One of our neighbours has a garden full of snowdrops, a very cheery sight, now thoughts turn to the allotment, and what to grow. Probably leeks, lettuce, cavalo nero, tomatoes, as in previous years. But we have plenty of permanent plants, such as good king henry, and herbs, lazy gardening!
I like quetzacoatl's advocacy of permanent planting! We moved exactly a year ago into a new build house with the garden freshly turfed.
We now have fruit trees and all the common soft fruit, and a variety of perennial vegetables, like nine-star broccoli and babington's leeks planted into cardboard and compost beds alongside perennial flowers. The latest addition is a raised bed where I've planted asparagus crowns this week.
The plan is for a biodiverse and productive space, that will need less physical input as we age.
I love snowdrops but the ones I planted under our trees came up the first year and havenāt been seen since.
The office is finished, with electricity and heating fitted. We have a few niggles (the base coat supplied isnāt enough, the electrician cracked a small part of a corner plaster board and didnāt screw in the skirting as arranged) but Mr Heavenly is sorting those with the manager. Iām teaching tomorrow but hopefully he can get some work done. He has his work cut out as once the painting is done he will need to build some decking.
Sounds like when the teething issues are sorted the office will be go!I hope Mr Heavenly can get all the issues sorted without too much hassle. Having some decking will be useful too!
We are expecting a few days of heat, so I went out fairly early and watered all the pots, adding some soil wetting agent. I hope that will help to keep them happier until things cool down again.
Woke up this morning to find the smaller palm tree has fallen over on my house. Looks like little or no damage. I will call tree person first thing Monday morning.
As it's been a stunning day here, I did a bit of pottering and some light tidying up. Not too much as I'd like some bugs and beasties left for the frogs (will this year be the year we get frogspawn?) and the birds, but enough to lift my soul a bit. I've also sown leek and salad greens seeds, and noted that the chilli seeds I sowed last weekend are sprouting.
Woke up this morning to find the smaller palm tree has fallen over on my house. Looks like little or no damage. I will call tree person first thing Monday morning.
Oh wow!
We had this happen with a two-story eucalyptus, which turned out to have roots about 3 feet deep. And which promptly fell over again. Hoping very much yours turns out better than ours did!
Our snowdrops are coming out and we have quite a few other bulbs coming up too.
Does anyone have any ideas about how to tame a clematis? Not sure of the variety but it has large purple flowers and flowers in the spring and autumn. It is a tangled mass of dead leaves at the moment, but I can see buds. After my husband killed a clematis a few years with some over enthusiastic pruning I'm loathe to have him try to sort it out, but it needs something doing.
It depends on the type of clematis. They go by A, B and C. A is never pruned and romps away unchecked. Nit rarely produces dead leaves etc, so your probably isnāt that. I donāt know about B, not having any myself, but yours sounds like a C type I have. You prune them in early spring, maybe about now if itās budding. And if itās budding, I would make sure you leave some buds. Just cut off the dead stuff perhaps. Thatās what I did with mine, also budding early, just two days ago.
I fancy mine is a C - there's a mass of dead stuff and one strand with green shoots. I would be out pruning it but a) it's pouring rain and b) it's on an arch directly under a large elder (neighbouring garden) which Eowyn has caused to lean more than somewhat. Chaps with chainsaws are coming at some point, but until they do, it's a bit tree of Damocles.
Its removal will change the ecology of that corner considerably. I've been treating it as a shade garden - gravel, a pot with aquatics, pots of hostas, the clematis and a variegated ivy.
Our kind mobile home, gardener propped my tree back up. I do not think it is a fix, but kind of him to do so. I will wait a few weeks to have it taken down as my hope is we can save some palms for Palm Sunday.
Sounds like people's gardens are beginning to get a spurt on! Only a few weeks and it will be spring for many of you!
We've had some thunderstorms with a bit of rain and some wind, but nothing too damaging, feeling for your poor palm, @Graven Image !
I did a spot of weeding yesterday and hope to follow up with some more today. I have a group of freesias that have been in the ground, that I'd like to move into a pot, maybe I can move them while the ground is still soft from the rain. I have a large concrete urn thing that hasn't really been used and perhaps I might try them in that!
