What have you done today in the Garden?

Somehow I don't think I'll be digging in the dirt today.


No wonder I heard loud squawking in the henhouse.



It was a double yolk. That poor chicken!

 

@Melody Mc. those sound like good tomato varieties. The only one I'm also growing is Early Girl Bush. I usually grow Better Boy but am transitioning to mostly dwarf types and the two determinates, Early Girl Bush and Bush Early Boy. EGB was a star performer last time I grew it - not huge tomatoes but lots of them and very good hybrid tomato flavor.

I'm growing from my own saved seeds these dwarfs-
BrandyFred (like brandywine but purple)
Dwarf CC McGee (a pale yellow potato-leaf type).
Extreme Bush (small but very productive on a 20 inch tall plant, very good tomatoes)
Improved Dwarf Champion (pink, small-ish, last try - good but not spectacular)
Dwarf Johnson Cherry

Plus historic varieties, my first try
"New Big Dwarf"
Dwarf Golden Champion
Livingston Dwarf Stone

and historic cherry Reisentraube not dwarf but acting like one so far.

Plus normal height
Ukraine Purple (saved seeds from last year)
Sungold
a new one called Honeybee Hybrid.

The dwarfs have potential for me in tall raised bed. They are more susceptible to fusarium silt due to lower leaves, so I lay a brown paper mulch under them which seems to work so far.

 

Sowed some California poppy seeds and they're coming up in a seed tray in the conservatory, I'm thinking of just planting the tray as it is because they don't like disterbance.

 

Yesterday we tackled digging out the tomato beds in the greenhouse and managed to get it all done. ( This is the third time. I'm "stewing" over a thread one day about my personal disasters three years in a row with accidental herbicide poisoning from three different sources that always used to be tried and true. - Huge learning curve.) Today will be lining with plastic, reinforcing and maybe even dirt in. The -9 predicted has only been -4 so far, and everyone is surviving.

The snow is receding and revealing a lot of damage from the huge weight this year. It will be a "stick pick up party" for a few days, and lots of pruning away damage. I've decided to leave the leaves this year. The house is surrounded by birch and willow, as well as spruce. The little buds need the leaves with the cool temps and I think I would damage everyone for the sake of aesthetics. Once everyone grows a little I won't see them anyhow. Natural mulch.

 

@Daniel W Thank you for the kind tomato words. I told them and they extend their gratitude.

I am very curious about these dwarf varieties Daniel. Am I correct....they have longer growing days than others?? Yet are shorter and produce regular size fruit?? I'd never heard of them before, other than my little Red Robins. I looked on a seed sourcing site and could only find one or two varieties of Dwarf's in Canada. I wonder if that is perhaps because of the longer season? I'm very curious about what you like about them, and why you lean more towards them. I'm certainly open to finding different varieties that perhaps fit my growing realities.

 

https://www.victoryseeds.com/dwarf-tomato-project.htmlSnow mostly melted but now it's sleeting. I did some puttering with seedlings.

@Melody Mc. I became interested in dwarf tomatoes because I am not as able as I was. I'm trying to continue my gardening obsession, which also provides the best food and is (or can be) the most economical. Tall raised beds are a big help. Using them is much easier for me. Most tomatoes grow too tall as it is and need too much maintenance for me, but dwarf types need less staking (not none, just less) and are a little less work.

Maybe I should start a different topic on those. There are two main groups - historic dwarf types and modern ones developed by an international group of tomato enthusiasts called "The Dwarf Tomato Project". They are dwarf because the interstems are short, but otherwise normal size tomatoes.

I have not found the best ones for me. I bought the seeds from Victory Seed Co in Oregon.

I will start another thread

 

Nothing today it rained this morning and is again but getting milder.

 

Right now, freezing rain alternating with snow and bouts of hail. Thunder too. Not the best gardening weather LOL

 

I actually got some weeding done today. It rained yesterday and this morning, so the ground is nice and soft. But I'm exhaustipated now haha

 

Great to see you back.

 

Nothing today it's raining again but getting warmer.

 

- 9 C this am, but the chickadees and thrush are singing - so I'm thinking it will be a sunny day, even if it is cool. Today will be lining the newly dug out tomato beds, and planting some romaine indoors for an early start. I'm going to set a grow light up in my art room, where there is no heat and it sits usually at about 14 C. The broccoli, cabbage and cauli are not happy with the warm room that the tomatoes have. Usually I have that party out on the deck hardening off now, but not yet this year. Then it will be just making sure everyone is watered and happy for 24 hours as I will be away until tomorrow night.

 

Just tied up several clematis. I like to spread them out along the lateral wires, they'd rather bunch and grow straight up.

These along the side of the garage are doing well. There's four you can see, another two just a few inches tall, they'll flower later.



Then just a general check round.

This acer gets a prune at the end of every year and light trims through the year to keep it to this shape and size.




I call it my "Monet acer," as before I started pruning it a ball shape eight years ago, it looked like this.


Which reminded me of the small figure on the left in this impressionist painting, "Sunlight Under the Poplars," a reproduction of which is the graphic on one of my jukeboxes. It's not a dog it's supposed to be a child waving.




Lots of blooms on the wisteria along the replaced fence.




A mixture of mostly bluebells and a few hebees in the bed.




There's even more wisteria blooms on the pergola on the back of the house.

The wood pigeons pick off a few as they think they look like ears of corn, they are that stupid.




The acer palmatums are filling out. Everything is further along than at the same time last year, because of the late frost we had back then. Even the lawn is starting to recover.

They' ll get a bit of pruning and shaping with the foliage is fully out.





I'm pleased with the progress of our roses in tubs, lots of buds. No sign of either black spot or aphids...at the moment.




I pruned back that euonymus on the fence today, to give the phlox on the rockery more light.




Our two new Acer Palmatum Taylors, are doing OK, but it'll be many years before they look impressive. We probably won't be around. They are usually all grafted.... I say grafted, more like "cobbled together," so I think that can slow down their growth which is slow enough anyway.

 

For us the black spot usually appear in mid or late summer.

At the moment just keeping a check on the bedding plants that I'm growing and pinching out the growing tips. Dead headed the daffs and gave them a bit of chicken manure pellets then watered them.

 

We picked lettuce and spinach today--lots of lettuce and spinach! Fortunately we have friends who love fresh lettuce. Just hoping their love of it lasts through the growing season!
Made a row to plant the squash, and cleared a bit of the end of the cucumber row to plant the new cherry tomato. So convenient to have a trellis already installed!