What have you done today in the Garden?

Today I went to see my friends, when i came back i watered the polyanthus around the path and the 4 newly planted lavender plants. I've just found out that the leopard slugs eat the other slugs.

 

Yes you shouldn't kill them they're the good guys.

 

Finally clear no rain weather. Planted 20 cucumber seedlings after work along with my 2 eggplants. Tomorrow will be devoted to planting peppers and hopefully time for my melons.

 

I cardboard-mulched the first tomato bed. Next will be the second tomato bed. The peppers and onions have a tree leaf mulch, not quite leaf mould, just dark brown, crispy leaves.

I planted the eight-pack of Dandy Improved dahlia seedlings. Im glad to get them into the ground. They are in an area where deer travel, but the daylilies there are untouched. So, I don't know.

I weeded the onions before putting down the leaf mulch.

I bagged about 75 of the forming apples, thinning them first. Also thinned the peaches but did not finish.

In the formerly shady area where I have a row of fig trees and forsythias, I started cleaning up the weeds and spreading arborist wood chips. There are many wagons to go, and some areas have some hard work ahead.

I planted marigold seeds. The Illinois Squash and French Pumpkin (¿Galeux d'Eysines?) have germinated. Also the dwarf sunflowers and some of the zinnias.

 

Mee tooooooo.

 

It's always a busy time of year at this time...hard work yes but our rewards will be great and so well worth all the hours we put in and all this back breaking work we are doing.

Today I have one last section on the patio to sort out but I never plant this bit out too much as there's a hardy Fuchsia there that grows big and overhangs it. I then plan to move forward to the borders than run all along the garden side of the patio . Again one section has an Acer that dominates most of the border so it only needs a tidy and some light planting out, it's the final resting area for all our past family pets....so I don't like digging too deep!!!

 

Took all of the spring bulbs and plants out of these and put in some snapdragons, Erigeron and fuchsias in. Changed the first 8in of compost with new.

 

Mow…mow..mow… mole, mole, mole…the varmits have started to fight back, need to hit them with my biggest weapon of mass destruction the Big Tractor Tiller.
Neighbors were burning today. Can’t be outside in the smoke…YUCK..

Trimmed all 3 weeping elms up , they look like little ballerinas with long legs. One is full of leaf hoppers.. I hate those things. There is only one out of the three elms that get those obnoxious little annoying insects. Very odd the other two never get leafhoppers. Things that make ya go ..Mm-mmm

 

Did a lot today.
The blossom on this pergola has all gone.





It was all stuck to the patio by the rain a couple of days ago, so it needed a stiff brushing before I could pick it up with my garden vac.

This is a mixture of blue and white, but the blue is nearly finished,





I've moved the rose pots out more towards the centre of the patio, so I can get around them with my vac. There will be a lot of blossom coming down over the following weeks.




I did "edges" today. the lawn grass tries to creep over the brick borders. So every coupler of years I use a knife to cut a half inch gap between the lawn and the bricks.
The bits I remove have roots, so I can use this grass for any patches to unrepaired "squirrel pitch marks" in the lawn.





These are three rhodos, I bought in small pots from Aldi three years ago, they were very cheap. The filled a hole where an azalea had died.




I'll be dead-heading rhodos next week. How time flies!





I had to open the ventilation in the tea-house today, it's getting that warm in there.
My two jukeboxes don't like it when it's cold or hot.

There's two vent panels, in the bottom of the back wall, that I cover during the cold months.

The "box lid" top of the building gets one end lifted up and the vent put in.






It's easier to see from inside.
It's just two halves of a recycled dishwasher cutlery basket and a bit of three by two.
After all, it's just a glorified shed.




I leave a door open all day in the hot weather to stop it getting warm in there.
But I couldn't do that when we had the six fox cubs living under it, five years ago? As they'd be in there with their muddy paws. But it came to a point when I needed more ventilation, so I put this fan in and had it on a timer.




That did the job, I was quite pleased with that.

But "the little sods" left home the following week!

 

Riley As usual a spectacular bloomin spring garden.

 

Not much today. I can't be outside when people are burning brush. I did plant a couple of bearded iris in yet another trial location. Someday I'll get it right!

Also planted the three dinner plate dahlias that I overwintered. Those are in tubs now.

Also worked on my rolling garden stool / bench. It's all together now, except the casters. I had to reorder them, had the wrong ones. It's stained now with a latex redwood stain, except the top.

 

Maybe so, but it's an incredibly handsome glorified shed.

 

Very busy, you were Daniel. You get so much done in a day.

Loggie— is that Verbena bonairensis I spy in that container? I was wondering if you planted it…or Mother Nature.

 

Mow…mow…mow…mole…mole…mole… that’s done. More stuff later. Have a list of garden chores. Trimming trees shrubs and greenhouse clean out.

 

Well yesterday after weeding the bed amending with fresh compost taking a break then getting distracted by cleaning up a flower bed ; I never did get those peppers in LOL. Guess what's on the agenda after work........hmmmmm