What have you done today in the Garden?

Great fruit and veg harvest @Willowisp0801

 

I did the front garden.
Pruned back the azaleas, rhodo and viburnum where they hang over the little curtilage wall above the pavement (with garden shears!) Only about six inches and I evened them up as the viburnum grows out further than the rhodo or azaleas.

This was how it was in May, they had put on a bit of growth since then. They always recover, I do it every year.

Mowed the lawn and gave the whole border a go over with the vac.





Pruned some spikey bits on the lollipop acer. Weeded the area between all the planting and the low wire fence between ours and next door's garden.

Then had to wait until my wife went upstairs for a sleep, before I could get the ladders out (she doesn't like me using them now because of my age), so I could prune the wisteria on the pergola on the back of the house. I had to get up to it in three places to prune off huge long new branches and reduce the foliage at the extreme right hand end above the main trunk where it tends to bunch.
I also removed branches that wanted to grow towards the flat roof of the lounge. I filled the green bin with what I pruned off. I also cleaned out the gutter. I got everything cleaned up and away before she came down again, she's none the wiser what's been done.

This was how it was at the end of July, it had put on a lot of growth since then.

 

Looking good, Riley…REALLY good.

 

Picked some blackberries

 

Thanks Daniel, raspberries are one of my favorites.

Thanks Logan, I was pleased with it.

Ummm, so Doghouse, everything is looking really nice... but isn't your wife going to notice what you did with the ladder? I guess you're going with the old saying, "it's better to ask for forgiveness..."?

I didn't get outside yesterday I looked at the temperature after the movie and it said 103 F. I didn't even look at the " real feel ". It was suppose to be another hot day today, but it was nice today. Yesterday my granddaughter kept saying it was just like Texas and how did we live there! I told her it's easier moving from another hot place (SE Georgia) and growing up there. She was born in Georgia and we moved to Texas when she was 2 weeks away from 2 years old.
I start back at work Monday. On Tuesday I'm bringing in three "helpers" to set my room up, then kids are back the following week. I'm sure we'll have plenty of meetings next week as well.
No more working in the garden before 4:00. Unless it's a weekend.

 

I think I have enough green/yellow beans to finish the bag. I have beans to shell and I made spaghetti sauce to freeze. I'm just waiting for it to cool so I can bag it up and I have 4 bags for zucchini bread..

 

In the front garden the "lollypop" acer had some branches at the top which were "bolting," They were annoying me.
There's more round the other side.

So decided to do something about it.




So I got into it this afternoon.
Fortunately, my wife bought me this around twenty years ago, as even then, she didn't like me going up ladders.

It's quite versatile, but extremely heavy, so I rarely use it. I have two pairs of much lighter but shorter extending ladders.




You can use it as a full length ladder, it's very strong.

Or like this if you are decorating. Or if you need a stable platform anywhere.




Or as I used it mostly, as a tall stepladder. You have to attack the tree from different sides as it's quite wide.




I could have left until the winter when it gets around six inches taken off it all-round. It's easier to see what needs pruning when there's no leaves on it. But it was annoying me, as I could see all the "spikes" as I was driving up the road on my way home from anywhere.



I also decided to prune off the acers rhodo and viburnum that hang over our wall and above the "pavement."
We still call it that although ten years ago the big concrete paving slabs were removed by the council and replaced with tarmac. The reason was because as the road is so narrow, people with two cars kept putting one of t prune off the heir vehicles, "two wheels up on the pavement," rather than have two cars one behind the other on their drive. The weight causing the slabs to crack. If you have two cars parked correctly opposite each other, you can not get a truck to pass between them. The problem with the tarmac, is that it attracts moss which can be slippery, so I try to keep it clear.
Beyond that cable TV access cover, is next door's problem.

United utilities made a good job installing our water meter three years ago.

 

I pulled the rest of the onions. Most are Red Wethersfield. Some are a yellow hybrid.





The first major apple crop is ready, Gravenstein. When I looked at the tree, I was a little dismayed at how many had already fallen and gone bad. By why be dismayed? There are more good ones than we can eat.



Gravenstein apple variety is OLD! From Wikipedia, 'Gravenstein was brought Denmark by count Carl Ahlstedt, who found it at the monastery L’Abbaye de Hautcombe near Lac du Bourget in Savoyen. He sent branches home to his brother, count Frederik the Younger (1662-1708), who grafted them onto an apple tree in the garden of the family's Gråsten Palace. The apple cultivar was named "Gråsten" or "Gravenstein" (German variant of the "Gråsten"). One source claims it was Fredrik himself who brought the cultivar to Gråsten Palace."

