What have you done today in the Garden?

I looked at a weather radar for your part of the world. There is a huge blanket of deep green precipitation over you. Batten down the hatches SJoerd. Hopefully it moves on soon.

 

The hatches are battoned-down. I am thinking about supper already, now that I have finished my tea.

 

The several small holes in the low curtilage walls around the main patio have not been clearing the unusual amount of rain recently as quickly as I would like them to. They are probably partially blocked with soil.
The water gathers mostly in the corners as I built the patio, with falls towards therm and away from the house.




So if it's dry tomorrow, I'm going to get my big drill out and enlarge them.



It takes a 1" drill bit. It's low geared, but you have to make sure you keep your legs out of the way in case the bit jams and be ready to let go of the trigger if it does.

The idea is to avoid this situation

 

@Sjoerd I've got hybrid tea roses and i hope that you get over the storm ok.

@Doghouse Riley that sounds dangerous what you are going to do with that drill.

We did 3 more roses later today, it had been raining this morning, so pricked out 72 polyanthus seedlings.

 

Bwahahahaha

 

Managed to do a bit in the garden this morning, but took these photos through the French windows just now.

I've put some net over the smaller acer palmatum, as it's moving into its growing stage, so I've tied it down for a few weeks, to retain its dome shape.






I doubt if I'll be able to improve the patio drainage, as I won't be using the big drill until all the water has drained.
At the moment, we're getting sort of "soft hail."

I moved the birds' ground feeder to the bed on the left under the azaleas. Nothing bigger than a blackbird can get at it as they have to squeeze through the wire fence. They don't have a problem with it. This will keep the mess off the patio. The wood pigeons were always hanging around the original feeder and making it, despite not being able to get at the food because of the wire cover protecting it.
The three pairs of blackbirds have been finding live food on the lawn, which is a good sign.

I keep 'arry's feeder in position with some dry and semi moist hedgehog food and a bowl of water in it, in case he makes an appearance.

 

Nothing today, perhaps tomorrow.

 

Nothing going on today

 

After returning from my volunteer "job", I took Mr. Doggo for a little walk. He had to stop a say "hello" to the neighbor-down-the-road 's new funny-looking dog.



Then on return, I tried my hand at grafting roses. I want a climbing rose at this location. The cutting I started two years ago was supposed to be a peach-colored rose from a neighbor's trimming, but after it grew, I suspect it was a sucker from the rootstock. No bloom last year. So, I collected a known climbing rose scion during the winter, to try grafting. Those were in a plastic bag in the fridge until now. By grafting, I hope not to lose 2 years of growing roots as opposed to starting fresh from cuttings again.

First, I should have cut off the thorns. Although, I'm told grafting goes better if you make a blood sacrifice.



I did the same kind of graft I do for apples, called "whip and tongue". They make strong grafts.



Not the best. The cambium layers should match up better. I adjusted it a little and wrapped tightly. If it was apple, it would take. I don't know about rose.

I also did a T-bud graft.



Also not the best. In a few months, I'll know. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I did another whip-and-tongue. These are fairly high on the bush, too. But it's a climbing rose. If they take, maybe I can bud lower on the bush, later.



I stuck a couple of the scion into the ground, in a garden container. Another mad-scientist thing to do, but they often root and grow well this way.


I planted the crocosmia, "Sun Glow" in various places (containers). Now they are planted.

So that's about all for today. Nice day.

 

That's a great day Daniel. Very creative. ( I've always wanted a donkey....). Thank you for showing the grafting. I'm sure not having any luck with my cuttings of the the Haskap taking root.

 

Sometimes they take a while. Also, not everything takes, but a surprising variety of things do. My entire forsythia hedge, half of my roses, some plum trees, some apple rootstocks, all of my figs, for example. Also redcurrants.

 

I liked this posting as well. I have never tried grafting…still, I have questions:
Tell me about the wrapping. I see there is clear plastic on the outside; I see that, but did you first wrap the graft with something else, like cloth or tape or something?

You know Daniël, I think that you may be the most interesting gardener we have on here. At least the things you do and show are interesting to me. How lucky we are.

 

Daniel very informative about the rose grafting. I've tried it and out of 3 goes i got one, with the T graft. I find doing cuttings is better and the rose is as good as the mother plant.

 

Today we harvested our first cutting of asparagus. Granted, the spears weren't many, and they weren't big, but we are looking forward to having them for dinner!

 

@Sjoerd, Thank you for the compliment. I think everyone on here is incredibly interesting, including you. Everyone here enriches my psyche and inspires me. I'm just a guy who likes to putter and loves gardening.

As for the graft, it's supposed to look like this, and usually does for softer or less brittle wood like apple, pear, plum, cherry, chestnut, persimmon. One cuts a long diagonal incision (the whip), then cut a vertical split (tongue). These make a very strong graft.



(drawing from 1867 so copyright is long expired). Roses are harder and more brittle, and I'm less adept than I used to be. They remind me of fig or kiwi or grape, hollow and brittle. Those are more difficult for me.

After a season if growth, they look like this - plum, I think, but others are similar.



After a year or two, they merge together so well, the graft union is almost invisible.

Anyway, the plastic strips are meant to be tight, providing pressure across the entire graft union, without girdling. So I use plastic bands that I cut from freezer bags, which can be stretched to make a tight, wide, wrap without breaking. About 3/4 inch wide strips. It takes practice to stretch tightly without breaking, but has a nice result. Commercial nurseries use wide rubber bands, faster to work with. I used to do the old way with string and wax, but these plastic strips always seem to work and are easy to find (kitchen drawer). I cut off the plastic band when the scion has grown about a foot, to prevent girdling. I've discovered some the following winter, and those survived so it's not too bad if they are missed for a while. Over the cut end, I use a flimsier band that is more flexible, to wrap the cut tip so it doesn't dry out. Long ago, I used to use wax for that.

The rose scion was brittle and has a hollow core, so was difficult for me to cut accurately. I don't know how those will do

I also grafted some apple varieties that I like onto two, unproductive, espalier apple trees, to eventually replace a couple of tiers. Next are plum and cherry onto a seedling grown tree (pluot?) that blooms but does not bear.