What have you done today in the Garden?

Since my mom is going to be selling our house, Im not going to be doing much in that garden.
My friend said I could use his yard to play in instead lol So today I weeded the front bed. Hes only got Irises and Daffodils growing so far...Im going to totally change that lol

 

Today I just started my planter boxes for my deck space. I did one box for vegetables and another of just flowers. I want my deck space to be a little more enjoyable this year.

 

Hello Growing pains-- Yes Ground Elder is similar to bindweed in that it spreads ferociously. I have some bindweed also, but it is a bit more under control this year. The ground elder is safely entwined in the roots of the perennials...so I try and keep it down outside of the perennial root balls. From time to time I lift the perennials and clean out the roots properly.

Brisbane--Ah yes...I have used cardboard as well as newspapers but I find the rootcloth the best for keeping down weed "grow-through" here where I garden. there are some folks here that use the cardboard to cover whole plots over the winter. They have only had minimal success...but that was because they did not apply the cardboard properly (well....what I call "proper" that is). They simply laid the cardboard on top of the soil and that was it. My country is a very windy one, so the cardboard just blew about, re-exposing the soil. It was a sad sight to see, poor folks.
I agree with you about not placing the chips up against the trunks of shrubs and trees.

Hey Donna---Congrats on planting those Limnanthes. I am hoping for a great success for you. Will you also plant some seeds on the regular ground, or plant them in pots and then transfer them to the ground?

 

I planted 3 hostas. Sum and Substane, Krossa Regal,and Wide Brim. I still have White Feather to plant. Slowly I'm getting everything planted. I might plant 1 more plant today.

 

Today I planted 10 hills of Kennebec potatoes. Also a few Red onions and some lettuce.

 

Today I planted some lettuce and dill seeds. Weeded the smallest of my 7 flower beds. Then started weeded the 8ft x 4ft Asparagus bed. Last year I was not able to keep up on them as I was caring for my Mom. But this year look out weeds here I come.

 

Tooty2shoes, is your Asparagus above ground yet?
I just set our's out last year. It hasn't come up and
I'm concerned. I read recently that I should have
snipped the ferns off after they dried. I didn't. Is it
too late to snip?

Today I set out more Red onions and cleared
away lots of dead leaves.
I see tiny blades of Spinach and a few Peas peeping
above ground. I'm lovin it!

 

Today it has rained all day so I curled up with a book.

Sjoerd, I have very few seeds left. Going to keep those until these plants give me seed, just as a back up.

 

Oké then, Donna. I sure hope that they bloom well for you this summer. Mine are still ticking right along. I shall look for buds in a few days.

Did some weeding in the lottie. the weather was fair...I lurved it!

 

I had to really cover all my plants tonight. I even brought some in the house because it's only going to be 29 f here tonight. It is cold, and very windy, gust are 25 to 30 mph.

 

It has been a really beautiful day, so I mostly cleaned up flower areas.
Also turned one compost bed and bleached small containers to get them ready for Tomato seeds.

What I thought was peas peeking up turns out to be radishes which self-seeded from last year.

 

I planted some leeks. Potted up some container for the Farmer Market. Mixed up a lot of soil for containers.
My arms hurt this morning, but it's a good hurt.

 

I'm still busy raking up the yard. Yesterday I raked up gravel from the outside edge of the neighbors horse track - filled the wheelbarrow 7 times and filled in my potholes. Burned all the brush too, and later I am going to turn my compost.

 

It has been a busy couple of days--One of the days the paths had to be mowed and then the sides cut so that they looked tidy.
Here, a before:


Here an after:


Then today the bees. I had to do the summer inspection and cleaning. I discovered that one of the hives was queenless. To solve this, I decided to combine the two colonies by stacking the hives on top of each other with a newspaper page between them.
I pricked a couple of small holes in the newspaper and closed it up, after scooting the hives to the right in the gap that had been between the two hives.
Within 24 hours they ought to have eaten through the newspaper and hopefully will see themselves as all one happy family of sisters.
Of course I am the most worried about the queen...it is never certain that she will be accepted by the "strange" colony, although at this time of year a combination ought to go without a hitch. We shall see.
Here is pic of the queen on a frame that was replaced because of its colour.

I only got stung once with all that work. I was lucky, as those bees had a big disturbance and were not happy at all.

Tomorrow more weeding and plating-out. The peas are ready. The beetroot needs weeding as well. ...the season has begun!

 

I'm going to plant my Blue Hadspen and White Feather hostas. Also some Violas and 2ferns.