What have you done today in the Garden?

Planted up the concrete tub that I had emptied out of Shrubs which needed to go into the soil...
So far 6 of the 12 Geraniums I purchased in the supermarket up the way...are in then planter..Henryetta our only Chicken now shadows me throughout the garden....she knows a digger when she see one and got in to the new planter so husband has just knocked up a cover for it..Looks and eye sore but will do the job until the plants establish themselves and I finish filling it...she will soon loose interest ..
There is she eyeing my new strawberry plants..hence the chicken wire around the
veggie plot..See how stony the ground is here..some of the stones rise to the top as well..noticed that also in the farming land around us....can retrieve my own ballast when needed..


Lilac now blooming..

Charlotte Potatoes just peeping through now...
Needs some water... although a spade down it is still damp....taken yesterday in the full sun...

Photina x Red Robin

This stump is from and Old Fir Tree we had Felled a few years ago
Stumped as to how we could get it removed without much expense..

 

Just a couple of days of sun and warmer weather was enough to kick-start Spring.
Our Stella cherry just burst into blossom. Much more to come I noticed a bee on one of the flowers already, so that's good news.




The little maple has started on its journey of a multitude of colours. It'll get pruned throught the year to stop it getting too big.



and the wisterias are making a big push, everywhere.











I pruned the mimosa, well... just the dying flowers as I'm sick of sweeping them up. It'll probably get a bit of shaping later.

I've ordered a new Flymo garden vac. The bag for the "cheapo" I've had for several years, is leaking and I can't be bothered to try to repair it.

Next big job is the new troughs which will arrive at the end of next week. They'll need painting "Mahogany" like the rest of the woodwork in the garden. I'll have to sort out some feet for them to keep them up off the patio. As they'll be going half on the rose patio steps, the front feet will have to be longer than the back ones. But I've a plan involving black polypipe strengthened by by bits of brush stale inside them. The plan is that I'll be able to blow dead leaves etc., out from under them with the blower. Physically moving them every time would be a pain.

 

Great posting, Riley. I have been wondering how your wisteria were coming along. My buds are about 1/3 as long as yours. I shall have to be patient.

 

@DianneWoollie thanks about the nettles and i do know about that, but they've gone in the bin, nowhere to put a bucket or anything.

That tree stump it will rot in a couple of years then can break it up.

 

Cannot agree @Logan lost quite a few trees here and the small stumps do show signs of rot..got rid of one myself with an axe to finish breaking it down..but this is solid and a fair 75/85 cm in width....it is going no where on it's own. Thank you as any point is good, even though as your a friend I can say your wrong and not cause any offence.....

 

A way of removing a stump.



There's a few other videos of different methods.

 

Last night I transplanted lots of Bok choy. Today I strimmed around my garden. I took some photos to show the action in the garden.

 

Wasn't going to do much today, but in the end spent three hours in the garden.

Weeded the rockery. It's tightly packed with phlox, so nothing else can get a look in, except grass. That'll grow anywhere, except where you want it.









Tied up a few clematis which are just making their annual appearance.



Then washed down the exterior of the tea-house. It was a bit grubby as I'd jetwashed the paths around it last week. It's now into its thirty-fourth year and still now signs of rot.






I've opened the top vent and have taken the covers off the two vents in the bottom of the back wall. It gets very hot in there in direct sun. My jukeboxes don't like being too hot or too cold (they've still got their winter "thermals" on as it's still cold at night). and I don't like leaving either of the doors open during the day when I'm out, or cats could get in. I have got an extractor fan above the centre door which I turn on with a timer on hot days if I'm not in the garden.




Tidied the shed then gave everything a feed.

More blossom on the quinces.




I took the six bamboo canes away I had surrounding this little Acer Palnatum Taylor.



This was our "freebee" as I bought it on-line and it looked nothing like the one in the illustration, more "the runt of the litter" so I got a refund. The branches were all over the place and it needed the canes to push the branches in the direction I wanted as several crossed.

Now they have "grown into" their new positions and the tree is more ballanced and doing well.







These are our "Christmas roses" presents from a friend to my wife. They came in 3" pots for a table display.



The back two are from the Christmas before last and the front two from last Christmas. The back ones are a peach colour and flowered for most of last year. The front ones are pink, we hope they will do the same. I've put the newere ones on the patio steps with the original ones so they'll get more sun.









