WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2017

I could certainly do with something to make me smile at the moment. Did you plan the garden's design yourself or take inspiration from somewhere else.? I'm guessing its taken awhile to achieve the ' finished product ' though? Although I understand some gardeners never consider their gardens to be finished but always a work in progress.

I've tried raised ponds, ie, in a preformed container not sunk into the ground. The last one, which I bought when we moved here, is now a raised bed on the patio. I've also tried using a large Belfast sink, without any success. I have seen Frogs and Toads in my garden, it would nice for them to have a home here. Two or three years ago I left a black bag in the garden. It had rained overnight and the following morning I discovered a Toad sitting in a puddle that had formed on the bag. A couple of summers ago I opened the back door and almost stepped on a bunch of baby frogs sitting on the doormat

My garden is still a blank canvas. I wish I could transport your garden into my front garden.

 

Loving the look woo!!

 

Today I have planted some snowdrops, tied in some stems of a clematis over the arbor, planted some lily of the valley (from a cheap shop, bought last week), let the girls out ( ) begun weed picking and noticed the flowering currant is forming flower buds (only bought it last year from the village garden sale).

 

We have had some rain this morning so was only able to get out into the front garden just before lunch to plant out a couple of the plants we got yesterday from the garden centre after our day out over the the RSPB headquarters over at Sandy.It was lovely walking round there in the sun,and we felt like we needed a day out after all the work we have been doing since the New Year over at my late father in laws garage which we are trying to clear

Our back lawn is just to slippery to walk across with all the rain we have had lately and the garden lawn is starting to look like a quagmire

 

Popped some peas into a couple of pots - will plant some more in a couple of weeks.

 

Finally found time to get out in the garden today. Been up to my lotty and planted 6 autumn rasp canes and 6 summer rasp canes. Sown a few spring onion seeds, some small carrots and some mangetout shiraz. Also cleared a raised bed in my neighbours unused lotty, dug over, weeded and scatted some green manure over it. Planted 12 crocosmia montbretia blubs in the front garden. Time for a brew.

 

Wondering how lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) seems to be overtaking the countryside (and customers' gardens) around here as it rarely produces seeds, just bubils!

 

Hi @Mowerman we bought from the garden centre a few years ago a lesser Celandine and although it looks nice in flower mine seems to be spreading round the borders so I might have to cull it in future,but I know what you mean i have never seen seed pods on mine.I also have a double variety which is staying put further on down the garden,but then again a lot of double flowered plants never set seed as the bees can't get to them to pollinate the flowers

My rampant garden plant is the Three Cornered Leek (Allium Triquetrum) and it is taking over both my front and back garden despite me only ever planting it in the back garden and taking off every flower bud I see.It is now coming up through the leaves of bulbs that I want to keep so I am going to have to dig up the whole lot and gently wheedle out the offending bulbs.I can easily identify them as the leaves are tri shaped hence their name and the bulb has a strong oniony smell...

 

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It's incredibly irresponsible for garden centres to sell lesser Celandine. It is an absolute thug of a weed. Sure it's rather short in stature, rather unimposing and quite pretty when it flowers; a sure sign of spring, but what goes underneath the ground is another story.

It usually creates bubils that drop onto the soil after the flowers have faded but underneath, it seems to create even more bubils. It quickly vanishes back into the earth late Spring, not to be seen again until next spring. That's its secret weapon:

Once soil is cultivated or disturbed, the subsoil bubils break off and you have 4-5x more Celandine plants dispersed all over the place. For each subsequent year, the potential is astonishing.

I have a customer whose borders are literally a carpet of the stuff and weedkiller is out of the question as she has a dog and doesn't want weedkiller used, so it's a case of weekly hoeing down the growth. Digging it up just leads to more problems.

This definitely features in my top 5 worst weeds.

 

Started work on my new greenhouse staging. Hopefully get it finished tomorrow. I will post some pictures tomorrow.

Rusty