What have you done today in the Garden?

@Doghouse Riley Took the lead from the cages you designed for your dwarf acer palmatums and used the dog crate to temper in the dwarf acer branches next to the walkway . Now there is a lot more space to enter or leave the garden.

 

Lazy day of picking edible pod peas and eating them all raw. Garden area is small but I get to taste summer. Moved my potted strawberry starts under the mosquito netting for the blueberries. Guess a deer walked through the yard last night. Put mosquito netting over the raspberries yesterday and now there are a few ripe ones the jays didn’t pick.

 

I've almost finished setting up the latest version of a bearded iris bed. It's sloping, the soil isn't rich, and I'm mulching with shredded fir tree chips. We'll see if they do better this way. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas. It breaks a rule, having mulch, but having bare soil was a failure.



I want to mulch the bare areas in the am. It was too hot and I felt a bit sick after doing yard work today. Feral cats use the dry soil, and sometimes the tree chips, as a litter box. I don't like that - they have parasites - but there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it. They are carnivores and seem to keep mice, rabbits, and voles in control. Probably dodo birds too - I've never had a problem with those while there are feral cats around.

I took a few geranium cuttings, just because. I certainly don't need more.



The annual flowers are growing like crazy. I bet some will be blooming in a week or two.

Cosmos.


Marigolds


Zinnias.


Plus more Dahlias I overwintered in the garage.





I hauled a sempervivum container from the old house. These descend from my parents' house. They got them from my grandparents' and possibly great grandparents' homes.



Do you know this plant?


Borage never gives up. I last planted them a decade ago, for honeybees.



Today I cleared out more Canada thistle. It's a sticky one to get rid of. I might give up and put down a plastic barrier.

 

Daniel your such a super talented gardener. You have some really favoriate flower starts there , dahlias , cosmos, zinnias … so many different varieties. Good job.

Is that berry plant hypericum?

We have Canada thistle too the horses like to eat the basal rosettes high in protien for wildlife. They are incredibly invasive. I cut them off before the rosettes open .

 

You got it, Pac!
i figured you would know!

 

Well, the wisteria support was totally rotten simply swaying. The vine had been anchoring it. I did a purposeful drop so it didn’t hit the fence and will be working on the area for a while. Will move the ferns in the fall. Have bricks that provided a small paved area under the arbor that will also be removed and some huge boulders where the arbor leaned on that I have plans for.



The last bed is started. It’s along the south side of the house. Undecided as to what will be there. My usual no dig method. I just lay a very thick layer of cedar mulch. In a season or two it turns to soil. Sometimes I lay cardboard first if I have it.



This is what my soil looks like, rocks and pebbles, gardening in a gravel pit. I threw the diggings from the hole created for the potted lilies onto the mulch for the raspberries. Uggh. Glacial till is a far cry from the two feet of rich loam I had the luxury of before.



Dirt where the dog dug looks like coarse sand.



Parts of the hillside are primarily moss covered glacial till.




Fortunately I live on the edge of a temperate rainforest so I have hope. Water and mulch and the clover (cover crop) appear to be slowly transforming the areas I hope to improve for moisture retention and plant growth.

 

Picked a lot of gooseberries, topped and tailed them and put in the freezer.
The more you weed the more will come up, i weeded around the path to plant the pot marigolds and weeds are coming up again, won't weed again until the autumn.

 

Jewel omg the arch for the wisteria vine gone…has left the poor support in the ground rotting as wood usually does.
Soil and rocks is tough to dig in I like your system for soil amending. You will have a lot of time over the winter to decide what all you want to plant next spring. Your soil technique is similar to what I had to do with rock hard clay soil . I just brought in truck loads of top soil then planted the garden.

Logan Planting gooseberries and currants used to be illegal in Oregon because they're alternate hosts for white pine blister rust. This ban has been lifted because there are so many wild Ribes species. Red currants and gooseberries are generally self-fertile, and you need only one cultivar for fruit production.
While riding thru the mountains of Oregon - horseback …this time of year was a haven for the horses with all the gooseberries,currents, and wild blackberries. They would end up with purple noses.

I was out early this morning checking all the plants to be sure they all were watered. Some needed water others seem ok with the watering system in place on auto . Water each zone at night early am.
Had to add water to the ponds the constant stream of yellowjackes to the water and other critters and birds lower the level . Especially in this heat .

 

Great set of plants there, Daniel. And to think, you will have all that colour coming later on. Ohhh, that is some good work, mate.

Jewell— This is an exciting posting. It will be fun watching hot it will all turn out.

 

Hiya Mel— mate, I don’t know how I missed a whole page of posts, which included yours. Jeeeeeez!
Holy animal crackers— that was a great piece you did on your greenhouse toms and paprikas. I could see really well how it is going. The strawb bed looks well, and that type of mesh is what I use extensively. I really hope you will show periodic updates.

Did I see a sucker on a plant in the second from the bottom foto?

 

Yes i did know about that and it's good that the ban has been lifted.

 

Just watered the dahlias and lillies .



Hiding them on the porch from the deer. They are coming along.

 

Tis gone now Make sure the Bride knows

 

Just watering early today. Got up early to avoid heatstroke.

 

The last few days have been big weeding and building maintenance days. Today was installing drip irrigation to the greenhouse and strawbs, with mulch. Mulching the portion of the upper veg garden where the spinach was, mulching the corn, and using newspaper to mulch the greenhouse.

The newspaper is an experiment...I have to keep it damp so it doesn't take moisture from the soil But I'm hoping it will protect the roots and keep them cooler with the bit of plus 40 C to come. Lows of 18 c For us that is a hot, and only two nights ago I had frost by creek. Sheesh