So I'm almost up to date.

 

Well done, Riley. It is great to be caught-up. That tea house is looking to be in good nick alright. Do you and your bride use it just for sitting and reading...or is it exclusively for music?

 

It's a long story.

I always wanted a summer house just to get away from the sun as our garden is south facing.
When I built it. I put a row of kitchen cabinets across the back wall, which became surplus when we had a new kitchen. It was also somewhere to store the BBQ. The garden furniture took up most of the rest of the room.

Most summer houses you could buy looked like converted sheds and would be a bit of an eyesore when seen from our French windows. So I decided on a Japanese style to complement the koi pool I recently built.
I'd seen the tea-house in Tatton Park, which looked to me more like a hut from the film South Pacific, so I went to Manchester Central Library and looked at a few Victorian books on the garden architecture of stately homes. Many of these had features with a lot of Japanese influences as they were built by Japanese craftsmen brought over to work here by the landed gentry. As "Japanese" at the time was all the rage. So it's a combination of what I'd seen and my own ideas of what I could build with basic hand tools, roofing ply and timber.
When I decided to get into jukeboxes over a decade ago, this was the only place they could go. So the kitchen cabinets had to go.
My wife's not particularly interested in jukebox or music in general, but she's supportive. I like to play them when I'm gardening. You can put as many records on as you wish, all same time up to the total number of "sides" available, well... for as long as you want to stand there pressing buttons. I usually put a couple of dozen on at a time.

I can have a break any time and just roll my little Budweiser fridge out and sit down and have a beer.



I've also a spare 32" Panasonic Viera TV on the wall for if I want to catch up with the sport whilst I'm out there. Thay's my "retro" record rack with records presently out of favour. You have to take one out, to put a new one in.

 

Riley, a long story but well worth the read. It was interesting to read the backstory and about your development of your musical hobby. I always get a good feeling when I hear about how folks do not waste their retirement years and make themselves happy. It sounds like you are set up well.
I like the way you researched your Japanese projects. The Japanese style really is impressive to see and the area at Tatton is inspirational, I can see that. I have seen it presented on the BBC in the past. Oké, perhaps you do not have the acerage, but you have done well.

 

A Good detailed post 'Riley' and always interesting to have a 'walk around' your place..Our Beddington Property, we had Summerhouse and it was a real escape for me from the family..Which grew suddenly by a Pregnant girlfriend from Newcastle upon Tyne, many months later a heavenly Grand daughter arrived who we are still in contact with..now as her own Husband and two young children..so yes I am a Great Grand Mother.
The summerhouse started out as extra accommodation but after a period of time it became mine....anyway a few photos I took earlier of some trees and hoping it might be a new Wisteria, but the jury it still out on that!

Snowball Tree, just with the green snowballs that will soon turn white. Fascinates me, the
flowers being the colour of the leaves for while..

The flowers have opened up quite a lot more now, but still not fully open..they are short
flowering...

This was a seed taken off my daughters shrub as she has a French Holiday home
about an hours drive from here,,she did not know if it is a Wisteria or a Trumpet type shrub...
Really have to wait a while until it flowers..Whatever it turns out to be I need to keep it away
from our boundary wall because the strange neighbours the other side think that spraying bleach
on wild ivy is exceptable..
I do believe they now are fully aware of my attitude towards this act. having
killed off a tree a honeysuckle climbing busy and our Plum trees we had to prune heavily.
Good thing though, there are signs of little tiny shoots on the honeysuckle bush again.
The Tree is crisp and brown so 100% dead now...

No not a tree...Our amateur radio tri-band beam antenna, wound down as low as it can go.



..

 

It's ok Dianne I'm not offended but It might take a few years but it will rot eventually, had a big tree stump in the front garden.

 

@DianneWoollie your snowball tree looks great.
Pricked out the rest of the pot marigolds and potted on 2 lupin plants.
Can't do anything outside until the bin is emptied on Friday and that it's too cold.

 

We had chill of -2 yesterday morning and the day before 20+ degress..today is better again still a little chilly until mid day when it was 15 degrees..still not a good temperature for April..Love lupins and should try again as not so many snails in the garden..haha The locals eat them..even Lidls sell them....