What have you done today in the Garden?

Meanwhile..I put out some sawdust on some paths to stop weeds

 

Cut off the old leaves from some of the hellebores, have to do it a bit at a time.

 

I've got rid of the shrub at the back of what was the pool waterfall, that grew up the fence, to the left of the lamp.

It always looked good in the Spring and Early Summer. It always ended up much bushier as in this June photo.

But every year the leaves always later got black spots on them and started to fall at this time of the year when the new growth starts to appear.

Anyway, I was sick of clearing them up and pruning the diseased ones off.

We'll get another clematis to grow up the fence post and hide the conduit that carries the low voltage cable to the spotlight that now shines on our new fountain.

 

I just read this morning that brown cardboard is the best mulch for gardens. I'm glad I decided to use it a few years back.
I think I see Cilantro peeking up, just in time for making a pot of
Taco soup.
I see I'm not alone in feelings of an early Spring!

Doghouse Riley, the little flowers are SO pretty!

 

Thanks for that, it's mostly Phlox.

We bought a lot of plug plants of them from Thompson and Morgan the year before last.

This was June last year.





By August the Phlox flowers had gone, but the foilage is still attractive.
The old waterfall was filling out nicely.




The Phlox show best in this video from May.

 

Those tomatoes look really good Hummer.

Such a pretty garden Doghouse!

 

Printed off some labels for "mission control" the new garage consumer unit, that distributes the power to the garage and former koi pool filter room. Now, there are separate supplies each with a mini breaker, for the water heater above the hand baisin, the power sockets in the garage and room, (we've two back up freezers and my Budweiser fridge in there) , the lights in the garage and little room and all the garden lighting.











These are the sockets operated by the switches next to the French windows in the lounge, that control all the garden lighting and the fountain.





Today I fitted one of these, a mini consumer unit in the shed, to control its power and light and the power and lights in the tea-house. The shed has only a double socket and a 5ft fluorescent, It's really more for the tea-house, as there's five halogen ceiling lights plus a 15w fluorecent above the veranda, the two jukeboxes, a TV, a 60w lamp in the bottom of each jukebox, an illuminated wall clock and two rechargeble dehumidifiers, so a lot of power sockets, but no heavy load.







I chose the double-pole version, it replaced a double-pole fused switch.







Only £12.99 on eBay

The back wall of the shed is actually the back wall of the garage.





All the cables are now in trunking.

I've just noticed the "MIND YOUR HEAD," over the door. Our youngest son put that there in chalk over forty years ago when he was 12 and the shed housed our seven year old daughter's rabbits and guinea pigs.





The main RCCB is in the corner of the garage above the old fusebox, it protects everything. It's been there over thirty years, but works fine. I do check it occasionally.

I was never worried when I had the koi pool, as it would have tripped everything out, if there was ever a "mix of water and leccy."

But now in my old age I'm less cavalier about it, there's always a chance of cutting through the lead with the Flymo. Hence the new breakers and some wiring replaced and re-routed.

 

Not really "in" the garden, just planning. I sorted out my seeds, found what I needed to get for this year's garden, and marked my calendar for planting. Since the local food pantry can now accept home-grown produce, I'll be planting more than I had thought. I even plant things that we don't eat (okra, collards, a lot of squash) to give to the pantry.
Please Lord, let this be a bountiful year!

 

Not done any today but my chilli seeds are coming up.

 

Well I feel accomplished because I actually dug dirt. I split up all the old sitting area liriope and replanted it all around the border of the new shade gardens. Its refreshing to see some changes.

 

Finally finished with the garden electrics.

Although I've fittted a mini consumer unit to control the power in the shed and the tea-house, I've always had a fused double pole switch in the tea-house to isolate everything in there if necessary. Rummaging through my spare electrical equipment yeaterday, I found a fused switch which had an indicator light on it. So I thought I'd swop it over with the other one which has no light. Quite simple, two wires for power in, two pairs for power out, plus the earths for the tea-house lights and sockets, none of which are for any heavy loads.

Not so simple, after swopping them over, I found the indicator light was staying on whether the switch was on or off, although it was still switching off the supply.

So down to my neighbourhood electrical wholesaler for a new one, just three and a half quid.

Chatting with the assistant, another guy, obviously an electrician suggested I might have the wires round the wrong way, which I assured him I hadn't. Anyway, replaced the switch and the light works as it should, on when everything is live, off when it isn't. Binned the old switch

All the garden lighting is now sorted and can go back to how it was before, "hardly ever used," but I know it's right.

