Trowel and Error

[Mountain Goat]

Oh David. :lol: You could put a load in pots, bulb lasagne style, if you have too many? Pots always seem to need a ridiculous number of bulbs.

I haven't planted any more of mine. The ones I have left to plant are waiting for dahlia tubers to be dug up, and cosmos and sunflowers to finish flowering, and none of them seem remotely inclined to be over yet. I've done other jobs: mulching (I have done the back but not the front yet) and my pathways - I made an informal one of bark to access the deepest bed - I had a vague one before but was stamping on the earth around it too and compacting everything so felt I need to make it more official. It's opened up the bed back there and I've added a secret groundfeeder bird tray (robins and dunnocks forage around there anyway), and a small log/twig/leaf pile for overwintering insects. And lots of other things, like washing and organising my pots and cleaning my tools etc etc - getting the potting bench in order.

Will your flower bed be a cutting bed?

I have to get my foxgloves and honesty in too, they're still in the greenhouse waiting for the spaces to open up.

[Mountain Goat]

Forgot to answer the bulb planter bit! I don't have one: I sort of planned to, and then forgot. I've been using my hori hori which has been fine, though I remember last year ( also with the hori hori) the earth was much less compliant and it was hard work.

[absley]

How's it going, folks? Goat, I saw you've dug up your dahlias, amazing that they were still going.

We had a manic 'fill the brown bin' session over the weekend, which was mostly about cutting things back to clear the way for tulips (not yet arrived and I don't think D has ordered a planter) which makes it all look much neater. I'm trying to keep plants with seed heads though as the birds are getting through the feeder supplies so speedily!

If I do the flower bed, Goat, it will be for cutting I think. I need to sit down and plan my veggies, then go from there. I saw yesterday that some of my strawberries (which are covered in fruit :ella: ) have pinks splodges on the leaves, so also need to work out if they need anything doing.

Current favourite bit in the garden is the viburnum bodnantense, which is covered in flowers and smells amazing. I must try bringing some in.

[Mountain Goat]

Oh I'm jealous: I bought one last year but it's been very unhappy, most of it went limp in spring and I had to cut it back. There is pretty much one main stem left alive so it's tiny (and I kind of forgot about it). It's clearly not in the right place (and other things have also been unhappy there) and this has reminded me to think about moving it. God knows where! I might dig up a boring (developer planted) shrub and put it there, it's the wrong colour for the more obvious spots that are free.

I still have dahlias left in the main mixed border which are showing zero signs of damage yet! I do want to get them up before they're suddenly/badly hit though, I ran out of time yesterday. I've also dug a new border which is for my apple tree and roses (not ordered yet, may change my mind still. I had a week off so had time to get it done. Plus I wanted everything to be ready before I ordered them as bare roots, I've been caught out before and nearly killed off a bare root rose due to it arriving before its spot was ready).

I've been doing the same with the brown bin, maximising it before every collection. I think that by next weekend everything will be cut down/removed and the rest of the bulbs can go in. Except the nice structural seed heads etc. My birds were pretty much absent for late summer/early autumn (plenty of hedgerows heaving with fruit near by) but are coming back slowly now.

A cutting bed would be lovely. In veggies, my shallots and garlic are growing madly, and the caterpillars have almost all graduated so I'll be able to see if any of my brassicas can put on growth for me to eat now or if they're just finished. And like your strawberries, I still have tomatoes that are still successfully ripening?! Outdoors!

I'm pondering trying to grow fan trained witch hazels along my wall, the front facing part of it, not the internal side. If I did that, then they would just be green back drop in the summer and would come into their own at the point where the annuals are gone and it's otherwise boring. But can I manage that?! I don't know if it's beyond my abilities.

[Mountain Goat]

(I think I've found a good spot for the vibernum! The old shrub looks like it will be a bastard to get out though, and it can wait until after the next brown bin collection as there's enough more urgent stuff to go in there...)

[ParisGal]

One of my never will happen plans is fan trained peaches and apricots on a south-facing wall

[absley]

Oh, definitely try it, Goat. And you, PG, if you have an appropriate wall. A gardener I follow on insta (katecoulson) has some amazingly shaped pyrocanthus silhouettes that I always hanker after.

[Mountain Goat]

Oh wow, I just had a look. How?!? I have pyrocanthus near where I want the witch hazels, planted by developers, it's beautiful but weirdly planted and difficult to manage because it's so thorny ( and woody). None of my gloves stand up to it. It needs to look like less of a plonked accident. :lol: ( which is what it presumably is, they had a job lot and chucked it all in). We took out the ones right by the pavement which were going to have a toddler's eye out :ella:

Do it PG! Then I can copy your technique. :lol:

[ParisGal]

A gardener I follow on insta (katecoulson) has some amazingly shaped pyrocanthus silhouettes that I always hanker after.

OMG!!!

[Mountain Goat]

All of her garden is perfect. *stares out window at cosmos that have flopped over in the rain*

[absley]

I think she's a bit of a genius, I love both her gardens so much. Her topiary is amazing too.

