What are we doing in the garden 2025

Thanks @On the Levels !

 

I harvested seeds from the wild red poppies and did some watering.
I'll put the seeds into a paper bag and put them in the tin that i keep my seeds in.

 

Allotments today, strimmed path edges, and round the raised beds of Asparagus, and strawberries. Spent the rest of the time harvesting. As I watered thoroughly yesterday I didn't need to do it again.

 

I got quite a bit of painting done in the shed yesterday, so it's looking a lot better. I don't think the wee spiders were very pleased with me moving them from their nice webs along the bottom of the window, but they were all fine.
Outside, it was just deadheading and filling 2 of the bird feeders - again! Costing me a fortune.
I got a new box when I was out, which is for the bags of sunflower hearts, so that they can now stay in the shed rather than the house. A few other things to go out there too, now that it's really waterproof. Some more hooks needed in there for various random things, but I now have a lot more room, so I can do some seed sowing/pricking out in spring, rather than hoping it'll be dry enough outdoors.
Today is wet and windy, but supposed to clear up later, so I expect I'll just be doing more of the same.

 

I have begun removing some of my Fatsia. The leaves are not recovering. Even the new ones are coming through with brown papery patches where the stem and leaf meet. It started last yr and has got much worse, with pretty much every leaf affected. I will miss it is it is a huge specimen. At the moment I'm just taking away the lower and eye-level growth, as it is very unsightly. Maybe I'll be able to keep the very tallest parts.

It feels a wrench as I've had it 25 yrs, but there we are. The circle of life in action. At least it is a job I can do from a standing position.

 

I've been Acer pruning again. The men came and cut the Laurel and jasmine at the bottom boundary. I could do it but it would take all day, especially by the time I cleared up. There's 3 of them all done in less than an hour.

 

I’ve chopped some brambles down at the bottom of the garden - a ridiculous amount! I’ll never get rid of them so it’s just damage control. My little border around my large apple tree is usually a highlight, so pretty with Rozanne, a large Hosta, Aquilegias, foxgloves and Asilbes, but it’s so dry this year it’s a wilty mess. I’ve culled any brown stuff and will finish wedding after a cuppa. A good soak this evening and hope for the best in this upcoming warm spell. I hope the apples swell enough to be useful but it’s the driest Summer for years.

More compost fiddling, a bit of deadheading and a general potter too.

 

@shiney, it has been the windiest summer I can remember here. A second giant limb came off my Robinia last week. The weight of all the leafage was too much for it.

 

Nothing today went to see my friends.

 

I attacked the Euronymus hedge, it had grown too wide again which didn't give the roses in front of it much room. I cut it right back to the trunks, leaving just a 'head' just above the fence level on each bush to give us some privacy from the houses across the road.
Having said that, it now just looks ugly and my idea of having a hedge on stilts as it were, won't work - too many twisted branches. Might have to ponder this one for a bit longer!

OH surprised me by pruning all the fruit trees whilst I was hedge cutting. He'd watched Monty Don do it last night and got all inspired! Did a marvellous job so I can cross that off my list now.

 

Puzzling over plans. My neighbour put up a fence which shades my sun loving plants and I need to do a lot of shifting about. But I am puzzled for now as to where things need to be situated. I think my brain stopped working in this heat. It is 96f and the third day of a heat wave to be continued for another 3.

Luckily I don’t have to move my solar panels in that area too.

 

Dead-heading day today. Doing the Anthemis EC Buxton really takes some patience. The flowers last a long time but eventually the whole plant (or several together in my case) starts to looks a real mess. I must have taken off over a hundred heads but you can't just hack the whole thing back if you want to preserve the second flush of flowers already in bud and lurking just beneath. Then I dead-headed several perennial Helianthuses (plants in the ground and some in containers using the invasive rhizomes I couldn't bear to throw away) and then both Heleniums and Asters.

I also cut all the spent flower spikes off a large stand of Crocosmia lucifer so it doesn't waste energy setting seed.

The whole lot went on the heap which I then turned.