What have you done today in the Garden?

The largest rock was already sitting there when we purchased the property.. and there where rocks all around the Plot, so one way to use them....Rockeries, we have 2. The other is next to the large workshop and was a dumping ground of old brackets and small farm machinery..glass bottles...quite a dig to form into something that looks ok...not colourful as yet like the other one will be..just added some small plants of Aubrieta in a pretty mauve colour to the front of the rockery and have lots of the small ground cover Hypericum which will be added.. also known as St.John's Wort which can be taken in the right form for depression, which I have suffered in the past with..
The weeds though are still coming thick and fast in my rockery, but getting them out as small weeds, that is a must job daily, would you believe. Has a back drop of either a new Wisteria grown from a pod or it will be a trumpet Shrub..time will tell me. A climbing Rose several Plum Trees that are very tasty ones.Planted another Cherry Tree grown from a cutting ..1 metre tall and in blossom now....Have varied degree of success and failure with some of the alpines but have a really good book The Readers Digest Complete Library of the Garden and he list of alpines and illustrations are vast, the RHS Encylopedia is no match for it...

 

Our two troughs arrived this afternoon, a day early. Won't complain, it saves my wife having to worry about accepting them tomorrow when I'm playing golf.



I guess they're OK for the money. I'm not sure what the density is of "Swedish Redwood," at a guess, one stage up from Balsa. But no matter, they seem strong enough. I say strong enough but like most wooden stuff you buy for the garden, it's thrown together with nail guns. I had visions of one day lifting one up with three heavy pots in it and everything falling through the bottom. So I took the precaution of putting a screw through each end of each of the bottom slats, into the sides. I may stick a few more screws in the body "elsewhere," tomorrow afternoon.







Got the first coat of the mahogany woodstain on. Inside, outside and underneath. They'll be dry enough by tomorrow afternoon for a second coat.









Went to Wilkos for some big washers for when I attach the front feet I'm going to make. You can buy an assortment of nuts, bolts, washers, screws, cup hooks ect., as many as you can fit into a small plastic bag for £3.75. It's a bargain. You can never have too many different sizes of screws. Also bought two packs of dahlias, three for £3. I found "somewhere" to put them in.

 

Thanks for the posting. It gave a pretty good idea of what is going on with your rockeries. I am looking forward to seeing them mid-summer.
Bonne chance.

 

All I've done is water the pots and containers, can't do much until the bin has been emptied tomorrow but the weather is going to get cold again.

 

Warmer here this afternoon so managed quite a lot in the Garden..All the neighbours are now taking about the land we are buying..funny as we have not said anything to anybody...but they are good people so not bothered at their chatter...Think our refuse team did not work on Monday either which is the local bin day here...so stacked up here but we took a load to the tip...(dechetterie)

 

Didn't start until mid afternoon as it was a golf day in the morning. Got the legs made for one of the troughs. Some 1.25" polypipe black waste pipe and bits of broom handle. Cut the pipe to length, ram the door stop down the pipe followed by the brush handle and cut off at the end of the pipe. Screw through some reinforcing timber against the angle of the base and sides and the end of the slat.

Had to do a bit of "fettling," no slat in the middle it's an even number, so had to make a false bit of slat to take the leg otherwise the middle leg would not be...well.. in the middle. The patio steps are level but the patio isn't, there's a fall for drainage to both left and right. So the left leg had to be longer than the middle one and the right one slightly shorter than that. Checked with my spirit level. It's spot on.
It'll be easy to blow any leaves etc., out from under it when necessary. If it wasn't half on the step, it would cut down on the room on the patio.

Anyway, the job's nearly done. This one will need a few more screws on the corners, to reinforce the nails and another coat of paint, but that can be done in situ. I've the other one to do tomorrow.
Tried out the hebies, they've more room than in the old troughs and you can't see the pots from the French windows..

 

Nothing today it's been raining.

 

Greenhouse again... Made dinner for us, my in-laws and my parents. Then dished up a bowl to take to my sister in law.... Back to the greenhouse and then too dark for more...

 

I swear I thought I had dug up all the liliy bulbs when I moved them. But there were late bloomers in the roses. Digging bulbs up in the thorns was, in a word, unfortunate.

 

Got hail showers so nothing today.

 

I don't have to say... but obviously still have my old school days humour.(Yes it was a long long time ago..but leopards if you know the saying)....as you hurt yourself and I just laughed...But we had horrendous brambles here when we moved here 6+ years ago and it was my dedicated or more dictated task to try to remove them..Well the scars are there forever now...still been doing some cutting back of Brambles today, as it happens... growing in the mixed hedges on the borders..Impossible to completely remove them all, they just are survivors...

 

We unloaded the new load of wood we picked up this morning around 1 stere and 1 more to collect next week..good dry Oak and Dominque the owner of the business charges us 50 euros for 1 stere which is like a metre squared... not a bad price at all...Took a break for lunch and then just done some general stuff. watering weeding and thinned out some of the seeds I am growing this year...Weather is still against them they need warmth and water..so now have all my Tomato seeds are growing indoors, they are coming on slow but sure..the others are mainly in the summerhouse which is now more of a storage/hobby/mess..now also propagation place...then I have just the one outside place which is something Husband made a few years ago. a cabinet/box type thing with a clear lid that can be opened or closed..depending on the Weather..
Then took a few photos...

Marsh Marigolds in the wooden pond...at their best just now...

This is the smallest Lilac Tree, looking good now, has intermingled with a small budded type climbing rose, that will take over when the short flowering period of the Lilac passes..

This type of Iris grows like weeds here, so I have dug out lots and lots, but still worth
keeping some groups of them, they are a long lasting flower also a nice colour....

That is what the Marsh Marigolds look like before they open up...

The flowers on this Weigela is just about to open . They are a Dark Rich Red Flower
that I really love and the cuttings are fairly easy to take..downside, short flowering period,.but if cut back straight after they have done there bit..you can get a 2nd light flowering but don't expect the same show. ...

 

@DianneWoollie your garden is looking good.

 

It's all done and dusted. Tops rubbed down and second coat on. I put 36 screws in the end of the panels in each to reinforce the tiny pin nails. This will make them last longer. I dislike pin nails but these days you've no choice. You couldn't buy the wood for what they cost.











I dug out the solar lights and got them working again. But I'm only bothering with eight.

 

Out we went in the less than optimal weather to get those broadies in the ground.


i am laying this business purely at the feet of my Bride. She kept saying that I was straying off line and planting closer and closer to myself... and I said no. None- the- less I followed her instruction as she was standing above me at the beginning of the row. So, you would have thought that she would have the better view. Wrong. The row closest to me wound up veering far away from me. When we were done, she then said that I veered away from myself too far, saying, “I told you so”. I was speechless. Tch. What is that girl like.

This was meant to be two parallel rows offset from each other. Before we began, I suggested using a string for straightness. She thought it unnecessary. I also thought of tagging the row, but she thought the broadies would be recognisable. Well there was my opportunity to begin an argument, as all other rows have tags and they are also recognisable. But, I left it. You see, we have agreed that she will have the last word in the veggie half and I will have the last word over the flowering half. This is a good idea because we both are very opinionated. The agreement avoids long, drawn out discussions over technique. We actually do it all together, but there has to be a final word. Haha.

The wisteria is budding: