April Gardening in progress - What have you been doing?

GreenBucket24

moneysaver1978 said:

Garland Super7 propagator arrived last week and have so far planted tumbling tomatoes and flat-leaved parsley.

Waiting for a better weather soon (sick of the wind and rain!) so we can start replacing broken/fallen fence panels/posts!

@moneysaver1978, Indeed, it is very disappointing when there are tasks to be done like your fence replacement but the weather was not cooperating! Sounds like your propagator got in time for your planting moments, have fun 

GreenBucket24

Silvertabby said:

Chillies and toms now potted on and residing on the spare bedroom windowsills.  Still too cold in my unheated greenhouse for the tender stuff, but the annual flower seeds I planted in there a couple of weeks ago are all showing signs of life.  

Very wet here, so can't do much in the way of outdoor gardening, but managed to give a borders a good tidy last week.  Looks like all of my echinaceas have survived, which isn't always a given in cold clay.  

@Silvertabby, Have tried growing chillies and echinaceas but unsuccessful. It is a good feeling to see the  borders where some plants are regrowing, when they were cleared with the Winter clutters!

elsien

GreenBucket24 said:

elsien said:

Beggar all due to the weather.
Other than digging up large quantities of surplus bluebells, which was at least easy to do because the ground were so wet they came up easily. 

@elsien i love digging plants that needed transplanting or dividing during wet weather as it was easier and lighter to maneuver. 

On the other hand, dividing plants facilitates savings instead of buying new plants. Are your bluebells Spanish bluebells? or Scottish bluebells? 

I did have some native English ones that came in from next door but sadly the Spanish ones seem to be taking over and proliferating at speed.

moneysaver1978

elsien said:

GreenBucket24 said:

elsien said:

Beggar all due to the weather.
Other than digging up large quantities of surplus bluebells, which was at least easy to do because the ground were so wet they came up easily. 

@elsien i love digging plants that needed transplanting or dividing during wet weather as it was easier and lighter to maneuver. 

On the other hand, dividing plants facilitates savings instead of buying new plants. Are your bluebells Spanish bluebells? or Scottish bluebells? 

I did have some native English ones that came in from next door but sadly the Spanish ones seem to be taking over and proliferating at speed.

Funnily enough, thanks to the broken fence, we have several bluebells from the neighbour side! Unsure if it is English or Spanish though.

Are you looking to keep or remove the bluebells? We haven't decided yet

kiss_me_now9

@GreenBucket24 I must admit I am too much a fair weather gardener. I don't mind if it's warm and wet but I'm not keen on getting out there when it's just cold and miserable! 

I am planning to get my new dahlia tubers potted up this afternoon and I need to pot on some of my tomatoes. They seem to be doing ok out in the greenhouse but I need to check the forecast and see if they need to come in. We are running out of windowsill space though and they seem happy enough!

elsien

moneysaver1978 said:

elsien said:

GreenBucket24 said:

elsien said:

Beggar all due to the weather.
Other than digging up large quantities of surplus bluebells, which was at least easy to do because the ground were so wet they came up easily. 

@elsien i love digging plants that needed transplanting or dividing during wet weather as it was easier and lighter to maneuver. 

On the other hand, dividing plants facilitates savings instead of buying new plants. Are your bluebells Spanish bluebells? or Scottish bluebells? 

I did have some native English ones that came in from next door but sadly the Spanish ones seem to be taking over and proliferating at speed.

Funnily enough, thanks to the broken fence, we have several bluebells from the neighbour side! Unsure if it is English or Spanish though.

Are you looking to keep or remove the bluebells? We haven't decided yet

I remove some every year! I only have a small garden and as well as the clumps expanding they seem to be self seeding in new areas as well. They are fine at the back of a bed where not much else grows and filling in gaps between shrubs, but they are definitely thuggish and trying to keep them to those areas is a bit of a battle. 

sammy_kaye18

GreenBucket24 said:

sammy_kaye18 said:

Have a few things starting in the greenhouse from seed, actually surprised I put the greenhouse up and all my prep to help it stay put seems to have worked so far. 
Nothing planted in the actual garden other than a blueberry bush and a mini apple tree in pots which I had to check yesterday as I wasnt convinced either was more than sticks in buckets. 
Have bits I want to do but just cant with the weather. 

