What have you done today in the Garden?

Replaced all the pipe insulation of the new heater's pipe work. Where there's an in-line lever tap, you can cut a little hole in the insulation with a Stanley knife

 

A city near us recently passed a "backyard chicken ordinance". Homeowners are allowed up to eight hens, no roosters. The hens have to be confined, which means they have to be fenced in so they don't raid neighbors' gardens.
Sjoerd, perhaps the management of your apartment complex would let you have hens in the spare bedroom!

 

Melody, that sweet potato was in a box at the big box store. I'm not sure it gave a name. Bought one on impulse last year.

If I remember, I'll post a photo of those garlic.

 

I do tend to make my mind up quickly and act upon it.

We have these two weathered concrete planters at either end of the patio steps, we must have had them getting on for fifty years.
This is one of them.

I've found this photo from last year. There's both a climbing rose and a clematis in it.




There's another planter at the other end of the steps. This one had a clematis in it, which never did much.

This morning I decided it was dead.
To be fair, the compost has only ever been topped up. So I thought I might as well get rid of the planter and the one in the photo at the same time.
I could use the larger size of the green Apta pots, like this one next to the front door.




At lunchtime, I made a trip to our nearest garden centre at Flixton. This was the one that I'd hoped to get a couple more of the 34cm ones, but in the end I had to go to Wilmslow.
The Flixton one promised to have the pots out by this week-end. But they hadn't, they did have the plastic pots I intended to use as liners, so I bought them.
I slogged over to Wimslow (all of fifteen minutes, mostly motorway) and bought the larger pots there and some compost, but I didn't think much of their clematis selection, so I went back to Flixton!

I bought a Mayleen, of which we've three others elsewhere and a Blue Angel. They'll both go in the new planter and they can "fight it out."

To transplant the rose and clematis in the planter in the photo, I'll just smash the concrete with a lump hammer. I can tidy up the root balls and add some fresh compost at the same time.

I'm hoping being in a plastic inner pot they will be better insulated from the frost late in the year.

It's raining now, so I'll get it done tomorrow morning.

 

Thank you Melody, for us this is spring, one day it can be warm and the next cold with snow.

 

Got what I wanted to do, done this morning.
As I often say, there are times when things are never easy.
To get a large plastic pot to in this planter, I had to remove a part of the rim. Other pots that would fit easily wouldn't have sufficient capacity.
You can't go at it with a power jig-saw, as it's cheap plastic and liable to split. So it's a case of slowly sawing with a hacksaw.




I left the rims on the smaller plastic planters, as the contents are likely to be changed once or twice a year.

I found the concrete planters too awkward and heavy to lift. I can still lift heavy weights, I lifted that 71kg fountain into position a few years ago, but at least I could get my arms under the bowl.
So as I wasn't going to use them again, they got the lump hammer treatment.





All done and dusted, as it'd been raining last night, I had to wash down the patio when I'd finished.
I need to rub down and repaint the post of that hand-rail.

Actually, it's now redundant. We needed one after I built the steps decades ago as we had patio doors and my wife used it when going into the garden as the doors opened from that side. It was necessary because of her MS.
I made it from an "L" shaped angle iron part of a redundant check-out sweet stand. The top is a bit of solid mahogany, I "acquired" from surplus bits of wood from a re-fitted new escalator in a department store I was managing at the time.
Since then, we've had French windows fitted, so I give her a hand now any time she wants to go into the garden.




I've still this lot to take down the tip.

 

Ha ha ha Jane— surely if they saw this piccy of yours, they would be swayed. It is too cute for words.

 

Pruned 5 roses.

 

Oh my heart.... So cute!

 

An unexpected trip to town yesterday found me coming home with another miniature rose from Hubby. It shall get a new pot today. These little plants bring me so much joy in the world of white.

The Artichokes had to put their "Big Girl Panties" on and move outside today. I need 12 days of below +10 for them to vernalize. At night it is still -8, so they will go inside the outside refridgerator (unplugged) with a warm jug of water. We are above freezing during the daytime highs for the two week forecast, so fingers crossed. -)

I packed two jugs of water down to the greenhouse to give the lettuce and spinach a drink. And then donned my snow shoes to get to the garden shed/horse stable for some remay fabric. Once they sprout, I'll cover them at night.

 

How exciting things are in Canada, Mel. It is inspiring reading about how you garden. Just amazing.

Loggie — What types of rose did you prune?

 

.....you got to smash things with a hammer DHR......

 

I have to stop reading @Doghouse Riley `s posts in the morning. They leave me exhausted before breakfast, lol. The result looks nice. Well done.

Good luck with your plant babies, @Melody Mc.

 

Thanks for that.



It's raining today, so I baled out of going to golf. So any gardening is completely out of the question. I like to find stuff to do,
I'll probably get in some saxophone and electric piano practice, (not both at the same time) the people in the adjoining semi work all day, so it won't annoy them and my wife doesn't mind.

I checked the cameras this morning and there was no sign of any cats, maybe because the camera on the patio picked up a young fox wandering around it around 3.00am..
No sign of 'arry the hedgehog, but from my file of camera recordings, he didn't appear until the end of the month last year.
So we are still hopeful.

 

Secured things before the storm. Had tea, picked three new daffs and headed back home.