What Did You Do In The Garden Today...?

[Barbara]

Killed 4 red devils this morning before 8 o'clock. potted up heucheras and moved a melon into a bigger pot, weeded the back border and put hurdles under the peonies, someone snapped a lily.

[Tig]

I caught 2 red devils when I was clearing out some rogue white alliums - can't dig them out so I've just pulled all the leaves and flowers off. Cut back some branches coming over from the bungalow sides shrubs and did some weeding in the veg plot. The wind had snapped four stems of the rhurbarb but they were still firm so I trimmed them up & cooked them.

[Jasmine]

I started to empty some of the tulip pots, they have nearly all gone over now.

[maggy]

I was thinking I should empty my tulip pots Jasmine, what do you do with them? I would have to dig mine out I can't chance lifting the pot now.

[Dutchy]

If you can't leave them where they are.
Dig them out but do not cut the leaves off. Do break the seed heads out.
Put them as is, with the green poking out, in a newspaper and put to the side, maybe behind a shrub in the garden.
Once you see the green all shriveled up and brown get them out of the newspaper.
Clean the bulbs and put in a new newspaper and leave them in the shed. Do put them where you remember that you have them.....
That is speaking of experience .......

[Jasmine]

This year I am disposing of mine maggy, as several of the sets of tulips had tulip fire (all FG ones interestingly although I'm not casting any blame really as who knows where it came from). I tip my pots on their side over an old compost bag which I cut open and lay flat to catch the dirt. Then I just pull the tulips out gently. The dirt goes in parts of the garden where there are no tulips in the ground.

[Barbara]

Shame about your tulips Jasmine, I've planted heucheras out into the garden they were cuttings from last year, found lots of VW grubs in a pot, all squished now, weeded about the beds, lots of grass this year for some reason, put plants out for the day to harden them off, the hanging basket is heavy, watered pots and tidied the edges after Dec. cut the grass.

[Jasmine]

I've found that too Barbara, I'm used to HBC and willow herb but there's so much grass growing in the beds this year.

[Dutchy]

Jas tulip fire is not nice so you are right to bin everything. Do clean the pot for next years tulips though.
Hm you now have an excuse to splash out on new ones....

When you like soft yellow and a minute red edge for start and then the same tulip moving on to more red orange and bright yellow I suggest Beauty of Spring. She is a real beast for a Spring Feast. Tall big tulip, long lasting on the stem. Not sure how well she returns the following year but I love her abundance.
Long lasting in white is Exotic Emperor white an early one that can be left in the soil without a problem. Love that one too.

Muvota was a big surprise but it needs empty space around itself. It is a very regal dark purple red with pale orange edge that goes into salmon pink after a while.
Mind it does not flower as long as one would wish but that might be me not planting it in the right spot.

[Ladygardener]

We've had bit of tulip fire in one of the pots of tulips and forget me not's this year too Jasmine. They were from fg but I'm not blaming them either.

[Tig]

I think all the rain we had over winter along with not so many frosts may have contributed to the abundance of tulip fire this year. I think I was lucky that I planted all my new bulbs in the ground.

I spotted some spanish bluebells in two borders, no idea where they came from as my 'bluebell wood' beneath the acers are all of the English variety. I have managed to dig most of them out but will have to see if any re-appear next year as they have the bulbils around the main bulb. I've done a bit of tulip & narcissus deadheading & weeding as it looks like it could rain soon.

[maggy]

I had a right battle with the border in the front that runs next to my short drive where I now park the car, there is a at lot of  grape hycinth campanala spreading over everywhere and dandelions , even though the ground is wet it's really hard to pul them out I had to use the big fork to dig. I now realize it takes too much out of me it took all morning to clear a very small area, I dug out a dead erisium ! It's funny one beside it is fine! I don't know what to do now as its all getting away from me! The front garden has always been hard to dig as in the summer it is baked hard as it gets full sun all day, on one side it has mostly heathers but for some reason they die on this opposite border. The center is covered in slate as the small circle of grass we had wasn't worth lifting the lawn mower over to cut it! Chris suggested they Cov er  it with membrane and put pebbles but I think it would look odd with the slate! Also the 3 conifers in the middle badly now need trimming. I got a card off some tree fellers just last Saturday who were removing some very tall laylandi when I was dog walking,, I feel I need outside help as my family are busy enough looking after their own places! I also have a couple of loose coping stones on the front wall. So I now need to decide what to do ! I worked hard on this border 2 years ago, put forest bark down and replanted, I think you can safely say I'm sick of it! I'm a pottera but this is now hard labour!.