Wales seems to be having rain with a healthy dose of extra rain and a side of blustery gales to top it off although today fog moved in about 2.30pm but you guessed it - still raining. 

@sammy_kaye18, I would love to plant a blueberry bush, but our summers are very short and our temperature is always colder because of the winds. Very infrequent to have lovely continuous sunny weather. During Spring to Summer in our area, it rains at night and then sunshine during the day, which i love as i can do my gardening during the sunny hours of the morning to early afternoon.

Mine is actually in a pot so that I can move it if I think it needs more sunshine etc, or into the greenhouse to give her a nice boost and protect her a bit if the weather decides to turn on us again. The apple tree may have to fend for herself though. 

I am loving the weather today though - its showing 14 degrees on my computer but my phone says only 10 degrees but what a difference the sunshine makes to a day in the garden.
I have so far today
- been lining an area of the garden with the weed suppressant fabric
- putting boxes / containers down ready for planting and transplanting plants into.
- currently sat having a drink and trying to plan the best lay out for what I want to plant with shade/area etc ( I seem to have acquired more pots than I thought so need a reshuffle!) 
- checked the greenhouse and think I have a few little seedlings popping through. 
- starting to stress I haven't planted much but its just far too wet here still at the minute. 
- really must order more compost! 

sammy_kaye18

elsien said:

moneysaver1978 said:

elsien said:

GreenBucket24 said:

elsien said:

Beggar all due to the weather.
Other than digging up large quantities of surplus bluebells, which was at least easy to do because the ground were so wet they came up easily. 

@elsien i love digging plants that needed transplanting or dividing during wet weather as it was easier and lighter to maneuver. 

On the other hand, dividing plants facilitates savings instead of buying new plants. Are your bluebells Spanish bluebells? or Scottish bluebells? 

I did have some native English ones that came in from next door but sadly the Spanish ones seem to be taking over and proliferating at speed.

Funnily enough, thanks to the broken fence, we have several bluebells from the neighbour side! Unsure if it is English or Spanish though.

Are you looking to keep or remove the bluebells? We haven't decided yet

I remove some every year! I only have a small garden and as well as the clumps expanding they seem to be self seeding in new areas as well. They are fine at the back of a bed where not much else grows and filling in gaps between shrubs, but they are definitely thuggish and trying to keep them to those areas is a bit of a battle. 

Id love bluebells in my garden but they seem to pollinate everywhere but! 
I also have a random single daffodil that I have never planted but one seems to appear every year and has done for the last 12 years Ive lived here. 

~FlowerPot~

I remove some every year! I only have a small garden and as well as the clumps expanding they seem to be self seeding in new areas as well. They are fine at the back of a bed where not much else grows and filling in gaps between shrubs, but they are definitely thuggish and trying to keep them to those areas is a bit of a battle. 

They are definetely thugs, But beautiful. I always feel guilty when I pull them up, but they are taking over. This little shady corner is nice though!

Silvertabby

GreenBucket24 said:

Silvertabby said:

Chillies and toms now potted on and residing on the spare bedroom windowsills.  Still too cold in my unheated greenhouse for the tender stuff, but the annual flower seeds I planted in there a couple of weeks ago are all showing signs of life.  

Very wet here, so can't do much in the way of outdoor gardening, but managed to give a borders a good tidy last week.  Looks like all of my echinaceas have survived, which isn't always a given in cold clay.  

@Silvertabby, Have tried growing chillies and echinaceas but unsuccessful. It is a good feeling to see the  borders where some plants are regrowing, when they were cleared with the Winter clutters!

Chillies need coddling, more so than tomatoes.  I start mine off in heated propagators in the conservatory, then grow them on on the spare bedroom windowsills because we have a cat.  Cat owners will know why plants can't be placed on windowsills in rooms that cats have access to!

Then I'll move them into my (cold) greenhouse no earlier than mid May. 

You'll struggle if you try to grow chillies outdoors.