What have you done today in the Garden?

Thank you Sjoerd and your Bride, it's all melted now and i hope that there's no more to come.

That's a shame that you have rain.

 

Yeah, but there is tax work to do.

 

Clear blue sky. 5c, even warmer in the sun.
As the roses are showing a bit of growth, I gave them a spray of Sulphur Rose. It's a bit early, but I need to get ahead of any black spot infestation, of which we had a lot last year.
That's about it for today. I'll likely do more at the week-end.

 

We had more snow today but it's all gone, but still cold, so i haven't done anything in the garden.

 

Sorry to hear of you unspringlike weather @Logan . Hopefully the sun wakes it up soon.

Today I'm busting into the front of the greenhouse and planting some Yukon variety spinach, as well as some lettuce. Our lows are still below freezing, but I'm hoping the tough little cold tolerant seeds will grow when they are ready.

 

Those look very interesting!

i'm really enjoying, reading about everyone's Spring planting and growing! My enthusiasm dipped recently, but yesterday and today I was out in the garden for a bit.

The half-barrel-size planters are mostly in place. One was a real half barrel, and fell apart. I think I can fix it.



One got the new rose. I also planted grape hyacinths around it. They had survived being in a sheltered deck planter with almost no rain for several years. Tough plants! I may add a sedum ground cover, too, by taking cuttings around the yard.



I planted the red onion (Wethersfield Red) onion seedlings. It seems early, but I think OK. The big problem is birds and slugs. I sprinkled slug bait.



And added a cover that I doubt will deter the jays, but maybe. It's very wobbly, which they might not like.



This helleborus is in a corner of yard that will be lawn this year. I need to find a home for it. The flowers are pretty but difficult to see, because they droop.



Last year, I planted a six pack with chive seeds, but then never used it. It just sat there, all summer and winter long. Now they are growing again. Some plants are so durable!

I planted those, and some chives I started from seeds in January, in one of the containers. Also a few left over Red Wethersfield onion seedlings. In the center, I planted Lilium "Apricot Fudge" bulbs.





There's a lot to do now, before Spring. I still need to replace the fabric containers and soil, from last year's planter box, and build a planter box for six more. I'm thinking I'll build that next week. There is one more half barrel-size planter to haul and set up - I think it will be planted with snow-peas.

Next week I want to start grafting, apples, roses, plums, cherries. I ordered single edge razor blades, which are sharper and work more easily for me than a grafting knife. When those arrive, I'll start the grafting projects.

 

(More )

The garlic is making me smile. I thought for the longest time, they weren't going to come up. But here they are!



There are also a few garlic plants in the ground, third year from tiny bulbils. I need to transplant those soon.

Last year, I tried to grow sweet potatoes from a tuber. It took "forever" to start growing, but finally did grow and made a few sweet potatoes. When I harvested them, I put some of the vines in water. They are still alive, and growing roots, WAY ahead of last year's plants.





Here are seedlings for Stocks, Verbascum, and Dusty Miller. I've never grown any of them before. The cells with no growth are the remaining Tigridia seeds, which are slower and I just wanted to use up my saved seeds for those. I don't know the color, but I like them all.



I find it amazing that surface-sowed seeds grow at all.

I'm waiting on tomatoes and beans - usually start tomatoes in April, beans in May, June, July. Squashes, in May too. I think I'll start more snow peas soon.

 

This is a great post @Daniel W - good to see you back in the dirt. Those sweet potatoes are very interesting to me. Are they your regular grocery store ones? Or the Northern Sweet Potato I've read about? I'd also love to see a pic of your three year old garlic bulbis when you move them. Everything is looking great!

(Hi Rufus!! )

 

Blimey Daniel— it looks like everything you put your hand to is working a treat. Your outside babies look very good. That wobbly cage looks pretty good, I wonder about the size of the holes. I can’t tell how large they are. I am so distrustful of the garden animals that may want to be pesky. Chuckle.
This years’ sweet potato is really showing off, isn’t it.

Good luck in the coming days and weeks…just keep us posted, mate.

 

Not sure if this counts as "garden", but it's all integrated together in my yard.

The old hens are becoming less productive. I always let them retire and enjoy their later days (I suppose - they LOOK contented) but add babys to grow into production.





They sure look delicate at this stage.

Rufus is incredibly calm and, almost, disinterested in them. Even so, their box has a heavy cage cover. You never know if one of them might jump out and peck his nose LOL.

I think they need each other for company, so I like to get three.

 

LOL, thanks Sjoerd! There are LOTS of failures! Sometimes I think half of my attempts fail. Maybe not that much. The only thing I can do is, learn from those and keep on trying.

 

Ah, Daniel, that definitely counts as "garden". When you see what their "leavings" do for the compost pile, the gardens will thank you!
We refresh our flock about every six years, with eight new chicks. They spend the first few weeks in a special box in our guest bedroom, then move to an enclosed coop next to the "big girls" coop. When they get used to each other, we open the hatch and let them socialize.

 

CHICKS!!!!! The cutest little things in the whole world. I've never raised them and always been very nervous about it. Your set up looks really great.

 

@Melody Mc. there is a bit of a learning curve, but they always seem to grow up and add to the flock. My main losses are due to predators, and there are many of those. I've lost more ducks to predators, than chickens. I think the main reason is ducks sleep on the ground, while chickens roost up high, out of reach. Ducks are also a lot messier than chickens, too. I think the current ducks will be the last ones.

 

I really like these chicken postings. It looks like fun and it would be great to be able to keep chickens. Thanks, you two for your postings.