Drained the "frog pond" today.
We've always had this since I built the koiy pool. Frogs tended to overwinter in the folds of the liner, then migrated to the frog pond to pair up and spawn in the Spring. It was always a "race" between me getting a year's debris out of the pond and the frogs occupying it. Unlike the koi pool which never had any debris on the bottom, because it had a bottom drain, (you'd see a nail if you dropped one in despite it being five feet below the surface), the frog pond colected a lot of gunge and most of the leaves falling from the acer palmatum next to it. On occasions when I've left cleaning out late, I've had to net up to a dozen pairs of frogs, put them in a bucket of pond water whilst I cleaned out their home. I used to replace the water with buckets of the stuff I pulled out of the koi pool on those occasions. But as there's none in now, tap water is fine.

Some years, the surface has been completely covered with spawn, ever clump would look different from itts neighbours.

I doubt if we'll see as many frogs this year having lost their, "overwintering facility" and the apparent increased visits of a heron early in the mornings.

I also gave the fountain a scrub out and refilled it.



As you can see above, the big acer has grown over the thirty-odd years we've had it, to almost completely cover the pool, despite some pruning, (this has to be done carefully to avoid it ending up looking like a giant cocktail umberella) the lily wasn't doing well, so I gave it to a neighbour for his goldfish pond. It does far better than his fish which the heron occasionally manages to take.



I could re-site the pond, but I'm not that bothered, despite the fact that the roots of the acer have lifted the edging stones on the far side of the pond by three or four inches.
It'll be months before the garden looks this good again. Can't be too soon.

 

Dilly Dilly!

 

Nothing today as it was a golf day.

Resolved to do a bit of weeding tomorrow if it stays dry.



The patio is desperate for a clean and I've not got much Wet and Forget left from last year, so I've just ordered some more from eBay. 5ltrs, free postage £30.89.

I've given up using the jet-wash, it's too much hard work compared to using Wet and Forget and I always have to do a bit of re-pointing between the crazy York stone paving. But I'll still use it on the drive which is pale green concrete.

I'm laying off ordering anything from China for the moment and "Chinese take-aways are off the menu" for now.

 

Did a bit today, I spent some time scoring between the flags on the new patio where once was our 3000 gallon koi pool. This was to remove a bit of moss. Then I brushed in some fresh sand. I also re-made the little "ramp" between the flags and the original crazy York stone that dressed the concret pool collar. The mix the contractor used last year must not have had enough cement in it. I put some yellow dye in the mortar to make it match the flags, otherwise it would have ended up pale grey.








The roses in their nine ceramic tubs on here are doing well.

I'm pleased what was the pool waterfall is merging into the rockery.






I ordered a catalogue from Taylors Clematis, which arrived this morning. We need to choose one to grow up that post with the spotlight on it.

Nothing much else going on in the garden. But all the azaleas and rhodos have lots of buds.





The lawn's a bit wrecked, but it's like this every year at this time, it will recover.





We've these two troughs of snowdrops.
One lot we bought, the others were growing in the front garden under an azalea until I moved them last year.


Really need the Wet and Forget I ordered.






I was in the middle of working on my hands and knees brushing in the sand on the flags, when our neighbour from across the road came into the garden to ask for some help. She's in her late seventies and has been a widow for five years. I very occasionally do little jobs for her, but she doesn't like asking. Last time it was a few months ago when she'd been without heat for most of the day. I pressed the re-set button on her combi boiler. It had been windy and the air pressure on the flue must have tripped the cut out.

Today she was having a problem changing a halogen strip bulb in a standard lamp in her lounge. So I went over and did it for her. It took all of five minutes. She said she'd asked her son-in-law to do it, three times, in the past few weeks they only live a few miles away, but he's never had the time.
This seems a common problem with some "kids" these days.

 

otted out a couple of small roses which were Christmas presents in 4" pots, into 10" pots and put them on the window sill in the shed.

I gave my wife theTaylors' Clematis catalogue, to chose one to go behind the rockery. Big mistake... she chose four as she couldn't make up her mind.

"You'll find somewhere to put the others...."

I expect I will.


This is the one that I actually wanted.
Diamantina





Montana Spring Joy (this can go on the garage wall near the side door)




Recta Purpurea





Florida Plena