What are we doing in the garden 2025

Yesterday didn't do much in the garden so i decided to make my Christmas puddings, i know it's early but i like them to mature, I'll put sherry in so they'll stop going mouldy sometimes.

 

I'm hoping it will be OK. I have used a saw to neaten off the very ragged tear created.

 

Aaaagh! Aaaaaa!

I keep forgetting I'm allergic to three things: mosquito bites, nettles and the pen they use to draw circles around allergy testing pricks on one's back.

Nettles it is this time.

When we moved in last September the garden was knee high with Dock, grass, Dandelions and Nettles. We dug most of it out (honestly, some Dandie roots could have won any carrot competition any time ) fully aware that the bits left behind will regrow this summer.

Now the time has come when I must identify a weed from intentional plant, not helped by the fact that I like natural type plants. Young Nettles look a lot like many other things, such as Lamiums or young Verbena H or Campanula, the truth is only revealed after prolonged skin exposure.

And in hindsight, planting Ipomoea right next to the part of the fence where neighbour's Bindweed is coming through might not have been such a good idea after all.

 

My garden's like that. I have nettles coming up through my alpine strawberries, get quite a shock sometimes when I'm rummaging. And I planted a passion flower earlier this year and have just had to disentangle it from some bindweed. The only plant that gives me a bad reaction though is cleavers - I get lots of that too!

 

That's a proper PITA @Selleri . I'm lucky that I don't really have any allergies, but I can understand how difficult that is for you.
I get the problem with Ipomoea and bindweed - very similar! We're fortunate that we don't have any bindweed around gardens here, although there's plenty beside the railways.
Do you make a feed with the nettles @Escarpment ?

Yesterday ended up drying up, but we're back to rain today. It's meant to clear up a bit now and again, but not for long. At least we don't seem to have the flood warnings that we've had for the last few days, although the rain wasn't a problem round here. May not get much done today, but that's ok as it's to be decent for the coming days.
Bird feeders need topping up...again. I can hardly keep up with them just now!
Walk soon. Hopefully no dead foxes to drag off the road like last weekend.....

 

I got fed up yesterday of my pond, which has been about 6 inches down for ages and looked awful, so I filled it up from the hose pipe. Doesn't really matter if it causes blanketweed as it's already full of that anyway!
Also potted up a new hebe and a sempervivum.

 

@fairygirl no, I haven't tried making a nettle feed. I usually pull them up when they're quite little so don't have huge quantities.
What I do have lots of though is borage. I might try a feed out of that.

 

I've grown a load of erigeron from seed this year and really want to get them planted out, but the ground is like concrete!

 

Not tried borage feed @Escarpment, but I have loads of it [the white one] so I might give that a go if I run out of comfrey food.
Our ground is the opposite condition, with all the rain. Hope you get some soon.
Didn't do a lot yesterday as the rain came on while I had my lunch, and didn't stop until tea time. Today is looking good, although windy, so should get some plants in that have been waiting around. I need to pot on some basil, and peg down the strawberry runners too. Slugs have annihilated one of the pots of lettuce, but fortunately I have plenty growing.
Deadheading, and moving a few things, might get done too while it's dry.

 

We have finally had some rain, some yesterday morning and another lot during the night - hurrah
Harvested some of the potatoes yesterday. Around 1.6kg from 3 plants -Charlottes. Not the largest crop but I’m pleased as I only lightly earthed them up once. Old compost from a pot so more a mulch than an earthing. They’ve also not been watered and we had had very low rainfall since they were planted. We don’t eat a lot of potatoes so a small crop is ideal. They’ve broken the soil up nicely which was the intention. My new mini veg patch was a gravelled seating area previously.

Also picked another handful of mange tout, I thought the they were going over but were still getting a few despite the dry weather.

Not much more happening in the garden as it’s been too dry and/or too hot for gardening. I need to get on with the renovation of my cold frames so might try and get that done before the temperatures go up again

 

Some rain during the night , forgotten what puddles on the flat roof looked like ! Better than nothing and will top up the watering i did last night. Quite satisfying to transfer my leeks into their permanent planting position. Surprised to find about 100 had germinated well and there was a suitable gap in the veg plot for all of them so lots of leek based soups and side dishes for the winter ( fingers crossed) . Honestry and wallflower seedslings have finally made an appearance too , i was just about giving up hope. Also did a sowing of carrots yesterday , finally created a spot for them , fingers crossed for them too as in recent times they have either not germinated or 100% failure due to slugs .

 

Some rain from @fairygirl finally arrived last night. I'm sure the last two lots got stolen by someone else.
Anyway I'm reliably informed we had 3 hours worth, so off to the Allotments to lift the rest of the early spuds . Sadly though I managed the task I'd have been better off with a crowbar and a mattock rather than a potato fork. Half a fork depth down the ground is still dry and hard. Glad I'd watered a lot of things yesterday, so at least the rain may have penetrator further down there. At least the produce is coming now. See veg thread yesterday.

 

We have free labour (g'kids) picking blackcurrants.

 

Potted on a lot of wallflowers and later i picked 4lb and redcurrants.

 

Picked blackberries and broad beans and dug up potatoes for dinner. Very satisfying!

Also did some weeding, deadheading and emptied an absolutely full trug of rainwater which must have been last night's addition.