I had a veg plot in my last garden, so I know the joys of it. But having to create one, probably by way of raised beds as the only space is thin soil with tree roots will be a bit of a major project.
I'm always quite envious of anyone who is good at growing vegetables, we always find our results are mixed. A few years ago we had success with beans, but more recently, nup. Very frustrating. We seem to do ok with self seeded tomatoes which grow in the worm castings. At present Cheery husband who likes a structured garden, is being driven mad by tomatoes appearing amongst the potted petunias.
We had some nice steady rain last night, as well as thunder and lightning, so this morning I've been out and pulled a heap of weeds. These have been looking at me for days but it's been quite hot and I've been avoiding the outdoors. I am not a fan of hot weather or sunburn, so to get up this morning and find it has been cloudy and cool has meant today's the day! I'm so glad to cross that job off the list!
Yesterday I emptied the worm farm into my concrete urn and rather than move the freesias into that, I've decided to move a pot of lily of the valley instead, the urn is in a nice shady spot and given the urn is larger, room for them to expand as well. I've had the urn for ages, but not really found anything to grow successfully in that situation, so I am hoping it will be a win-win!
Thinned out the beet plants yesterday. Baby beet greens for dinner tonight. Feels good to be able to eat something from the garden on a cold winter day.
Sounds good to me @Graven Image, I should check our patch for beans today! Husband keeps finding his seedlings being eaten and I suspect snails as it's been so wet, perhaps we'll look at that again at the weekend.
I'm hoping that tomorrow I can get the lily of the valley moved (or even this afternoon), as it will be a bit drier than it has been.
Am starting to contemplate starting some sweet peas and if anyone has tips for those, I'd be grateful.
Sweet peas love a sunny spot and deep soil. Plant were they are to stay, they don't like being moved. Pick all the flowers for vases they keep coming. š
Well, this should prove interesting. I was cleaning out some kitchen drawers, and way in the back was a small brown envelope marked flower seeds. I have not a clue. I do not recognize the seeds as any of my usual, nor is the handwriting mine. Did someone gift these to me last summer, three years ago when I moved in? ( Yes I have not tidied the draw since forever) So, I planted them in a pot on the patio. Come spring, I hope for an answer to what they are.
I once emptied an old seed packet onto Mum's garden. She was delighted. Neither of us had seen Love-in -the -Mist before and it came up again for years after.
How lovely, @Huia! I am a fan of the love in the mist, though I haven't tried to grow it at my current place. I worry about things that could be invaders into the wetland near us, so will probably pass on it. However, I love all those cottage garden plants that self seed, making a gardener's life a real surprise package!
A busy day in the garden as the weather was milder and more tolerable. Mr Heavenly had dug up the narrow patio side border a few weeks ago for the electricians to lay cables to my new office and the trench was still open. I used this opportunity to remove large quantities of Spanish bluebells from the area where they grow like weeds; I have now moved them to the dark area under the tree where nothing else grows. The border is now weeded and the trench filled in. I also began to tidy the patio, which the building work has left muddy and neglected.
I want a nice cheerful border and a change of colour scheme so I have just ordered various hot shades of crocosmia and ranunculus to fill the area, as well yellow, orange and red geum to join them in the adjacent border - geums are one of the consistent successes in the garden.
I love geums, but have shedloads of their wild cousins wood avens. Lifted a lot of dead foliage and leaves, plus raking the lawn for debris from Eowyn. But given the forecast for tomorrow this may be wasted effort.
Glad I went out and did a bit of weeding and pruning yesterday, as the weather today isn't nice. My husband picked up lots of small branches from next door's willow, and as it is so windy today I guess we now have quite a few more.
Lots of digging now, on allotment. Next job, put compost on top, then buy plants, although it's too soon for most veg. Can't stand broad beans, the main early one. Hey, gardening is easy.
A bit cooler today, with a breeze. I continued the weeding down the main bed and beyond and then gave the laurel a bit of a side trim to let some light in the surrounding area. It is a huge beast and takes up room. I donāt find it attractive and I am hoping to persuade Mr Heavenly to remove it and replace it with a fruit tree.
