What have you done today in the Garden?

your garden is F'in fabulous! and at the beginning of the season. what zone are you in? is that a wall of bamboo?

 

did a lot of work in the backyard this weekend, it's slowly coming together, hopefully, next weekend I feel good enough about it to post a pic or two.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

Our house is in South Manchester, what used to be North Cheshire before they moved the boundries. We're in the Mersey Valley, protected by low hills in ther North South and East.
We're Zone 7.

The bamboo started out as a clump half way down the main border that over time grew to about five feet tall and a little over eighteen inches in diameter. We didn't want it there, so I dug it out with a spade, it came out completely in one clump.
Rather than chuck it out I decided it would be good if we could have a bamboo "forest" at the bottom of the garden. So I chopped it up with the spade into clumps of about three canes each and planted them at intervals along the fence. This was about 30 years ago. It's since spread out but not grown forwards as I prune any new growth in that direction each year, not that there's much. I've no idea of the variety, but it needs wires to contain it stretched laterally from the fence posts at each end at around five feet to stop it flopping forwards. There's a few dead canes each year that I prune off, that come in handy for staking stuff.


We've a black bamboo behind the pagoda which we bought about ten years ago. It's quite slow growing.

 

Doghouse, you are lucky that your bamboo is slow growing! I bought a running kind (mistake) that I keep hacking back. It does make good plant stakes though.

Yesterday, I got half of my potatoes in. I have a double rowed bed maybe 15 feet long. And I have that many more potatoes to plant still! Looks like I over-ordered.

I also got another row of peas in. The first two rows are beginning to sprout.

After having an early spring here in New England, the weather has been unseasonably cold. We even had snow early last week, and a little bit of hale in the rain yesterday.

Yesterday, I did a curbside pick up of bagged compost and two bales of salt marsh hay. As I drove away from the feed store, my car smelled like the ocean!!! The salt marsh hay had just been cut the day before. It was wonderful!

 

Rhizomes are a real problem with some bamboos. Our daughter has a stand of tall bamboo at the bottom of the garden. In the past new shoots have sprung up in the lawn twelve feet away. So they dug down and put a barrier of paving slabs on their ends to cure the problem. They have a prune each year, some canes are long and quite thick. They just chuck them over the back fence. There's allotments between the back of their garden and the railway and the River Thames. The allotment keepers are always happy to get more free canes.

 

I am feeling really good about all the work I have been able to do in the gardens this spring! Because of the lock down I have been forced to stay home and get all the cleanup and prep work done. I was able to get a load of soil delivered and so I have been topdressing gardens, filling new raised beds, filling all my containers, edging, weeding, dividing, and have gotten some of my cool weather crops planted. I haven't been this organized for YEARS! I hope all my hard work pays off and I am able to keep up with everything as the season progresses.

 

We've had the first rain for about two weeks. Some neighbouring garden's lawns were showing that they were getting as bit desperate for some water. It's easy to lose some valuable plants in such a long spell without rain, the cost to replace could be far more than the cost of the water they needed.

 

Wow Netty, you have been busy. I'd be willing to bet you can keep up with everything--you seem to be something of a whirlwind!
I weeded the squash and the cucumbers, and checked on the second planting of green beans which are germinating nicely. I love seeing those little green bumps coming up from the soil! I had help in the garden--Timi supervised the weeding, and both Cali and Timi accompanied me to survey the beans (for new members these are two of our three cats.)

 

Well done Cayu. You have been busy.

We planted lathyrus and prei ( leeks), gave water to everything.
Re-netted the broad beans and checked the bees.
We went out to the horse shop and picked up some straw for the strawbs.

 

Worked on getting the bindweed under control...probably a loosing proposition. Filled in some holes in the garden with flowers that had moved into the paths.

 

working on a leafy shady garden. Potted up some cilantro, broccoli, and cabbage seedlings.

 

As our Stellar cherries are doing so well, I've put a net over them to discourage the birds. It's fixed to two bamboo canes up against the fence panel and just draped over it. As the tree grows I can raise the back end of the net further up the canes.





It's a piece of the same net I used to stretch over the koi pool to keep the leaves off in the Autumn, being black it's "invisible" so didn't spoil the view from the French windows. Nor does it now.

 

Pruned some off some of the top growth of our three quinces along the party fence. I don't like them growing too tall as the lawn doen't like too much shade, it encourages moss.



Sprayed the acer in the front garden. Greenfly love this as the leaves have a sticky excretion at this time of the year. The leaves are its best feature as the blossom is green and hard to see.



Pruned back some of the two viburnums. In a "straight fight" they'll beat our rhododenrons and azaleas for space




Admired some of our clematis, which are starting to flower.

 

Yesterday, I got half of my potatoes in. I have a double rowed bed maybe 15 feet long. And I have that many more potatoes to plant still! Looks like I over-ordered.

Cayuga,
I know the feeling. I bought some from one place, I wanted colors for my granddaughter. Then found more from another place. I ended up with 6 different potato bags/pots. And I gave half of them to my co-worker. She, in return gave me raspberry starts. With schools closed I have lots of time to plant anything, though.

 

Willow, I consistently over plant--everything! One phrase you'll never hear from an avid gardener, "I wish I'd planted more of that."