What have you done today in the Garden?

@Sjoerd Seeds and bulbs yes seeds were buy 2 get 1 free as far as plants - Nothing for outside yet too cold plenty of indoor plants for sale.

 

Still, it was good to come away with something, right.
Musta been a great day out.

 

A sensible bit if work in the lottie today.:
A couple of beds needed to have the mulch raked back to expose where I would dump old tomato soil from the greenhouse (in one bed) and another place take soil from, to mix with my compost and refill the holes in the greenhouse.



Perhaps you can just see the little hills in the far quadrant that came out of the greenhouse.
Here is a shot of inside the greenhouse. The first three places are on the left, up close to the door. We will do a few at the time instead of working like maniacs to get it all done on the first day. The only problem is the taking out and putting back the things that are over-wintering in there.


Whilst pottering about, I paused to look at my strawb beds. They look cosy and protected. It will be time to clean those up before you know it.

 

We had about 7" from that snowstorm and lots of below zero temps. Brrrrr.... I did as little as possible outdoors this past week. It began to warm up a bit over the weekend, and it was in the 60s today. The snow is almost gone and the yard is all soupy.

I have not really done any garden stuff other than doggy clean up.

I have been trying to do spring cleaning indoors, have two rooms done so far and a few more to go.

My yarrow seed in the starter pots is sprouting and up a quarter inch or so. Yay.

The ginger and rhubarb are not yet sprouted. I only have 1 room/window for seed starting, otherwise the kittens will wreak havoc with them.

Outdoors the daffodils, lilies, irises and sedums are up and at it. Some of my daffodils have buds. Cold and snow wont hurt them.

Maybe I can get back at digging out the rose of Sharon bushes at the south end of my veggie garden this week? If the ground is thawed enough, I will try for that and or the ash pile that needs moved. I need to do clean up in some more flower beds, I just didnt want to get down in the soupy mud yet.

Not sure when I can get at that poison ivy/multiflora rose/other mess at the north end of my veggie garden. I have that, and a mess behind the chicken coop to clean up. There is multiflora rose and blackberries to dig up. Also coleus that got away a few years ago is thick in there.

Another vine you do not want is that American bittersweet. It is highly invasive, more than ivy, maybe as much as wisteria and trumpet vines?

 

American bittersweet don’t have any of that one. I’ve seen it occasionally in the wild forests up in the Riley horse camp grounds in Mt Hood National Forrest. But haven’t seen it in my area. Thank goodness it’s toxic to dogs, cats and horses. I generally have to keep the pastures safe for the horses .

We also have a vine called Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is related to grapes. Except for the obviously different foliage it has a similar growth pattern. It’s a vigorous growing vine that has a real will to live in the souteastern states. Heavily covering forests and considered an invasive vine.
In my zone Virginia creeper is quite tame and the cold winters seem to knock it back until spring and never gets over bearing . Exhibits beautiful fall color and bright blue berries in fall . I pick long vines which serves as a fall wreath or swag .

Sjoerd your Lottie garden is beautiful and is really coming along. Soon you’ll be poppin in those tomato starts and many other veggie starts. Can’t wait to see them… 29 days til spring!!!

 

When they split i put a better one inside, but it comes a time to replace them all.

 

Did 2 rounds of compost preparation in case I find that I do get to manage some seed sowing in the next couple of weeks...salads are definitely top of my list , may get to do a couple of flower seed trays.
I'm not too fussed about the flowers really as I'm very interested to see if we do actually have a real need for summer bedding or not. I plan to maybe throw.....I mean ..direct sow a couple of pkts, onto some borders to see if I like the effect.

You don't know until you try, I really use to love raising my own plants from seed but dislike having seed trays inside the house..then taking them all round to the greenhouse to kick-start the hardening of process....them taking them all out of there by day to complete it all.

I've been given this prefect opportunity to see how our garden will look without all the extra seed sown bedding. I will undoubtedly still occasionally sow perennials and of course take cuttings .

Of course I might discover it really does need them........all will be revealed this Summer.

Pac my Dad's garden was eventually taken over by Ground Elder, he couldn't really keep on top of it all after my Mum ( Head Gardener ) passed away. For the last few years of his life he did hire gardeners but they didn't really cope so in the end I took it on. So hard....it's a battle that seems impossible to win.