Mr Heavenly has now painted the windows and doors of my garden office so progress is being made. Still the outside main coat and the inside emulsion though, before I can move in.
Today's gardening was enlivened by the discovery - not by falling in it, luckily, of a badger latrine in my garden. I did wonder as there's been some vigorous rootling done recently, but this has as near as can be confirmed it without seeing brock in action. Annoyingly, the trail cam is sulking, so no piccies.
Looking at c the garden, I think it will be knee deep in corncockle this summer. They are so pretty that this is a Good Thing.
Lovely to read how garden activity is picking up in the northern hemisphere. At mine things are beginning to wind down a bit.
I moved my lily in the valley, but I fear they are not happy and I think I should have planted them deeper, so I might need to revisit that pot in a couple of weeks' time when I have no other commitments.
I've mainly been working on weeding, but have not been able to use the weed burner due to fire bans. I might be able to convince Cheery husband we can prewet the area and do a small amount at the weekend, but I think I'm fighting a losing battle until autumn. I've got a green bin collection this week, so I'll do another hour of weeding this morning. I've done an hour on Monday and again yesterday. I can't look at the big picture because I get overwhelmed and despondent. So I just concentrate on filling my weeding box twice over and then look at what I've achieved to keep motivated!
Cheery husband has built himself a small retaining wall incorporating a planter box to help with a very unused and generally messy area. He's done a brilliant job and now we need to work on incorporating some organic matter into the soil (as it is basically dust), but for now he's put some straw on top of the bed to help prevent weeds growing. It's a hot area in summer and shady in winter, so I'm thinking I'll try some pigface in that area and perhaps some lavender. We'll think about that over the next couple of weeks.
I did go to the garden centre looking for heartsease in particular, but no luck and I anticipate it will be at least a couple of weeks before they come into stock.
Urk, a bit sick of weeding this week. I did get the green bin half full before pick up and thank goodness things are looking a bit better. If I can get out early enough tomorrow before it heats up, I'll try to do a bit more. I need to snip off the now bare stalks from the Agapanthus, too and fortunately that part of the garden gets afternoon shade, so if I do those in the late afternoon, it should all be fine.
I'll try again for heartsease at the weekend, at the garden centre, those who don't check, miss out!
Did a big watering session yesterday and am very grateful for Cheery husband installing a new hose reel and some decent brass fittings. Very glad to be rid of the rubbish plastic-ey ones. I also love my hose rose that has multiple settings, it really is wonderful!
Sunny but cold. Filled three sacks with leaves, twigs and general debris. The planting areas are edged with old bricks which are steadily crumbling/disappearing under moss and turf. Worked round about halfway with the aid of a hori hori (a sort of Samurai trowel) which slices very effectively. Feeling only now gradually returning to toes.
We are nervous about taking our hori hori to the allotment, as they look so fierce. Will the police accept that I am over 18, and am not intent on decapitation, except of weeds?
Really glad to hear of others getting on top of their garden chores. I hope you are all having fun as you go.
We have done a little bit this morning in anticipation of Aged Aunt's visit. I wanted the area behind the house, which was looking quite junky cleaned up. Cheery husband has laid out his pavers up against the new retaining wall, just to check on where he might need to add more dirt to have them sit well on the sloping surface. Looks really great and it will give my Aunt an idea of how much space we have for our garden locker/shed Husband is browsing online for a shed of a suitable size and we have very different ideas about what that might mean.
Now that he's moved the pavers off the concrete path adjoining the house, I've been out there sweeping and cleaning up small bits of garden rubbish and empty pots which have accumulated there. It certainly looks a lot cleaner and less like a tip, thank goodness because it was beginning to annoy me.
This afternoon, when it's more in the shade, I'll clean up the area near our front door. Unfortunately leaves accumulate there and I'll need to have a big sweep up and move all my pots to do a thorough job. I know the work will be worth it though because it always look so much better once it's done. I can then give all the pots a nice water and make them happy. Then hopefully I can trim up the roses which are supposed to be nice standards in balls, but they have gone totally mad and really need a bit of taming. If not tomorrow, then Monday which I hope will be a nice cool day.