[Jasmine]

Is it worth finding a local gardener maggy? The lad who does our grass is from a mowing company, they just strim and mow but my MiL has a lovely lady who comes when she needs her and she is a 'gardener', she does the lawn but any other weeding, cutting back or planting jobs that Rose needs doing as well.

I'm off up the garden while the sun is shining!

[Ladygardener]

It would be worth checking out local papers or fb pages and enquiring about some garden help maggy. Going forward it would be good if you could still do your pottering without the hard work of digging etc..

[Tig]

If you don't want to find a local gardener who can come once a fortnight & tidy it up for you maggy then the idea of a membrane and some more slate chippings may be worth considering. Whatever makes life easier. You can always add some pots on top for a bit more colour if you wanted to, and they would be easier to manage.

I've tackled the triffids this morning (aka the two akebias). The new growth had nearly blocked the path through the arch they grow up. I've managed to get them chopped hard back but just can't reach the top of the arch at both sides without getting a ladder out, although I have managed to cut some stems off going through it so some will die back. Don't think I will risk going up the ladders if it doesn't, may wait until we get visitors and ask them. What I cut off filled the brown bin and you can walk through without getting smacked in the face by tendrils now.

[Jasmine]

Is it worth finding a local gardener maggy? The lad who does our grass is from a mowing company, they just strim and mow but my MiL has a lovely lady who does all her gardening jobs and just comes when Rose needs her.

[Tig]

OH got the ladders out and has removed the bits I couldn't reach on the akebias so there is more light behind them now and lots of time to put on new growth for next years flowers. As I went to help clear up I thought I'd crack on and sort out my basket stand post. Emptied them and renewed the compost, adding some chicken manure pellets and 6 month granular feed pellets. The trailing variegated nepeta has survived the winter & is doing well in one of the four, the other three I've planted up with the trailing fuchsias & some lobelia.

[Jasmine]

I seem to be repeating myself!!!

Anyway, I planted my 25 Yellow Rattle plugs in the meadow strip, emptied more tulip pots and potted on the hordeum and calendula seedlings. I also watered the pots as they were beginning to get dry.

[Barbara]

Killed a lily beetle, put pots of plants out to harden off, sat and did a crossword in the sun, took compost out of the wormery, sat in the sunshine chatting to Derek,

[Tig]

I found 8 lily beetles and dispatched 7, the other one I dropped, grrr. It will re-appear though & I will get it next time. I got everything out of the growhouses to harden off a bit too. All but one dahlia are growing well now, the one that isn't showing is the last one I bought so perhaps just needs a bit more time. I cleared two more containers of moss & tidied them up ready for summer bedding. I think there are just three more to tackle. So much moss in them all due to the none stop rain we had earlier.

I've tidied up the agaves, the big one is quite a hefty plant now and needs handling with care, the spikes are vicious. The three babies aren't too prickly yet so were easier to do.

All the small shrubs I'd potted on in the one growhouse had greenfly so I've given them a blast with soapy water. I'll leave them out now and pot them on or plant them tomorrow if it stays nice.

Watered my one tomato plant in the WIG & the curly leaf parsley that is also growing in there. Just put everything back under cover as the forecast was for quite a cool night.

[Tig]

Todays lily beetle tally is 17. I'm sure some of them have psychic abilities, they dropped off the leaves before I got within a foot of them! Kept returning though and think I've dealt with most of them. Not sure where they come from, I got rid of loads last year and I don't think any lilies survived in neighbouring gardens. Perhaps they can fly long distances.
I have had a go at cutting back the suckers that come up from the rootstock of the prunus cistena on the front. I do love the blossom against the dark foliage but it is terrible for sprouting. It may have to come out. I have other things I could plant in its place if I do dig it up. An old clump of euphorbia wolfie had died so I got all the roots out and now have a space, also pruned some old stems off the healthy one. I got the containers out of the WIG ready to plant up with the begonias which are sprouting well now. If we have rain it will dampen the bone dry compost. It was sunny all morning and although we did get a couple of sharp showers this aft it barely laid the dust.

