What have you done today in the Garden?

@Doghouse Riley You have put so much work into such a beautiful space. Thank you for sharing the video. ( Love the jukebox)

 

Thanks for that.

I have two jukeboxes.

This one is for Motown and similar, 100 selections, it's a bit, "lesser known girl groups of the sixties" heavy, but that's a personal choice.

The lead singer is Darlene Love.



This one has 160 selections, 140, 50/60/70/80s pop, 10 doo-wop and 10 standards.



Then in our front room I have these I can use to select mp3s on playlists in iPods to play through my vintage hifi.



This turntable I bought in 1972 together with the speakers, but the Leak 2000 tuner/amplifier is from 1976. I bought it on eBay about fifteen years ago, to replace the Philips 790 I bought in 1972, which gave up the ghost.



I bought this cassette deck at the same time as the other stuff. Everything works as it should, I like to keep them that way. I've put new belts on this and the turntable.





I also have this, on the other side of the room, it was my sixth electric piano.




That's why my jukeboxes have to live in our summerhouse as the front room (my "den") is only half the size of our lounge. My stuff "isn't allowed in there" my wife has her own.
I have a second Leak and bookshelf speakers in my "office." (our box bedroom).



I can't complain, as my wife puts up with my several hobbies.

 

The frigo Sonsation plants arrived, so in they go. Lovely roots, heathy-looking specimens, I am well chuffed. It is a new sort for us, so we are really interested to find out how they will do. The two features of this sort are, the taste and resistance to disease in the soil.

After the planting, a little stroll through the flower garden revealed these little frits asked for attention.

 

@Doghouse Riley that's an amazing job! Very nice! Can I hire you?
@Melody Mc. I hope you find the face!

As for me, I planted sweetpea seedlings, wildflower seedlings, onion seedlings. I cleaned up the pots of chives. Some sort of stolon forming grass had made its way in. Also clover. This new tool, which I think was made by Klingons, helped a lot.



Then I filled in missing soil, added organic vegetable fertilizer, covered with a topsoil- compost mix that I hope is weed-free, watered in.



I also dug up a climbing rose that I started from a dormant cutting last year. All I did was stick a dormant pruning into the soil in a vegetable bed. Unfortunately, I stuck it too deep, so it was hard to dig it out and get enough roots.



It still looks viable to me. Plus it's barely spring yet, so there should be time to settle in and grow before summer.

 

Interesting-looking tool, Daniel. What How have you used it for so far?

 

Watered the nematodes for vine weevil in the blueberry pots and the potted rhubarb.
Took some blueberry cuttings.

 

Not a lot as it was a golf day, but I did change all the lateral wires that support the wisteria on the fence between the shed and the tea- house. I've used much heavier guage wire. The old ones were all a bit of a mess, as I'd added several over the years. Now there four at about a foot apart between all the posts and I'll be able to use fewer ties of the same wire to connect the branches. Once the new panels are in, I can raise it all by a foot or so.
My neighbour has a hell of a lot of ivy to clear before we can get at them.

I've ordered another trail camera and adapter, so I can keep one focused on the patio and the other on the back of the shed to cover the back of the garden.

 

You’ve been busy.

 

@Sjoerd , it was handy for pulling tough weeds that were in nooks and crannies and growing among other plants. I usually use a kitchen fork but this was stronger and better.

Among other things, I found some deck stain in the garage, so today I used a brush to clean the wood on my planter box, then stained it. This is the final result.



Here is what it looked like when I completed it a couple of weeks ago.



Here is what I used as source for all of the materials for the box - the sides, the rails, the screws and brackets. The entire thing was made from about 6 of these fencing sections, plus two palates for the bottom frame.

 

Mate that looks very smart now. Good choice of stain, in terms of colour. Yes, very nice.

Ah, I see what you use it for. We have a somewhat similar tool here. I used ours a while and one day just for speed, I grabbed the little potato knife and used that for cleaning in-between paving tiles. It worked well and the Bride started using it as well. I still use the original tool when I am not in a rush. I liked yours because I could see several different jobs one could do with it. I always enjoy seeing other people’s tools or new tools that come onto the market. I just like trying new things be it plants, techniques or tools. Thanks for the posting.

 

This is more a progress report.

The pot movers under the 10 Apta ceramic pots containing roses are now a uniform colour since I sprayed them.
I've also put the usual dab of silicone on the drain hole I drilled in them, so they'll retain excess water in the warmer months.
The roses are growing well and show no sign of blackspot and are aphid free, but it's early days yet.