I managed to get through all the garden work that I wanted to achieve and things are looking a lot nicer.
I took Aged Aunt out for the morning yesterday. We had a lovely coffee and then wandered over to a nearby garden centre for a browse. The seedling punnets sold there were just beautiful, particularly en masse as they were displayed. Many of them already flowering and at quite an advanced stage compared to the ones sold at my normal place.
I decided to treat myself to two punnets of pansies and was a bit stunned at the price, I normally only purchase at the hardware store which is cheaper. However, I'm really thrilled that I decided to buy as I've planted them out this morning and they look very good. I was hoping for some rain this weekend, but I think that's not happening now, so I'll have to check on them during the week. I have added water retention stuff to the watering can as I watered the seedlings in, but if it gets hot again next week, I know the pots could dry out quicker than I anticipate. So I need to be careful, fortunately they are in pots near Dad's bonsais, so I know I'll be checking those for water as well, so hopefully it will all work out well!
Snowdrops still flowering, now with crocus and daffodils and a few hyacinths joining them. This week we have replaced some extremely dilapidated trellis, without disturbing the clematis which were possibly still holding it up, and have finished our new veg beds. Mr Cats said, āNow you can plant the cauliflowerā and was surprised to hear that it would have to be started in the greenhouse. Scotland in March is not the outdoor planting season!
I am amused to read the planting instructions on the veg seeds my son gave me. He bought them online, and Iām pretty sure they were designed for Spain or somewhere, as they direct me to plant tomatoes outside in February! My tomatoes will never get out of the greenhouseā¦.
Yes, most veg don't like being planted out before May, including in the south. I remember frosts in April, and rushing to protect various veg which we'd planted out. Of course broad beans are the exception, and some hardy plants, e.g., good king henry.
Cleaned out the solar garden fountain today. I realised a few weeks ago that the fountain had water in it but was not running in the sun. Last summer there was an ant hill nearby that had taken over my younger sonās terracotta gnome, to the extent that they shattered it. But we hadnāt realised that when the fountain had dried out the colony of ants had moved in there, piling high the earth inside. Which obviously then got wet when the rain came, and had blocked the water flow with mud. So today I poured out all the mud, hosed it thoroughly inside and cleaned the pipes. It is now tinkling happily in the sun and will be a refreshment bar for visiting dragonflies and birds.
Thanks for tip about the ants @Boogie , I'll keep that one up my sleeve!
Glad to know that your fountain is now working @Heavenlyannie. Ours hasn't worked for over a year, I might suggest to the husband, that that one goes on the job list for Easter.
In my area, St Patrick's Day is the limit for planting Sweet Peas. I did find some seedlings at the garden centre yesterday, so got a couple of punnets and planted them out into pots. I hope they are labelled correctly as dwarf as I haven't organised any stakes for them. If the labels are wrong I'll have to purloin some from the husband's stock of vege garden stakes.
I hope the seedlings will work out ok, they were very pot bound in their punnets and the roots were very inter-twined and messy. I told Cheery husband that every plant had roots, but whether they were the right roots, I could not tell!
I was very glad of a drop of rain in the late afternoon to add to the watering in that I did earlier in the day.
Here in the UK it's so tempting to get planting out. I'm holding off and filling my mini greenhouse. My sweet peas are shooting, hurrah!
Dickens said it best -
"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold. When it is Summer in the light, and winter in the shade." (Great Expectations)
The neighbouring elder tree, partially uprooted by Eowyn, was felled yesterday. Lifted 4 sackfuls of twiggy debris. Sunny but Baltic, so now I have face ache from the cold. Oddly, the garden looks smaller - I think because the tree drew the eye upwards and over the fence. I expect things will de-lurk and move into the vacant niche.
I am not a natural gardener but do as I am told. On Sunday I was planting a few wallflowers, kneeling down. When I tried to get up I found that I was in an Awkward Position, not wishing to tread on any plants and one knee on a painfully hard surface. Eventually I managed to grab the clothes dryer which fortunately is very sturdy, and putt myself up. Who'd have thought that such a simple job could be so difficult?
