What have you done today in the Garden?

Beautiful @Doghouse Riley and @Daniel W!
Great work. It puts me to shame!

Still not much happening here. We had snow again yesterday, it is quite cold today, but the snow has melted.

Here's an inside photo of my "garden".

 

The inside is lovelier than the outside. There are several attractive things to see there on the windowsill.

 

Not a lot today, my new Apeman trail camera arrived today, so I set it up.

Before, I was swopping the original between covering the patio and the back of the garden. 'arry spends as much time in the back of the garden, (his poo turns up all over the place) so now I've got it covered.

The only other job was assembling a new chair I'd bought for my "office," (our box bedroom). I'd been using an old lounger, one which was replaced by a new "Stressless," several years ago, but it was really too low. It won't get used that often as I mostly use my laptop in the front room on wifi. I have two mains adaptors, as the screen isn't very bright without them, despite putting a new battery in, it's an HP probook. I'll use the chair when I'm printing off stuff for my wife's decoupage hobby.

I only ordered the chair on eBay on Monday and it was delivered this morning. It was only £39.45 with free postage, easy to assemble, height adjustable, very comfortable, no wonder they've sold nearly fifteen hundred of them.





'arry's summerhouse should have been delivered on Monday, so I've chased the supplier.

He was scratching a bit last night, he got a bit carried away and nearly rolled over.

It might be fleas or mites, to which they are susceptible. But you can't use pet flea treatments on them.

There could be all sorts in his bedding, which has been in his house for nearly as year. So I'll be happier when his new house has arrived and I can put in fresh hay. I'll leave a bit of his old bedding at the front of his bedroom, so it won't smell completely different. I've a feeling though, that he won't be that bothered about the change.

 

Looks like a great office chair Riley.

I hope 'arry's new box arrives soon!

Today wa nice enough that I began the outside clean up. So satisfying!

 

@Cayuga Morning that's a beautiful window.

The past couple of days have involved moving more perennials to the "deer park" border. Most are quite large, were going to be abandoned or removed. All have been in deer - populated areas, so I'm confident they won't be bothered -

A big Crocosmia "Lucifer" clump.
A second big clump of Leucojum aestivum.
One clump of daffodils.
Three more lavender shrubs.
A clump of lambs ears, I divided it into five new starts plus a bigger clump.

There was a row of Sedum Autumn Joy by the stairway of my old house. They are building a new stairway, so the Sedum had to go. I replanted seven good size clumps.

All of this is far more extensive than I planned. However, the plants are large, established sizes, almost all are proven to be ignored by deer, and none of them require summer watering. Almost all feed the bees. So I'm happy. Plus there is still room for annuals. In addition the the varieties above, I had already moved about seven big clumps of Camassia. The lavenders are putting out growth in their new locations.

I still need to work on making it more private. I have more forsythia cuttings in water, but they will need a few years to reach a good privacy screening size. I'm thinking about adding a row of field corn by the fence.

Indoors, the seedlings are growing nicely too. Slicing tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and flowers - pink milkweed, bloodflower milkweed, statice, carnations, and a bunch of geraniums from cuttings.

Hoping for a colorful and tasty year LOL.

 

@Doghouse Riley , Harry will love his new home!

 

Last night the camera didn't pick him up scratching at all. So it can't be an infestation.

His summer house arrived this morning, but it was "all wrong." It looks the same as his present one,but had a different configuration.





So it needed a bit of "fettling." At £35 including postage I can't really complain. Like the original, for the sake of speed of construction a staple gun was used. Not the best way to attach the beading that surrounds the roofing felt. So I put in a lot of screws.
The door was at the wrong end, so I had to reverse the front panel. I also had to move the hinges of the roof, as I can only access it from the right hand side. The roof too, would not sit level, so I planed down the top edges until it did. I also added batons to the front and back of the floor and four door stops as feet, as I did the other one.










I've given it a coat of Woodsheen and will give it another, once it has dried, it'll look a lot better than this.

I'm not going to change the houses over until the weather gets a bit warmer, by then the smell of the Woodsheen should have dried off.

I'll leave it out in the weather meantime, so that should help to get it smelling more normal.

When it arrived, included in the package was a small packet of dry hedgehog food and a small "personalised dish with his name on."

His fame must have spread.

 

Having installed the second trail camera on the shed yesterday, I decided it needed a rain cover/sunshade like the first one, which has a short piece of plastic roof guttering over it, which I found in the garage.
I've no more of that, so I had a look round for anything I had which was suitable. I settled on an old plastic paint roller tray and cut it in half.
Ideal for the job and not too obtrusive.

 

Not much today it's very cold and snowing a bit but it won't stick this time of year.

 

@Doghouse Riley we'll have to start called you "Hedgehog House Riley" . You did such a nice job - could have built it yourself!

I think I will build some birdhouses using spare fencing. Probably too late to be useful for this year, but at least they'll be done. I want to use a pattern so I don't have to "think" too much.

What do you view on your trail camera? Henry?

Today: Buy a big bag of potting soil. Maybe move a couple of plants but hip is painful so maybe not

 

The cameras are really just to pick up any wildlife activity in the garden. There's usually quite a lot. Either at night or very early in the morning.

 

Took photos of some of the blooming plants.

This is a forsythia that I grew, years ago, from a cutting.


Here is a peach tree - a miniature variety called "Garden Gold". The blooming is crazy. After it finishes blooming, I use a scissors to cut off most of the peaches, leaving about one per five inches of stem. That way they grow bigger, more flavor, earlier, and don't break the branches. It should be good for several big bowls full of peaches this year.


Fig buds are swelling. I love those figs! The buds were looking frost-killed, but most are just fine. The top bud is new growth. The lower ones are future figs.


Asian pears are blooming. I pruned last fall so they would be low enough for me, but I hope too high for deer.


Asian plum, "Methley" blooming. These plums make the best jam.


As long as we don't have a late frost, anomalous heat wave, super dry spell, forest fire, plague of locusts, or plague of frogs falling from the clouds, it looks like a promising year.

 

With the storms by I picked up sticks. High winds are how mother nature cleans up trees. DW calls it a salad shooter if you remember the fad product. The lawn looks like someone shot salad all over it after the high wind storms.

 

Too many loose sticks on our golf course at the moment.

 

Looking good @Daniel W