2023 - What I did today

Rain stopped play here. So started packing the spare room!

Shopped. Sheltered from massive (well pea sized) hailstones in the gh. It's quite unsettling to be in a very noisy gh Potted on half a dozen beef toms and rescued two very unhappy polyanthus.

...and caught a mouse under the cloche eating my broad beans. The devils are just taking chunks out of the stems of 8" tall very healthy plants in the soil, the very healthy plants are then not so, and keel over.

Today has been a waste of time because of the flaming weather!  Luckily, Kato had his two walks without getting wet but apart from that it's rained all day so nowt else was done!

Rain & hail until early afternoon but managed a wander around the sodden garden later. The DFBs appear to have survived the freezing nights and hail - maybe they're tougher than we think?
Happy to see leek seedlings -  from some old seed packets I emptied to give them a chance.
Pulled 12 sticks of rhubarb but I was a bit heavy-handed. I only meant to pull one stick but snapped part of a crown off, complete with 6 sticks.   
Undaunted, I've trimmed the sticks off it and stuck it in a pot. It has two chances. 
Every wander around the garden at this time of year reveals new delights - fruit tree buds opening, the first bluebells, primroses spreading, birds gathering fur for their nests, butterflies dancing - my favourite time of year despite the rain.

A lovely day meant a day playing in my own garden.
Put up a blow away tunnel. Laid slabs so my pots & fish boxes don’t sink. Worked out how much I’m cramming in there.
Dug the trench around the flower bed a bit deeper and filled the flower bed with the contents of the trench and a bag of spent compost.
Sown seeds

Happily it rained all day so apart from putting 6 watering cans of water in the pond which is still half empty because of the drought it was a day of indoor chores. Nice to have a clean and shiny fridge again!

I put lots of stuff outside to harden off.
Chillies had their first day in the polytunnel. Potted on a couple of them.
Split wood, made chilli powder

Pricked out my mystery seed which we've come to the conclusion was helichrysum. I believe it was seed from SC in the 2021 seed swap. I just had one pot of very neglected potbound plants which got bunged in. Amazingly they gave me a few flowers so I collected the seed without any expectations (or labels). I'm really pleased they germinated, I got 48 seedlings. Now, where am I going to put them

Just some weeding in-between the rain. And some more water in the pond.
Plus the weekly trip out for shopping etc.

Another wet day when the garden didn't tempt me out. Played in the GH for a while. Went out to pick up a FREE dehydrator and called on my brother for a natter, then came home and sorted Random Seed swap seeds. Does anyone have a jemmy I can borrow to force the packets into their postal boxes?