What have you done today in the Garden?

I saw a tree at a customer's house. It was in a pot on wheels. A very large pot on very large wheels. It stood near a small garage shed that was disproportionately small for the home. It was like a big potting shed, with high windows. I wondered if they built it for that tree or if the tree came after they built what seemed like a very nice potting shed. When I think about how heavy that pot must be I always remember my DW's bromeliads that I take in for the winter days and out for the nice days and stop wanting more work.

 

Finished the weeding around the path in the front garden.
Hubby is slowly cutting the pyracantha hedge around the side of the house. He's cut a bit more and we'll remove the cuttings tomorrow.

 

Our local Wilko has signs saying it is closing down although it's not on the list.
Some empty shelves, but a lot of their stuff won't sell at any price. Today I bought a string of 100 red cherry lights for the tea house. £6 well spent.
Half the old set of multi-coloured lights didn't work, but there's also a string of tiny white lights.

So they look quite good with all the other lights in the garden.









Not that they get switched on very often, if at all. but they are "there" if we want them.

 

Doghouse, those night scenes are beautiful Very nicely done!

 

About half of the Spring blooming bulbs are planted in containers now. I rounded up two more containers this afternoon, but will likely need to buy a couple too.

I also dug up some bearded iris clumps, from a big area that will converted to lawn this winter. Also a few from the "nursery bed" where I moved quite a few last year.

One of the challenges is, the soil is so full of weed seeds. It's hard to keep up with them with a rhizomatous perennial like bearded iris. There is also fungal disease that affects them during rainy Spring but not other times.



I washed the soil off of the rhizomes, and separated the younger ones to keep.



It's easier to remove grasses with the rhizomes out of the soil. Plus, I can wash off weed seeds and maybe, soil-borne pathogens.

The I trimmed the leaves. I just kept the strongest looking rhizomes.



Then planted in a container, with a good potting soil and some slow release flower fertilizer (Osmocote).



I had already planted a second container with similar rhizomes, that were more stressed due to their location. The ones with dried out, brown leaves, were new purchases.



I don't know how they'll do. I think they will all grow, but some might need an extra year before they bloom. If they do well, they'll need thinning in a year or two or three. The first week of Sept seems late for much growth, but there's no time like the present to do a renewal project.

I also harvested some grapes today.



And I canned a batch of tomatoes. They didn't do so well. I tried pressure canning for the first time. If there are more, I might try boiling water canning a batch next week.

I'm having a cement walk installed in front of the house. It's 5 feet wide. The old paver walk was 3 feet wide. The new walk curves, whereas the old one had 90 degree angle turns. It eases up to the deck and to the driveway, instead of a 9-inch to foot high step. This walk will eliminate a never ending weeding chore that I had with the pavers. It also eliminates the tripping hazard where tree roots pushed up a lot of pavers.





The border will be mostly re-done, mostly boulders and lava rock. The gigantic green thing is a grape vine on an arbor. It will stay, but will be pruned. When it's completed, the flammability factor will be much less than a year ago (several big conifer bushes are removed, as is wood chip mulch and grasses), and it will be wheelchair / walker / old person accessible (and for EMTs, if that happens).

 

When the contractors removed the front path paving stones, they also removed, and piled up, the thick plastic under-layments that were under the pavers. Those are about 1/2 inch thick, fairly rigid, textured, black rectangles 2 x 3 feet. I stared cleaning them up and laid some between raised beds. I think they will be easier to keep clean and weed-free, than the wood chip mulch I have been using.

I also cut down a nonperforming fig tree (I have about 15 fig trees) and a nonperforming apple tree (I have about 15 of those too). I will remove some more as I can. Less to take care of and easier to maintain those areas.

 

That’s a big job but I can see why you did it.
I am curious to see how it will look after it is completed.

Good propagating work with those iris plantlets. It is handy for folks who may be wanting to do the same.

 

I got into the garden early today, well for me, it was early on a non golf day, around 9.30 am.
Mowed both lawns, pruned some wisterias and vacuumed up all the dead leaves.
Then tidied the shed and the garage.

Checked on the repair I made to the floor of the tea-house.

It was only about 2" X 2" right in the corner. I dug out the rot and gave it a dose of Cuprinol three days ago. I filled it on Thursday, rubbed it down and painted it on Friday afternoon. I did both plywood "tiles." i'll give it another coat tomorrow.
This floor has had that many coats of paint in 36 years, damp can get through any small break in the surface and start decaying the wood under the paint. You can only detect this has happened by pressing down in any suspect areas, to see if there was any give, as I do occasionally with all four corners of this floor. That's how I found this spot, untreated it would have spread.
This warm weather was the idea time to do it.





This being on the "weather side," it's the most vulnerable area. The floor is perfectly level so I don't get a pool of water anywhere.
Still I can't complain, apart from changing the roofing felt 15 years ago and repairing a cracked window in the centre door, earlier this year, it's all I've needed to do.
That was a pain. I had to remove the door, just two bolts top and bottom and turn it on its side.
Carefully remove the side of the frame and slide in a new plastic pane. I had to first trim it carefully with a hacksaw to fit, as they are quite brittle. (I only had one spare). Also, re-glue the hard wood bars that makes it appear to be three panes, a couple of others on the other doors needed re-glueing.










"Done and dusted."

 

Not much today it's too hot but later do some watering.

 

We planted potatoes in one of the beds at the school last spring. So we harvested them yesterday. We got quite a few! I can't post the pictures because I took them with the kids in them. I'm hoping they aren't mealy or anything, because they didn't really get watered over the summer. Just whatever rain there was.
This morning I picked more raspberries, I'm getting about a quart bag and a half one each day. My dried beans are getting very dry so they should be ready soon. And my second planting of fresh beans are producing.

 

Such a nice job!

 

Thanks Daniel, how are you feeling? Did I miss your salsa recipe? I'm going back to check again, right now.

Just looked and didn't see it, but I did remember that I was going to comment on Riley's night pictures. Those are very nice!

And I have a question for all of you... I'm going to plant garlic with the kids this year; but should I plant soft or hard neck? They will get neglected in the summer months. I always do hard neck because I like the scapes. But no one will bother with the scapes at the school.

 

It's still very warm, but we had a light shower during the night. Fortunately, not like the one we had a few days ago that left "Sahara dust" over everyone's car.
I did enough yesterday, so I won't do anything today.

 

Pulled up the pot marigolds and weeded the ground ready for the wallflowers.
Been having light showers today but hope for some more so that i can plant out.

 

Riley—Are those wisterias blooming like that now?!
I noticed those little decorative circles again like you used elsewhere. Very nice.