What are we doing in the garden 2025

I’ve been puzzled why my Camellia doesn’t follow the rules @Robert Bowen and @fairygirl . It gets full sun from early morning to mid afternoon, it’s in dry sandy soil which I haven’t amended, right next to a six foot fence and exposed to wind. I reduced it from a large sprawling shrub when I moved here 12 years ago to a two foot framework. I never water or feed it. It’s now over 10 feet tall and it flowers really well in early spring every year. The flowers are pink, so that could be another sign of revenge .

 

More hardcore clearing out of inherited stuff.

Believe me, this is an "after" photo



Three binbagfuls of stuff are in the queue for next emptying day, all potentially useful stuff is sorted and piled precariously, and free paving slabs are advertised in the local Neighbourhood website.

The previous owner's smoking barrel was emptied and declared to be my new compost, it already has good airing holes in the bottom so hopefully will be fine this winter and with any luck, give me a bucketful of compost next summer.

I'm not quite sure what to do with the six traffic cones. Any takers?

A positive find was the planter with Cyclamen (seen on top of my new compost bin), against all odds (these were supermarket cheapies last year), they are sprouting.

Hellebores are coming to leaf as well, Arbutus Unedo is flowering and Home Bargains Alströmeria is making healthy new shoots from the base.

 

The same as yesterday, weeding and trimming the grass edge, have to do a bit at a time.

 

Yesterday was dry and sunny most of the day, but increasingly very windy, which made it tricky for doing certain things. I started on the edging/support for the bed under the front window though, and got a fair bit of that done. May not get the chance to finish it today though, as it's to be iffy weatherwise, and it's not ideal for power tools! Did more feeder filling [] and plenty of deadheading. I've been meaning to clean the shed window for months, and I assumed the outside would be the dirtiest part. No. The inside was the manky side, and I don't even need to do the outside.
Not sure if much will get done today, although I'll move the one outdoor tomato back to it's usual site. Had to move it and tie it to the fence near the house as it got cowped in the wind. If it's dry enough, I'll get o n with the hydrangea support.

 

After the lovely dry weather, we've had rain in spades here for the past week. A vertical sided container outside has at least 6cm of water in it, and the butts are full again. Just when I've finally got the hwyl to do things (Welsh expression), the soil is too soggy to stand on.

 

I just saw your post @Plantminded , re your Camellia. There's always one or two exceptions! It may well have been so nicely established when you moved in that it's fine ,despite any conditions that could normally be seen as unsuitable. Sandy soil can often be more acidic too, so I expect that might help.
I always try to give as good conditions as I can for plants, but sometimes they can be far more variable than we give them credit for. It can be an expensive outlay if they fail, so I like to do the best I can to minimise any problems!

 

We've just had our usual morning walk, dry but quite breezy. I had been planning to prune back the NDN's hedge from our drive boundary and perhaps then tackle the front hedge but it's now coming over quite grey and rain's on it's way. Oh, it is raining! It's funny, I can look out the side window and it looks dry, look out the front window and it's raining!

Our builder chappie has just laid some more paving slabs and is now busy erecting the bespoke fencing around my revamped sitting area. I moved the small table and chairs back there whilst waiting for the dinner to cook, to check out the floor area and as it was sunny, sat out with a glass of wine. Can't wait to see it all finished - hopefully by the end of this week. Then I can move the greenhouse back, refill my Sentry shed and put all my pots back.

 

I've got a couple in a slightly raised bed, I never water them and they get full sun for a good part of the day, they say they need water to form the buds in late summer but I think its just one of those old things that was said once and always repeated.
Lots of gardening myths.

Must admit they have been there for 25yrs plus but I've never given them any real special treatment.
Wasn't it Camellias that were thought to be greenhouse plants until WW 1, when they finally found out they were hardy.

 

That’s good to know @pete. Mine was here when I moved in right next to a huge conifer which I had removed in the first week. It must be thanking me for reducing the competition .

 

Hi guys, not sure if this is the right place but tryna get some info on lawnmowers and what ones are good. Are there any suggestions from this thread?

 

It's probably best to start a new thread. Details of your lawn size and any preferences for type such as petrol, electric or cordless plus approximate budget will help. There’s also a website called Fred’s Shed which is very useful for recommendations on gardening tools.

 

You could start a thread in this section.
Lawns

 

What colour was it supposed to be.

 

I thought that they were grown under glass to protect the blooms from weather damage.
This is a link to a collection in London, not a bad read and worth a visit if local at the right time of year Chiswick House Camellias - The Chiswick Calendar

 

I spent the day playing dodge the shower; I dug over two areas in the veg plot the first was fairly easy going and had been wetted by the recent rain; the second was patchier with some very hard dry fork fulls, hopefully the rain over the next couple of days will soak in better now the ground has been forked over, took the weeds to the compost heap.
Watered in the greenhouse as required, more flowers on some of the seed grown dahlias, picked a cucumber and a quantity of tomatoes.