What jobs are we doing in the Garden today 2015

Built a frame to lean against the garage wall to grow ? Dont know yet, salad herbs toms strawbs.
Its a frame holding 4 white lengths of guttering that will drain into each other with an automatic pump doing the watering all summer.
Checked out some garlic I planted only 10 days ago in roottrainers and they are 4 inches up already trying to push themselves out!
Great as I love garlic and i cant buy the Chinese ones as I heard what they feed them with

 

Showed hubby what I'd done in the garden this week - he was pleased

Lifted a very sad rhododendron that was planted last year, and put it to soak in rainwater, before planting it in a bed where I know that acid-lovers thrive.

Potted on my first "batch" of chilli seedlings, but the Barak sowings from early February were rather disappointing in their germination rate. Lombardo, Fuego, Ring o Fire and Ream much more successful.

Also sowed my second wave of seeds, including Thai basil, Greek basil, asparagus peas, rocket, tomato, sweet pepper, penstemon, campanula - in modules.

Time to relax a little...

 

Bought some sharp sand for the repotting frenzy tomorrow. 20% off all gardening stuff in Homebase today.
Might be worth a check tomorrow as theres no min spend and the compost deals wer good ie 2x miraclegrow 50l for TENNER minus the 20% so 8 quid 2 bags.

 

Plastic wouldn't stay in my garden Philomel, it's too windy here! I have metal baskets that are screwed to my house walls.

 

Potted up the Fuschia Delta's Sarah to the large container it's going to live in for the summer. Thank you to @Jenny namaste - your little baby cutting is all growed up now. Will send you a pic soon xx

Sowed some more seeds - Red Pear tomatoes, cucumber, gazania and petunia. At least I think I sowed the petunia seeds - it was like sprinkling almost invisible dust on some compost and hoping for the best.

Was emptying out a pot that had a chrysanthemum from last winter and founds masses of bulbs. I really can't remember for the life of me what they might be but I planted them in a flower bed and will wait and see if anything grows. Trouble is, the way my memory is going, come the summer if they do pop up I'll probably wonder where on earth they come from

Also went looking for stepping stones in the garden centre and Bricolage (B&Q type place) but couldn't find what I wanted

 

Well our garden tidy is going well, 4 trips to the tip with the chopped down overgrown trees. I am sitting there directing my husband really being a bit frail these days. After four years of garden neglect through ill health then my dads ill health and subsequent death it needed weeks of work. I knew the trees where going so I bought some fruit trees now planted 4 patio ones in big tubs, A cherry, Apricot, Peach, and Nectarine.

We also planted a Victoria plum in memory of Michaels dad. A cherry sunburst in memory of Michaels Mum. Tomorrow we are planting a family pear tree in memory of my dad, (Third time luck with this tree, 1st attempt it arrived with one fruiting branch broken off, 2nd time whole tree snapped in half so fingers crossed it will be fine once planted tomorrow.

We have now planted the Kiwi Jenny and it looks very happy with its buds starting to open.

Then we tidied the front, I said to my husband "you really need to dig up that root from the New Zealand flax (He likes a few plants to remind him of home) it did die in that winter a few years ago -10 oc finished it off".

He decided to just have a little shove with his foot and I near had a heart attack a sleeping hedgehog was in there. I guess it will have to stay untidy as I like hedgehogs. It really had a lucky escape I would have gone tight in with the garden fork and hedge hog would be no more.
I had plans of raking all the dry stuff and digging over and placing some lilies in that part. It is a strip where I get out my car. and a few stones in the part at the side where I drive in. Needless to say not good at reversing I get dizzy with the MS so sometimes I go over the bit where I planned some stones. Last year I went over that bit at the moment I have cranesbil geraniums. My neighbour was new and my husband came home and says "what awful an neighbour they drove right through your geraniums" tyre line was obvious. I was just a bit embarrassed to tell him it was me that did the tyre line.

Tomorrow hope to re-spray the fence before all the growth takes over.

Our garden is looking much bigger and loads brighter. I am now looking forward to when the frosts are gone and then I can plant some dahlia, Lilly, and plant the annual seeds. I need to take some photos soon so I can show you all my garden before it is in its summer glory.

My tip of the day must be watch out for hedgehogs in that untidy bit of the garden you plan to tidy!

Hope you are all having as much fun preparing the garden before the weed can take over as much as me!

 

Planted a Buxus hedge along my garage border ....

 

Wow, what a difference that makes Loli! Great having the before and after. Lovely

 

Thank you @philomel I'm going Buxus barmy lately .I love the stuff

 

Wow that looks great. I didn't know you could plant them that close together. I planted mine further apart as recommended by the nursery so mine won't look like a proper hedge for a year or 2. I'm not going to trim the tops off til may.

 

It tidies the edges up nicely Loli and gives a strong structured look to the borders. They look superb quality plants ,
Jenny

 

Went out into the front ( north facing garden) with intentions of getting various things done. Cut back the Buddleia fairly hard and chopped it all up to take it to the Tip . Then pruned a Shrubby Salvia, dug it up and removed some of it's soil and moved it 1 ft back in the border and 1.5 ft to the left. Dug a hole, lined it with Humax MPC (mixed with a handful of Blood, fish and bone ) and firmed it in. Had intended to dig up a clump of Bowles Golden grass and split it into little plantlets and pot them up to grow on. But my fingers were starting to ache with the cold so decided to come in and have a cuppa instead. Too cold to enjoy it out there anymore today,
Jenny

 

Blowaway greenhouse went up with a new plastic cover from Aldi, mollycoddled Hostas went in. General re-potting and tidying up. Told my Monarda seedlings to man up.

If the Midget returns from her Teenager Things soon we might still dig our pond a little bit further. The sun is shining

 

Sowed some more Agasatache seeds this morning while it was nice and peaceful in the house. I can use the kitchen table and sink without any interruptions. Mind you, it was 5am

Started outside around 11.30am. Planted up an Erysimun Bowles Mauve in a pot and also some Origanum Vulgare in another one. I know the bees like Bowles Mauve and I'm hoping that they'll like the Origanum. The more bees the merrier in my little wildlife garden!

Decided to cut back some of the whitebeam tree so get a bit more room for a few more containers in the southwest corner. More containers mean more plants

Top dressed some more of my pots and gave up for the day when my back couldn't do anymore.

 

With the help of hubby, I have raised the canopy of a young oak tree from 6ft to 10 ft. This will help the cherry tree that is growing quite close by, and should help the oak too. (Feel it's quite important that the tree does well, as our street name translates as Oakwood Street, and there aren't many oaks around!)

We've also done a little gentle pruning of the fruit trees, and rose bushes. Nothing needed serious work done, but crossing branches were sorted out, and all looks good again.

Time to do another batch of seed-sowing!