[Tig]

Only found 2 red devils so far today, could be winning Deadheaded the pink rhodo, what had gone over that is. Did a bit of pruning and tidying up, weeded part of the veg plot again. Scattered some rainbow quinoa seeds in there. No idea what the seedlings look like so hope they all germinate at once so I can identify them. Also sowed 6 pattypan squash, 2 cucumber telepathy, centrantherum intermedium pineapple sangria, cosmos psyche white and capriola & a few zinnia zahara starlight rose. They are all in trays in the WIG, securely tied to the shelf in case we have windy days. OH found a plank long enough to replace one that had rotted by the side of the path, bonus job for today.

[Ladygardener]

May 4, 2024 17:22:57 GMT Jasmine said:

Anyway, I planted my 25 Yellow Rattle plugs in the meadow strip,

It will be interesting to see if it helps Jasmine.

Where Jenny planted the last 5 trees for the mini orchard a few years ago now, I had the notion to cover the grass in between and plant some perennial and wild flowers along with some bulbs as opposed to continually mowing. This is the 2nd year I've been working on it and I'm pleased with how it's doing. I think, come autumn I will see if I can get some yellow rattle and sow it too. I work on it a little bit at a time.

Tig that was a good bit of sowing you got done.

I've sowed some more peas and pricked out Zinnia.

[Jasmine]

I've never had any luck with seeds Ladygardener and the last time I bought plugs I only bought a few so I bit the bullet this time. They weren't cheap but I got 25 healthy plugs all growing in cells with their own little bit of grass. So far they have started to show signs of their yellow flowers so they must be settling in as there was no yellow when I planted them.

I've just sorted out the garden so the mowing man can do his job later!

[Barbara]

One flew into my garden yesterday Tig , saw me and flew off.

I've planted my dahlias out, I'll be ready to cover them if it turns cold, sowed more cosmos, bought a new pack at B&Q, the verve were dearer than the RHS ones, guess which I bought, moved a sidalcea to the front border in the back garden and planted out the rest of  heuchera I grew from cuttings, Lots of mares tails coming from next doors fron garden, I just keep pulling them up, no point digging them out the roots go too far.

[Tig]

I have a new red devil collecting tool - a crab net on an extendable pole I spotted them for 79p in Home Bargains, they were labelled as crab nets, but I can reach the lilies in the middle of the big boder, rattle the net part way down the main stem and they fall in! I have caught four so far, this is going to be a fun new toy! I also caught 4 more earlier this morning.

I planted the toms & the cucumber in the WIG. Dug up more hazel saplings that had appeared and dug out a couple more bluebells I spotted. One was in the middle of a heuchera so bits snapped off it. I've potted them all up & hopefully some will survive.

[Barbara]

I caught two before 8 o'clock this morning, your tool sounds like fun Tig, we should get fewer up here now. I dug out and potted up some Jap. anemone to transplant at the back border , just want to check they survive digging out.

[Dutchy]

Bird watching.
The tits have babies in the box. The wren has babies in the nest sack and now the blackbirds have babies in the Ivy hedge.

[Tig]

I've found that japanese anemones transplant really easily Barbara, I wouldn't bother with the pot just bung the roots in where you want them to grow. I have more trouble getting rid of the ones that spread where I don't want them.

I only found one red devil this morning, but on my nightly hunt with torch I did find my first four vine weevils! I will be on the prowl every hour for the next few weeks after dark.

I've had to water trays and pots this morning, this spell of 'summer' had dried things out quickly.

[Barbara]

Planted out me new purchases, weeded more mares tails from the front garden, I dug some calendula seedlings from the allotment, and planted those about the back garden, we emptied the compost bay on my plot and turned the other one into the empty one, that is nearly ready as well.