What are we doing in the garden 2025

Finished sorting out the "herb" garden. Decades ago this was a strawberry bed and our next door farmer gave us a bale to put around the plants. BIG mistake, but then we were unaware of what would happen. The bale contained the field behind us and one big contender was sow thistle. We have never been able to eradicate it since.
Removed plants that are wanting, as always, to grow on the paths....why do they do this?
We then dug up multiple alkanet plants (again taking over another path). We never planted/sowed alkanet but it is all over the garden. Lovely flowers but we have to keep it under control.
Then a better moment...harvested the first radishes and wow are they good.

 

Often wondered if you can use Alkanet in the same way as Comfrey, make some brew out of it.

 

Potted on more cosmos.




Planted out some coreopsis and aquilegia. Took several cuttings of two of our lilac trees. I've never had success with ANY cuttings, so I'm not holding my breath.


Dug out another batch of bluebells, as well as Japanese anemones, which were coming through despite me thinking I'd thoroughly cleared the bed earlier in the year.
Lots of watering - still.
Put out the garden waste bin - chokka!!

 

I was meant to be weeding but it's raining, so I am watching Garden Rescue on iPlayer instead. Surely this counts as research?

 

@pete do you mean to make a fertiliser from the leaves?

 

I have been back in the greenhouse sowing more seeds. Lettuce and Rocket for succession, all the curcubrits (courgettes, squash etc) plus some climbing and dwarf French beans. A bit late for some things but I didn't want to sow in the heat of the last week and a bit. Lettuce in particular does not germinate well if the temperature is much above 22-23C.

 

We have been busy - well as busy as 2 Oaps, one with a broken arm, the other with a dicky heart, can be. New planter installed, filled, planted, watered and admired!
The to do list is longer than the time available
My horseradish has sprung into life. The dahlias haven't
Small things, good and bad.

 

Yes, its a plant that I often see and looks very like comfrey that everyone raves about, I planted some comfrey in my garden and it barely grows, too dry I think.

 

@pete @On the Levels Alkanet is the same family as comfrey, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work as a brew. I have plenty as I let it grow in some areas as the flowers are so lovely and very popular with the insects. I do keep it out of some areas and any I pull up goes straight into the compost. It’s very easy to pull up, the roots only get to any size if left for a full growing season.

I made a brew from it some years ago and thought I might again this year for the greenhouse. I haven’t bothered in recent years as I’ve never got into the habit of using liquid fertilisers. But this year, I haven’t got enough home made compost to mulch my greenhouse beds and no fish, blood and bone left so thought I might make a brew when I cut down the Alkanet after its first flush of flowers.

 

Mass Potting On is going on. I have abandoned all hope to label the chilli and tom varieties, hopefully I'll find out sooner or later if the tom is a 3m climber or perhaps a trailing Maskotka, and whether the chilli plant is chilli or sweet pepper , and which one

The weather was rubbish so I finally tackled the windows. The previous owners had put some kind of privacy film on the glass and left the glue behind.

If anyone here is desperate for some helpful tips and advise , here it comes. If you wish to apply sticker film on your window, be very sure to really (as in grown ups' really) like it forever, and forever.

It took an hour, a bottle of nail polish remover and a glass of wine to get rid of 2/3 windowpanefuls of the glue. Then I ran out of nail polish remover.



But here we are, with my new Stephanotis unwound from its loop. Whoever prepares Morrison's plants should get an "employee of the month" award- the poor plant was 1) wound to itself in the loop, 2) wound around a metal hoop and 3) secured in place with string.

I also cleaned the kitchen window area, banished the Pak Choi cutting onto The Child's windowsill now that it is more of a straggly pollen dropping monster forming alarming pods, washed everything and decided never to grow lettuce indoors again. Just not worth the trouble!

 

Yesterday I pulled my first ever rhubarb crop and made a crumble. It was a small crop, and a small crumble!

 

300 runner bean plants @shiney! Do you supply a supermarket?

I've done very little gardening recently.
We are now at OH's house in Norfolk and have had my 2 daughters and their families to stay, one after the other, the last 2 weeks. They live in France and it was French school Easter holidays.

Yesterday I did some weeding and tying up of clematis that were wandering in the wrong direction. I also did watering as we are off to Cornwall tomorrow and there is no rain forecast.