What have you done today in the Garden?

Now then Daniel— your espalier trees are absolutely in good hands. The Gala… one of my very favourite apples. I have noticed that they taste slightly different, depending the country where they were grown. I guess it is all in the soil.

Of course I have to give your daff full marks because I have the same one. Remember it?


The day lilies.are looking good to me. What will be their colours be?
Good luck with those Mirabilis seeds.

 

I gave the back lawn a feed and sprayed all the roses with a rose tonic.

There's nothing else that needs attention at the moment.
We had a visitor last night. This is quite a big hedgehog and I'm pretty sure not the one that came last year. It ate some of the food I left out, but not a lot.

 

Riley—It does look hefty. You suspect that it is a new face, and that is already an exciting prospective for the coming season.

 

Oreti good to hear your dahlias over wintered well. They can be a bit tricky . They are the best flowers for end of June -Oct . They don’t do much till the ground temps reach 70F. I leave some in pots on a covered porch wrapped the pots in bubble wrap. Others I over winter after they are dried and wrapped in suran wrap kept in a cold dark place. I will plant those in the dahlia beds. Some do well if the squirrels don’t dig them up.
Also the lily bulbs stay in pots on the porch as well and several are starting to send up leaves.

 

Yes, we're calling it "Rambo."

Digressing

Over thirty years ago Citroen produced two versions of their 2CV, "Dolly" which had flower graphics and "Bamboo" which was in just that green colour. Both had the version names on them on the wings and the back,
A couple who lived near us had a "Bamboo," but with some "T cut" paste had altered the names to "Rambo."

 

I used to have a 2CV. What a fun auto that was.
Rambo—That is a good name for that big guy.

 

Looking forward to seeing your blooming dahlias!

I still have work to do on mine. The dahlia seedlings look pretty good so far, just beginning. I have two new tubers in moist potting soil. I haven't checked the ones that overwintered in their pots in the garage, yet.

We have an active inderground population that enjoy eating nontoxic tubers and bulbs. They eat dahlias, tulips, lilies. I can keep those in containers above ground, but not in ground. It's probably voles. Sometimes I see where they chew potatoes, too.

 

Today I pruned my original row of fig trees. Six varieties. They are South of the house, so get a lot of sun and warmth.

(internet went out for a while)



Tomorrow would be a good day to reload the yellow jacket traps.

What would be a good use for a few cups of dehydrated yellow jackets? Bird or chicken treats? Are the toxic? Compost I guess.

I pruned the Asian Pear trees. They have to be at a Goldilocks stage - too high for deer to like, low enough for me to do stuff.




i pruned the genetic dwarf peaches.

They have to be short enough to stay within their rain shelter. Also, to not over-bear.



Cleared weeds around a baby fig tree.

Puttered.

 

@Oreti , thankfully, all of those snakes are not in my yard! I get some snakes, and only get rid of any poison ones, which is usually 4 or 5 most seasons. Thankfully they usually stay out in the woods or someplace else. I do have to get rid of any in my hen house if I can catch them. I keep shovels handy in case of snakes. They are sneaky.

Where do you live that has no snakes?

I hear Iceland does not have snakes, but they have volcanoes.

I worked at my church's community center today, and it turned cold again for a few days. I did not get outdoors today.

The storms that they forecasted did not show up here until about 2:30 am. Some other areas have heavy damages.

 

@Daniel W , I give dead bees to my chickens. But not if you have poisoned them though. You can get wasp traps that use pheromes instead of poisons. Those would be safe. Those red wasps get indoors to my attic area, and those I splat and give to my chickens.

 

@Daniel W, thank you for the nice thoughts on my garden.

I think you all are way ahead of me--I have never tried to espalier any fruit trees or do any grafting, at least not yet. You all know a lot more scientific names for plants than I do also.

At the moment my yard and garden is a total mess because I have gotten way behind. I HAVE to get out and clean up those rocks from last year's ditchwork so I can mow my grass and weeds.

Also, chickens love many of the 'weeds' we pull and it makes them lay better.

 

Hi there @AAnightowl ,we're in the UK right down south a couple of miles from the coast.

No we don't see any snakes really maybe the very ,very occasional grass snake. Had heard of Adders being spotted but I've never seen one, the only snake like creatures we get are Slow Worns....but they are really legless lizards.

We only have 3 types of native snakes here ...Adder( the only venomous one) , Smooth and Grass.

 

Daniel— About those yellow jackets:
I think what to do with them has to do with how you killed them. Like NO said, it they were killed with a poison then you can better bin those; however, if you used sugar water in your catchers they ought to be alright for your chickens, or songbirds. The thing is, when you dump them, don’t do it in a spot that you frequently go, because the sweetness will quickly attract more bees and wasps of all sorts.

I used to place my traps right on top of my bee hives. Odd that the bees never went in, only yellow jackets and flies. Odd that.
Anyway, I quickly learned not to place my traps near where my fruit trees were or where I would sit to take tea or read, because it actually drew the little beasts which was a real nuisance. I also learned not to place the traps in my fruit trees because it drew them to a feeding place so that when the fruit was rope the yellow jackets had already learned where to go and the ripe fruit became the new preference.

I do not use the traps any more and I net the fruit trees and bushes. I used to throw the dead flies and yellow jackets into the canal which borders my lottie. The small fish and the newts as well as the frogs gobbled them right up. Occasionally I put some out for the tits when they were brooding.

 

That makes me shudder Nightowl. Much like Oreti I have few snakes. The only one where I live is a Garter Snake. I see them often and they are harmless, and good mousers. When I go to the lake I sometimes see about 12 sunning themselves on the black rocks. One lives around the greenhouse, another in the garden. I pick them up if I can catch them.

A few hours south of me there are Rattlesnakes. There are warning signs at rest stops etc, and you hear of dogs being lost to their bite every year. I'll take the large predators any day over your snakes and their snakes...and the Texas snakes.

 

Today I am taking the front snow cover plastic off of the greenhouse, and venturing inside. I'll be setting up a table on some sawhorses so that in a couple of days I can begin using it for a few hours every day as a natural light source for the plants instead of grow lights. It will be nice to be in there.