What have you done today in the Garden?

Hubby bought 2 bags of compost, some cell trays and watering trays that the cell trays will fit in.
I found a lot of polyanthus seedlings growing in the border so i put them in the cell trays.

 

@Sjoerd I love that smiley, winking face on the greenhouse. Is that a shower door set up you have on it? That is very clever !!

So far, (why I say "so far" I don't know because I've already showered !! ) I had 22 bags of mulch in the car so I drove down and put 15 bags of mulch on my blackberry patch. Piled up 7 more next to the bed so they are handy when I get that last bit weeded and fertilized. Then I drove to Lowes to get 20 more bags since the sale is 5 for $10. I piled those up half at one end of the shade garden and half on the other, read to spread out once that is weeded and fertilized.

I would've weeded except it was 1:30pm and the prediction was 2pm rain. Not here yet !! But, I'm now totally clean and intend on staying that way for the rest of the day !!

 

Just a couple of hours of general garden housekeeping.

I mowed the small front lawn. It always suffers where the azaleas shade it around the perimeter, a band of about a foot in depth. I gave it a feed and it may need some iron sulphate at the week-end as there's a small amount of moss.







The big acer tree has a lot of buds on it. This is despite me taking 12" off it all the way round and on top in the winter to stop it getting too big.





Gave my Flymo a bit of a service before mowing the lawn.
The lawn in the back garden is recovering, I mowed it all except where there's the new turf, which seems to be taking. I'm watering that twice a day. The rest benefitted from me leaving the two pop-up sprinklers on for a while.

Hard to see the "join" where the new turf starts.
The acer palmatum's leaves are progressing at a pace.








This little acer is doing its best despite the drastic haircut I gave it a week ago.







The blossom on this quince is now fully out.






I put another containing wire around these three azaleas. They've been there for ten years. They want to spread out and shade the grass next to the brick circle and attract moss. I want them to grow upwards and hide the Sambucus's big plastic tub.
I'm winning!






I've removed the containing wires that encourage this wisteria to cascade.




My wife bought this blue-tit feeder from "her" shopping channel a year ago. It wasn't cheap, but it's well-made. We had it hanging from the pergola over the French windows, but they didn't want to know. They used the feeder under the azaleas with the rest of the small birds.
So I've moved it here in this pergola, maybe they'll like it there better.





This acer palmatum Taylor is doing well. The leaves are all the same colour at the moment but later, they will go, yellow, green and pink.





I'm pleased to say that there's no sign of blackspot on the roses, they still have patches of white on some leaves, it's the residue of the sulphur.

 

@Dirtmechanic My soil is also acidic, some spots down to 5.5. I've added lots of ash, sometimes lime, lately mostly crushed eggshell. Author Steve Solomon (I think, my memory isn't great) claims it's due to so much rain over the years and a history of acidic rain.

I think San Marzano is indeterminate? I might have grown them once. I wanted determinates for the paste tomatoes. There are hybrid varieties with bigger paste tomatoes, but I think I like the Romas better.

 

Hubby cut the back grass which didn't take long. I had to water the polyanthus around the path, haven't had any rain for a few weeks.

 

This morning, after the fog cleared, I had to drive to the bank. I got a refund check for $66.25 in the mail so I cashed it and then spent all but $6 and change of it at... where else? The Garden Center !!

Picked up a red snack pepper plant for $6 and a discounted Wallflower plus 22 bags of mulch. I got my pepper plant planted and took out three broccoli plants that I had left to flower for the bees.

Then, I had all these long thin stalks full of green broccoli seed pods so I cut those off of the parent plant and used them for mulch, hoping that the slugs will munch on those rather than anything else !! We'll see how that goes !!

 

Annie—that greenhouse door is simply a sliding door. I smeared on the white stuff to cut the sunlight down. I used my finger to make the little face.… yeah, gardening doesn’t always have to be a serious business. Haha.
The greenhouse will need to be tidied up a bit and re-painted this year.

Riley— your yard and garden plots look really smart already.

 

Of course Dirt, you are absolutely right. There has to be a woman behind every man - to clean up all the mess he makes

 

Both lawns have been cut, the big main compost pile has been turned over and is looking really good ...just needs bagging up now in readiness to empty out the area and start collecting this years lot. The bagged leaf mulch area has started to be sorted out,....finally. Last years bags have been put to one side ready for me to use and the new supply is now doing it magic and getting itself ready for next year. All these jobs kept hubs busy and out of mischief!!

I have somehow managed to 'sort of' weed one of the main big borders....just don't look too closely.

Have pulled all the Hostas out from their winter hibernation place and given their pots a tidy up and watering.

Checked over the potted Lilies that have begun to throw up some shoots.

As I had dug up a couple of our big Dahlias that were now in the wrong place and overwintered them in the greenhouse I have now divided them and kicked started them into hopeful action..

I have also been pricking out lots of seedlings too.

All the overwintered plants that have been stored in the large lean-to cold frame are now being brought out daily for a day in the sunshine....that in itself is a time consuming task!!

Day off today...we'll just open everything up and that will be it.
My leg still swells up very easily and very painfully if I overdo things, working on an alternate day rota for certain jobs is proving the best way for me right now. So today is a gentle out and about, lunch out day.

 

First sighting of a hedgehog this year!

I checked the camera tonight. Hadn't before as none of the food had been eaten. But if it's "our" hedgehog he's been out for a few days. First photos on the camera were five days ago.

But it looked quite large. So it might not be the one that was in the house under the azaleas.



On the videos, it did stick its head in the entrance, but didn't try to go in. Maybe it thought the hole was too small.
Mind you, the food pellets have been in there for nearly two weeks. So I took a hacksaw to it and sawed off a few inches of the entrance tube, to make it slightly less than half the original length.





I've left a few pellets on the brick in front of the entrance as an incentive.


>

I've done the same with the feeder at the bottom of the garden






So maybe, this will make a difference.

I'm going to leave the camera where it is to see if this works. If it does, I'll train it on the house under the azaleas to see if it's "our," hedgehog that's been on the patio.

 

I cleaned up all the piles of weeds in the garden. When I weed I throw the weeds out of the bed and make piles as I go. I picked up 4 wheelbarrows heaping full of them, then it got so muggy and hot 88°f, (and I'm not used to it yet) that I had to quit.

Then, I went into the Potting shed, straighten it out, swept and organized my barrow by setting all my fertilizers, sulfur, ironite and such in it so that I can finish fertilizing in the morning.

 

Hubby cut the front grass which is a lot bigger than the back. I watered the polyanthus again, watered the blueberry pots, dug up polyanthus seedlings that were growing in the pavement and put them into cell trays, I've dug up 72. Sowed some corn chamomile seeds into cell trays and put them outside.

 

Riley— I was wondering how the hedgehogs were doing there.

 

Watering the polyanthus and the pots in the back garden.

 

This morning I planted a block of Bodacious corn and since my baby bush watermelons have had two weeks in the raised bed to germinate and haven't, I planted three more. I found a green worm in there about an inch long. He probably ate them.

Then I finished weeding my large blackberry patch. Took out a lot of florida betony and had some camphor tree seedlings to dig out, fertilized and mulched them, then stopped for lunch.