted my little treat of Semprevivum in a colander, swept the first fallen leaves backwards as now I have a hedgehog house in the Tatty Corner and it will benefit from some leafy camouflage.

Watered containers and picked a handful of Sweet Olive Toms plus a very last cucumber (possibly Piccolo di Parigi or the other one... Venlo?, I'm not great at labelling).

If the rain stops before Christmas, grass cutting is on the to-do- list.