What are we doing in the garden 2025

Just out of curiosity I looked up the Plants for a Future database and it's not there!

PFAF

 

Well if no-one knows its toxicity, I'm not going to chance it! Particularly as that website seems to be about Mediterranean plants, so if it was edible, it should be there!

 

I've had A. Folkard a few times @Obelix-Vendée , and kept meaning to get it for this garden. It grows like a weed here - gets big and broad. The pink is a very strong magenta. I like it a lot.

Nothing done here yesterday apart from filling the sunflower heart feeders, as the weather became wet and windy by early afternoon again. I'd had to go back out after my walk, so the dry spell was missed. Today is pretty vile, although it's meant to be a bit better in the afternoon, but I might wait until tomorrow to do outdoor stuff. Plenty of indoor things to do anyway, and I can always watch those birds...

 

Apologies @CostasK - I missed your post. Thank you for your kindness. I just wish removing various 'bits' would solve the problem, but sadly, it doesn't work like that.

I also forgot to say to @CanadianLori - we had mentioned Sam Cooke on another thread, and I said how much I loved #A Change is Gonna Come. Guess what they played on the radio a couple of days later! You never hear it played, but it was an item where they look back at the BBC archive, and it was about Mandela. They choose a song to fit the item. I was out my walk at the time, and it's just as well it was raining, and I could have passed the wet stuff on my face as that... .

 

Hi,

Nothing doing in the garden today; it's bucketing down with rain as I type and another black hole.

I'm considering remodeling my recording studio; a nice big interesting project for the next few months whilst the weather is bad. I've also changed the format on 45 movies from AVI to MP4; my smart TV isn't so smart it refuses to accept AVI; I subscribe to AVC as a one off life payment allowing all kinds of videos to be converted; it's highly useful for converting to MP3 for converting to songs/music only.

AVC (Any video converter) is a free site but for little money it pays to upgrade to Pro. I've used it for years.

I've no intention of sitting around all day driven indoors by bad weather; J Parkers website is also in for a lot of browsing.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Nothing done yesterday as it was on off heavy rain all day. Hope to get something donw today as it's a much brighter start.
On the bird feeding topic, I picked up calciworms rather than mealworms by mistake. My birds won't touch them, I've tried soaking them, nothing.

 

Given this year's drought @fairygirl I'm thinking maybe Ann Folkard might struggle tho I don't have any qualms about watering when needed. Not looking forward to this year's water bill. I shall do a bit more research as that magenta colour is what I'd like.

 

Today I have done lots of watering because the ground is surprisingly dry and I plan to mulch in the coming days. I also nearly decided to move this flowering cherry "Kojo No Mai" to make space for an evergreen plant, but in the end I decided to spare both it and me the trouble, at least for now, considering the autumnal colours.

 

Sorted the stored apples. Some are not doing as well as previous years, so to the compost. However that made room for more apples from the orchard. Blenheim orange are a fabulous size and smell wonderful. Weeded the paved area which included 100s of foxglove seedlings in the cracks. Sorry they had to go.
Getting ready to work on another pumpkin. Will cook it and then mash it and then freeze it for part of the christmas meal.
Thinking about sowing some broad beans and peas in pots in the poly.
And now it is heaving down.

 

Cleared up leaves and scraped away mud from the concrete block steps down to the bottom of my garden. Pulled up weeds and cut back some lonicera nitida that was encroaching on the steps. Also cut back some straggly buddleia. I have a nice big pile of leaves collected at the bottom of the garden for leaf mould, and that's mainly birch so far - still got rowan, hazel and snakebark maple to go from my own trees, plus the neighbour's magnolia will dump a load over the fence before too long.

 

Nothing for me today but OH, helped by our 2 chooks, has cleared a bed for me to sow broad beans on Tuesday. Tomorrow is expected to be wet and I'm out all day on Monday.

Now you've mentioned it @On the Levels, I shall nip out and check my stored apples tomorrow.

 

I bubble wrapped my small ceramic water feature and slid some wooden battens underneath to help protect it against frost as we are going to leave it on the terrace this winter - it's a pain having to lug it up to the shed at the top of the garden every winter.
Then I planted a New Dawn/Queen Elizabeth rose cutting in it's already prepped hole, dug up a Brunnera, planted some apricot tulip bulbs in that hole and dug yet another hole to heel in a 'wood sculpture' i.e. an odd shaped log from the big maple tree that was felled earlier in the year.
I was just about to go and plant the Brunnera in the front garden when the heavens opened and I had to run for the house.
Rain stopped play for the rest of the day.

 

I'd definitely keep the cherry @CostasK , but I'd be inclined to add some other planting to enhance it through the rest of the season rather than the Festucas, but then - that's just a personal opinion as I really dislike those blue/grey festucas
I don't have any real experience of long term dry weather/ground @Obelix-Vendée , but going by what others are saying, perhaps it wouldn't be great if it isn't happy with drier conditions. After reading this, I looked at various other dark pink/magenta geraniums [C. Austin and Beth Chatto have a good selection] but it would depend on what you can get over there. I'd always fancied G. Dragon Heart, but I'v eenver got round to getting it.

Nothing done out there yesterday due to various weather but today is far more promising for getting on with all the wee bits and bobs after my walk. I'm thinking of doing a little insert for the top of the support I made for a clematis, just under my bedroom window. I'd had little hanging bird feeder sitting in there recently, which the sparrows/dunnocks have enjoyed, and it would be ideal for some green roof plants or the spare bit of Arabis which I have in a pot. Another project...

 

Yesterday on impulse I cut down a my much loved wisteria. It was making such a mess and becoming harder and harder to prune. I was up a ladder half the summer trying to control its vigorous growth.
RIP .

 

Hi,

The gardens are tidy so today I'll upgrade the laptop in the recording studio from Win10 to Win11; Win10 is no longer supported; then more violin/guitar playing. The weather won't trouble me in the least today unlike yesterday when it added a backing track of drumming on the studio roof.

I've got a pile of couch grass sods but they are soaking wet; I want to dispose of them at the tip.

For years I've sparingly used "Pistol" herbicide weedkiller and it not only kills the lot but prevents future growing for about 6 months so seeds too are killed; I recently bought a different brand of weedkiller; this kills weeds and everything else but doesn't stop seeds germinating; there's now a carpet of mini seedlings; I'll wait for more to grow then go over again with the new weedkiller; I want to keep flattening the couch grass until it finally gives in. The couch grass paths are now dying which is good news; bad news is I've already pulled a number of cleaver seedlings out; gardening is wonderful but a constant battle.

Pistol Herbicide

I bought Pistol without problem but now it's a controlled chemical needing a certificate in order to buy it; I'm not really surprised because it's definitely powerful.

Kind regards, Col.