What have you done today in the Garden?

Wow Cayuga,
That lettuce pot looks great!

Doghouse,
I think that little green monster (jealousy, Incase you're younger then me) is showing up. I love wisteria! Everyone had it in Texas. I would love to have some, but I don't know where I'd put it. Hence the green monster.

 

I use litphoto app from google play store on my android. Here is a screenshot of the app, some finger painting highlighter in the screenshot edit and the resize to the standard of 1024x768 pixels

 

Thanks Dirt! I'll try it.


Guess I got a little slap happy, finally being able to post photos!
As you can see from my garden I like color but I also like green on green.
I am also not the nearest gardener!

 

I dead-headed these two rhodos this afternoon. It was a bit of a pain as there must have been about 100 blooms between them;



I always prune our three quinces on the side fence at this time of the year, I must have taken about a foot off the top of many branches on this one. I like to keep them as a band along the top of the fence. Low branches would overpower the azaleas and rhodos, if they grow too tall they cut out a lot of the sun from other plants in this border.




Tomorrow, I'm going to tackle these two tree azaleas. They've lost the "ball shape" I like, so it'll be a case of a little bit of pruning and a bit of wiring.



I'm pleased with this rhodo, it's a fast grower, we've only had it a couple of years and it is giving the big tortoise shell one a bit of competion for space.



The several giant lilies are also starting to make their presence known, there's about eight along this part of the fence.




I was impressed with the service from the bin men today. Today was not a "green bin" day, or any bin for that matter.

On the way to golf at 9.00am, as I turned out of our road onto the main road, I noticed they were emptying the green bins a few people had put out. I stopped and asked one of the men if they were going to do our road, as my green bin was full and I wasn't going to put it out until next week, the normal day. The guy said they were. So I said I'd go round the block and put my bin out, as it was up the top of the drive in front of the garage door. He said it didn't matter, give him our house number and he'd see it got emptied. When I came back from golf It was back up in front of the garage door and had been emptied.

 

I planted some watermelon starts, yesterday. Then watered them a little, I knew it was going to rain. It was sprinkling a bit by the time I was done. I then checked my potatoes, all of them are coming up. Something keeps digging up my bean seeds! So I keep replanting them. They don't eat them, just dig them up. Crazy wildlife!

 

Weeded carrots and strawberries and hilled beans and mulched with woodchips. Watered well and harvested chard and strawberries. I will spare you the pictures of the chocolate coloured bugs.

My gardens are far from the pleasurable well ordered beauty of the previous two posters, but they are certainly a haven of biodiversity.

 

Well, I found out from my neighbor that the mysterious seed digger is probably a chipmunk. All I see around my house are squirrels and bunnies, so they must be ninja chipmunks.
It's supposed to be cooler again today, so I'm going to finish digging out the thistle (grrr) and grass out back. Then I'll lay some cardboard down, put potting soil on top and plant my zucchini and pickling cucumbers on top. I had to do the same thing in the small areas between the house and sidewalk last year. So far the only place with thistle coming back is where I ran out of cardboard. Have I mentioned how much I can't stand thistle?
Then later, I'll go get netting for strawberries, and while I'm out stop for crickets, the blue horn worm (ick) and meal worms. I volunteered to take the classroom bearded dragon for "spring break" (haha).

 

I get a kick out of your posts Willow! Ninja Chipmunks! On the one hand, Chipmunks are SO unNinja like, but I guess on the other hand, they could be! I tend to think of them as being the naughty pixie fairies of the garden. Very curious creatures about anything newly planted. And they know how long to wait for that juicy tomato to just become ripe. Their timing is impeccable.

 

Haha our chipmunks must be the dull witted cousins that ninjas never talk about. Even our cats have gotten bored of chasing them. Or more likely they are overfed.

 

Ours look pretty chubby too. When our daughter was 5 or 6 she did an experiment on what Chipmunks most liked to eat:. Sunflower seeds, oats, bread, egg, etc. She plotted it on a graph. Being 6 years old, she added another food: candy. Candy was the hands down clear winner. We had to eliminate that experimental food from the choices for fear of giving them diabetes.

 

I am sorry to report to facebook that I have fat chipmunks! HaHa you will get upvotes!

 

Didn't do much in the garden today, dead-headed some roses and watered the patio pots, they get very warm at this time of the year.

I mist-sprayed the acers and the sambucus around 2.00pm. There is a tiny bit of scorching on the big acer, but not really noticeable. There'd be a lot more if I didn't cool them down.

I like to have a wander round at dusk on warm evenings, (beer in hand). It's quite a pleasant experience. I turned on the lights, but not the two sets of mult-coloured fairy lights on the two pergodas. It's a bit over the top at this time of the year. They're just for Christmas. The nine solar lights too, are quite bright, as they are getting a really good charge during the day with all the sunshine.








You can see the vents at the top of the tea-house. All they are are two halves of an old dishwasher cutlery drawer screwed to a bit of 3" X 2". I just wedge it under the front of the partly open skylight.



It gets extremely hot in there at this time of the year, despite the fact that there are two vents at the bottom of the back wall.





I usually leave the door open in the morning and close it at night. When we had the six fox cubs under the teahouse, I diodn't want to leave the door open all day as they would have been in there with their muddy paws. So I fitted this extractor fan in the ceiling void, that came on and off on a timer.

 

Giving water is a daily chore in the lottie with this extended dry spell. We also cleaned more flower beds today and popped out into the country to pick up some plants to put into the newly won open spaces in one of the plots. We cleaned the border of one of the sitting patio's. It instantly seemed to be much larger. I planted some spare beans. Went into the new bee hive. It doesn't sound like alot, but I required a shower when I got home...in fact we both did.

You know RILEY--your garden looks so inviting in the twilight hours. It really is inviting to sit in with tea or something cold after a long and hot days' work.

I always say, CAYU-- that you have a stunning home garden. You know, between you and Riley, I can feel really jealous when I see those large expanses of land planted-up and landscaped. You mentioned how much you liked colour, and I have to say that that is one thing that we see eye-to-eye on.
Of course my primary criterion for flower planting is that a plant is what we call a drachtplant...or a plant that is known to be a favourite if bees. There are ways to discover what plants produce lots of amounts of nectar and which ones produce lots of pollen. Then I go for colour.
At any rate, you have a marvellous variety of colourful and lovely plants.
BTW--I greatly admire that little elevated zitje, I would be found there at the end of every day, were I to live there.
BTBTW--I see a Japanees grass that I like so much. Did you hack of a small bit and plant is in a different place? I saw a small bashful clump near the purple iris.

ODIF-- Again you are showing us what great plants you are growing there...or is it your Bride's project? I seem to recall that she was going to begin with flowers last year.

 

@Sjoerd My wife planted them. I water, weed and feed them. I managed to get a few plants of my own in too.

 

Heh, heh, heh...Glad you were able to put in your two cents worth though.
Well they are all really so nice to see.