What have you done today in the Garden?

YUP!!

 

That's interesting to me Sjoerd...may I ask why?

 

I have been survival gardening for the past three weeks, and not once weeded my veggie or flower gardens. Since planting and spring. It's making me a bit bonkers. I'm hoping to get into the weeds in the spinach, lettuce and onions tomorrow - but we shall see what life has to offer in the AM.

Despite my neglect and time spent elsewhere - everyone seems to be chugging along okay. Just not my weeding OCD It is a wonderful spinach year with an early plant and cold soil.

 

You and me both

I wanted to get the drip system all installed, and the last seedlings planted, before the next hot spell. Getting close but had to take a break. What I hope, now, is the irrigation system I put together will last a number of years with only minor maintenance. Time will tell. Also, I hope the raised beds hold up for a number of years.

Today was a surprise. There were rain showers all day! I celebrated by taking a trip to the grocery store, lots of napping, and did indoor chores.

Tomorrow - the final drip lines, maybe the last of the seedlings. . The chicken yard needs a little work, too. .

 

Was going to plant some of the cosmos but it's too hot to do it, they wouldn't like it and me. Maybe in the morning, there's thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon and tomorrow, but i don't think that we will get any.

 

Picked more squash. DW was excited for fresh squash casserole. Funny how you can be sick of them later and hungry now.

 

I hadn't intended to do anything today as I had shopping to do in the morning and there's a lot of sport on TV this afternoon and evening.
But last night my wife alerted me to a problem with the security light that covers the patio next to the French windows.
We've three PIRs in the garden, I like to think they deter the cats, at least we'll see them if they activate any during the evening and if I can bothered, I can shoosh them away, The one in question kept flashing, which worried her. She has a fear of electrical stuff ever since the "wifey fry," as she called it (Actifry) we had over a decade ago caught fire. There was a design fault with the original one so it was replaced, but she never used it again. A year later we gave it away.

So this morning I checked out the lamp by changing the bulb, which didn't make any difference. So I decided to move the one down on the side of the tea-house to replace it. While I was out shopping I decided I might as well get a new lamp. Argos didn't have a similar one in stock so I bought an LED one for fifteen quid. I still intended to bring the other one down as it was 400w so it would be brighter than the new one.

So I swopped them over.





Nothing's easy these days, is it?

The original one was plugged into one of these sockets.



But the cable supplied was about three inches shorter than the other, why do they do it?

Fortunately, there's another socket behind the TV for the trail cam. So I could put a two-way adapter in it and use that for both. I try to avoid using adapters when possible.




Anyway, job done. Now I'm watching the tennis.



>

 

Planted some cosmos at 8am this morning before it got too hot. Had some rain yesterday but it didn't get very far only 1 inch.

 

My Bride says she is jealous of your rain. We are having a little heatwave at the minute. Everything is bone dry, but we saw it coming and began hydrating a couple of weeks ago.

 

This will make your bride more jealous, we're supposed to get some more at 5pm with maybe some thunderstorms.

 

We were promised thunderstorms today, there's a bit of cloud but that's it. Too hot to do anything in the garden.

Anyway, "Dorothy" wouldn't want any unnecessary noise under the pergola. I took this on zoom so I didn't have to get too close, you can just see her beak.

 

We finally had much needed rain yesterday that lasted all day and most of the night. Our forest and lands were desperate for it.

Sadly it encouraged the old willow that shades the house to split. There was unseen rot in the join, which these willows are known for. We will miss it's shade and beauty. I'm going to have to ask a neighbour for help to finish the job and get it all of the way down. That will be Tuesday hopefully. I'm not going up a ladder with a chainsaw. (Nope). But I will clean up everything I can safely reach and load it on the flatdeck. The larger boughs will go into buckets of water to root. I'll tie them to the paddock rails so that they won't fall over.

Today will only be a weeding of the remaining onions, and then start to tackle the willow mess. It is blocking access to the pump shack and propane tank at the moment so it needs to be contended with. I'm sure sad to see it come down. I will need to get creative for shading the house if the summer is long and hot as predicted.

 

Storms tonite for us too. I picked more green beans and yellow squash. Got my first eggplant today! Picked a few peppers to make the plants flower better.

 

Melody Mc. Sorry the willow has bought the dust. Loosing a tree that shades the house is a big deal. Especially around here. That will be an opportunity to plant another plant. It’s a lot of work to remove it. Will you call a professional ?

I have had some trees do the same . The aspens multi trunked had mushrooms around the bottom roots, I knew it wouldn’t be long. It just swooned over in a rain storm , all four trunks across the entire back garden. Would you believe it did not hit one plant or tree .
I called the pro tree guys and they didn’t step or smash any plants either. They were very careful.

I hope the willow didn’t damage anything around the house and garden.

 

We've got rain and thunderstorms, started around 7.30pm.