What have you done today in the Garden?

Did a bit in the front garden. Shaped the hedge near the corner of our bay window. It's actually in next door's garden, but I look after my side and the top. There's a tall azalea at the end, the flowers are purple, bloom early and they look a bit "plasticy." The viburnum to the left got a trim.





There's a taller viburnum on the right, that got a trim. In front of it, is a big pink rhodo. It was forcing its way through the row of azaleas. So I pruned it. The azaleas will fill the gap during the year.
The flowers will be out in a week.

There's about half a dozen azaleas, I layered and re-planted, from the original we bought in a 4" pot thirty years ago.

The grass always suffers round the edge of the lawn underneath them. I've got rid of the moss, re-seeded it and it's recovering.






This is the area behind all the plants. I made this post and wire fence thirty years ago to separate our garden from next door's as I didn't like the post and panel fences that have many of our neighbours.
The wild bluebells got a bit trampled whilst I was pruning the backs of our plants and the rubbish that grows through it from next door.




Although I've pruned them a bit, the azaleas, rhodo and viburnum are encroaching onto the footpath. I'll have to prune them back more in the winter.
That car isn't usually there. It's a friend's from three doors away, it's just there as he's jet-washing his front "garden," which he had paved over as they have two cars.

 

My helper planted three more rows of potatoes - 2 rows of early "Envol" and one of overwintered "something" - maybe Soraya or Yukon Gem.

I planted, outside, two tomato plants. A super early "Extreme Bush" and an early "Early Girl". Most are still on the rack. I'm still on 90% bed rest so that is all for today. This amount of gardening will have to suffice.

Ground temp is 62 F this am, non-sunny location. I think it's OK for some of the tomato plants.

 

Good to hear that you are improving.
Annnnnnd….. that you guys are getting things planted. Even though you are on bedrest, I’ll bet you are pretty excited.

 

Nice to have a helper Daniel.. you are a devoted gardner even while recovering from surgery still have garden plants to grow.
It was a nice day for planting.

Riley wow your hedges look great. So perfect of course blooms will follow soon….

Forgot to add earlier I’m setting up the computer garden watering system called
b-hive . It’s on my iPad & iPhone it waters the whole garden on set programs and timers nightly. Too hot to finish will wait til

 

I fertilized the starts and wove sauce tomatoes. I planted a pink double knockout finally after keeping it in the shade too long. Interesting note- I cracked open the little square kitchen composter we got from DW's parents estate to get at the good stuff for the rose hole. There is 6 years worth of whatevers in there, and it was packed densely, but eggshells were everywhere. It looked like some abandoned reptile egg nest or something. I expected them to be composted by now but they were just darkened.

 

Dirt That’s interesting 6 years and egg shells still showing. I use my old coffee grinder to grind egg shells into powder.

 

I bet it was sequestered from oxygen but still, plenty of worm and bug life. I will be interested to shovel more.

 

Went to get pavers and bark. Also came home with a begonia. Will keep them sheltered, since my impatiens got miniaturized by the hail. Planted some seeds and finished laying the last two huge pavers by the front gate.

 

Beautiful bright orange flowers.. they are a nice potted plant for the whole season.

 

Very nice Begonia, Jewell. I like that one!

 

A busy few days of early starts has the greenhouse ready for peppers, tomatoes and ground cherries. With the heated soil cable the soil temp is up to 12 C, so I will wait a little longer while it does it's thing. An extra layer of clear plastic is draped over the two beds to help warm it up. I'm still nervous to put anything in there until a I do a little more work on the perimeter with gravel to discourage creatures.

I've overdue for a new greenhouse when life allows it. I was patching around a leaky window, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but multiple multiple holes in the roof. I'm guessing a late season hail storm and snow/ice fall. I did not want to replace plastic, so out came the red Tuck Tape and a ladder. If I was on the top rung of the step ladder, and stuck my tape to the end of a pole, I figured out that I could reach the holes. Hopefully I got them all. It looks pretty funny - good thing I don't have neighbours.

Hubby had some boxes that he built up in the loft of the barn. They had been there for 25 years. I brought them down and he has been slowly sanding and finishing them. They will stack in the middle of the greenhouse and be an extra planting area for peppers and dwarf tomatoes - maybe a dwarf ground cherry.

A new squash patch was built beside the greenhouse for an attempt at a Golden Hubbard. This spot is sheltered and has a longer frost free date than the lower garden, so I'm hoping I can get it to mature. I also drilled some holes in a large tote, filled it full of compost and soil, and planted some Golden Hubbard in there. My hope is to leave it in the protected cold frame/greenhouse until it barely fits through the door, then use a dolly to move it outdoors. It is an experiment to prolong my growing season. We shall see.

Life has been so busy and the heat came so quickly that there is a lot to do, but one thing at a time. Hubby laughed that we need to mow/mulch the greens space...but we would be mowing around some melting three foot snow piles from plowing hahaha. I think we may do it tomorrow just for fun.

I potted up some pansies for my neighbour who cannot garden, and I am taking some Sea Holly and Cupid's Dart to her tomorrow. I've been helping her keep a wee flower garden outside her kitchen window for the last few years, and these will go nicely. She likes purple.

 

Good to see you’re catching up with garden beds and preparing new areas to plant. It was a long winter. It is always is so satisfying to be back outside doing all the things you luv doing knowing the benefits for a great future harvest.

How kind to plant some flowers for your neighbor. All my favs of course…sShe’s a luck gal…

 

I set the corner posts for next years garden expansion. I will fence it in and deal with the grass by moving it elsewhere across summer. When the containers come out of the new area in the fall I will till it up and put the fall leaves in there for ground planting next spring. I also bought a banana plant for some unkown reason. I was buying some mulch and stuff and it just sort of happened. At least it wasn't another elephant ear.

 

Mel’s adventures continue. Yeah and then there was all this heat all of a sudden. That’s what Mother Nature does sometimes, isn’t it.

Oh and that red tape stick ‘n ladder trick you pulled. Eyeroll. To have that on a YouTube !

Good thing that you have those vintage boxes. After he gets them ready to go for you, they will be handy. Good plan for the Golden Hubbard. You really must keep a sort of digital dairy on this project and show us as you go.

Mowing around snow piles— what next! It is also foto-worthy.

What a good thing to pot-up some pansy’s for your neighbour. That ought to put a smile on her face. I like them.

What’s going on there, DM? Did that banana just sort of jump in your auto boot? Will it live inside or out at home?

Sorry you’ve had it so busy, it is good to see you back though.

 

As we’d not seen ‘arry, our hedgehog since the end of last year at all, I opened the little door in the fence for the first time ever, about a week ago.






Last night the trail camera on the side of the tea-house picked up an image.

It’s not very clear but it’s definitely a hedgehog. Unfortunately the file is too big to post.

As to whether it’s ‘arry, I doubt it.

1, it’s very small, but he would have lost a lot of weight over the winter.

2, ‘arry never moved that quick!

I checked his house. This is the summer one which I changed for the insulated winter one a couple of months ago, when I found he wasn’t in it. I just dumped a lot of hay in it, but “someone” has made it into a nest, but it was empty.


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I’ll put some cat food in the feeder tonight and we’ll see if the other camera picks anything up other than cats or pigeons.