What have you done today in the Garden?

Not today it's raining, but I've got this video about what sort of material goes into the bags of compost that we buy.

 

That was a comprehensive vid. Interesting.

 

Yes I didn't know how the material was processed.

 

I have gardened today! And I'm very happy about that. Dry weather, max temp around +5 deg C, and even a little bit of sunshine. What more could I ask for in mid-February? Must admit I wore woollen underwear and very thick socks. And gloves. I hardly ever wear gloves, but it was so cold out I had to.

I've cut old foliage off some of the Helleborus and Epimediums, pruned some Clematis, and clipped old fronds off some of our ferns. I couldn't do all I wanted to do because I draw the line at having to shovel snow to get to the plants. We still have patches of snow here and there in the garden. There's lots more to cut and prune, but we're in for a cold spell with frost and snow again so I'll just be glad that I got to play out there for a few hours today.

 

We haven't had any snow this winter
It would have been a good day for gardening but had to do something else.

 

Just had a walk around, too wet to do anything. On the first dry day with no wind I'll give the roses a sulpur spray, to try to combat the blackspot we get on some.

First signs of Spring.
The snowdrops on the rockery are out and the white quince on the fence is showing some blossom.

 

@Droopy isn't it great to be outside gardening?
@Doghouse Riley those snowdrops are a welcome sight indeed. Looking forward to quince.
@Logan, I'm sure you will be put gardening soon!

We braved a trip to the giant orange home improvement store for some supplies. They have a website, we can order stuff, park in their loading area, and they will collect everything, bring it out, and load up the pickup truck. We didn't even have to open the door window.

We bought-
A Black Tartarian Sweet Cherry tree, to replace a gradually dying sweet cherry tree and pollinate the remaining one.
A Hardy Chicago fig start, to replace the same variety that was killed by meadow voles.
Six bags of top soil to fill a sort of raised bed I'm making, using 25gallon fabric grow bags in a cedar frame.
Six bags of steer manure to mix into several garden beds including some with that top soil.
Two small packages of potato starts, Yukon Gold and Red Norland, for early planting.
Some vegetable and herb seeds.
A gate for the chicken yard.

I commented that my dad, who grew up during the great depression, would have been quite critical that I actually paid good money to buy dirt . And these days, even dirt isn't dirt cheap. Plus, isn't there enough BS in the world without buying it in bags? (only $1.50 a cubic foot, but still...)

 

Daniel, I'm very frugal (husband says I throw nickels around like manhole covers) but we buy potting soil for starting plants indoors, and even though we live in a cattle producing area, we occasionally buy a bag of Black Kow composted manure to side dress plants. Plenty of BS in the world, but not much of it is good for growing things!
Our chickens contribute what they can to the compost heap, but sometimes it isn't old enough to put on gardens.

 

Ha, ha, ha...”plenty of BS in the world”.
Out of the mouths of babes.....

 

Daniel and yes I've done a bit today, potted on 9 rooted geranium cuttings and some eurigeron rooted cuttings.
Got the 3 propagators from upstairs and put them into the conservatory turned one on and put a small bag of compost in it to warm up.

 

Too wet for gardening, should have been a golf day, but decided not to go. Good decision! As I got an e-mail after the time I would have left to say the course was closed.

So far here in "the Tropic of Trafford," although it was raining first thing, there's no wind and there's presently a blue sky.

 

Nothing outside because it's very very windy and raining. But I did sow the chillie and Snapdragon seeds and potted up 9 lily bulbs in 3 pots.
I save the small fruit trays that are ideal for sowing seeds, I did the 3 but the forth one wasn't draining not realizing that it didn't have holes in the bottom, so I found another one.

 

Not today but yesterday I put out a couple hundred onions. I usually do not grow them. With rain forecast I could not help myself on the timing. No sense wasting the good water and working harder! I deseeded an entire pot of different dried chilies to make some Texas Red this weekend, and I have ziplock bags full of pepper seeds. I am starting the slow growers now. We are always safe to plant warm season lovers by Easter. I really enjoy tasting a pepper and then deciding to keep the seeds or not.

 

There'll be no gardening today as it's raining. But the wind has gone

Yesterday evening because of the expected high winds, I was concerned that the refuse bins might get blown over. It's happened before when there was not much in one.
They are on a little plinth up against the fence between our drive and patio. So I screwed four big cup hooks into the fence behind them and tied each handle to one of them with some garden wire.

 

Nothing today it's raining