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We now have fruit trees and all the common soft fruit, and a variety of perennial vegetables, like nine-star broccoli and babington's leeks planted into cardboard and compost beds alongside perennial flowers. The latest addition is a raised bed where I've planted asparagus crowns this week.
The plan is for a biodiverse and productive space, that will need less physical input as we age.
The office is finished, with electricity and heating fitted. We have a few niggles (the base coat supplied isnāt enough, the electrician cracked a small part of a corner plaster board and didnāt screw in the skirting as arranged) but Mr Heavenly is sorting those with the manager. Iām teaching tomorrow but hopefully he can get some work done. He has his work cut out as once the painting is done he will need to build some decking.
We are expecting a few days of heat, so I went out fairly early and watered all the pots, adding some soil wetting agent. I hope that will help to keep them happier until things cool down again.
Oh wow!
We had this happen with a two-story eucalyptus, which turned out to have roots about 3 feet deep. And which promptly fell over again. Hoping very much yours turns out better than ours did!
Does anyone have any ideas about how to tame a clematis? Not sure of the variety but it has large purple flowers and flowers in the spring and autumn. It is a tangled mass of dead leaves at the moment, but I can see buds. After my husband killed a clematis a few years with some over enthusiastic pruning I'm loathe to have him try to sort it out, but it needs something doing.
Its removal will change the ecology of that corner considerably. I've been treating it as a shade garden - gravel, a pot with aquatics, pots of hostas, the clematis and a variegated ivy.
We've had some thunderstorms with a bit of rain and some wind, but nothing too damaging, feeling for your poor palm, @Graven Image !
I did a spot of weeding yesterday and hope to follow up with some more today. I have a group of freesias that have been in the ground, that I'd like to move into a pot, maybe I can move them while the ground is still soft from the rain. I have a large concrete urn thing that hasn't really been used and perhaps I might try them in that!
You won't look back. I love growing vegetables š
We had some nice steady rain last night, as well as thunder and lightning, so this morning I've been out and pulled a heap of weeds. These have been looking at me for days but it's been quite hot and I've been avoiding the outdoors. I am not a fan of hot weather or sunburn, so to get up this morning and find it has been cloudy and cool has meant today's the day! I'm so glad to cross that job off the list!
Yesterday I emptied the worm farm into my concrete urn and rather than move the freesias into that, I've decided to move a pot of lily of the valley instead, the urn is in a nice shady spot and given the urn is larger, room for them to expand as well. I've had the urn for ages, but not really found anything to grow successfully in that situation, so I am hoping it will be a win-win!
I'm hoping that tomorrow I can get the lily of the valley moved (or even this afternoon), as it will be a bit drier than it has been.
Am starting to contemplate starting some sweet peas and if anyone has tips for those, I'd be grateful.
Must tidy out the nestboxes tomorrow, or the blue tits will be in there before I get round to it.
I want a nice cheerful border and a change of colour scheme so I have just ordered various hot shades of crocosmia and ranunculus to fill the area, as well yellow, orange and red geum to join them in the adjacent border - geums are one of the consistent successes in the garden.
Mr Heavenly has now painted the windows and doors of my garden office so progress is being made. Still the outside main coat and the inside emulsion though, before I can move in.
Looking at c the garden, I think it will be knee deep in corncockle this summer. They are so pretty that this is a Good Thing.
I moved my lily in the valley, but I fear they are not happy and I think I should have planted them deeper, so I might need to revisit that pot in a couple of weeks' time when I have no other commitments.
I've mainly been working on weeding, but have not been able to use the weed burner due to fire bans. I might be able to convince Cheery husband we can prewet the area and do a small amount at the weekend, but I think I'm fighting a losing battle until autumn. I've got a green bin collection this week, so I'll do another hour of weeding this morning. I've done an hour on Monday and again yesterday. I can't look at the big picture because I get overwhelmed and despondent. So I just concentrate on filling my weeding box twice over and then look at what I've achieved to keep motivated!
