What have you done today in the Garden?

Well, I am going to post some pics now, but I did not do all this today, rather over the last couple of weeks, or so when we could get away for a visit.

To begin with, we finished tidying-up the flower plots, but now we must wait until the croci, daffs and snowdrop foliage has re-filled their bulbs. In spite of having removed a lot of weeds, the messy-ness of the flowerless clumps is not ideal…but ach, it’s green.


The grass paths needed their edges tidied-up. Gosh, with just the first edges cut, it already gives the air of being civilised.


We then turned our attention to the peas, growing-away in their protective enclosures. We needed to take the netting loose and erect a little rack for the Nirobi’s. Here they are, after a weeding and their new rack. The objects on top of the poles are to prevent the ancient net from making more holes:


We will get rid of that net after this year. It is almost twenty years old and falls apart in one’s hands. Perhaps you can see the set-up a bit better with this nest foto.


The rack is a bit more visible, I believe. Then to show the ghastly netting job:


it all looks a bit makeshift, doesn’t it.

So mates, it was time for spudding. I got out my trusty hand-plough and made some trenches. We left them a few day so the soil would warm-up a bit before we actually planted the seed potatos. In this next picture you can see our new sort, French Fingerlings in their trench:


Moving along to the bean patch now. You know the drill— roll back the mulch layer, weed, rake, loosed the soil and re-rake. After that we laid down planks and erected the wigwams. It always makes me feel so good to see those structures standing tall and looking organised.




First the ground work and then the architectur:


The beetroot and Swiss chard needed a place as well. Behind them, the onion sets will go in around the middle of May, after the onion fly has been and gone.


Finally, the Parsnips. The seeds are going in:


I have caught you up now on most of the work we have been doing.

 

Didn't do much today, just videoed the wisterias. Usually I do this in May, but they are early this year and they will start to fade at the end of the week, before the rhodos and azaleas are out. It was raining, so it's a bit hurried. I might re-do it in a couple of days.

 

Nothing outside today because it's raining all day, but i did sow some more wallflowers in toilet roll tubes.

 

@Sjoerd I have missed you. So happy to see you posting.
As usual your veggie garden looks so beautiful it’s a job well done. You have been really busy. Can’t wait to see more.

Lovely to see how your gardening skills have turned into a teaching moment. Just looking at your garden pics shows every step possible for a successful veggie garden and more. In a few weeks your garden will be green with envy . Lots of veggies and buds galore.

 

DHR luv your video…

 

There's not much I can do right now besides bask in the semi-beauty. There's still a chance of frost in my area so I can't rake up the leaves, but I do have some flowers popping up in my yard! The daffodils have been up and open for 2 weeks even though in those last two weeks we have actually gotten some snow and accumulated and my Hyacinths have bloomed, however I should have stored my ornamental grass cuts somewhere besides the side of my house because the wind blew the grass on top of my Hyacinths and flattened them. They are fine, but I felt bad. I do plan on moving my Hyacinth to a different spot in my garden.

 

Pac—Thank you so much. You are so kind.

 

Just a bit of weeding today, mostly between the phlox on the rockery.
The first pink blossom on the wisteria on the side of the house is out!




More hopefully to follow.




I'm pleased with the condition of the twelve roses on their patio, no sign of any black spot! By this time last year, nearly every one was affected.
















There's still traces of the powder residue from the Sulphur Rose, with which a gave them a good spray a month ago. So I can highly recommend it.
Already the odd petal has fallen off the wisteria blooms.

In the ceanothus on the fence, I put a woven "robin's nest" a few years ago. It gets used every year.




The azaleas to the side of the main patio are starting to come out, they've taken their time!




The two tree azaleas are nearly out too. You might see the wires I use to try to keep them spreading out too far.











This acer seems to making daily progress as it tries to fill the gaps I made by reducing its size.




These three azaleas have almost got their act together. There are wires that help keep them close to the sambucas's tub and also clear of my mower.
The lawn to the left still looks "dog rough" but it's slowly recovering.





My only concern is this acer palmatum Taylor, which looks a bit wimpy. But it went like this last year, so hopefully, it will recover.






I'm might go to the new B&Q when I go shopping this afternoon, it took over from Homebase. I need a bit of trellis to repair a couple of bits on the top of this fence between the patio and the drive.

 

Riley— it is so good to see the progress in your wonderful garden. Everything there seems to be coming along well.
Our Wisteria is at about the same stage as yours this year. I especially liked your Wisteria vid.

 

Those are beautiful plants Riley, I wish I could have a wisteria that looks so beautiful so far and it's only spring!

 

A few bits and pieces, checked on the wallflower seeds to see if they're coming up. Opened up the grow house and checked on the cosmos and put in the fuchsias and trailing geraniums.Pinched out the growing tips of the snapdragon plants, they were looking a bit yellow so i gave them a bit of a high nitrogen feed, they've picked up now.

 

I went to B&Q, but wasn't impressed.

I was hoping to find some trellis, like this on the fence, that I could cannibalise, to replace the broken bits. But no such luck, I had to settle for what they had and replace the original.




Even that wasn't easy, as the bottom rail of the first frame had rotted and parts of the next one and I had to replace them.





I didn't have enough trellis for the end short panel, so I may just repair it with some bits of the old trellis or get some more of the new stuff.

It needs a couple of coats of mahogany woodstain, to darken it down and before the clematis below it goes rampant.
Forty years ago, I made a fence and door out of 3" x 2" and trellis, but that eventually started rotting away and I replaced it with this. What prompted me to do it, is that I found the "arched door" in Bents garden centre twenty years ago and built the fence around it.
Due to the length, it had to be substantial.
The featherboarding is secured at the top to a length of 3"x2"and another length of 3"x2" is screwed to the top of that. There's another 3"2" beam at the top of the trellis.

Five years ago, the door started to rot, so I replaced it with a more substantial one.

Of course, I couldn't get one with a rounded top in the middle of Covid and had to settle for this one.





It needed a bit of fettling.





I used a bit alkathene pipe to draw around to make the cutting line for my jigsaw.
Using three nails to keep it in place, it formed a perfect arc.





The door has lasted well, considering the number of times it's open and closed, just in a day.

 

I fertilized all my veg, watered it in, and added more mulch where needed in those beds. Did a bit of deadheading, raked up all the piles of weeds I had laying around, picked up sticks in preparation for mowing in a day or two. Dumped two wheelbarrows full of clipped branches into the ditch for pickup. I have the sprinkler on one of my blackberry patches right now because no rain and they are starting to set fruit.

 

Nothing today as it was a golf day. Very pleasant, for much of the time it was "shirt-sleeve order." Did three loads of laundry when I came home. Now watching the tennis on TV. Dinner to get, later.

Quite a bit to do tomorrow. I've still some rails to get to repair the 4ft post and panel fence that separates our drive from that of next door's. The new trellis needs painting. There's more weeding to do and the lawn is, "desperate for a mowing."

I'll probably have to do a bit of shopping too.

 

I doubt I'll get any work today as I am working a normal shift at my full time job and then i'll be out to do a shift at the library and won't be home until 7pm