 

Nothing today, as nothing needs doing at the moment. Just had a walk around looking for anything that wasn't just green.
This by the front door is in a plastic pot, in the largest size of Apta glazed pot they do.
We've an azalea and a rose in similar sized plastic pots which will get their turn.





A bit of colour in the troughs on the patio.




These troughs will get an examination for any rot, (unlikely) and another coat of paint, as will the pergola posts, and the tea-house, once the weather warms up.

Three years ago, a friend bought my wife some primroses in a pot for Christmas. Once they'd died off, I replanted them "here and there," in the border, there's about half a dozen of them and they do very well each year. Lots of bluebells starting to come up along the same border. I need to jet wash this edging. But I'm trying to keep off the grass at the moment to give it chance to get growing after the scarifying.





This is one of our three quinces on the side fence, it's always the first to blossom, won't be long now.






This "stands guard" at the end of the other side border, in the constant shadow of the tea-house, so very little sun, but always seems to thrive on neglect.




My phlox plug-plants are doing well on the shed window sill. I won't move them to the rockery for at least a month.

 

Hot peppers starting show first was the Tunisian Baklouti Sunday (first time with this one) and Hungarian Yellow this morning. I am sure the rest are too far behind. Did catch a few of the perennials popping up this morning definitely saw yarrow. I will see who else has joined the party when I get home from work.

 

We have Virginia creeper here also, not sure if I am correct, but a vine that I think is Virginia creeper has huge thorns (it might be some other vine?) and is a real pest. This vine has heart shaped leaves. I will look it up in my field guide for North American trees/shrubs.

I thought I was going to work on clean up and those other projects. However, DS is home this week and we HAVE to work on digging up the drain line to replace the pipes. I think the drain line is 45 years old, because that is when previous owners put the indoor bathroom and laundry room, and a bedroom on this house, and put in the well. The original part of this house was built in 1920, 4 rooms and a path to an outhouse, and a cistern.

It is as deep in ground as the long blade on my long bladed shovel. Not sure of the exact distance we have to dig but it is over 100 feet. We might have gotten 3-4 feet dug this afternoon? That will be my main project for awhile. DS has to return to work by Monday, so guess who gets to dig while he is on the road.... ! I will have to do some of my work, but that drain line does need redone. I have never done any ditchwork... just post holes some, and some bush digging..

I got a huge clear plastic tub today, and am going to try using it for a cold frame, and put some of my seeds outside. I can set a window or two on top of it? I have a couple of other clear plastic tubs I could add to it... The south side of my house should work.

I will be outside doing a lot of digging.... at least the snows made the ground soft enough to dig.

 

Driain line in this home is old and right now clogged again. Those old iron decayed drain pipes need to be replaced. Ugh… now the doing soap routine to loosen clogged debris again. I will tackle it later .
It’s a lot of work for you guys…digging 45’ . Can you rent a hand held trench digger. Box stores rent them for reasonable prices deliver too. So worth it to saved backs and shoulders. I used one to dig a line to the barn.

Today I went out during sun breaks and tackled the tree limbs covering everything again from the recent 2 day wind rain storms. 55 mph winds really blew out some pretty good sized 4-6 “diameter tree limbs 10-12’ long . Actually on their way down from 80-100’ tall trees they had literally planted themselves in the pastures sticking straight up resembling a freshly planted tree farm. Some found old mole holes to conveniently diving 100’ down and planting themselves in a waiting convent gopher hole in the pastures . Plucked out several today and plopped them on the non-burn pile.

 

Should have been a golf day, despite it raining all night. I was ready to go at 7.45am, but I always check my e-mails before leaving the house and fighting my way through the rush hour traffic. As like today, an e-mail had just arrived from my club to say that after an inspection, the competition was cancelled and the course closed as it was unfit for play.
But there was never any chance of me going into the garden!

 

Nothing outside today because it's raining again, so I'll prick out the rest of the polyanthus seedlings.

 

Tidying up session in the greenhouse ,still required several 'in' and 'out's which are still a bit of challenge for my knee...a tad sore now.
Sieved another tray of compost too.

 

Nothing today, it's raining. But I pinned one of my granddaughters' quilts. They both have the same pattern.