About seven of them went i to a pie.



Gravensteins are very tasty, and make a great pie. However, they completely lose their shape in a pie, so the texture is almost like a pecan pie without the pecans.

Gravenstein also spoil quickly, they are an ephemeral late summer treat. The first summer apple is a yellow modern hybrid, Pristine. The second is Gravenstein.

I planted some seeds where I had the onions.



We're nearing the end of the slicing tomatoes, but there may still be some more.



There was a gate-left- open incident here. Some hens escaped and crossed the road to get to the other side. One was still missing after I herded the rest into the pen. I was looking and looking and looking. Then for some reason, I looked UP.



The hen house is a former play fortress. I added a roof and door about ten years ago.

We're getting more figs than I can eat.

 

Great harvest, Daniel! My mom swore by gravenstein applesauce! She had two trees and would can a lot. We would go the friends houses and get other types (Washington State has the best apples, I think it's the rain) then we'd spend a weekend making apple pies to freeze. We'd peel and slice the apples then she'd make the crusts (I don't make good crusts) and I'd fill them. Whenever we wanted or needed something for a potluck or party we'd take one out and bake it.

 

My goodness, me Daniel! This is the kind of posting I can get my teeth into—You’ve got split-open toms, hanging figs, before and pie-after apple shots…and of course, chooks.
Your decent onion harvest and seed packets also look are of interest. Rufus seems proud of your lifted onions. Or does he try and imply that he lifted them for you?

Back to the tomato for a minute though. Do you recall the name of that one? It almost looks like a Marmande, but with a few more seeds. When I see it it really makes me want to take one of my toms from the ripening-on bowl and eat it ! Like, right now!

Yep— exciting stuff.

Thanks again for this wonderful posting.
Addendum: the chicken house and story was great fun to read. My Bride was amazed that you could herd them, she thought they would scatter in all directions. The old castle ruin, turned into a very lavish roosting accommodation is brilliant. Do they also lay in the castle? I would like to see the inside of it.
Funny about the one hen hiding in plain view.

It reminds me of the my Bride’s father escaping a razzia one night…taking a butcher knife and hiding under a German watchtower until dawn when he could melt into a group of people going to work. His logic was that if they were looking in the town, they would not be looking at their own place.

 

I'll be doing nothing today, as it's very wet outside.
That's convenient as there's golf, football and cricket on TV today before the final session of the World Athletics Championships this evening.

 

That's a nice memory, Willow.

My dad always made the apple pies in my family. I think they were usually Jonathan Apples, and I have a Jonathan Apple tree for nostalgia. They are a variety that is more suited for midwest growing, but do OK here too.

 

@Sjoerd, that tomato is "Dwarf Chocolate Champion". It's a real winner in my book.

In the heat, and so much to do, I never tied up my slicing tomatoes. I think they would bear longer if I did. But I got a wonderful taste of summer with them, and I'm very, very grateful for that. They are wonderful.

All told, I think there are about 100 onions. Mostly red ones. It's a satisfying harvest. Rufus isn't much interested in them, but his company is soothing and joyous for me.

Your father-in-law's story sent chills up my spine. The memories.. I learned a bee word - razzia. We humans seem just one mis-step to horror. That's all I'll say here on this gardening site, a much appreciated refuge from the world's traumas.

Some dwarf sunflowers in the squash bed. These range from knee high to shoulder high. I think I'll grow some next year in containers.



A geranium that overwintered dry in the garage. I think it's four years old now.



One of my goals is to choose heat / dry tolerant plants that will give joy during the increasingly hot, dry summers. Geraniums / Pelargoniums seem like a good choice for that.

 

Great harvest Daniel, if i have a lot of cookers i would cook them and put in freezer, I've only got 4 apples this year and still on the tree.
I'd love to keep chickens but not enough room here.

 

Gosh Daniel, I would never have guessed that your beautiful tom was one of the chocolate ones. It looks absolutely mouth-watering. You always have a great selection of toms.

Your Pelargoniums look very, very attractive. I have never seen that one. Ah, and the sunflower—it looks sort of like a couple I let grow up front under the Clematis. The little birds deposited them there, I suppose. I truly love a sunflower.