What have you done today in the Garden?

Nice-looking work, Carolyn. What is that brown stuff around the zinnia's?

Cayu--Boy, that's a good report from you this time. You must be well-chuffed with the results so far. Fingers crossed for the GKH's.

As for me---well, I pruned the plum trees and weeded. I had another quick peek in the bees just to be sure that there has not been any plans to swarm. Normally I do not to this so soon after the last check, but I saw someone's bees fly over the lottie in a swarm yesterday, so I thought that I'd just double check to be sure that I had not missed a hidden queen cell somewhere.

 

I put a black sheet of ground cover down and killed the grass. that is just the dead grass. nothing more. Hopefully I will find some straw or old hay to put down soon.I worry about using straw because of the canada thistles... which are everywhere it seems. and clean straw is like winning the lottery.

 

I see.
Well, that is a testament to how well that method works.
I know what you mean about straw. We have the same problem here and must be very careful with what we buy...even from pet shops. It is so bad that we have begun using the dead grass and plant debris from last year which we mulched the garden with over the winter. We just saved that and used it under our strawbs instead of straw. It works fine.

 

Today it was harvesting time again. This time Pak Choi.


The strawbs needed harvesting again today as well. It is necessary every day, as I harvest them only when they are at their ripest...so waiting too long would be disastrous. Here a foto of the harvests still in the trugs:


The pak choi will go into the freezer after blanching and the strawbs will be jammed.

 

Sjoerd has so many lovely plants..

I like the red Thistle, the Foxgloves look like everything in your garden, extremely healthy.

I bought another Orange Dream, quite cheap. I also bought a red weeping Acer as well. Both just babes.

K

 

Thanks so much, KATE-- It sounds like you have plans for a couple more acers. Have you decided where they will go?

 

Sjoerd, your potatoes have Slugs? YUK ! I hear putting a flat pan filled with beer does the trick. The Slugs drown in the beer. Or perhaps broken egg shells? They cut the thin skin of the Slugs. Good luck.

Carolyn, what are the red flowers across the road? Oh, and I love your rock wall.

Today I set out the sucker from the Grape tomato, which I rooted in a large bottle of water. The roots are tiny, so I'm hoping I didn't put it to ground too soon.
Also set out a few flowers, watered, checked on Mama duck and chatted with her. She remains silent in my presence. I'm beginning to feel she doesn't care for my companionship.

 

Actually that is my driveway.. and the flowers are not flowers. When we had the fire a couple months ago all my gardening equipment and implements ended up outside the building they were stored in and the building was repurposed for the excavating business until we get the new building up... so, across the drive in the edge of one of the gardens is a corn planter that has red seed boxes on it. it is just blobs of color in that picture.

If you have it in the garden place a white bucket over the 'plant" and put a rock under one edge so the heat can't build up too much.. and tada.. in a week you will have a well rooted plant. I pulled a sucker off of one plant in the high tunnel a few weeks ago and put it in a spot where one died and promptly forgot about it until a man at my farmers market stopped to tell me his plant rooted after i recommended him to do it to save a plant that broke on the way home from my market.. Opps! I forgot about mine... I came home and uncovered it to find a very well rooted plant that came from NO roots what so ever. good luck!

 

Sjoerd; the council will be removing half dead Leylandi soon and I must finally decide to stay or move from this present home.
The new plants should it ever stop raining can be potted up temp. Like all acers at least they are loving the rain.
Thanks!
K

 

Took a pic in the rain...

Tamukeyama; it should end up like the Image below.




Orange Dream
Excuse the brown on that conifer, shocking how they go.
K

 

Kate, what does this mean? I am lost as it pertains to your lifestyle there and we don't have "councils" or leylandi trees... or trees .that others take down for us... if trees are on our property we must remove them. if they are on someone elses property we have no say in what happens to them..

 

Well, I hope that they get that Ley out of the way soon. What sort of place would you consider moving to should it come to that? Would you want to rent or buy? Perhaps I will see you on "Escape To The Country" one day. chuckle.

GP--Yeah, the slugs have found my spuds. It has never happened before. It has been crazy with the slugs and snails this year. Everyone on the Allotment Complex has had probs this year. I have been using the beer in a yoghurt pot.

Today it is raining again. I transplanted some Gaillardia's into the next sized pot. Hopefully I will be able to set them out in a couple of weeks. I also had a couple of more Norwegian Brem seeds germinate. I transplanted those as well.

 

Toni, that soil sounds horrible to work with....

Carolyn; here the council who owns this property will remove dead trees when they are out of control as these Leylandi are. They will wait till the birds and fledglings have flown.

Its a council owned property. Leylandi hedging are the bane of life, they need pruning three times a year last time i got someone in it cost me £50.00.

Sjoerd; to see
Me on house in the country i would need to win the lottery... So decide stay here or take a different bungalow even at that i have to bid for that property with others on the housing list.

 

I see how it goes with the house.
That was a high pruning cost, BTW. Good grief!