What are we doing in the garden 2025

@fairygirl

No body found, but the smell is much reduced and closer to the door; also it looks tidier.

 

After the final part of pickling the walnuts, we cleared weeds between the pea beans and rhubarb. Picked some more loganberries which have done brilliantly this year. Also picked some more broad beans. A good harvest again.
Just been out to pick some sweet peas. I have left it too long as very few flowers now but hopefully having picked what I could they will flower again.

 

All I did was fill one water butt with the garden hose.
It's still quite hot outside for me.

 

I looked at the weeds and decided to give them a few extra days of life. Watering. That's my lot!

 

Watering and picking white currants.

 

Had a potter about in the morning yesterday, dead heading, inspecting and admiring certain plants . Frowned at the Penstemon which is floppy and refusing to stand upright. Asked the Ivy plants to please consider growing a bit faster! Did some watering.

Spent a few minutes peering into the depths of my mini pond in a pot,which now has 2 water centipedes ( think that is what they are ), a few baby water snails and several tiny, black wriggly things ( no idea what they are, mosquito larvae ? ). I bought a yellow iris from a garden centre for the pond and it also had another plant growing with it, but not visible at the time. Both are now growing together in a larger pot. Obtaining aquatic plants in NI is quite difficult as only the one place had them and all Iris and Water Lily's. I noticed whilst out walking plants growing in the stream at the Cornmill are also growing in my garden. I thought they were just weeds in my garden. So, I've popped one in a pot and put it into the pond. It's leaves have now got a pink blush and it's sprouting new growth ( no idea what it is ). I put some mint in the pond, too, but that's not looking too happy.

 

Steady with encouragement to that ivy, @luciusmaximus. If it takes you at your word, you will spend the rest of your gardening days chopping it back and begging it to kindly be a bit more restrained.

 

You should be able to get a good range of pond plants online @luciusmaximus, although it might be expensive for postage depending on the supplier. Always difficult. Just keep an eye on the yellow Iris if it's a flag Iris [more than likely!] and keep it contained. The common water mint can be a thug too, so keep that in your container! There aren't many places here that stock pond plants either. I don't know if that's the case all over Scotland though.
It stayed fairly dry-ish here until mid day yesterday so I whacked out the hedgetrimmer after I came back from my walk and finished the stretch I hadn't done. There was even a little sun at that point so that helped. Other than that, it was a case of repotting the single tomato that's outside, before it got a bit too wet. I did my comfrey feed a few days ago, so I'll maybe use some of that around Sunday when it should be a bit drier.
Nothing likely to happen today as it's to be wet from about 10am, although there's light rain just now. I have some small wallflower seedlings so I might be able to get those pricked out/potted on inside.

 

There are restrictions with online plant sales to NI ( Brexit, EU regulations, etc ) @fairygirl..

 

I want the Ivy to spread and be as wild as it's reputed to be. I would like to cover some of my fences/ wall with it. It's great for wildlife, too and doesn't need much maintenance .

 

I wasn't sure about all the rules/regs @luciusmaximus . That's a great pity you can't get things more easily. Are there no online suppliers in NI at all? I've had many plants from Ballyrobert, but I don't know if they do any pond plants. Worth a look.
I like my ivy too - a good trim with the hedgeclippers is easy enough, and it's mainly in the wilder corner anyway.
There's a house near me which has it on the boundary fence as a 'hedge'. I think it's keeping the fence up!

 

I’m doing the opposite and removing ivy from our rear fence. I would love to let it grow wild but the neighbours behind can’t bear it and rip off any that goes through, which is damaging the fence. Am nearly done but it’s a long job, probably because my heart isn’t really in it.

I’ve got ivy growing on one part of the side boundary, which we share with fellow ivy-loving neighbours. That’s now mature and flowers well.

 

Tricky @Butterfly6 . Fortunately, the ivy I have is only on my boundaries which are next to roads, so it affects no one else where it's growing.

 

I have quite an expanse of ivy. I really like it, but vigilance is required to ensure its swamping tendencies are kept in check.

 

Are we allowed to moan in this thread? Or mention what is not happening in the garden that should be?

The subject - below-par performers. I have quite a few things refusing to flower:-
Geranium Kashmir Purple
Campanula Glomerata
Astrantia
Corydalis Craigton Blue
Corydalis Elata
Corydalis Blue Summit


So, some I can account for. The Geranium never flowers, has just point blank refused to for about the last 6 yrs. The Campanula would flower in the ground, but would be eaten to a stalk before this happened, so is in a pot which is not its preferred cirs. The Astrantia is very old and probably just past it, especially as it is in quite a challenging dry shade spot, though it was truly beautiful last yr (maybe helped by the wet conditions). The Corydalis (all in pots) are a puzzle. Craigton Blue had a couple last yr, but none this. The Elata and Blue Summit are new this yr, but were sizeable plants, so really should have blooms.

They are all watered and fed with slow release granules. The leaves are healthy, just no flowers.