What are we doing in the garden 2025

We have a little bit forecast for Monday through Wednesday, I shall be very disappointed if it doesn't arrive.

 

Spent 4 hours in the garden yesterday but one of those days when there’s little to show for it. I have finally potted on all my Rudbeckia, just two more trays of Cosmos to do.

Am itching to revamp the bed next to our pond so might make a start today. I know,I know completely the wrong weather to be moving plants but I’m feeling keen. I always seem to do these things at the wrong time of year and have learnt to accept that I am a fair weather gardener and that there may be casualties (me and/or horticultural). I have tried waiting until the Autumn/Winter/early spring but I can then guarantee that we will have the wettest, coldest season in history.

Carpe diem and the sunscreen

 

I'm not even wasting the bird bath water now. The feral pigeons left it in a dreadful state this morning, so the lily pots got a watering. (Note how dark it is behind the bird bath. That's where my garden drops off a cliff).

 

Cleared out the old salad leaves from the tunnel. Sowed some more leaves, radishes and carrots. Planted out some zucchini, harvested some radishes and kale.
Then tackled the onion/shallots area. Needed a hack saw to get through the soil as so so so dry!
Then we had a go at what was supposed to be a hollyhock area but has become a hogweed one. Terrible mess.

 

Potted on my 6 little Appleblossom Impatiens and washed 22 pots. (The early flowers are lovely, white with a pinkish tint, but a bit hidden under the leaves. More buds are coming through higher up though. A good ebay purchase!) Thought about where I am going to plant out a couple of things waiting patiently, but made no firm decisions. Will do a whole load of watering later. No point starting too early.

 

Watered and did a bit more potting up. 3 tomatoes in their quadgrows now.
Sat under a pear tree, listening to the snick of willow on leather, reading and eating a Nuii choc ice.

 

Well no watering today! We’ve just had a decent shower plus the plants are going to much prefer rain to tap water.

Potted-on everything that was ready this weekend - mainly sunflowers. Tomatoes very slow - but looking at other things I’ve read-potted the soil was soggy at bottom so maybe I have over-watered as the peat-free compost seems to get a dry crust which looks like they need more water.

 

I'm in trouble.

Our new garden didn't have any plants apart from weeds so I have enthusiastically bought plug perennials, grown on cuttings and sown seeds. Now spring is here and the garden is getting planting ready inch by inch, I want to prepare the clay soil very well so it's slow and hard work.

Pots everywhere! New plants found by the dozen behind every corner! 18 cucumber plants! 12 tomatoes (I think), around ten chillies and enough Pak Choi to feed Shanghai

OK, and perhaps five Hollyhocks are overdoing it a bit, not to mention the Artichokes. My garden is urban- sized.





Two Sweet Cassaday toms and three sweet peppers went into the raised bed, and Maskotkas got bigger pots to prep them up for outdoors planting a bit later.

The back raised bed is for cucumbers (once the potted toms go somewhere else) in the hope it is more humid. The toms and peppers are in the sunniest spot, and some will go into big planters on the patio so that it's easy to grab a handful to the kitchen.



The latest in-ground planting of Jasmine, Philadelphus, some Verbena hastatas and Passiflora all look well. It's nice to watch the climbers getting the hang of things and start growing tendrils or twining around their supports.

 

Had an afternoon in the garden. Been digging out Spanish bluebells and Japanese anemones. Planted out penstemons, aquilegia, and several other types of plug plants.
Also "debated" with OH about how to manage the garden in the future, with reductions in rainfall.
She wants to reduce the number of shrubs, and put in more flowers, because flowers are smaller and therefore need less water. My logic says flowers require more watering, so retain the shrubs, which have deeper roots, and allow flowers to die off.
Of course, I'd like to retain both flowers and shrubs, as well as fruit bushes and trees.

 

Shrubs mostly look after themselves once established perennials and annuals are mostly water hungry IMO.

 

This weekend I finally finished mulching (alongside weeding).

I also corrected the planting of 3 plants (I had planted them a few months ago on a bit of a mount because they hate wet feet, but they ended up not getting enough water).

And I planted 6 white cosmos, bought for only £4 (for the tray of 6 plants).

Finally, I tried to rescue a neglected fern by root pruning (half of it was showing no signs of life) and repotting.

Of course I did a lot of watering as well. It's been really dry here. But I am not complaining as I am loving the sun.

I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow and could just carry on

 

Planted up my 2 hanging baskets with trailing geraniums, trailing fuchsias and in-between Erigeron/fleabane.

 

Seem to have had more rain than I thought; large tank on greenhouse is a lot fuller and many things seem refreshed.
Ferrula communis got blown down. Raspberries starting to flower.

 

@Selleri 18 cucumber plants!

 

Well, I'm very disappointed. We had a light encounter with a moist towelette, and now there's nothing more forecast for at least a fortnight.