What have you done today in the Garden?

@Doghouse Riley my husband & I rehabbed our 50 year old home (well, past tense is not entirely accurate, we still have a bit more to do).

Anyway while rehabbing it we paid close attention to sight lines. It's not a big house but it feels bigger than it is. We placed windows opposite doorways so that when entering a room you would be walking towards the light. ( That always feels better, experientially). And we lined up doorways on the first floor you could look from one end of the house to the other end. Do you follow me? Through 3 rooms. If I were home, I'd take a photo to show you.

 

I'm at the family "farm" right now. Did a spot of weeding in our front bed & surveyed the devastation done by the foresters. They took down 80 year old scotch pines that were on their last legs. Tall tall skinny pines. A lot were falling over & taking others with them. They have a life span & were nearing the end of it. A bunch were close to our cottage so it is good they are gone. But what a mess!!

 

One of the alterations we made was rehanging the doors so they opened towards the side wall.
Traditionally they opened the other way so that they actually form a screen until you've walked round them. This was to give anyone in the room who might have been in a compromising situation an extra couple of seconds before you could see them, so a chance of preserving their dignity.
We also removed the kitchen door as we never closed it, there's an extractor fan in the window at the far end so any cooking smells are contained. If we use the halogen hob it's on the work surface immediately under it and the oven in a tall unit has a vent at the top near the fan.

Another space saving alteration we made, was with the front door.

At one time these houses on our crescent built in 1965, nearly 100 of them, all had a small arched porch of about two feet in depth, with a front door and side windows behind it. Shortly after they were built, most residents had an additional wooden door installed at the front of the arch. This opened outwards. Ours was the same when we bought the house in 1972. So they had a sort of small useless "airlock."



When we had this changed to double glazing, we had the inner door removed and the walls of the former porch which were bare brick, plastered. I had to raise the floor of the original porch up to the level of the hall floor before the new door was installed so it was at the right height. Our single door opens inwards right to left. The original door opened inwards, left to right and only just cleared the bottom step of the staircase. The extra two feet or so we gained makes all the difference and room for the shoe cupboard I mentioned on another thread. There's now nearly five feet between the front door and the bottom step of the staircase.




As for today, just as bit of general maintenance, mowed the lawn and then did a bit of patching with a mixture of seed and top soil, where small areas in the lawn are a bit bare.

 

Sounds good. Changes that create more space & spaciousness in your home.

 

This morning, I opened my tunnels and harvested various things. I spread manure for my onions.

This evening, I harvested the last of one of my pea plantings, I pulled the plants and undid the support frame. I will plant peas again in a months time for an autumn harvest. I attached the tomatoes again and got rid of suckers. As you can see in the picture, I grow two branches on each pole. Notice the first little toms.



After that I watered a couple of beds and then weeded an onion and carrot patch. I got a few more pics too.

MY first sunflower just opening. It will have multiple flowers.


MY hugel culture with gem squashes and potatoes looks really good. On the lower right, the brown stalks are my rockets that are ready to harvest for seed. I wonder what I will plant next.


From top to bottom, young maize, courgettes, beans and two rows of potatoes


Toms looking good. That is a physalis in the foreground.


carrots, the row on the left is bigger than the others. The others I planted with radishes. I will stop doing this in future.

 

Odif, I used to plant radishes with carrots just to reduce the need to thin carrots. Now I put the carrot seed in a salt shaker and shake out the seed. It works pretty well--still have to thin, but not nearly as much!
Your gardens look marvelous with the healthy plants and the great variety of vegetables.

 

What Jane said.

 

My Potatoes were smothered in weeds..not any more, now realise some ot the plants had finished growing, so up they will come, had a few meals of them previously and they are extremely tasty as usual and gave half of the bag to my new neighbour. Can.see now I could have planted a 2nd crop, but no matter they will enjoy them as well. I use a fork to dig them up, carefully as spiked potatoes are not so good..Part boiled and then oven baked in a
small amount of Olive Oil with various meals is a tasty option....

 

They look great Dianne
Haven't done much still getting over from a bladder infection but I picked a few raspberries don't have a lot of plants.
and cut off the top of the new canes on the blackberries so they'll bush out and have more fruit next year. The trimmings I've stuck in a pot to see if they'll root.

 

More pruning of unwanted wisteris "stringers," this time on the pergola over the French windows. I needed the ladder to get at them. Doing this always worries my wife "at my age." But I built this pergola to be able stand my weight if I stood on any of the cross beams, which I do occasionally as of a couple of weeks ago when I needed to fix the gutter above the back bedroom window. So it's quite safe to lean a ladder against one.

Finished dead-heading the big tortoise shell rhodo and sawed off two big branches on the right which leaned forwards over the lawn..

I then wired it to close it up a bit and did the same to two rhodos either side, to close a small gap at the front. These will grow upwards in front of it so its blooms will appear above and behind them. I think it looks OK.




The adjustments have restored the sight line I like to the bottom of the garden.

 

Updates three weeks on....
Lavatera


Himalayan Honeysuckle (Leycesteria Formosa




Clematis


Clematis


Pond Plants & Lonesome


Lilly Pads


Cannas


Hebe, Aquilegia and more


Acanthus Spinous much large than before

Photos at the end of my busy day.

 

Looking good Dianne

 

Hope you get over the infection quickly..drink plenty of water Logan.....
Wanted to ask you how your wallflower seeds are going..mine are really looking small and weak..
The Dahlia's I put in a few weeks ago are really tall and bushy..very pleased I have had a go at growing them now, intend to increase them next season...

 

Thank you Dianne and yes I'm drinking plenty of water.

Wallflower seedlings are ok, I don't over water them or sit in water.
I sow them into toilet roll tubes and put about 5 in each then when they're big enough thin them out to 1 in each. You could give them a bit of high nitrogen fertilizer.

 

I am wildly jealous of your spuds, DW. Chapeau.
Bon appétit !