What have you done today in the Garden?

I once read that the little packets in which vegetable seeds are supplied, "are worth keeping as somewhere in which to put your harvest."

 

I scarified the lawn with my 35 year-old B&D scarifier. Still going strong,though I had to replace the belt ten years ago. Mind you, it doesn't get used that much,

I set it on the middle position for the roller, as otherwise it would tend to rip stuff out. It means going over it in both directions a few times, but I don't mind.

I poked out a nest the wood pigeons were making in our big acer in the front garden. It was more, "a collection of twigs."
We don't like them, they make too much mess on the patio. They're rubbish at making nests, but try every year.
But I was annoyed as I used my Barnel telescopic pruner to poke it and over extended it which is easily done, which meant I had to completely take it to bits and put it back together again. A real fiddly job.
I was concerned as I'd had the same problem with the one I had five years ago and back then couldn't mend it. So I had to replace it as I need it to prune that tree each year. They've gone up to £99 now, so I was glad I was able to mend it this time.

 

Gave water to everything and fed the birds.
Going into the bees in two days.

 

Just fed the birds.

It was the first day back at golf today.

 

Re-potted tomato seedlings to hold them until the ground warms up enough to plant them out.
Planted out the parsley, potted up the thyme that managed to survive over winter in the compost bin.

Weeded.

 

SJ, I have a Mason bee hut that I put out maybe 4 year ago. They ignored it until last year, and it was almost full of little cocooned (Mason?) bees. This spring, they have all hatched out and we now have a bunch of (?Mason ?) bees buzzing around it. Will be good to see what happens this year.

 

I went out and thinned my carrots, the ones I planted early. I have two potatoes coming up! Then also planted my tomato, marigolds (at each end of the garden) and basil around my tomato so the bugs should stay away. My strawberries have blooms on them. Yeah! Spring is finally here!

 

Dodged raindrops.

 

I second Willow:. Yay spring is finally here!

 

Het Cayu-- Great that you have a bee hotel and now it is finally being used. Yippee!!
I have a "hotel" as well and there are at least two mason bees filling the cells at the moment.


You can see the cells sealed with mud/clay and a bee. Below is a close-up of the bee±


Today I went out to a colleague imker of mine. He is 88 years old and is stopping with beekeeping now. he finds the lifting of the hives too heavy now...plus he has had a stroke. Anyway he has a set up a little six-frame hive for me with only eggs and small larvae...there is NO queen present.
The bees in that little hive were shaken off 10 honey super frames. Shaken off honey super frames because this means that a preponderance of the bees will be; by definition, juvenile `house bees`. The idea is that these bees will make their own queen out of the larvae and eggs on those two brood frames. I shall have a look in on them nine or ten days.

The setting. You are looking at the back side of the hives. The little brown one is the new hive from my elderly colleague. He made the hive himself--


Here is a close-up of the new girls on the block. I flipped-up the entrance split and the poured out all over my thumb and index and middle fingers. I was surprised and shook them off.


I had let them sit for a couple of hours so that they could calm down a bit before introducing them to their new neighbourhood. When I left the lottie, they were still flying about getting to know the new surroundings.

I had placed gauze over the strawbs and potato s because of the serious frost and icy wind warnings for a few days.


I could see through the gauze that there has been some freezing damage in spite of the protection.

Tomorrow I go into the other beehives for their 10 day check as well as doing some flower garden clean up. It all just never ends, does it.

 

Your garden is so pretty. What are the yellow green plants growing in the bed beyond the strawberries? Sorry you had frost damage, it had been an odd spring.

Good luck with your new hive! They will be in good hands with you.
Cool about the main bees. I like your Mason bee hut better than mine.

 

Hey...thanks so much for your complimentary words, Cayu.

The yellow-green plants off to the side are Limnanthes douglasii. I do not know the English name, but we call them `spiegelei plant` (sunny side up egg plant). They are very common here and an unbelievably favourite of all types of bees and early butterflies. I grow them every year for my bees who are housed very close by them.

That old mason bee hotel is oké, but the woodpeckers really attack it regularly. The bee hotels are only 2x4´s in which I drilled holes. There is an interesting variety of solitary bees that use them year after year. Glad you liked it.

 

When we had the late frost, I carried my strawberries just inside my back door. A neighbor told me I could have put them in the garage, but I have them in the stacking pot things and one is 5 high. I would rather carry it up 2 stairs and in the door, then across the yard, up three stairs across the extra parking and into the garage. My son laughed and said something about spoiled plants. And they now have blooms on them.

 

Did nothing more than feed the birds and have a (short) stroll round today.

I like to "see what we've got" and make plans for next year.

I start getting into pruning the wisterias from about now when they are past their best, getting rid of any straggly growth thsat goes on all summer. Later I'll prune off the dead blossom, it'll save a daily sweep up of the fallen ones.

But with this new one I'm letting it do its own thing for a bit.

Firstly, I want it to bush out a bit over the canopy of the pergola and at the same time let the ends cascade down further, for about a couple of feet. I'll tidy them up later in the year.







I could get into this phlox and weed out lots of whispy bits of grass, but I won't untill the blooms have died off, which won't be for a bit.



I'm pleased with our giant lily progress. I sprayed them a few times for lily beetle a while back and there's not much damage. I've only found about three beetles this year.

These will grow to up to a foot above the height of the fence.



They always lean over, looking for the sun above the fence, I usually have to get in there and tie them up in a couple of weeks.






I always believe that with random plantings, there's no such thing as an unwelcome clash of colours in nature.



Our second new David Austin rose is starting to make an appearance. Roald Dahl.



We must have had this small bloom rose for over thirty-five years in this old concrete tub, but it is so pretty, yet every bloom no more than a couple of inches in diameter. It suffers from blackspot every year,

Not so badly this year and I'm removing any trace as I see it.



Another "inmate" of "the alley of shame," is starting a "bloom protest."



The lawn is starting to recover from my scarifying.

 

Willow, like your son. But I am a plant spoiler too.

Dog, I love your white wisteria. Beautiful garden.