What are we doing in the garden 2025

Ours is about 20 years old and thus far not flowered. If the main plant flowers is it likely that one of its runners (detached and moved elsewhere in the garden) will also flower?

Today I did the last mow (probably) and then chopped the very tall stems from a self-seeded Elderberry that was cutting out light to the lounge. Mrs LS cut down her bean plants and a couple of the Cosmos tubs and then I shredded it all down and added it to the compost heap.

 

Wouldn't say gardening but I've made a start on the wall. Had over a ton of sand and cement delivered unfortunately they come in the big wagon so left it on the area I'm building the wall on , shifting that round the back on Friday. Lifted the tarmac and concrete flags yesterday, dug the footing today and got it prepared for concrete, the weather is working against me though over the next few days so hopefully I'll get the concrete down this coming week.

 

Finished planting the tulips in big pots and then polyanthus on top. Planted polyanthus in one of the borders.

 

Hi,

Nothing doing in the garden again today; I don't have a snorkel or cap lamp.

Kind regards, Col.

 

@Sheal will you continue the cover up of the gaps in the fence? Looks like the previous owners couldn't reach behind the smaller shed or didn't need to. But is it your fence?

 

@LunarSea
That is a good question and I don't really know.
In theory the clone should be as far down the road to flowering as the parent, but it will depend on how well the plant is growing and also that year's conditions.
Apparently if you see it flowers coming and cut it down, it will reshoot the next year and promptly flower, so once the trigger's been pulled that's it.
It's unclear how many original plants grown from seed there are; as most plants people buy are clones of a parent plant the grower got from somewhere.
Just found this article on the topic of bamboo flowering.
The Mysterious Flowering Cycles of Bamboo Plants

 

Well i have been away from the garden for the past month and the mild conditions have more than kept the garden going. I spent yesterday afternoon dodging showers and cutting 6”+ of grass in the back garden. I also have a bucket of windfalls in good order so me and Mrs B will be busy sorting them today. My hanging baskets and dahlia bed are still in ridiculously good order and the forecast suggests no frost and double digit daytime temperatures for the next two weeks . Those two weeks will be wet so i see litle hope of anything other than indoor projects in the near future. So i am concentrating on ekeing out the floral displays, enjoying the autumn colours while they are still there and gathering leaves off the garden and drive to create a blanket in my tender perennials bed which has worked well in recent years. I just have a sneaking suspicion that this mild weather is lulling us into a false sense of security and that a bitter winter is waiting in the wings, its been a while since we had substantial snow around here. I just hope that i am wrong on that one!

 

That's a pity re those geraniums possibly not working for you @Obelix-Vendée. Difficult for me to judge due to the different climate.
I'd go with enhancing/complementing the colour of your cherry @CostasK, but not vying for attention at this time of year. You can have almost anything from late winter right through to this time of year, with maybe some plants/bulbs that will work when it's also in flower, but more subtle for the end of summer into autumn, so that it can shine and take centre stage. Golds/coppers etc. If the flowers are pink, then early bulbs in whites/creams/purples would be good, and they'd work with the festucas, coupled with some lower growing perennials in similar colours to carry on through summer. If you use annuals, I'd recommend the dark nasturtiums- Black Velevet or Tip Top Mahogany. The gold/dark reds of those would be lovely.

I got my little green roof done yesterday, and I have another plan for the bit on top of the clematis support, but that might have to wait as the weather's pretty rough today and it requires a bit of faffing [no change there then!] It was windy yesterday too, but it was dry for a couple of hours to let me get on, and I cut down the remaining potted sweet peas as well as doing the green roof. I doubt anything wll happen today as it's to be more heavy rain and gale force winds.
Where's the frost gone? Hardly any through October, and it's much easier to work with!

 

Thanks for that @NigelJ. Fascinating. It would seem we're all well on the safe side of the expected flowering event!

 

Got the bamboo thinned out, first time I've had a good go for a couple of years and found that quite a lot of the older canes had expired and just snapped at the base, no cutting required. So removed the dead, the thin ones and the overcrowded. Now I have a lot of bamboo canes of different lengths and thicknesses to find uses for, bring back corporal punishment in schools.

 

I managed to clear the annuals out of the ftont gardens. And now it is raining so no more outside work today.

Since I'm sat here with only the grey cells grinding, I just got a great idea for the no man's land between fences at the side back. I'm going to lay plastic and gravel on a short strip. Then where the strip behind my garden starts, I'm going to pour a thick layer of gardening soil and grow climbing annuals like nasturtiums in it come spring.

 

I managed to do 3 hours in dry weather today, weeding and digging out hundreds of tiny, tiny allium bulbs out of the old wisteria bed but goodness knows what I'm now going to do with the trugfull. I ended up watering them with a strong solution of glyphosate and left them to soak which I'm not sure will work. The alliums have been a nightmare for the last seven years or more and should come with a health warning!

After lunch I put back all the 'stuff' which hides behind the shed (OH had cut the hedge behind it yesterday), thought to myself 'well that was easy' then turned round to find more 'stuff' on top of the veg bed where OH had flung it! Had another go at tidying up then gave up in favour of a cuppa.

 

I have another thread running on that area @cactus_girl that you might like to take a look at.

Rose support | Gardeners Corner - The Friendly Gardening Forum

The boards covering the gaps in the fence were put to the side of the smaller shed to block out the problem neighbours behind. It's a joint boundary fence, so I have to be careful deciding what to do there.

 

Managed a trip to the plots yesterday, but didn't get much done, other than picking things and sorting the windfall apples again.
Today we went to a GC, TBH mainly for Lunch out. We bought some more plants to refresh the green wall plus another purchase which I won't declare here.

 

Nasturtiums are great for coverage/height aren't they @CanadianLori ? I use them in various sites, and they also just spread by themselves. You can end up with a lot of very bright orange ones unless you're careful about deadheading etc, but I like that strong colour too, so it's fine. I use the creamy Milkmaid one too, as it's ideal for going with any other colour.

Nothing done yesterday as the rain started properly just as I got in from my walk and continued pretty much all day. It's supposed to be better today, so I'll see if I can get on with my other little project. Some 'tidying' needs done in the front bed under the window due to a certain persistent offender. Totally fed up with it
Other than that - garden is quite set for the coming months other than removing anything dead, or manky.