What have you done today in the Garden?

Finally got the onions planted (starts, not seed) and raked over the potato patch to get rid of the dead grass. Weather willing, I'll chit potatoes tomorrow and plant on Tuesday.
The basil and marjoram seedlings will get thinned tomorrow. I tried to plant fewer seeds in each cell, but as usual, I failed.

 

Spent an hour just tidying the shed, freezer room and the garage. Took three bags of rubbish down to the tip.
Ran the garage/shed vacuum cleaner around all three places.

Tomorrow, I may give the roses another spray, it rained shortly after I sprayed them last time.

I'll give the tea-house a bit of a wash down tomorrow, it is always an opportunity to check for any rot.
I'll also give the interior a clean and run the steam mop over the vinyl floor, the tea-house has it's own steam mop, it became surplus when my wife bought a "better one" for the kitchen and bathroom, Same situation with vacuum cleaners, I won't say how many we have in the house, (some women collect jewellery).
I'll also give my jukeboxes a bit of a run out, keeps the oil in the motors and gearboxes moving.

Nothing else in the garden needs any attention at the moment.

 

aww, thanks @Jane and @Cayuga Morning... its a terrible sinus infection with my ear drum bursting twice from all the congestion. I am on an antibiotic now but its just amoxicillin and doesn't seem to be doing much....my ear is still plugged and I am still blowing and still coughing. I honestly have had something since mid december..

 

well, I have the same problem... we must be related. I have three rainbows, but one got, ummm.... borrowed by my son a year ago and I have yet to see it back. so, I found another one on craigslist and replaced it. and two canister vacuums. I don't think my house is any cleaner though owning 4 vacuums as opposed to just one.

 

Sorry to hear that you're not well and hope that you get better soon. But antibiotics might not work if it's a virus.

 

The promised "occasional" showers were too occasional to do much today, so I made a start on making new rondels to hide the coach bolts that secure the beams to the support posts of this pergola. Even here from a few years ago, they were "going."







The present ones are replacements for the original ones and are now ten years old and in a sorry state. They are made from quarter inch ply.



The problem with plywood is that if you use a jigsaw on it you can disturb the laminations as you cut it and quite often the back layer splinters as you saw it. For a couple of decades, most wood has come from "sustainable sources," i.e it has the consistency of forced rhubarb. Even so called "exterior" plywood can go this way, as was this supposed to be. They've now delamimated and bits are falling off. This is despite getting repainted every few years.






So I've made a start. In my clearing up of the garage and shed yesterday, I found a couple of pieces of 1" hard wood window sill.

I'm not trying to copy the originals I made, as the wood is too thick for fancy shapes with an old electric jigsaw.
I need to get some more blades to "scallop" the edges as the one I was using was getting knackered and I also need a small file to tidy it up. Then start on the second one.

I only spent about half an hour on it, "as I get fed up after a bit."

I know, few people notice these "enhancements," but I do and somehow this seems important to me.

 

Those are really attractive Dog, and if you have the time and inclination, why not? It is clearly something you enjoy.

 

Thanks for that. The wood is what I had left over.


Forty years ago I made two two long parallel shelves of this wood on the wall of our lounge about a foot apart for books, VHS videos etc.,
I'd previously lined the wall with 8ft X 4ft real teak veneer faced panels. I also made a bookcase in a recess between the wall and a chimney breast.

But we decided a few years ago to take down the shelves and have the wood painted. But we kept the "bookcase" and left the panels behind the shelves unpainted.





The shelves that were behind that sofa (that's gone, we've a different one now) I used to make this bookcase in the hall.




It's a simple construction, two brackets at each end of each shelf and a plywood back make it as solid as a rock. I hate shelves that bend in the middle with just a bit of weight on them. This doesn't.

Timber for bull-nosed hard wood window sills now is a ridiculous price. To buy the wood to make this would now cost well over £200.

 

@Logan, thanks. it started out as a cold and went into a sinus infection. trust me... what I have been blowing for the past week is not clear.

 

Thats nasty stuff Carolyn ! Have had those sinus infections before ! Not fun !

 

I've finished my woodworking chore and the rondels are "in paint."

I'll put them up on the next dry day and give them another coat of Dulux mahogany exterior wood stain, in situ.
I've tried to make them mirror some of the features of the panels I made for the tea-house veranda rail and the ones under the garage pergola.

 

@carolyn....if you can get your hands on some fire cider...that gunk would be gone in no time and you would feel so much better. With the horseradish in it, boy would your sinus issues run for the hills!!! Hubby was feeling a bit under the weather with mucus in his body...he asked for the fire cider..i knew then, that he was starting to feel really bad when he asked for it...lololol. Took a shot of it and started bringing up the mucus within 30 mins. This happens every time we take it. Good to take a shot for preventive measures..we haven't gotten that brave yet. I may make another jar of it this weekend in lieu of this coronavirus. I really pray that you feel better!!

 

@Doghouse Riley...I love your Japanese Tea House...loving the Japanese Maple in the walkway.

 

Thanks for that.

They both look tatty at this time of the year. They will need a bit of pruning later, as I like them to grow to a dome shape rather than lool like giant cocktail umbrellas. The weight of the foliage will later in the year bend a lot of the branches down, but some are untrainable and have to be pruned. Lots of leaf buds on both now.









If you're interested, eight years ago I made a video, well just a series of photos of how I built the tea-house. It's had over 80,000 hits.

Just basic DIY tools, plus an electric saw and planer. Lots of details in the write-up below it.




Still too wet to do anything today.

I'm pleased with the two hebes I bought a week ago, they've put on some growth.













My wife was going to chuck out these miniature roses which were were in 4" pots received from two of her friends as part of her Christmas present.s But I rescued them and gave them bigger pots and fresh compost. So they've got a chance.