What have you done today in the Garden?

shhh.... don't tell, but I tripped and fell again while the kids were out. I am okay though.
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I worked on the ditch and got a few more feet done. We might get it done this week? I sure hope so. I have no intentions of digging any more ditches after this is done. We will have to fill it back in though... (I bet I know who gets to do a lot of refilling it in...) My end of the ditch has a lot of yuk water from when I punctured the pipe at least once. I cannot see if I punctured it more or not. I think I was scraping the pipe this afternoon. I sure hope so.

A friend gave me two young pecan trees, two persimmon trees, and two witch hazel trees (I think they are more bushes than trees, but whatever). I want to plant them this week. I know where I will put the pecan trees, but not sure on the others. He ordered them from the Conservation Department Nursery, so they should be good trees. ( I NEVER order from Arbor Day or certain other nurseries, as theirs all arrive dead.) I have gotten from the Conservation Department Nursery before and those trees are doing great. My giant white pines came from them through a different friend, and some of my redbuds also. I think my one dogwood came from them also. The witchazel already has leaves, I think the others are a bit slower but should leaf out soon.

I have been outdoors a lot enjoying the sunshine and pulling weeds all over when I can.

I think it was @Anniekay who said she gets to doing one thing, and sees much more to do, and does some of that etc... That would be me too. My list is longer than both of my arms, and it is hard to keep on one thing at a time. I have one of those dry erase boards that I could list things to get done, but every time I buy new markers they are dried out when I open them up.

 

@AAnightowl glad that you are alright after your fall.

 

Yeah, that was me. I'm easily distracted by plants !!
I hope your Persimmons are Japanese because American Persimmons are tart, not sweet.

 

Watered all pots and Strawberry baskets this morning , still haven't had any rain....maybe on Fri
Pricked out some seedlings this afternoon.

 

Sowed some more wallflower seeds and watered the blueberries in pots.

 

Welp, got another 30' of vines off my back fence behind the shade garden and right on the other side of that fence we have small Camphor trees growing up. To keep the fence clear, every year I reach over with the loppers and cut the small trees down. This helps air circulation so I don't get so many mosquitoes living back there.

After that I dug out the weeds in the shade garden that had to be dug out, hoed the rest. Fertilized the 3/4 of that bed that I didn't get to yesterday and mulched the 1/4 that I did get fertilized yesterday. Right now I have the sprinkler on to water the fertilizer in and tomorrow I can mulch the rest of the bed and be done !! Thank the Garden gods !!

 

I worked on more ditch digging this afternoon... I had errands to run, so did not get as much done as I would have liked. I HOPE to plant my new trees tomorrow and dig in that ditch.

I did get a few more tomato plants, and some bell pepper plants. I need to up-pot them so they can wait a 2-3 more weeks to go in the ground.

 

It's too windy and cold to do anything outside, but I've fed the birds and hedgehogs.

 

This week I started indoors my melons, squash, zucchini and cucamelon seeds. Plan on doing cucumbers next few days.

 

I'm still not "Quite" done with my shade garden. I have about 5 more bags of mulch to spread and then I'll truly be finished with it.
This morning it looked like this. Note the crooked tree in the corner of the fence. It's an old wisteria that has gone 100' to the north via the tree canopy.

 

This is what it looks like now. I have only 20' left of the fence to clear !!

The shade garden got really badly hit by freezing rain and then 2" of snow. We hadn't had any snow here in 5 3 years !! Almost all my ferns died but some are starting to pop up new shoots and I lost an Azalea and a small holly so, lots of empty spaces that I intend to fill this fall.

 

Annie Kay nice job.

 

We worked more on that ditch today. DS had removed a couple of young trees that were directly in the drain line, so the ditch drained over night and we could find more drain pipe. I am smashing all the drain pipe I find. It can STAY in there as far as I am concerned, and the new pipe can lay on top of it. A lot more water drained out today. ... We are almost 3/4 done with the digging... finally.

I also got one of my pecan trees planted, and have the other one to plant, plus the two persimmon trees and witch hazel to plant. I want to plant the witch hazel in a tub. It is supposed to be a big shrub, so that way it wont make trouble. There are two of those also. Okay... (they may have to share a tub?)

Did I mention that my weeping willow tree is doing good. My pond is/was flooded from the recent flooding, and it was about a foot or so above water and has leaves. Willows like the extra water, so it should be fine.

Have any of you planted pecan trees? Gurney's and Stark Brothers both said to trim the taproot when planting bare root pecan trees. I never heard of that, but I did cut a wee bit off. They are both good nurseries, so I hope they are right.


I put my newest tomatoes and bell peppers in larger pots until it is safe to plant them outdoors for summer. The newest tomatoes are an heirloom variety called Arkansas Traveler. I have not tried them before.

I have a sweet potato in a jar of water, and it is finally putting out some growth. I have seen some who put the sweet potato in a pan of dirt/soil, but I did not want to tempt my cats to be naughty in it.

So far the ginger I planted some time ago has done nothing. I bought some new ginger and soaked it. I need to try planting it, and MAYBE some will grow?

My year and a half old pointsetta is still doing nicely. It will go on the porch in a couple of weeks.. Usually I kill those quickly. I think I will take its picture and send a copy to my friend who gave it to me. My lemon trees are well....

And my 2 newest concord grape vines are doing nicely. I hope those other two vines improve. I checked my Ostrich plume ferns today, and they are sending up some greenery. I hope they get big too. I took some of the leaf mulch off of them.

good nite.

 

Nothing today, other than feeding the birds and putting more food out for the hedgehogs. I've the dentist, shopping and a few household chores that need attention.
I've recovered from playing golf in the cold and wet yesterday. Play ahead was very slow and it took us over four hours to get round. At times, I couldn't feel my fingers it was that cold.

Everything in the garden is progressing.
The first of the azaleas in this bed are coming out. Blossom on the lilac in the pot.


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The acer palmatums are almost in full leaf.

This one may need a bit more tidying.



This one is almost perfect. The new turf under it is thriving too.





This, one of our two, "tree azaleas," in pots will soon be out.




Even this acer I cut right back will have soon recovered.





The wisterias on both pergolas are nearly fully out.





The one on the side fence is always later.





One year, these three azaleas around our sambucas might all flower at the same time, but not this year. Squirrels "still not repairing their pitch marks in the lawn."

 

DHR esquisit maintenance and amazing garden all dolled up with lovely spring blooms.

@AAnightowl nice to catch up on all your projects. All great news for spring planting and blooms.