What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

Cut off the old leaves off some of the hellebores, have to do it a bit at a time.

 

Back home today, after spending the week up north. Did a load of gardening at mums yesterday and aching today. I cleared out a border of weeds, cut back raspberries, divided and removed chives from the border and potted them up. Also dug out the mint mum had put in the bordered and put it into pots instead. Dug out a huge old woody rosemary and replants the new rosemary cuttings I'd had growing in pots instead. Also cut back a sage that was gigantic. Looks so much better now. Took it all down the tip. Was good to get it done.

When I got back from appointments etc this morning I filled up all the birdfeeders and planted a huge bucket full of bulbs I'd had - they had all started sprouting. Hopefully they will be ok - bit late planting them but it doesn't hurt to try.

 

Potted up lots of plants I bought in Wilko and now they are sitting in my greenhouse.

 

Ive had a job staring me in the face for the last week or so, ever since I realised that it needed doing. Our evergreen magnolia that I see from my study window had grown huge and needed a severe pruning.
The sun was out and I took the opportunity to start pruning. Ive taken about 10 feet out of the height, taken out some branches to open up the tree and taken length out of a lot of the branches. Still got work to do on it but Ive left it for the day and will prune a bit more this weekend. The branches overfilled the skip by about 2 to 3 feet but another trampling soon got it back to a reasonable level.

 

and strong winds followed by fog. Quite cold. Had around an hour despite the weather. Cut back a couple of Verbenas and then chopped them into pieces to stuff into compost bins. Removed a Marsh Mallow from a pot its been sharing with a Geranium and then dug a hole to plant it into the front garden. Planted another Geranium into the vacated space in the pot. Dislodged a few weeds from one of the baths. Sat on bench long enough to get cold and a wet bum

 

Not much done in the garden, but lots of seeds sown this morning whilst sitting at the kitchen table.
Echinacea, heliotrope, agastache, dianthus, thymus, monarda, gaillardia, cardoon, lettuce...

 

Lovely sunny day here but with strong winds, another couple of fence panels are down.

Managed to battle against it though and have tidied up 4 borders and cut back some tatty leaves on some Helliborus plants.

Back indoors now but I can still hear the wind in my ears!!!

 

Did a bit more moss removal from the drive. Theres still a lot on there which will be sprayed with soda crystal solution

 

Checked the greenhouse and watered a little where necessary. Tidied up the insectiverous plants and realised that in the next few weeks I need to get in and thin out, repot and generally manage them as flower buds are beginning to develop.

 

My chilli seeds are coming up, I sowed them last Sunday.

 

I've been pretty much out of action with an arthritic knee for the last 5 months so i was really pleased to be able to get in the garden today, just doing little jobs at the minute, cut down some old sunflowers and weeded some pots, can't tell you how good it feels.

 

Glad that you feel better @mazambo and to do some gardening.

 

Worked a bit more on bun run, almost done now. Need a bit more chicken wire and cables ties and need to lay patio slabs around perimeter. Cut grass in both runs and barrowed the cuttings around to dumping ground as compost bins full up. Clouded over and turned cold so decided coffee and biscuits in conservatory were needed. Before I went indoors I lifted lid on compost bin by conservatory and put in a handful of grass and the fresh food waste. Sat in conservatory 10 mins later and the alpha female rat came out of the compost bin carrying a baby and disappeared across the garden with it. She removed 5 babies aged around 3 weeks. I was, at first, mortified that I had somehow disturbed her and scared her into removing her babies. However, as R pointed out, I've been lifting lid and putting stuff in almost every day for past 3 weeks, so if she felt unsafe she would not have remained in the bin. I think she's taken them to the main nest.

Went to a local wood this afternoon for a walk. We saw lots and lots of either Frog or Toad spawn in a number of pools. R wants to take some for the pond. I'm not sure. The lack of a suitable receptacle to transport it prevented any decision making today but he wants to go back tomorrow. What do you guys/ girls think ?