What have you done today in the Garden?

Black mulberries are incredibly delicious!

 

@Daniel W I looked up your " Greenspire Linden" A variety of Tilia cordata. We tried to plant an avenue of them a few years back but the partridges had other ideas and killed half of them. I just rounded up the ones that were left and filled in the gaps on one side, so instead of an avenue we've got a line of 15 of them.

 

I can't wait to eat them. There's a white mulberry outside of my west fence but it doesn't produce very well.

 

I did quite a bit this morning.
I re-painted the pergola ferrules and added a few for possible replacements.

What makes you think I've done this before?




I also re-painted the sorin.

This was a pain to make thirty-odd years ago, mostly from stuff I had in the garage.
There's a central steel rod.

From the bottom.
A shaving foam canister top.
A wooden cupboard handle.
Nine drilled out brass cupboard handles.
Nine shower curtain rings.
Nine 4pt milk carton tops,
A nut.
A Blagden garden lighting support spike, I drilled holes in.
Two wooden beads.

It's as authentic as I could make it.




I gave the little acer another trim and was able to remove the dead wood of which there's always some.





The quince on the fence are out. We've three. I keep them as a "band," along the top of the fence. I don't like them growing outwards as they will interfere with the rhodos and makes it more difficult for me to walk behind the planting. I don't like them too tall, as they add more shade to the lawn, which encourages moss.




The little phlox plug plants are "desperate to get out of the shed." But it's still too early to put them in the rockery.




I gave everything a good water and put the lawn sprinklers on for a while.





The jukeboxes got a good run out. I've removed the insulation, but I left them with their dust covers on, I made out of some old thermal backed curtains.
I've put their heaters back on timers, as although, it's still cold at night, it will get very warm in there during the day. In May, I'll open the roof vent and the two in the bottom of the back wall.




I'll finish the pagoda tomorrow. The roofs have had two coats of paint. Would you believe £30 for a ltr? It's looking odd without its ferrules.




I've decided not to do any patio re-pointing. I'm taking my wife's advice and I'm going to "get a man in." I'm going to get some quotes. I expect it will be a "dear do."

 

Today I planted a fresh batch of radish, turnip, lettuce, and Swiss chard (which originates in Sicily, not Switzerland).



I want to give them a head start before planting in the garden. Jays ate the tops from every seedling that germinated last week. . This time I'll also cover the plants with a polystyrene box until they establish.

The tomato seeds germinated last night . Some of those seed were five years old. I moved them to the LED shelf to green up and get a start growing.







That was this morning. They have started to green up by early evening. If I don't like the lanky ones, there are spares.

I wanted to plant spinach and more lettuce, but ran out of seed starting medium. A trip to the big store took care of that.

Maybe I'll plant dwarf dahlia seeds tomorrow, a few more tomatoes (some are for giving), and some dwarf sweetpeas.

Here is the new front porch, curing. It's darker than I hoped, and some of the color is uneven. It's OK, might fade, and will be less obvious when it has a railing, plants, landscaping, lava rock mulch, and some deck furniture. We can't walk on it until next week.



That's my final big wildfire risk mitigation project (following cement-based siding, metal roof, fireproof insulation, and removing nearby conifer trees and shrubs), phew! The old deck was in need of a lot of work, flammable, and being raised, wildfire embers could potentially fly under it and set the wood aflame. Plus, sometimes there were creatures of some sort under there. This is better for safety and maintenance. This gives a 12 to 24 foot defensible zone, where before it was flammable.

 

I really admire that cement deck and how clever to stamp a compass face onto it.!!
You're growing 2 varieties of veg that I like best. The buttercrunch lettuce is so sweet and french breakfast radish are so juicy and crisp.
I'm excited to see your veg growing in your garden. Where I live my spring veg is planted in winter. Next month will be the end of my lettuce, too much heat and then I let it set seeds. So now I get to see others growing spring veg via this forum !!

 

I wasn't going to do much today.
Just finish off the pagoda.

I didn't give it a complete "make over," just painted the roofs, part of the decks and the sorin. I didn't want it to look too new. The balustrades, which are hardwood mouldings set in the concrete floors, did not need a repaint.






Some of the work that went into this nearly forty years ago is always unseen.
At the time, there was no internet and I relied on illustrations in books.

There's a limit to what you can do with concrete, but I had a go at making "simulated pin-joint supports." These are used under the corners of the roofs which stick out quite a long way.






These of course can't be seen, due to the size of the roofs.


I'm pleased with the progress of this Acer palmatum Taylor. Lots of little buds on every branch. It has spent the last two winters in the utility room in the garage. I replace two we'd bought in successive years which I left on the patio and died over winter.




Still no sign of any hedgehog activity.

 

This is the little black Mulberry that I planted yesterday. It was tough going because there used to be a barn back here that, after cars became available, was turned into a garage. Ther was red and yellow clay in the top one foot of soil that was in great big chunks. I removed those chunks and got to some nice loamy soil, then set the mulberry tree in.



Today I spent five hours weeding, fertilizing and mulching. I went through 15 bags of mulch !!

 

There's quite a bit of sport on TV today and I've some domestic chores which need attention, so there will be no work done in the garden.
I've stopped being concerned about there being no hedgehog activity as yet, as I've "checked my records."
This was the first sighting picked up on the trail/cams last year, it was 1st of April.

 

This disgusting thing is what I've been digging out of my garden beds today. I have a very large clump of it growing under, through, around and in between my rambling roses and my plumbago. I had to dig up and divide the Plumbago, wash the entire rootball off in order to remove it. It's called Florida Betony or, commonly known as Rattlesnake weed as the tubers resemble how rattlesnake rattles grow.

Every year I dig it out, and it comes right back. It has even grown all the way up through my 17" high raised beds. Talk about tenacity !!

They say you can make tea from the leaves and you can wash off the roots and eat them raw .

The day I eat these is the day the men come with the straightjacket !!

 

Stopped at my local box store for a hanger for wind chimes (which is installed) and noticed cinnamon fern bulbs (3) picked them up and will plant tomorrow. Hopefully they grow I love ferns. They instantly make me think woodlands.

 

Today I added another seven wagon loads of wood chips to the kitchen garden. I think it's about 90% complete.

I also finished repotting a miniature rose that I was playing with last year. I had given up on it because it grew too large, and got black spot in the fall. So I threw it in the staging area where I have plant containers and potting soil. It was there all winter with no care at all. I noticed it had started growing, so I decided to give it another chance. I repotted it in a much larger container and sat it in the kitchen garden.

The black spot may be more of an issue than the size. Watch and wait.


I started building the first squash trellis. It has the top two bamboo rungs now. The second trellis is mostly done, just needs a couple more rungs. They wont be needed until May or June or July.

 

What an interesting plant!

i looked it up. This website says they are delicious!

https://www.tyrantfarms.com/florida-betony-how-to-id-grow-eat/

Cant blame you for not eating it. I had what looked like morels, but Im not expert so left them alone. They never grew again.

 

First of the Strawberry flowers



These are some of 14 pots that are in the smaller polytunnel. They'll come on a bit earlier than the main lot that are in the netted fruit tunnel.

No sign of the Tuinbonen from above @Sjoerd but when you look under the pot...

 

We have an Osmunda regalis in the shade house here - that's in the same family as your Cinnamon fern.
I agree about the woods, walking there after a shower of rain makes a heavenly scent.