Took the dog for a beach walk. I picked more apples and tomatoes. Weeded the leeks which are looking good. Sowed the onion seeds, at last. Tried to lever some small, Forget-me-not, self-sown plants from between the paving, using an old dinner fork, but ended up just pulling them up, to plant in bulb containers. The plan is the tulips will grow up through a haze of sky-blue flowers! The seedlings are looking very perky so the move doesn't seem to have damaged them and the paving looks ever so slightly tidier. I am not averse to Forget me nots growing in between the paving but I think I might use some more of the seedlings in other pots with narcissus bulbs, a lovely colour combo.
Dug up a clump of Eupatorium "Chocolate", divided it and put some back in a slightly new position. Potted up the rest into 6 pots in hopes of something else to donate to the plant sale next Spring. Trimmed back a Sarcaccoa (sp) that was running a bit rampant, but plenty of flower buds and berries still left. Cut back a Michaelmas daisy. I know the theory is to leave the flower heads for wildlife, but once the flowers shrivel up and turn brown and the stalks look manky, l can't be doing with it. Plus it's right outside the kitchen window. I did leave the cuttings on the flowerbed for an hour or so and then gave them a gentle shake before putting in the green bin, just in case they were carrying passengers 😊.
I just went out to check the babies but, of course, found some to prick out, some to pot on, some cuttings bursting the pots and needing separating. Those that had been outside were very wet and as I wiped my hands on my trousers I realised they were the clean ones I'd put on to go out this afternoon
Pruned a few sad-looking, rose sawfly-stricken roses (try saying that after a drink!); noticed a couple have new buds. Staked some calabrese, planted some more muscari, pricked out and potted on 45 pansy wittrockiana seedlings (red, white and yellow). Weeded part of raised veg beds. Some calendula were crowding out the celeriac so had to be evicted. Curiosity got the better of me so I counted all the remaining flowers and then was joined by a hummingbird hawk moth showing great interest in a salvia leucantha. I patiently tried to take some photos but they're not very good so I just stood a few inches away and marvelled at the beautiful creature.
Martina Franca, Puglia, southern Italy Love living in Italy but a Loiner at heart
Another 8 box hedge stumps hoicked out. 3 clumps of native primroses dug up and relocated to the wide grass verge outside our house, hope they take. Cleared up more leaves while OH screwed a new angled back support for the arbour which blew over in one of the storms earlier this year.
It hardly stopped raining all day so no work outside. Checked the apple box at the Village Green. Satisfyingly, only 5 apples left out of a boxfull. Did some shopping. Made a Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.
I potted up the bulbs that I bought yesterday (tete-a-tete daffs in Wilko, 3 for the price of two ) and added this week's kitchen waste to the compost bin with some torn-up paper and some leaves and a bit of dead stuff that I'd gathered up/cut back during the week. I'd just got the cardboard layers and lid back on and was wondering whether to turn the other bin when the heavens opened! I got drenched just putting my stuff away in the shed. It didn't last long (4.5mm in less than 10 minutes) but now everything's wet so no more gardening today.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
More box stumps hoicked out but only 18 left to go! A couple more days should do it, weather permitting. I could cry though when I think of all work I put in and the cost originally in planting my lovely box hedges. That's gardening perhaps, what was a good idea 12 years ago is not so good now. Found lots of tiny white eggs? frass? in the soil underneath but just one caterpillar which is now no more.
Posts
I picked more apples and tomatoes.
Weeded the leeks which are looking good.
Sowed the onion seeds, at last.
Tried to lever some small, Forget-me-not, self-sown plants from between the paving, using an old dinner fork, but ended up just pulling them up, to plant in bulb containers. The plan is the tulips will grow up through a haze of sky-blue flowers! The seedlings are looking very perky so the move doesn't seem to have damaged them and the paving looks ever so slightly tidier. I am not averse to Forget me nots growing in between the paving but I think I might use some more of the seedlings in other pots with narcissus bulbs, a lovely colour combo.
Cut back a Michaelmas daisy. I know the theory is to leave the flower heads for wildlife, but once the flowers shrivel up and turn brown and the stalks look manky, l can't be doing with it. Plus it's right outside the kitchen window.
I did leave the cuttings on the flowerbed for an hour or so and then gave them a gentle shake before putting in the green bin, just in case they were carrying passengers 😊.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Love living in Italy but a Loiner at heart
Checked the apple box at the Village Green. Satisfyingly, only 5 apples left out of a boxfull.
Did some shopping.
Made a Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.