What are we doing in the garden 2025

Good for you @Allotment Boy, seems you have better ideas than the 'senior' gardener.

 

Oh, I agree, @CostasK. As horizontal growers, Cotoneaster takes up more space than can be justified. It is the slim, upwards ones that earn their place.

 

If the backward-growing stems of a contoneaster horizontalis are kept trimmed off, it makes a spectacular shrub, grown against a flat surface, as shown in the pics. above. Bees love them when in flower. The whole bush shimmers with bees, and you can hear the hum.
If left untrained, it can grow into an unsightly mess of crisis-crossing pile of branches.

 

Picked the last of the dwarf french beans.
Looked at the white wine grapes......not doing well. Many are split and loads are just not developing. So we did our vendange and then I took the grapes off the stalks and the shield bugs, ants and ear wigs!
Then we checked the Black Hamburg in the vinery. Again not doing so well so again another vendange. Some of these will be eaten soon but I can also deseed them and freeze them and make some wine.
Looked at the figs. What a harvest. Gave neighbours a kilo and picked 3 more kilos. Can't eat that many so will have to find more jars and do more bottling.
We do need some rain.

 

I spent the afternoon scraping up the moss from between the blocks. Very pleasant way to spend time! Then kettles of boiling water for the'plants' which are unwanted. Then considered what to plant in the bare ground under the acer. I may split an overgrown epimedium and try it there.

 

I did some deadheading and watering and trimmed a Pittosporum Golf Ball back into a roundish shape, more of a squashed rugby ball now . I’m surprised that it has survived in a very dry border at the front of my house beneath an old conifer so it got a canful of water as a reward for its tenacity!

 

Today I did some deadheading before work and a bit of watering during my lunch break (only a few plants in containers that looked desperate).

On Monday evening I sprayed my lawn with SB Invigorator, in the hope that it would help with chiggers (I have been getting badly bitten). I THINK it has worked, I haven't noticed new bite marks and the itching from the older ones is subsiding. It's supposed to be an eco-friendly product, I believe it's basically horticultural soap and nutrients.

I am really having to fight the urge to buy plants lately, because I am going away for a couple of weeks in under 10 days. (Someone will be watering my plants but not very deeply). I am almost getting withdrawal symptoms. I nearly buckled when I saw half price acers at Aldi that were crying out to be saved..

 

Hoping that there will be rain this year and over Winter and weather goes back to "normal", I sowed my arrived seeds of Echinacea, Astrantia, Linaria and Helenium.
I also checked how to sow Perovskia seeds. A test is currently in a plastic back in the fridge telling the seeds that there is suddenly winter in the next 2 weeks. Another 10 seeds are in a paper back and will be checked in September.
The test series will continue. I will observe what changes and what the seeds look like.

My Perovskia is high in demand by these little ones (probably 20 or so every day).

 

Yesterday just watering some plants in the garden and the pots.

 

I'd disagree with that re the spreading cotoneasters @ViewAhead . They're really useful on banks or slopes where the ground is poor, or if it's a wetter area and therefore the whole thing can slide. Likewise with dry, sandy conditions. They can really knit the ground together well. I had a little area in a previous garden which had really poor rubble filled soil, and a little cotoneaster did the job really well. The spreading junipers also work well in those sites.
I did some concreting yesterday, as I had a home made toadstool/mushroom in the front garden that needed a bigger base for the top. It takes a bit of faffing to get it decent, but faffing's my middle name....
Other than that, the usual stuff, and more 'shed sorting'. It's coming on well, so I'll be able to do some seed sowing etc in there in spring if the weather's not playing ball. Potted on a couple of pieces of geranium, while watching the birds playing in the pond. It was cooler/cloudier yesterday, which helped, and there was a good breeze later when it was sunny.
I have a shrub under the front window that I really don't like, so I might try and remove it today. The big problem is - it's a bit jaggy, but it was also a present from my daughters one Christmas, because it's one of those things that gets sold everywhere as a mini C'mas tree. It's not very inspiring and it's got too big, so I'm hoping they don't notice it's gone....
I've got plenty of things I can replace it with. The white weigela, for example, but also divisions of other plants. I also have several V. bonariensis [from cuttings] that need a home.

 

I think that there are specific situations where a spreading cotoneaster can be useful. I am still not a fan of the "horizontalis" variant but I do have a ground cover one which works OK (I think it is "coral beauty"). I have used it to hide an old tree root/low stump. It's between two newer trees, therefore I didn't need height there, and it grows happily with very little soil next to a tree stump. They don't need much.

(In general though, I still prefer pyracanthas over cottoneasters personally - I don't mind the spikes)

 

What a special moment for you. The robins around here are quite shy; they do come and sit in a nearby bush to twitter at me to hurry up, finish what I am doing, and move away so they can come down and find yummy things to eat. Too many cats around, I fear.

 

Gorgeous photos @shiney