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Some seed sowing with my toddler and some very overdue weeding in the back garden.

(07-05-2022, 07:02 PM)JJB Wrote: [ -> ]I dug trenches around three quarters of the climbing frame. Lugged manure and leaf mould from the far corners of the garden. Had lunch in the garden and put my ar.....bum through the sun lounger creating much hilarity and amusement for P.   Trying to figure out how to fix it now.

Need photos. 

Haven't done much today. Went to a charity plant etc sale and tried to be sociable. Not used to seeing so many people at once!!
Collected a free compost bin - haven't decided where to put it yet. Topped up a couple of compost bins with haylage and grass cuttings in layers. Not sure why but I did. 
Dug up lots of buttercups and docks that have invaded a mainly-flowers patch.
Planted some onion sets that have been rooting in modules. 
Counted my courgette seedlings - 23.

Yesterday after spending two hours at the ophtalmologue I came out 70€ lighter, but happily clutching ...


... a prescription to go and buy new glasses from the opticians!

Came home and sorted out the bare roots into seed trays, planted a big pot of bulbs and a new dahlia in a pot on its own.

Today planted out 7 more pumpkins, a pot of nasturtiums to (hopefully) trail down the side of an old chimney, and some more on the edge of a veg bed. Cut some stems of forsythia to mark the pumpkin plants so I can see where to water and feed once the bed has become a mass of leaves. And if the forsythia stems root, that'll be a bonus!
Cleaned and refilled all the trays of water around the place for wildlife.
Planted up a pot of basil plants for my neighbour and a trough for us. The rest will go out into the ground with the tomatoes next week.
Removed algae from the pond and disturbed a good sized grass snake and the first broad bodied darter dragonfly of the year.

Sorting out some patio fruit trees…I forgot to water or feed them before the blossom set so doubt I’ll get fruit this year!!
Quick question, I bought some tall planters to put flowers in, they are obviously going to take a lot of compost. Would this work?…I’ve got small pots with tete a tete in them, they reach about half way up the tall planters. Could I put them in the tall planter, fill up with compost and add bedding plants. Would the tete a tete grow through in spring?

Did a few little jobs before settling down to watch the tennis -

Tied in the perennial sweet peas.
Sowed some winter squash and pumpkins.
Potted up 6 cactus dahlia tubers I got for the bargain price of £1.60 in total.
Potted up some rhubarb crowns I also picked up for £1.60 at the same place, three were unfortunately rotted but the other three crowns look healthy so I'm keeping them in pots by the kitchen door so I can keep an eye on them and hopefully plant out in autumn.

(08-05-2022, 11:27 AM)Jay Wrote: [ -> ]Sorting out some patio fruit trees…I forgot to water or feed them before the blossom set so doubt I’ll get fruit this year!!
Quick question, I bought some tall planters to put flowers in, they are obviously going to take a lot of compost. Would this work?…I’ve got small pots with tete a tete in them, they reach about half way up the tall planters. Could I put them in the tall planter, fill up with compost and add bedding plants. Would the tete a tete grow through in spring?

Probably! Sounds like bulb lasagna planting where you layer bulbs in pots, smallest bulbs nearest the top, bigger, usually tulips, at the bottom.

Another option would be to put something in the bottom of the tall pot - polystyrene chunks, broken flower pots, any old garden soil. Then the daffs, which are probably dying back now. Cover with some compost and bedding plants.

Nothing done today that I thought was going to get done. The summerhouse (a grand name for a chalet type shed) needed a spring clean, and has done for several years. You know I hate housework I delegated that job to P and surprisingly he accepted the challenge. I put the top net on the fruit cage, a job I thought would take me 30 mins an hour max. I was at it all morning! Making sure no little gaps where baby robins delight in wriggling in to. Done and dusted that job at least, then found gooseberry sawfly and aphids on the goosegogs. Squished as many as I could find. Summerhouse is sparkling, the gooseberry bush isn't. Gave away some toms, which entailed a good old natter.

I've potted up some geraniums in hanging baskets, put about 15 panes of glass into the greenhouse - woop woop! I ran out of glazing clips, so I've ordered a load more.
I've put my weeping willow into a bigger pot because it dried out last week and is still recovering.
I weeded the front garden, to the chickens delight, as they always get the weeds thrown in to their coop.
A few flowers were needing to be potted up, but I can't remember their names now.

Planted some of last year's strawberry runners into a supermarket crate.
Not much else.

Courgette seedling count = 24

No allotment trip after asking fruitlessly for toddler to sit down to get shoes on about six times. I think we have another nursery cold and both of us could be described as a bit difficult today.

But lots of germination happening with speckled and beige magic beans from Scarlet now poking heads above soil and more on the way. Peas and cosmos up as well as some cucumbers this evening. You know, I might manage to grow something this year.