The wisterias have responded well as usual to the hard pruning between Christmas and New Year. Here's one example. The three pots of primroses on the patio steps have been flowering for four months.


There'll be a few hundred blooms again this year.





Lots of blooms on the trailing branches ion the pergola next to the garage.






I've re-wired the side fence and temporarily attached the wisteria in a lowered position until we've replaced all the other panels. I'm waiting on my neighbour, but it's "like an ivy jungle" his side and covers about four other panels, plus it's more than ankle deep in his border next to the fence. I don't envy him the job, but I'm not helping, I advised against growing ivy up it after I errected the fence fifteen years ago. At the moment it's not a problem for me. Putting in the other new panels will only take about an hour, when he's ready. I can then "rehang" the wisteria.





Jobs to do.

I need to get into the rockery and dig out the clumps of grass in the phlox. I might do that today.



>


Everything is coming along nicely (except the lawn, it'll be months before that's right).







The tea-house is looking a bit dowdy. I've opened the vents at the top top and at the bottom of the back wall, so my jukeboxes don't get "cooked" if it's very sunny. They like it to be room temperature at most. It'll get a bit of a re-paint when there's two or three days when it's dry. It gets either a partial or full repaint nearly every year, as it's only made of soft wood and roofing ply, but that's why it's still rot free after 35 years.





Same with the pagoda.
I'll get the jetwash on it and give that a re-paint too.







'arry the hedgehog's "summerhouse" should arrive on Monday.

It's the same as the present one. (eBay photo)






But I'm going to drill a few ventilation holes in the top of the back wall, (above where you can see knots in the wood in the photo) they'll be under the bigger roof lid I've got on the other one at the moment, so no rain can get in.
He was "cooking" during the day in the hot months last year. Fortunately the thick canopy of the azaleas over the house gives him some protection.

 

I got done all I wanted to do today.


I got the grass out of the rockery. There's some really big stones in it, which aren't that visable, I don't mind them being covered in moss but I don't want it spreading, so I removed quite a bit.

I swopped the mimosa in its big tub for the sambucus in the centre bed. I do this every year after the mimosa blossom has faded.





My neighbour and I (well, mostly me with a crowbar) ripped out another three fence panels and put in new ones, using my "pole method" for two. With the third I stood on the roof of the shed and just dragged it up and slotted it in. Fortunately my wife couldn't see me, she thinks that at 82, I shouldn't be climbing on ladders or standing on the shed roof.

Two more to be done next to the teahouse, I can do those the same way, they should be here next week.

The panels aren't quite level. This is because the roots of next door's trees has forced up two concrete base panels a bit, but I'm not that bothered. The panels aren't Waneylap, like those on the other side of the garden and along the back, which would have been stronger, but I wasn't consulted. Again I wasn't bothered, they'll "see me out" as my old dad would have said.

I re-hung the wisteria on its new wires.

 

Not a lot today. Planter box is still off-gassing solvent from its coat of deck stain, so I don't want to do more with it just yet.

I found three more lavender bushes and pruned them / cleaned them up, and moved them to the deer park border. It's wonderful, working with those - all that aroma. The last ones I moved are putting out some new growth, encouraging.

I planted out the last six-pack of rudbeckias I started in January. A bit rootbound. As an experiment, I planted sone rudbeckia and coreopsis seeds directly.

I planted a row of onion plants, started the seeds in Jan.

Puttered with tomato seedlings.

Planted three Florence fennel plants.

 

Yesterday, I rubbed down and re-painted the pergola rail next to the garage.




Today, I rubbed down and re-painted the tea-house. It'll be 35 years old this year and is wearing well considering it is made from roofing ply and softwood. Except the veranda. This is roofing ply but has marine ply "tiles" on top of it. I don't know how many coats of Dulux mahogany woodsheen it's had, over the decades, but it has certainly kept any rot at bay.







Jobs for the rest of the week, two panels to be replaced in the side fence when they arrive, also 'arry's "summer house," when it gets delivered.
That will need tarting up a bit as the original one did leak a tiny bit in one corner when we had that heavy rain last summer. But the bigger roof "lid" I made stopped any further leaks. But I want to put some ventilation holes in it and I'll put a few more screws in it as I did the present one.

 

Hi DHR. I have always admired your garden etc since first seeing it on another gardening forum. It certainly is a credit to you.
So, we both are of the same vintage year. Obviously we are both faring well. However might I ask you to take that extra bit of care when working in the garden. We may not feel our age, ( how should we feel at this age??) Take care. Best wishes to your good lady.