What are we doing in the garden 2025

I’ve done a bit of tidying up in the front garden planters.,When I filled the watering can with water - butt water, it was as warm as a bath water ! It is a lot cooler today, thank goodness, under 20 degrees, phew. I hope all you posters in France get some cooler weather soon , upwards of 40 would have me melting.

 

I think we're going to be on the naughty step for a bit. We went to the GC 50% off sale. Didn't really need anything but came away with plenty. Got to find space for them all now.

 

Shh! Don't tell @CostasK. He's itching to get some more plants he doesn't need as well.

 

I've been creating a bed at the edge of the lawn - I have armoured cable and a permanent hose line attached to the fence and I don't want to catch them with the mower (that's my excuse for more plant space!). Yesterday I finished setting pavers in postcrete to edge the bed, and today dug it over. Found whole bricks, huge lumps of stone and concrete, and a soil made mostly of shale - which collapses into shards. It's amazing the lawn grew! Now adding tons of pure rotted horse manure to give it some organic matter, ready for its 8 "dinner plate" hibiscus plants.

 

I put a fresh coat of paint on my two wooden Adirondack chairs and table today, using last year’s experimental yellow which I’ve decided to continue with . The colour cheers the garden up in winter, plus me and any visitors! I deadheaded the roses and dahlias and watered everything that looked thirsty, including the Heleniums and Hakonechloa which isn’t that drought tolerant here in sandy soil. It soon revives though. The Nepetas which I cut back a few weeks ago are all flowering again now so the bees are buzzing away happily between them and the Heleniums which now look as if they’re declining. I’ve recently planted another couple of Japanese anemones to give some colour for a while.

 

@shiney I love your photos of Mrs Shiney and the young squirrel ️. We have red squirrels in Dordogne but they are very shy, wouldn't dream of sitting on your lap.

 

Not sure what I'll do today. Think it'll get too hot for me later. Possibly some painting in the shed, and see what else I can do in there. I might start on the little raised bed for the new clematis, to keep it drier, and I'm thinking of one for the front, beside the steps, which can have spring bulbs or similar.
Yesterday I chopped back the shrub under the front window, but it's going to take a bit of work to get it out. The trunk's hefty. Grass will need a trim, so I might do that later on when it's all dried off. I also finished my new top for the concrete 'toadstool' in the front garden, and the base had some extra mortar to smooth it off, and it can be painted today. Finished sorting the new base for hte gr'house, which was actually quite a short job. Other than that, lots of deadheading, and I spent some time watching the birds while tearing up half of the cardboard that daughter got me from work, adding it to the compost bin, then putting the grass from my neighbour in as well.

 

A good Sunday morning to all.
I am a very happy bunny! I am now the proud owner of a lovely flight of new steps. "Dave" came round with his buddy and worked away for 3 hours, very clean, neat and tidy workers, all rubbish removed. I did ask him if he knew of anyone reliable, who was local, who cleared brambles etc. "Yes, he did. He did everything". The team, it looks like a family affair, has just arrived to start clearing my bank and around my large workshop, where the brambles have encroached from the back field. A big bill, a big job.

It is such a relief to find someone who communicates, listens and turns up when they say they are coming. He is also in constant touch, checking I am OK with what is going on. I may have found a treasure, fingers crossed, he doesn't disappear to do something else worthwhile.

I ended up not achieving any of my planned activities yesterday; there is always tomorrow.
We have a 50-mile-an-hour wind at the moment; I hate strong winds.
I made myself some cheese scones, which ended up as cheese biscuits, too much cheese in the mix. I got a bit carried away with how much I used. They taste alright hot, (bad for the digestion my grandmother always said), a bit crunchy and dry. I shall need plenty of butter to help them go down.
I watched the brilliant game of 100 Cricket between the Oval and Wales teams. It is so good to see batsmen really going for it, hitting balls out to the boundary and bowlers trying hard to get bowlers out. One ball was even hit out of the ground and lost! Who ever created this game is a genius. Test cricket went through a long spell of being brain boringly dead. Introducing new rules and time limits etc., has done wonders. It is also lovely to see so many families with young prospective players watching and being excited instead of a handful of wizened old men well past their sell by date! Not that I am biased or anything!

I can hear trimmers going so work is in progress. Work is under way. Yeah!

 

@ViewAhead that is so true but I've been strong so far. Especially yesterday - we had some time to kill so my partner and I popped to a plant nursery we hadn't been to before, and they had 50% off all trees and shrubs! I managed to leave without succumbing to the urge . It did help that the plants had been scorched by the sun.

Not only have I not added to my plant collection, but earlier I got rid of a plant. It was a Japanese honeysuckle that I only bought a couple of months ago, for a difficult shady spot. I loved it at first but eventually got tired of fighting powdery mildew. So while I don't like getting rid of plants, I think it was the right decision. I might replace it with the biggest fern I can buy, in the Autumn.

Other than that, today I have been doing lots of deep watering. I go away for 2 weeks in just under a week, and even though I have arranged for someone to keep my plants alive, I also want to ensure that the soil is quite saturated before I leave.

 

Here's a time and money saving tip: If you don't label the pots when sowing seeds, you will not need to make more labels when pricking the seedlings into their own pots.

Anyways, I have pricked out Teasels and, erm, something else, cast benevolent looks at other youngsters making a good start, and sown some Lupins, Cantebury Bells and posh Foxgloves.

I also played houseplant potting tetris, a small Monstera plant accidentally came home with me yesterday when visiting a new garden centre.

Monsteras run in our family, my auntie started it in 70s and I followed suit in the 80s. Then it was my sister's turn, then my brother's, and now I re-joined the ranks. I have moved on with times though, this one is one of those modern, smaller versions with more holes in leaves.

I must say though that aunt Nenna is remembered forever and not always in a positive way for the boom- she lived in a big house with floor-to 4m ceiling window, the plant looked magnificient. It's a tad more challenging plant in a small flat

I have also heroically started replacing the broken greenhouse panels with plastic ones. By mere accident, the panels i ordered seem to be just the right size. I'm however totally unable to work the clips, I'll ask The Child to help later on. They just somehow don't make sense to me, slip-twist-clip method works once but then the others won't go

 

Nothing much today just a bit of watering.

 

Rewind to late Spring… I had so much garden waste I had filled three builder’s sacks. Forward a few months… all sacks now empty thanks to my second garden bin and a more productive compost pile this year. I might be back to square one once the September hedge trimming starts though!

 

I decided I would clean the filter in the wee garden pond because the little fountain was looking pretty poor. Switched off power, removed fountain, took it apart and washed all the bits. Three hours later, I just cannot put it all together! The bits don't seem to fit. I have tried Googling and you tube with no luck. I am going to have to sleep on it and try again tomorrow. I have done this several times before so I don't really know what the problem is.