What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

My clay is still far to wet to think about cultivating. Water barrels emptied and moved last October have 30" of water in from rainfall falling directly into them.. It'll be a week or 2 without rain before I can rough dig to help it dry out enough to run a rotavator through it.

 

The sun that was promised has not shone and since it is damp and only 42, I'll only be preparing some pots for us later. Use a soldering iron to put a hole in the bottom to accommodate a wick of felt.


Other than that, I'm watching a gardening movie. Well, it is called The Ruins and there are vines that eat people

 

Spent most of the morning in the garden, transplanting a pulmonaria and bergenia, planting Salvia uliginosa, watching the bee-flies and reading up on their favourite plants. As soon as I moved the pulmonaria from a shady spot to a sunny one they were straight in there feeding! I also learned that they love Ajuga reptans, which is in the same border.

Does anybody else here grow Eupatorium dubium 'Baby Joe'? My Eupatorium cannabinum is producing shoots but that one isn't yet, hope it's OK!

Nick

 

Thanks for your knowledge @Sian in Belgium - I have to admit I've only ever seen 1 male bullfinch and hadn't realised what the females were like.
More digging today. And no @ARMANDII, I can't throw all the stones I'm finding over the garden fence because I have nice neighbours both sides, and at the bottom, they would just block the stream! Anyway, I might not be finding many more because my back is starting to feel the strain...

 

@CarolineL I've used stones I've dug up as the base and edging of a raised bed in the sunniest part of the garden were I grow a range of bulbs and other plants that are frost hardy (well almost in some cases) and don't appreciate sitting in cold wet conditions, many also benefit from the warm dry conditions in the summer.

 

Was at my companions today, could not enter the property but was able to garden and chat at distance.
Told her she was a lucky lady, no kisses today..... got told off for that!

 

I was talking to a mate about this the other evening.
For the past 5 yrs I've been sowing grazing rye on any empty ground in september.

I'm having to dig it in fast now as its ripping all the moisture out the ground now.
He said the roots would hold the moisture, but I find the opposite applies.

 

@NigelJ unfortunately the stones are a wildly varying mixture of sizes, shapes, types (the shales are particularly irritating as they flake as I try to get rid of them). They would make a pretty ugly bed. But your idea of a raised bed for bulbous things is nice one for the future... when my back has recovered.

 

Wow! You’ve been busy, @ARMANDII !

I didn’t do much yesterday. The Black Dog was visiting again - not surprisingly really, with the position we are all. I think he, and his extended family are prowling round the world right now...

....but I did admire the lovely daffodils that I planted last autumn, and are now blooming their hearts out, and dead-head the tête-à-tête flowers that are going over quite rapidly now. Oh, and I sowed some old lettuce seeds that I had, along with some perpetual spinach, in one of the cloches on the raised veg beds, that has hopefully been warming up the soil. I know, why sow old seeds? Well, it was either that, or throw them away. Buying new seeds isn’t really possible now, because of our lockdown (only food shops are allowed to open), so I thought I’d give them a go. I do have a few vacuum-packs of not-quite-so-out-of-date lettuce seeds, so I’ll be succession sowing them later in the year...

This morning, I’m sipping my coffee before pegging out the first lot of washing of the day. It looks lovely out there, but I know it’s just 5c (so warmer than mornings earlier this week!), so my tootsies are going to get cold in the wet grass as I peg as fast as I can!!

edited to add a photo of the aforementioned daffs

 

Wednesday built my raised bed, Thursday emptied all my pots from last year and spread them in the bed and growmore'd them and yesterday topped with Jacks Magic. Sowed peas, wrinkled and round then broad beans. A gap in between for beetroot when it's warmer.