2023 - What I did today

Oh no, FEW, I'm sorry to hear that! Any chance to claim on house insurance?

Washed the big greenhouse inside and out with Jeys Fluid. Not sure if that will be sufficient to get rid of red spider mite and tomato leaf mould. I tried to get it into all the nooks and cranies (whatever they are). I don't think greenhouses are generally designed with disinfecting thoroughly in mind. I used a hosepipe to wash it down afterwards and there are now some very muddy patches. I must remember to do this a lot earlier in the Winter to give the soil time to dry out.

Not today, but yesterday:

Pruned my currant bushes (two small ones that I've planted, plus a big blackcurrant that came with the garden)

Pruned the tree at the bottom of the garden (maybe a poplar? I'm not sure if I quite decided what it was last year) so that it's not hanging over the greenhouse as much and isn't as tall. I need to get a ladder out to prune the top of the central trunk though. No idea if I'm pruning it correctly seeing as I don't actually know what it is, but I do know I can't let it get much bigger. Put my new pruning saw to good use doing it, and now have a supply of beanpoles!

Decided to follow on from that success by pruning the Mystery Shrub. A huge well-established shrub that was an absolute tangle of thin branches. I left it last year so that I could identify it before tackling it. However, it ended up absolutely infested with caterpillars so I never got to see proper leaves. I decided it needed thinning out to minimise the risk of another infestation and have chopped it back to three main stems. It is a fraction of the size it was. Hope I haven't destroyed it!

Finally, I did some weeding, though there's loads more general tidying and sorting to be done.

Haven't done any sowing yet. Unfortunately, for work reasons, I'm not going to be able to grow anything that will have to spend the summer in the greenhouse this year. So no chillies or aubergines, and I'm going to have to be very careful about choosing just a couple of tomatoes that will be happy outside.

Haven't done any sowing yet. Unfortunately, for work reasons, I'm not going to be able to grow anything that will have to spend the summer in the greenhouse this year. So no chillies or aubergines, and I'm going to have to be very careful about choosing just a couple of tomatoes that will be happy outside.

If you have an outside tap, you could consider an automatic watering timer with drippers. Screwfix have a cheap timer (about £17) but there are others. Claber drippers are adjustable and you can get a starter kit for 20 plants for about £30. B&Q sell some complete kits  as do lots of other outlets.

You can also get kits that work off water butts.

At the weekend I spent Saturday tidying up the poly tunnel and digging over 2 raised beds preparing them for spud growing I added BFB, mushroom pellets and granular seaweed. I also planted some onion sets beside the garlic. Then on Sunday I thinned out the raspberry hedge, dug up a load of runners replanred some and I have others for giving away.

Some more photos

I cut the grass this evening first cut of the year

Cut the grass!! ^^^ Wow!

Not me, I did some more clearing in the GH, tied in the Bijou mangetout that are going bonkers in the GH roof. Pruned some crossing shoots out of the blackcurrant bushes which I'll shove in the ground somewhere to create a new blackcurrant patch.
The garden is turning yellow now - with hazel catkins, daffodils and forsythia in flower. Really feeling spring like out there (apart from the weather).

Haven't done any sowing yet. Unfortunately, for work reasons, I'm not going to be able to grow anything that will have to spend the summer in the greenhouse this year. So no chillies or aubergines, and I'm going to have to be very careful about choosing just a couple of tomatoes that will be happy outside.

If you have an outside tap, you could consider an automatic watering timer with drippers. Screwfix have a cheap timer (about £17) but there are others. Claber drippers are adjustable and you can get a starter kit for 20 plants for about £30. B&Q sell some complete kits  as do lots of other outlets.

You can also get kits that work off water butts.

That's a good thought. My garden is significantly higher than my house (and tap) but I'm sure the systems take that into account. I do want to invest in more water butts at some point too so might be easier to run a system off that. Probably not this year (I still have half the garden to convert to beds!) but a good idea for future years.

Repotted a couple of things. Just had enough of them falling over in the slightest breeze.