We have a couple of pyrocanthus too, thick thorny slabs growing against a wall or a fence. In each case I just try to keep them neat and berried. I would love to take them out and have a go at a neat silhouettes though.

[absley]

All of her garden is perfect. *stares out window at cosmos that have flopped over in the rain*

:lol:

[Mountain Goat]

Yes, mine are trimmed in a hedge like fashion (but against the house, with beds in front of them). Then there is a random L shape sticking out which I might remove but it's such a lovely healthy plant (and so prickly :lol:). Maybe I can play with the shape of that. Need better gardening gloves for Christmas... I am keeping them low in front of the windows (of course!) but trying to encourage height between the windows, but they are still quite small. I am now having a rush of excitable ideas when I should be working. :lol:

That onion dome topiary is SO PLEASING.

[absley]

Unexpected items of excitement incoming!

Sorry Goat. But yes, amazing. I was scrolling back and she shares some pictutes of yews that she has been espaliering on a wall - nine years in and still so juvenile looking. It's all about the long game!

I'm so rubbish at being patient. :lol:

[Mountain Goat]

I wish it wasn't raining and I wasn't in inside clothes as I want to go out (in the road) and stare at that wall now with a cup of tea and make plans. :)) I will at lunch, if I get changed now it's too much like checking out of actually working.

Me too, I'd get bored of it not working after a year and tear it out and start another plan. :lol:

[Mountain Goat]

Hello, how is everyone doing? It's that lovely time when things to start to happen again. Have you got plans? Exciting new growth?

I spent a lovely day in the front/side garden in the sun on Sunday tidying everything up and gossiping a lot. I forgot how social a pastime it is, it was so nice. The bulbs I planted in the autumn are doing pretty well, crocuses are (just!) out, and lots of other things poking their heads up and forming buds. The snowdrops even actually flowered last year after coming up blind last year (but not enough to make much of display, give it 10 years...).

In the winter I dug a new bed and planted an apple tree and two new roses (Gabriel Oak and Emma Bridgewater, both David Austin), and currently I am planning to put in a crab apple at the back (to detract from the mass of blank wall of the neighbours house behind us) where there are currently some developer planted small shrubs that are too low for that spot anyway. They will move to sit in a new (planned, not yet created) area in mid lawn with a bird bath in the middle and just some simple low planting around it. And I am also planning an arch from the gravelly area to the lawn to grow my sweet peas over.

In veg, I put my autumn sown broad beans in the bed last week and started chitting my first earlies. Shallots and garlic coming along fine, and the cavolo nero and broccoli that was ravished by caterpillars are looking pretty good now. And I ordered some fancy heirloom tomato seeds.

I need to prune my pyracanthus a bit brutally to get a better shape, and I have a few things that need to be moved around in the next few weeks. And probably sow some ammi (it seems to have self seeded quite nicely but who knows what a hard frost will do) and sweet peas.

[absley]

Hello, I am slowly emerging back into the garden and have a clear dry weekend, so I'm hoping to do a fair amount this weekend. Like you, we have lots of lovely bulbs flowering and there is the beginning is tulips sprouting from all of D's planting, which is exciting. Nicest thing atm is the Daphne fragrance, which I adore.

I too have a new rose, which arrived yesterday - Desdemona - so she's going out plus I need to prune the other roses which I have so far failed to do. Spring mulching too, for whatever needs it. The other task is pruning the gooseberries (which I missed last winter) and tying in the blackberries. D is going to be tasked :)) with clearing dead stuff amd cleaning the greenhouse out,,so I can think about seeds. Which need to buy. What tomatoes did you choose, Goat?

[Mountain Goat]

I have Desdemona! It's lovely, it's one I bought last year. I envy your Daphne. I've just this morning spotted an iris reticulata out and hyacinths are SO CLOSE. What tulips did D plant? Actually I have very little memory of what I planted even.

These are my tomatoes, I'm not sure I have room for them all.

IMG_20250308_122801.jpg

I'm looking forward to getting stuck into sorting out the pyracantha. It's a lovely day and the brown bin has finally been emptied.

[absley]

Intriguing tomato choices, Goat! I need to buy new seeds this year and want to focus on smaller varieties so there is a better chance of them ripening.

I've no ideas what tulips D planted - I would have chosen a restricted palette but he loves bright and garish, so I opted out

[Mountain Goat]

They are... experimental. I may do some Gardeners Delight ( I have seeds from last year) as back up. Small is a clever idea, I hadn't thought of that.

Ha, I have restricted palette for the back garden and bright and garish for the public facing parts.

I don't know why I was looking forward to doing the pyracantha, it was awful. I had to come in on one four separate occasions to stem the bleeding and I was wearing heavy duty gloves. I just needed that same fabric to cover my entire body. Also I had to move a couple of them, and holy tap root that was challenging. They were also on a slope, surrounded by delicate new bulbs/ other that I didn't want to tread on. With that footwork, serious pulling and a slope, it was a miracle I stayed upright. Anyway it looks much better. Could be neater and more precisely clipped but that was sufficient for one day and the bin was full.

And I planted ammi in an experimental seed snail, tomatoes ( normally), and sweet peas ( loo rolls) and transplanted lettuce seedlings.