What are we doing in the garden 2025

Before



After



OK, still no lick of paint, lace curtain or a vase of meadow flowers but it's an improvement

I re-fitted the long shelf as it was leaning forwards, thanks to the shed itself not being quite vertical. A little improvisation with nuts (the nut-and-bolt- kind) as washers on the lower screws put the new brackets somewhat straight, and whilst at it, I put up a new shelf.

...and hooks galore! I love handy hooks

Cleared out three bagfuls of rubbish but kept the inherited jungle knife in it's carry sheath, one never knows when it might become handy.

Wounded my finger with a rogue screw and bled copiously over my Rhubarb, briefly thought about Tetanus jab, identified the first aid box amongst 10 identical Ikea boxes and labelled it with a plaster in front, feeling very smug and creative

The Child pulled up some beetroots that have happily grown together with Cosmos, and harvested first batch of assorted chillies for pickling.

She kept the different varietes separate, which is wonderful but perhaps not a necessity as the labels had been lost or interchanged several times since they were sown.

Now a little breather and then we'll peel and cut the beetroot to be airfryed for supper. A good job in case I keep bleeding on things, no-one can tell

 

Picked tomatoes, repotted Polygonatum vietnamicum, now in a 20l pot and a couple of other things also got repotted.
Sweetcorn harvested, crop now finished.
Watered in greenhouse, pots outside and a couple of things that were beginning to look tired. Most of the garden needs rain, there is a chance on Wednesday of some thundery showers.

 

Aye - get that paint tin out @Selleri! I've doing the same, and there's still more I can do, but the paint makes a big difference to the general appearance. I'm glad I've done it. Now that my shed is watertight, it made sense to brighten it up and use a lot of excess paint I had. Hooks - yes, with you on that too! You can never have too many of those
Hope the finger's ok. Labels - another very useful item!
I did a lot of faffing yesterday [just for a change] as it wasn't too hot, and it meant the usually too hot/sunny areas were pleasant for working in. Got my V. bons planted, and some supports for them until they get properly established. Sorted out the 2 raised beds which had needed topping up after removing the pachysandra. That's made a huge difference.
Not sure what I'll do today, but I have cakes to make for daughter coming over. It was her birthday on Saturday, but she was away, so is coming today. It's to be hot later, so I'll probably be glad to be inside during the middle of the day anyway. I didn't get the bit of hedge on the boundary done, so I'll try and do that if it doesn't get too hot, but that area gets the sun from late morning. The buddleia and pyracantha in the bit I've already done needs a tidy up, but I'll need the ladder and the long loppers for that, as it's tricky to reach.
Rain coming in tonight, and some more in the next few days, so we'll be cooler this week, and so will the garden.

 

On Saturday we started a couple of mini projects. We're trying to get some of the (too) many pots planted up, needles to say they turned into bigger jobs than expected. We were busy with other things in the morning and went to water SD'S garden after lunch. So we finally finished one corner in the early evening at least we've got 4 less pots to deal with now. I'll take a photo later .

 

Pulled up all the borage that has now gone over; was amazed to find how much moisture there was in the hollow stems.

 

Weeded the edge of this border, trimmed the edge of the grass and cut it with a pair of scissors, the shears were too heavy at the moment and watered the polyanthus.

 

Watered and dead headed, then sat in the sun and crocheted.

 

The Grand Plan for today was to replace the broken GH roof panels, plant the groundcover I-forget-what-they are (but reduced to clear and split and now looking fine in two pots ) and to do other bits and bobs.

Instead, as the morning looked lovely, we went for a 2+ hours walk in nearby Holywell dene. It's a wonderful place, but rather a lot of steep / and \ my knees have an opinion about Afterwards, we realised why it felt so hot, it was a 26C day

Anyways, I took the subtle hints that at least good watering might be in order for today



Harvested the daily bowlful of toms (mainly Tigerella and Maskotka), a Pepper/ Chilli that turned out to be a lovely pepper (I'll master labelling one day if I grow up ) and some Celery plus Welsh onion to go into Tuna pasta. Lovely.

 

Hope those knees are ok @Selleri. My dodgy knees are less of a problem than my feet just now!
I got my buddleia/pyracantha job done yesterday, and it took a while as I was trying to leave the remaining flowers on the buddleia for the butterflies. Of course- one appeared just as I was about to start so I had to wait for it to finish! It looks a bit odd as there's only a couple of long stems/branches sticking up. I can't easily get in to deadhead as time goes on, so I generally just wait and do that more severe haircut at this time of year. I need to cut one or two pyra. branches back a bit more, but that's easy enough. Other than that, I went and got my bird food from the mill, and a bag of their brilliant compost to keep me going for any potting on etc. Daughter brought home a load of good pots from work [plants that were totally dead] so they'll be really handy as they're a size I don't have many of, and perfect for potting on. I hate seeing stuff going to waste, and I seem to have passed that on to my girls! Feeders were filled again, and cakes made for younger daughter coming over, so I didn't do much else as she came a bit earlier than usual.
Not sure what I'll do today, but the little stretch of hedge is still to be done, and I should get a window of dry weather in the afternoon for that. Plenty of o'night rain, so the garden is nice and damp again, but spells of showers today, so I'll be hokey cokey-ing with whatever else I do. Some potting on possibly, and maybe more painting etc in the shed.

 

We tackled the broken and overhanging branches of fruit trees in the orchard. We can now walk along the paths without our heads being chopped off.
Picked a few large Williams pears, not ready yet but will see what a few days indoors will do. This is the first time that tree has produced any fruit worth looking at.
Started on weeding what was once the herb garden and then looked over at another area where I had sown moolis and spinach many weeks ago. 2 germinated in each row. So decided to resow and cut back the bolting swiss chard. Also picked 2 more maize for dinner tonight.

 

Spent a couple of hours watching and worrying as arborists took down more ashes that were dying back, and climbed and took down a willow that was leaning threateningly into a neighbouring garden. I needn't have worried. They were very careful, and spent more time prepping and discussing than cutting, so they came down brilliantly. 4 down in about 2 hrs.
So, more work for me trimming off branches with the electric chainsaw, and feeding to a shredder. Logs for Christmas 2026 anyone?

 

Spent the day playing with the new Bosch 2200 shredder, quieter than the old one, faster as well and less prone to jamming. Shredded hydrangea, and Holm oak prunings, then pruned Buddleja davidii which had virtually finished flowering.
Courgette harvested and watered greenhouse plants.

 

I’ve just been out to water the Heleniums which are still flowering well and a few other recently added or moved plants. I noticed that a blackbird was following me around the garden and exploring the area I had just watered. Clever, it had sussed that the moist earth made it easier to search for worms and other food. That’s why it’s also been moving all the bark away from the border edges where the earth is also moist. I’ll ignore the thuggery for a while until the rain returns .

 

You'll need a formal alignment with your blackbird, and be prepared to compromise

They are intelligent birds with strong opinions and sense of decor. Sort of posh interior designers of the bird world

In my previous garden a nice transplanted moss edging around the pond was promptly removed, and Semprevivums apparently didn't look good on gravel so were arranged neatly on paving slabs.

Recently we have had some discussions about watercress in the pond, I'm allowed to keep some as long as it's not on the shallow planting edge.

I believe @shiney 's Blackbird specializes in labelling plants according to it's own taxonomy system.