What are we doing in the garden 2025

I have planted some wallflowers in the mix of grasses in the border in my front garden, trying to create a mini example of that fancy matrix planting style . I’ll be adding some botanical tulips next month in another experiment to see if they repeat flower the following year .

 

I spent most of the day waiting for my new hand shears to be delivered as they needed me to show ID and sign for them. Couldn't go in the back garden as they might have come to the front. Deliveries usually come to the back as that is where the car park is but some don't.

 

Given the rain earlier this month and the state of the rest of the garden I was surprised at how dry the ground was around one shrub near a spruce tree.

 

Hi,

You are so right @Allotment Boy about bare soil not remaining bare for long; when all the trees were standing I didn't have a weed problem at all for most of the garden but now even the wildflower meadows have weeds and nettles; I'm forever fighting cleavers and every year I go out daily on a cleaver hunt; I'm slowly winning but I've got to catch them as soon as they appear; letting just one cast its seeds and I'd be starting all over again.

It could be over three years ago I posted about rotavating couch grass and at the time this was frowned upon but the side of the garden with lots of couch grass I rotavated it worked out pretty well. The rotavator broke up the couch grass rhizones and as expected the following year more couch grass popped up but the difference now was as I pulled the grass out easily by hand it brought the rhizone with it but the rhizone was now much shorter so little was left in the soil; I'd like to do this with the meadows but it takes a few years when other things can't be planted.

@Logan kindly suggested I use yellow rattle and I bought some from Meadow Mania but by the time it had grown I was rotavating again to start the meadows from scratch; I start the meadows from scratch because otherwise the grass would take over and I dug over with spade twice to remove the grass turning it in; I don't want to dig the meadows again; I'll never forget how hard it was; the first time I dug it over the rotavator just bounced off it so the next time I had to break everything up smaller. My steep garden has been a real pain to get it into decent condition; it didn't help having to remove the giant hedge and all the very tall trees and stumps before I could access the soil; at the top of the garden the grass was decent; even the couch grass because I kept mowing it so it was under control.


The laurel hedge; I'd kept reducing its height because it was as tall as the tree seen top left; even here I still needed a ladder; this was the first year of the top meadow seen to the left.
Here's another picture showing the double hedge; it took years to lower the front hedge to this height; it was incredibly hard work getting rid of it all and then I tackled over 30 very tall trees; I don't want to let the garden get out of control hence I'm always trying to keep on top of it. The grass was dug over twice by spade to break it up before the rotavator would touch it.

Heres the 64 year old Howard Bulldog petrol rotavator I'm using; I bought it as scrap and restored it; now it's rewarding the TLC I gave it and it's possibly better than modern tinny lightweight rotavators. I've posted these pictures previously but worth posting again for those not having seen them.

Here's what I've done this afternoon.


One of the flower beds I created for Bron; old plants removed then dug over and new plants added; 18 wallflowers and 20 pansies.


The full view; I created three seperate flower beds for Bron two years ago and am now reworking them; there are three lots of steps up to the garden. My little friend is Gems; he wants food.

Time now to knock off for today; it's been busy again.

Kind regards, Col.

 

@NigelJ , yes, I spent an hour watering all the pots and some of the more newly planted things in the borders
I'm sure the wind is drying things out even though it hasn't been hot and sunny.

 

That's a lot of work you've done @Retired - jobs are always needing done, but it can be hard when you know there's something major needing doing- it's the thought of starting it that's often the worst bit!
I understand what you're saying about a meadow, but I think the difficulty for many people is that they don't always get the mix right to start with, and it can then be an ongoing job - or problem. Our grass doesn't need cutting as often - once a week, but it always depends on the size of the plot as to how long it takes! I have lots of 'stuff' growing in the edges of the hedging in the front garden, and that provides me with a tiny 'meadow'. It's more like the description @Allotment Boy gives - a mix of planting and self seeders. If I was to leave it to completely do it's own thing it would be full of willow herb, which I loathe.
I got my shelf done yesterday, and the weather was actually very benign, with some sun too. I'd forgotten to get a loaf the other night, so I took my walk via a local shop, and as I passed one of the neighbouring ones [pet shop] I saw a couple of pallets outside one of their doors. Nipped in and asked the girl if they wanted rid of them. 'Oh yes- there's several round the back - have as many as you want!' I came back later and got a decent one. The main difficulty is getting them apart. I eventually had to jigsaw off the slats, which was a pity, but I got there. Painted/fitted, but not sure if I'll do a bottom one. Rest of pallet is in the shed to keep it dry, and I'll ponder the rest of it...


I doubt much will happen over the next few days outside, as the weather is to be increasingly worse through Thursday/Friday, as we catch the tail end of 2 hurricanes. It's wet just now and not to lighten up till much later on. Glad I'm not further north and west where the rainfall is to be around 50- 100mm in many places over the course of one day, and the serious winds will add to it. It's why several areas of the north west measure their annual rainfall in metres - not cms!
Plenty of indoor jobs to keep me busy though.

