What have you done today in the Garden?

The lupins or the snails?
The Romans brought snails over here but they must of escaped.

 

This is the "stone" bird bath I bought new on e-Bay a few weeks ago. I don't know why they call them "stone" as they aren't , they're some sort of concrete mixture. I guess it's just a way of letting you know it's not naff plastic.



It was quite nice, but as it was grey it didn't match the York stone patio and paths.






So I've changed it.





Well actually I didn't.

I made up a sand/cement/yellow cement dye/SBR rubberiser mixture and painted it.

The SBR will keep the mixture adhering to it. It dried in minutes.

I'd always intended to do it, but hadn't got round to it as I'd run out of suitable fine sand.
It only took half an hour or so, but in the middle of it all I noticed what appeared to be tiny bits of white blossom falling, then I realised it was snow! But it quickly passed.

 

You’re a clever cloggs innit.

 

we play with my words @Logan.and we send them snails back atcha..

 

It is one of the garden items we left in our Pebbles, Bexhill property...still miss it..when the stone is cleaned
it looks really attractive...
.

 

Should have been a golf day today, but my two regular partners baled out due to "domestic requirements," but we'll all be out again on Friday. I could have joined another group, but I didn't bother I could find things to do in the garden.
The new Flymo " Scirroco" blower/vac arrived today. Stupid name for a blower, "Mistral" would have been better, but perhaps something else has that name. I think an air-fryer.




It's an improvement on the "cheapo" I had as if that got bunged up with earth, it was a case of removing a couple of dozen screws to get at the insides. But other than that it was well made, but it's now in the plastics bin.

The new one's so much easier to get to if anything's jammed.




The new one's supplied with a rubbish shoulder strap, worse than the "cheapo" but I had a far better one off an old golf bag I could use. Typically, the assembly instructions were all incomprehensible tiny pictures, but I managed to sort it without them. There's probably a video on YouTube, as there is for everything else.

One of the three azaleas that surround the sambuca in the big tub in the middle of the garden "had taken a turn for the worse," so I wasn't going to persevere with it, dug it up, cut off the dead bits and re-planted what was left out of sight in the corner of the garden. "I'm giving it a chance." Went to the local garden centre and bought two small ones. They don't look too bad. Seven quid each.




The original three I bought about seven years ago. I wanted three of the same variety, but could only get two. Typical! They are all pink but the ones at the back flowered three weeks after the other two. Now we've three different ones, so it doesn't really matter.

I'm about ready for our new troughs that should arrive on Friday.
They'll be going where the old ones were, either side of the way on to the "rose patio."




They will be bigger than the old ones. To save space, they'll go half on the bottom step. The old ones fitted OK on there, but the new ones being a bit deeper would probably tip forward.

I've already got some door stops to use as feet to keep the wood out of the wet. But I'll have to make the front ones longer. I've some 1.25" black polypipe to make longer feet, so the troughs end up level.

 

Planted yellow and red onion seedlings. Got an email that my potato seeds have shipped, yeah

 

Picked flowers, fed the birds and planted strawbs.
This old lady is holding on:

 

S, I loooove that primrose.
anyway here is our 2nd garden video for the community garden. we got together a couple weeks ago and had a question night for anyone who signed up to come.

 

I have grown onions here a few times but they have been rather small..guess I am still learning about the French weather that sometimes messes up our veggie plot...too hot..top windy..too cold...not that the UK weather was stable either....

Me also..it is a very good year for new primroses here... appearing in so many places and when in the grass I dig them up and replant them, so now the flower beds are becoming so colourful...have worked hard on this rockery as the weeds are mostly deep rooted and keep producing new
seeds every few days! Once the primrose get established and also I intend to add more plants
it will help keep the weeds back...hopefully

 

Thank you Carolyn. I do too. It is very old and is getting smaller and smaller each year. They sre hybrids and perhaps a bit weaker than the heritage species. Thank you very much for including that second vid. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed watching these two vids.

DW—i am watching with interest how your rock garden will evolve and what plants you will add to it and whether you will add more stones and rocks. I do not have room for a rock garden on my allotment but I do enjoy those of other persons. I like alpine flowering plants and those that grow out of rocks in high places. They are a fascinating group of plants and an interesting milieu for these specialists to grow in.

 

Thanks you S. I have never in my life done a video or a zoom/google meet. I was worried we would be looking dorky... you know when people say um and uuuuhhhh all the time... I was worried I would do that. A few times I struggled to find the words that made sense without a lot of explanation. Hopefully we were more helpful than not. I honestly did not sign up to do this. I signed up to be a mentor.

 

No worries Carolyn...both of you did well.
I can easily imagine that new gardeners could get useful info from your tips and ideas. Proud to be able to say that I know you.

 

thanks. I am glad to hopefully be helpful to anyone wanting to garden. I hate to see anyone fail. its hard work.

 

I was planning on stopping with my string of compliments...but then I saw your words, “ its hard work”. This is the one thing that disappoints so many aspirants that come to our gardening club — they underestimate the amount of work this hobby requires. It is enough that the majority give up after one season, sadly. I want desperately for them to succeed and I even offer help in some instances, but it isn’t enough. We have a saying here that goes, “Love has to come from both sides”.
I could write a book on the reasons that folks give when stopping. Some are pretty funny.

No work today, but noticed the spinach was up four days ago, but now it is visible without a loop.


We also went out to a nursery in the countryside to get some potting soil. It was all open and outside, and we could also pay outside. It was a nice drive, sort of an entertaining day out.