What have you done today in the Garden?

I did a bit of pruning this afternoon.


Firstly the quinces along the side fence. I like them as a "band" along the top of the fence. I don't like too much growth below as they interfere with the rhodos and azaleas. I don't let them grow too tall either, as they block out the sun on the plants and the left-hand side of the lawn.

The lawn has been suffering from the heast in places. But it will recover



I also did some tree pruning, by getting up on the roofs of the tea-house and shed. I try to stop neighbours' trees overhanging our garden, by pruning back any that overhang. They can stop the light, but more importantly you could ignore them and eventually branches will brush against the roofing felt and could over time damage it.

Both buildings which I built decades ago are plenty strong enough to take my weight. In fact when we re-felted the tea-house roof ten years ago I and my youngest son were both up on it.

 

Husband is enjoying our new land, that is now like this..


But started out like this..he is enjoying truly...

 

Dug out loads of weeds, horrendous amount of grasses from the manure we collected
several years ago from an Andalusian Stud Farm..never again, the constant digging out
of all the new different types of horse feed grains has caused a huge amount of labour..
another lesson learnt...All from our veggie bed...owners would have known what they were passing on.....

 

If we had that much space, my wife would want me to buy her a couple of alpacas.

 

@DianneWoollie could you get some cow manure instead? It supposed to be free of seeds. But you would have to leave it for a few months before using it.

 

Today it was humid and swelteringly hot. Not really a fun day...and I got stung on the nose almost between my eyes. Ach, those bees are always very irritable in july and augustus. My face looks a right mess now. Dear, oh dear, oh dear. The Bride told me I looked ridiculous.

We harvested some beetroot and she found a parsnip that was too close to its neighbour and yanked it right out without hesitation while I was pleading for leniency. I said that it would just be a bit smaller. Nope, out it cane. I have to say that it looked a perfect specimen, just immature.


The fun didn’t stop there—we lifted some andijvie that had shot, chopped it up and chucked it in the compost bin. After that we planted fourteen leek plants.

First, I dug a furrow with the hand plough, then the Bride used a spade to scrape the bottom and make it flat.


She then dibbed holes in the bottom of the trench, and I dropped the young plantlets in the holes. Then watered them in.


I clipped the top one-third of the foliage off to stimulate root growth. There are four ways to pre-handle leeklets — clip the roots, clip the foliage, clip both or clip nothing. I have tried all methods. Today I clipped the leaves because the root ball was not to my liking.

I will let the soil slowly cover more and more of the stems as the plant grows...and finally I will slip a paper towel roll over the plant to get a longer bit of white stem. That is all future music though, as we say.

Before leaving, I picked five gherks.

It was oppressive weather, it became cool, and the wind was blowing...a huge ship with sour apples was coming in from the south west, so we upped sticks and headed home.

You guessed it—there was only a few spatters of rain and that was it. No matter, it had just gone seven, so it was time for supper anyway.

 

@Sjoerd those beetroot look good.
Sorry about you getting stung on the nose, here we have wasps that sting.

 

Cut the back garden grass it was about 1 ft high so a bit difficult, still got the edges to do and later do some watering.
We haven't had any rain at all, the garden really needs it.

 

Thanks Loggie. They were delicious too. We harvest them before they get too large.
We will get wasps later on this year as well, they give my bees problems.

I hope that you have had some rain by now.

 

Sjoerd no we haven't had any rain only a few showers but they didn't last long.

 

There's been a lot of nasty cloud around but only a light shower of rain. Picked some blueberries and do some watering later.

 

It was the "big shop" day this morning and it's going to rain shortly, so no gardening .I've been watching the "limpics," on TV (as the kids used to call them). Britain won a bronze in the team "gymlastics" with a bunch of of kids, (some only sixteen) which I thought brilliant.

Shortly it'll be the women's followed by the men's,"Team 100 cricket." on Sky Sports Mix. This is a well supported and very entertaining form of cricket with many international players involved. 20 overs of five balls for each team. Matches featuring different teams every day for the next week or so.

 

Done loads..Hospital yearly MRI here called IRM...was not pleasant, but hey finished, done and dusted..
Cleaned a lot, when here and planted a Budjelia, a cutting from a friend. Managed to site it in a place that was like concrete..so used a fork and then huff and puffed..fork and then watered it...that sorted it, so managed to dig deep enough for the cutting, added some good compost soil...pleased now with where it is...photos to follow soon....New Budjelia, in plce now.
I decided now was the right time as some of the leaves were turning yellow....

 

Husband lined up his Garden Grass Cutting Machines..
He should have at least taken off the two coverups....


The Rockery is filling up nicely now....
is ele



just a few snaps...

 

Me wee harvest of this morning.