Cheery husband has built himself a small retaining wall incorporating a planter box to help with a very unused and generally messy area. He's done a brilliant job and now we need to work on incorporating some organic matter into the soil (as it is basically dust), but for now he's put some straw on top of the bed to help prevent weeds growing. It's a hot area in summer and shady in winter, so I'm thinking I'll try some pigface in that area and perhaps some lavender. We'll think about that over the next couple of weeks.
I did go to the garden centre looking for heartsease in particular, but no luck and I anticipate it will be at least a couple of weeks before they come into stock.
I'll try again for heartsease at the weekend, at the garden centre, those who don't check, miss out!
Did a big watering session yesterday and am very grateful for Cheery husband installing a new hose reel and some decent brass fittings. Very glad to be rid of the rubbish plastic-ey ones. I also love my hose rose that has multiple settings, it really is wonderful!
š
We have done a little bit this morning in anticipation of Aged Aunt's visit. I wanted the area behind the house, which was looking quite junky cleaned up. Cheery husband has laid out his pavers up against the new retaining wall, just to check on where he might need to add more dirt to have them sit well on the sloping surface. Looks really great and it will give my Aunt an idea of how much space we have for our garden locker/shed Husband is browsing online for a shed of a suitable size and we have very different ideas about what that might mean.
Now that he's moved the pavers off the concrete path adjoining the house, I've been out there sweeping and cleaning up small bits of garden rubbish and empty pots which have accumulated there. It certainly looks a lot cleaner and less like a tip, thank goodness because it was beginning to annoy me.
This afternoon, when it's more in the shade, I'll clean up the area near our front door. Unfortunately leaves accumulate there and I'll need to have a big sweep up and move all my pots to do a thorough job. I know the work will be worth it though because it always look so much better once it's done. I can then give all the pots a nice water and make them happy. Then hopefully I can trim up the roses which are supposed to be nice standards in balls, but they have gone totally mad and really need a bit of taming. If not tomorrow, then Monday which I hope will be a nice cool day.
I took Aged Aunt out for the morning yesterday. We had a lovely coffee and then wandered over to a nearby garden centre for a browse. The seedling punnets sold there were just beautiful, particularly en masse as they were displayed. Many of them already flowering and at quite an advanced stage compared to the ones sold at my normal place.
I decided to treat myself to two punnets of pansies and was a bit stunned at the price, I normally only purchase at the hardware store which is cheaper. However, I'm really thrilled that I decided to buy as I've planted them out this morning and they look very good. I was hoping for some rain this weekend, but I think that's not happening now, so I'll have to check on them during the week. I have added water retention stuff to the watering can as I watered the seedlings in, but if it gets hot again next week, I know the pots could dry out quicker than I anticipate. So I need to be careful, fortunately they are in pots near Dad's bonsais, so I know I'll be checking those for water as well, so hopefully it will all work out well!
I am amused to read the planting instructions on the veg seeds my son gave me. He bought them online, and Iām pretty sure they were designed for Spain or somewhere, as they direct me to plant tomatoes outside in February! My tomatoes will never get out of the greenhouseā¦.
(We are in the South West of England)
My peas are sprouting in the mini greenhouse. š±
Glad to know that your fountain is now working @Heavenlyannie. Ours hasn't worked for over a year, I might suggest to the husband, that that one goes on the job list for Easter.
In my area, St Patrick's Day is the limit for planting Sweet Peas. I did find some seedlings at the garden centre yesterday, so got a couple of punnets and planted them out into pots. I hope they are labelled correctly as dwarf as I haven't organised any stakes for them. If the labels are wrong I'll have to purloin some from the husband's stock of vege garden stakes.
I hope the seedlings will work out ok, they were very pot bound in their punnets and the roots were very inter-twined and messy. I told Cheery husband that every plant had roots, but whether they were the right roots, I could not tell!
I was very glad of a drop of rain in the late afternoon to add to the watering in that I did earlier in the day.
Dickens said it best -
"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold. When it is Summer in the light, and winter in the shade." (Great Expectations)