2025 - What I did today

Not a lot 9f gardening today we're off on a day trip to IOW to check things over. Can't stay longer, as I can't leave the garden.

Cleared the "early " tomatoes out of GH4 as they were just about finished. Picked the remaining tomatoes to ripen indoors. May sow some more "early" toms soon to keep the succession going to the end of the year.
Tried again to plant the CFB but the ground was still too solid. So I turned to PlanB and PlanC. Plan B was putting canes into an open bottomed tub (a slice from a blue water bin) into which I had already dumped some old compost from last year's pots. Planted lots of beans there , but, still had beans left over so...........Plan C - set up 3x30ltr pots on the patio, against GH4. Put some homegrown bamboo canes in the pots and planted all the remaining beans - these were Borlotti.
I've never grown CFB in pots before, only DFB . There'll be no excuse for not keeping these watered as they're alongside the waterbutt. The Plan B beans will have to get by on their own.

Finished dead heading. Got called into work. Now adding a good mix of green and brown to the compost bin.

Found a lovely bluey mauve hibiscus/mallow bush in IOW garden so took some cuttings. I don't hold out much hope as they were hardwood and flowering, I couldn't find any softwood non flowering shoots. Maybe later on in the season after flowering I can try again.

Levelled the edge of the eye bed and put the rocks in place. That I split last week. Re dug the outline on a couple of other beds. Then rain stopped play.

Put supports round some dwarf french drying beans and weeded them and the row of leeks next to them. Fed and watered the polytunnel and greenhouse.

Hand pollination of some squash & courgette. Digging out edges of another cottage garden bed.
Harvesting

Cleared some finished DFBs from GH1, took out lots of old leaves from the tomatoes.
Attached the recently planted CFBs to their supports.
Pulled up lots of montbretia. Naively, I thought that montbretia spread by multiplying the bulbs but hadn't realised that they're spreading by seed as well. There were lots of tiny, grass-like seedlings , growing from mini-bulbs, surrounding the mature plants. If some of them hadn't come up when I pulled up the plants, I wouldn't have realised and assumed it was grass. It really is an opportunist thug!

Cleared some finished DFBs from GH1, took out lots of old leaves from the tomatoes.
Attached the recently planted CFBs to their supports.
Pulled up lots of montbretia. Naively, I thought that montbretia spread by multiplying the bulbs but hadn't realised that they're spreading by seed as well. There were lots of tiny, grass-like seedlings , growing from mini-bulbs, surrounding the mature plants. If some of them hadn't come up when I pulled up the plants, I wouldn't have realised and assumed it was grass. It really is an opportunist thug!

I found one of the little thugs in one of my veg fish boxes today. Lots growing wild around here so the odd one makes it into the garden. But not for long. The tiny bulb I found today got crushed repeatedly between 2 rocks. That should stop the little bugger growing.

Cleared some finished DFBs from GH1, took out lots of old leaves from the tomatoes.
Attached the recently planted CFBs to their supports.
Pulled up lots of montbretia. Naively, I thought that montbretia spread by multiplying the bulbs but hadn't realised that they're spreading by seed as well. There were lots of tiny, grass-like seedlings , growing from mini-bulbs, surrounding the mature plants. If some of them hadn't come up when I pulled up the plants, I wouldn't have realised and assumed it was grass. It really is an opportunist thug!

I found one of the little thugs in one of my veg fish boxes today. Lots growing wild around here so the odd one makes it into the garden. But not for long. The tiny bulb I found today got crushed repeatedly between 2 rocks. That should stop the little bugger growing.

Hope I never upset you.