What have you done today in the Garden?

Daniel, you have a green thumb all the way up to your shoulder! Beautiful seedlings and cuttings.

 

Not a lot today as it was raining on and off.
Sorted out one of my trail cameras. This is the one that cover's activity on the patio, particularly around 'arry's feeding station.
As well as the hedgehog I like to check on how much of nuisance are the neighbours' cats during the night.
I 've secured a bit of brush handle to one of the planters with some screws in the top on which to hang the camera.
I also made a rain cover for it out of the last of the paint roller tray, then painted the post. So it's as unobtrusive as I can make it


I then "remodelled" my home made bird ground feeder.

I made it to only allow birds no larger than the blackbirds to use it, particularly the naffin' wood pigeons.

Both Syd the squirrel and 'arry can get under there as they can crouch down, the wood pigeons can't. I just made a wideer diameter base out of a bigger plant saucer, to make it even harder for the pigeons, who do still try, but give up.

The cover is on a post with a socket at the bottom that fits over a bolt that goes through the base, so can easily be removed to clean the removable white tray and refill it.

The base of another plant saucer keeps much of the rain off, but any larger and the birds won't feel secure enough. As it is they've got a good view of any possible predators through the mesh of an old electric fan cover.

 

@Melody Mc. your plants look great! Ready for Spring!

You taught me something. I didn't know that artichokes could be vernalized. Something for me to think about next year.

 

@Daniel W - They're a lot of fun and very forgiving ( thank goodness). I think next year I'm going to put a grow light in the refridgerator on the porch for their vernalizing. Apparently some commercial growers in Ontario put their seedlings in a cooler with grow lights. It won't be as much fun as sleeping bags and snow forts, but it would be easier.

 

Pricked out 30 tomato seedlings, potted on 6 small chilli plants and sowed some California poppy seeds.

 

Picked leaf lettuce and spinach (fresh salad tonight, whoopee!) and gave everything a good watering. Surprise, surprise, the predicted rain didn't arrive.
The potatoes are up, so we'll be filling the trench soon. Sojerd's method of planting potatoes works a treat

 

Mate, I am over the moon for you. My spuds are being shy.

 

I finally planted my shallots!

 

Didn't do much, yesterday, just checked on our Stella cherry, I pruned it hard back last year as it was getting too big for its location.
Plenty of blossom.




I bought 'arry a new food station, the old one had a few cracks in it and had weathered so it was hard to see him in it from the French windows. I kept the old base as the new one was black. I've kept it as a tray in the garage for his cat food sachets and dry and wet pellets.





Should have been a golf day today, but as it was raining, I didn't bother, same with any gardening.
Checked the trail cameras.
'arry went straight into his new feed station, around 8.00pm. probably didn't notice it was a different box.

Here on his way, close to the little wall.




At the back of the garden, the camera on the side of the shed picked up a young fox, which must have scaled one of our six ft fences.

 

Tried to do some weeding but it started raining and it's heavy.

 

Raining heavy here too. When it lets up, I want to go to the garden soil / bark chip / compost depot and buy a pickup load of raised bed soil. I hope it's the last one for a long time.

Meanwhile I sat at the old sewing machine and made a couple more gardening caps to protect my noggin. I'm much better at it now.

Seeds planted i doors - Nagasaki long black eggplant, Mixed Four O'Clocks (bought last fall), Bright yellow Four O'clocks (saved seeds from my yard, 2020), Extreme Bush Tomato (Saved last fall, dwarf variety good for containers, started later to extend the crop). I also up potted a ginger plant I started from a grocery store ginger root last winter, and a dwarf cherry tomato and some eggplants.

It frosted last night. Water froze in birdbath, It will be interesting to see if the potatoes outside, and roses, are damaged.

 

Tried out my new camera which arrived today. The controls are prety similar to the old one.
Took these photos.





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I was always disappointed with the quality of the reproduction with the compression applied on my youTube videos.
I thought this was a good test. It isn't as sharp as it is on my laptop, but this is good test videoing stuff on the TV.






Registering the guarantee was a pain, they wanted a scan of the receipt.

Never had to do that with any purchase before, some costing several times more than this camera.

I guess it's because cameras are often stolen from retail stores.

 

@Doghouse Riley congratulations on the new camera. Your photos are something we can all enjoy and look forward to.

@Daniel W - I'm sorry to hear about the random frost. How did your garden fare?

@marlingardener - congratulations on the garden feast! I'm looking forward to trying Sjoerd's potato planting technique too.

Today I'm hoping to pot up some tomatoes, basil and perhaps my Green Goliath Brocolli. This should be the last pot up before I transistion the tomatoes to the greenhouse. I have two nice days coming, and then an acrtic front for a week with lows around -8 and -10 C. Definitely a chanllenging year this year. Usually I can be hardenning off the brassica and leeks outside without any grow lights during the day, but it will be another week or more. Everyone will just have to get along and make a little room for each other, even if they take turns.



.....ermm..my lasagna pan that I use for bottom watering wasn't meant to be in there.




These are dwarf Red Robin Cherry tomatoes. I'm hoping to have them on the deck so I can faithfully pack them inside when needed. The hope is they will offer some fruit before their larger friends. I should probably name them as well as the artichokes - we will be spending quite a lot of time together.

 

It is a beautiful sight, Mel.
I just potted my toms on today, so I am quite a ways behind you.

 

Thank you

I'm curious Sjoerd - where you live can you grow them outside? When does your tomato growing season end?

I need to start my tomatoes 10 weeks ahead of my transplant date, and then they go into a cold frame greenhouse with a heated soil cable and some overhead lamps for night time. Otherwise I only have green tomatoes by the time frost comes in the fall. Most of my toms have to ripen indoors for canning. I'm hoping with some different varieties this year I can enjoy some ripe tomatoes in the summer this year.