2023 - What I did today

Grumble grumble. I'm getting the distinct feeling that I won't be growing anything this year. Maybe potatoes? The birds are eating or just plain trampling everything that goes out, sometimes even if it's under cover. I would never usually cover DFB, but half of them are snapped at the stem - not nibbled or slugged, just trampled, it seems.

In addition to grumbling, I planted out tomatoes and a few flowers. Husband mostly indulged his grudge against the holly instead of doing something useful......Oops, back to grumbling.

Prepared soil (trenching, adding manure and compost around the climbing frame) then planting out CFB Helda and Hunter. Rushed to get finished as rain was forecast , which would be very welcome. Then the rain didn't materialise, nor is any due for the next week. Might even have to water.

Planted out some foxgloves, devils bit scabious & meadow sweet.
Moved another trailer load of plants.

I've been away on nights all week so far. I made it home around 1pm today and had a little mooch around the garden. The seedlings I took outside before I left are thriving, so the plan will be to move them into a bit more sun tomorrow and then plant them out towards the end of next week when I have a bit of annual leave. There's also lots coming up in the garden, though a few gaps that hopefully just need a bit more time to get going.

The Hotbin is reading around 30 degrees C. I'm not sure if it's been hotter while I've been away and now chilling down or if it never got up to temperature. It definitely seems too wet though, so I'll add extra paper with the next feeding tomorrow. It should really have been today, but I was too shattered to run around the garden finding stuff to add when I got home.

Something has been going around the garden pulling up all my plant markers. It's very strange as there's not a lot of ground disturbance and just a few chard seedlings that have been strewn around. Most of the plants seem fine, but around two thirds of my big wood markers have been hoiked up. They were in deep enough that I'm sure it's not the wind, and some of them seem to have been partly excavated. Very odd. I will have to sit and watch from inside for a while tomorrow to see if I can spot any misbehaving visitors!

I could do with getting lots done in the garden this weekend, but I've slept from around 3:30 until 7pm today and feel like I'm brewing a cold (lateral flow negative) so we'll see!

I know its "No Mow May" but for me, its First Mow May and the grass was up to my knees! Not all the grass has been mowed, still plenty left for another day/month.
A few years ago I used one of those square pallets (that paving slabs are delivered in) as a compost bin. It was the exact size of a big Builder's bag so I stuck one of those inside and threw all sorts of garden waste into it. The dogs liked jumping on it as mice used to live under it. It was really in the wrong place so today I dug out enough compost to drag the bag out and moved it to the vegplot. Nice looking compost too. the pallet fell apart.
Sowed some seeds and shuffled various seedtrays from one GH to another or outdoors.
A satisfying gardening day in the sun.

Potted up most of the spare tomatoes to give away.
Pricked out belle du jour and coreopsis.
Sowed carrots, turnips and peas.
Put some water in the pond as I'm still refilling it after the drought, and tried not to pour water onto the wildlife! I'll keep taking water from the butts all the time there's more rain forecast.

Sowed various climbing french beans, basil and chard.
Potted up the hanging baskets with Sunray begonias and La Campanella fuchsias saved from last year.
Planted out in large containers:
Three tumbling tomatoes with Red Gem marigolds.
Jacob's Cattle dwarf beans for drying.
Jackpot dwarf runner beans.
Begonia Burning Embers - I grew six of these last year and overwintered them indoors in their container. They're quite large now so I lifted three and replanted into another container.
Planted in the ground:
Dahlias 4 x Bishop of Llandaff and 2 x David Howard.
Achocha Fat Baby.

I had grand plans to plant out beans of all sizes, give tomatoes away and generally work in the veg patch. Then I saw all the bluebells going to seed in the flower border and remembered my resolve to dig them out. So spent the day digging, sometimes with keyhole surgery precision, to get rid of them. Not completely successful as some of the bulbs were two spades down, those ones will have to stay in the hope that pulling the leaves off will weaken the bulbs (some hope). The upside is I now have some bare soil space for planting out some of the flowers I've grown this season, penstemon, helichrysum, schizanthus, lupin, etc.

Potted up some of the cucumbers sowed on 13/5 - Wautoma, Tanja and Perfection.
Watered the courgettes, beans and peas in the plot as they looked a little limp. Hope this is the only time I have to do it.

Took the sleepy baby to the plot where she took a nap. I replaced the ramshackle covering over the carrots and brassicas with veggie mesh. Had to move a couple of brassica seedlings in the process. Planted out some hollyhocks and tiny herb seedlings that had been left in pots at the plot last week. Sowed around 25 or 30 corn seeds directly on the plot. Emptied the water butt and used about four watering cans from the mains water to water newly planted seedlings that went out this week. Pulled all the little bits of bindweed poking up through the no dig beds. It will continue to be our biggest problem, I think

After lunch went to the big park near us where my oldest had a blast and my youngest discovered the joy of sliding.