What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

Beautiful morning and one of the joys of summer is cutting flowers for the house to enjoy at close quarters. I was unsure about the cutting patch but now I'm glorying in its loveliness. No guilt at cutting the flowers there and they keep on giving. Vases full of Cosmos, Phlox, agapanthus, dahlias and altromeria in each room drawing the eyes away from the dust
How I wish we could bottle these days.

 

Lots of dead-heading and a bit of tree-pruning this morning - we've got what I think is a cotoneaster grown as a tree, which is lovely but a bit rampent and was doing it's best to smother the rose arch. It looks a lot better for a bit of loping.

I've also been facing my garden-related demons again; I have some sort of weird blockage when it comes to taking cuttings, and I've never successfully managed to grow anything on that way. I hear people talking about how quick and simple it is and I just don't get it! Give me seeds any day! In the last few days I've had a go at fuschias, a diosma (second attempt this year), the cotoneaster, and a philadelphus. We'll see how it goes this time

 

Massive cleanup to do after the tree came down. The fellows did a good job but I stopped them from trying to tidy the garden area because I want to weed and assess the area as I take care of getting rid of the debris. I also have a lot of branches to cut up from the buckthorn that got damaged whilst trying to untangle the dead tree branches from it. A good workout

And as I go along, I am hoping to find enough branches the right size and shape for my granddaughters and I to make walking sticks

 

Plants arrived and potted on. Because these are essentially for next season and beyond I cut off all the flowers. Prob plant these out in late September ......a new bed is planned so a few sketches before planting....aiming for just hostas, coloured grasses and sedges. Sisyrinchium M. Alba too should nestle delightfully there at the front. Prob move hymenocallis there too.

Grabbed some delphiniums earlier from a market stall....£1. 80 or so each ......in half litre pots. The foliage had died off a little and a tad pot bound but essentially healthy plants. Potted on for planting at the end of summer.

Offered a batch of echium pinnata plants.....they will be planted elsewhere though where space is almost unlimited.

 

That's exactly the tactic I've gone for this time - I'm hoping sheer numbers will force the odds into my favour!

 

Try using perlite 2nd bassoon
Half and half mpc and perlite

 

I decided to be gentle with myself today....

....so just a little weeding, top-dressing of one of our indoor palms (currently outside), potting on of a pip-tree, and some maidenhair fern spore-lings, and cleaning the water-barrel pump filter.

Now going to water the veg plants, top up the pond, and administer some liquor aka nettle tea. It will be the first time I’ve opened the bucket since I put it to stand, about 5 weeks ago, so if you don’t hear from me again.....

 

Well, I survived!

To all those nettle-tea novices out there, here’s some advice for nothing.

Do NOT use your hand to remove the rotten stems/leaves! I’ve scrubbed my hands over and over, but I think I’ll be wearing this “perfume” for a while yet....

 

It got progressively hotter as the day wore on so went down for a cooling swim. Still pretty warm out there

 

@shiney and @RobB . We should carry on this conversation elsewhere so as not upset the thread. I know Dovercourt, Harwich and Colchester very well and spent many a weekend near the Warner's Holiday camp many moons a go.