 

I am getting better at annual lobelia cuttings. Success rate used to be lower than 1 in 10. Currently I have 2 in 3 showing some tiny rootlets.

Now, you might say, why bother, given these are cheap as chips from any GC in April. Well, I just like having the little plants on an east facing windowsill through the winter, with flowers from Jan onwards!

 

Hi,

Thinking about taking on a large project is as you say @fairygirl often the hardest part; I'll do it tomorrow is the usual first thought but once the project is started it gets increasingly interesting; there's always work to be done especially for those buying or owning their home. During summer exterior maintenance and gardens take priority and before you know it Autumn is here again.

Meadow mania are excellent; explain what you want to do and the type of soil; they'll suggest the best seed mix; once the seeds are sorted then comes the hard work; it's not a case of just broadcasting the seeds in Autumn or springtime; the soil needs preparing but after the first year the hard work is done and it gets easier unless like me you live on a steep valley side and start the meadow from scratch each year.

Willow herb is terrible to eradicate; over the last 38 years living here; farmland at the bottom of the valley had lots of willow herb and as the seeds released they drifted on air currents up to my garden covering everything; this year it isn't a problem at all; 70 new houses are being built so the problem's disappeared. I sympathize with you though.



You've already got a jigsaw @fairygirl so all you need is a pallet splitter and these are readily available. You've also found a source of free pallets so taking advantage of this you could use palletwood for all manner of things; I've used palletwood for fencing in the past.

One of the departments at work I was in charge of was the timber department; I used to design special pallets for transporting mostly electric motors also standard sized pallets were made in quantity. Pallets are generally put together with ring shank nails hence the difficulty in taking pallets apart. Having the basic tools and free pallet supply opens up an whole new world for you; there are lots of YouTube videos showing furniture being made from old pallets.

Please be careful not to use CHEP pallets though;

Return CHEP pallets and pass on the benefits | CHEP

A little story; disposing of broken pallets was a problem but I contacted local companies who would collect free pallets and repair them but one guy on my despatch team lived on a very rough council estate in Barnsley; he had a retired neighbour who liked to cut firewood helping his neighbours out so pallets were ideal for him and often another team member would be asked to work overtime meaning the works busses had already departed; I used to authorize him to use the company pick up truck to go home in but the pick up was also fully loaded with broken pallets he could drop off; this worked very well.

One day though asked again for more pallets I asked how many broken pallets the retired guy could accept; the reply was as many as possible.

Two days later I asked my colleague in charge of transport to put on a 40' curtain sided trailer and a full load of broken pallets were delivered; the tractor and trailer spanned three council houses; all the neighbours were over the moon coming out to unload the trailer. Three front gardens had a new crop of pallets.

Back at work I wondered if the pallets were being used as double glazing.

The wallflowers and pansies I planted last night are being automatically watered; it poured down last night and is still raining.

Got to go I've got an haircut due although my hair resembles a garden border but with a central solar panel.

Kind regards, Col.

 

@Allotment Boy I'm watering the pots by the frontdoor at about the same rate as over the summer over the past two dry weeks, been fairly calm here though.

 

Some lovely raised beds.
I have watched with interest, the goings on in a roadside garden near me. The new owners of the house have spent a lot of money having the roadside side of a bank, cleared and planted up with a selection of plants. Then slabs of stone have been laid to cover the gaps between the plants. I really hope the soil is not washed away across the road when we next have a monsoon.

 

Pallets make great compost bins as well, ours have now lasted for 17 years. You need four of course simply tied together with long plastic ties, top and bottom, except for the front one which forms the door which can be 'hinged' using longer ties or rope and rope to tie the opening side.

Watch that space @Goldenlily26! We watched with interest some months ago some Council/Water Board employees put a new drain in next to the existing broken one by the side of a single track farm lane. They very carefully piled up all the loose soil they'd dug out, right by the side of the drain, silly idiots. As you say, monsoon type rain will be coming.

 

Started getting some of the tender plants sorted ready for overwintering under cover.
I try not to have them too wet when I bring them in as it can take them ages to dry out once brought in.
Cut off a lot of the leaves of an Ensete "Marelli", and laid it on its side to drain, I'll be doing a few more before that Monsoon comes along.

 

Haven't done much today we both had to go and have our flu jab in arm. But i did manage to pot up 75 purple crocuses and 25 snakes head fritillaries in pots before we went, run out of compost. Also yesterday helped hubby with the hedge at the back, I swept up all of the cuttings, the council should do it but never know when.

 

Watering. Still waiting for rain so I've had to water my nursery pots, the display pots alog the front of the house, the roses waiting to be planted and the recently planted veggies.

I've also sorted out and labelled plants I'm giving to colleagues on the garden club committee, fed the 3 citrus plants, checked my seedlings and lifted all but 2 of the tomato plants after picking their remaining fruits.

Lots of things waiting to be planted or transplanted and much mulching to do before winter but not before we've had enough rain to moisten the soil a good way down.

 

when we moved into bungalow..can hardly see for tree's lol