What have you done today in the Garden?

We had a fig that came with the house 25 or so years ago. It burned at 10f a couple years later, grew back over 15 years and froze down again. I hard pruned it and it came back even bushier and shadier. We had planted Sugi trees along the fenceline many years ago and they grew into and crowded the fig. The Sugi closest caught a root fungus or watermold or both, so as I was spraying systemic fungicides on the Sugi and heavily pruning the fig I decided it was easier to move a fig and open up those Sugi for airflow in our summer humidity. It was hard to kill the fig root. I ended up using triclopyr which scared me for the dripline of the Sugi where the fig root was located. Hopefully now I won't have the expense and effort of fighting to keep those hedge trees from dying. The neighbors lost 10 of their evergreen fence row trees, and I knew that fungi would eventually come so I was on it early, but now it is the 3rd year of treatment and although things look good I am still not completely convinced the pathogen is cured. So they get sprayed again this year with systemic as the rpms come up with the heat. I first used clearys 3336 but I think agri-fos was the better choice more recently. I came to that choice as I pieced together the idea of some sudden death in oaks and some random bushes dying as being caused by Phytophthora, definitely a wet year problem we have in abundance here. This has proven to be a more accurate observation. It killed a winter daphne out back and I have a 1 gallon sized little
remainder that has been flourishing since the spraying started.

 

Dry and sunny, got a few jobs done.
Gave my Flymo a bit of a service. Removed all the soil clinging to the underside and gave the bearings a shot of WD40.
Took the blade off, put it in my vice and sharpened it. Give the outside a bit of a clean and tested it.

Cleaned out the garage gutter.
Gave both lawns a dose of soluble Maxicrop mosskiller and lawn tonic. It's quite expensive but one bottle will last all year.


Gave everything a feed.

Pleased with the blossom on our Mimosa.




It'll get a prune once the flowers have died off.

It never disappoints, this was it ten years ago just after we bought it.



It will get swopped in a few months with this Sambucus.



This always does well.






Pleased with our primroses grown from bulbs, they've been like this for more than two months.

 

I have walked in my garden today. Almost all the snow has melted, so I might actually be able to do something tomorrow if the dry weather holds.

 

Did some weeding and dug up some gooseberry bushes that don't fruit very well and going to plant some blackcurrants in their place. Hubby has started pruning the roses, he'll do a few at a time.

 

@Logan, Spring is almost here!
I tried growing gooseberries but something kept eating the plants and they died. I do have a red currant which makes great jam.

I repotted carnation seedlings. For some reason, they are the healthiest of my early perennial seedlings.



The micro tomato seedlings look unhealthy so I repotted them. That happened with the first pepper seedlings too. Those seem to have some whitefly, so I sprayed them with an organic soap spray.

It was raining all day, so I didn't putter outdoors.

 

I sorted the smart multiplug for the new seeding shelf and wrangled all the wires into something resembling order. It will be cool to have plugs on a phone app. It shows electricity used per plug and has timers and other controls. I strung the led lights end to end and plugged it all up. While the lights have manual off switches the heat mats do not so all the lights (19w x 4) are on one plug while the mats each have a plug of their own for individual control. My stash of old trays wont do because outdoors I used weep holes so I picked up some more. Now where will I put 288 plants?

 

@Daniel W that's a shame about your gooseberry bush, do get caterpillars that eats the leaves but the bush doesn't die.
Yes red currants make great jam.

 

The camera caught the pesky black and white cat last night it was trying to squeeze between 'arry's 'ouse and the base panel of the fence.

He was probaby after Marcel the mouse.

So I pushed the house further back on its paving slap to prevent this happening again.

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Sean Regan · Feb 28, 2022 at 1:16 PM

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I've stopped putting dry food out in a dish on 'arry's patio and dug out his proper feeding station and placed it in its usual place on the main patio near the steps in front of the French windows. I've put some dry food in there. If he comes out of his house, he will find it easy enough.
I've made sure he has two 4.5" gaps in the wire fence, one facing the rockery and one in front of his house next to the first step up to the new patio.
I've moved the camera back to it's main position near the corner of the garage, covering the main patio.

Too wet to do anything else today, but it will be drier tomorrow, may do a few jobs.

 

I managed to go outside and remove old Helleborus leaves and give the Iris sibirica their spring hair cut. I also took some photos of blooms. I enjoyed that.

 

I would too but my hellebore hang their blooms like they are sad.

Do they need something maybe or are they naturally depressed?

 

I think they're just born with that hang-dog look, @Dirtmechanic. I believe they are a little shy. Mine aren't in bloom yet. You're way ahead of us.

 

They grow like that, mine is the same.

 

@Doghouse Riley cats can squeeze through very tight places. I put bricks under our side gate and leave a gap for the hedgehog, it's about 5 inches and the cat can get through, so during the day I have to block it off but open it up again for the night. Of course they can get in other ways but it seems to be their favourite way.

 

Potted on 8 blackcurrant plants, found some vine weevil in some of the pots and potted up 8 redcurrant cuttings, I would have thought that they would have had more roots on them. Couldn't do anything else because it started raining and still is.

 

I think it climbs over the fence from next door's, then scrambles up it again to get out.
The wire fence is really to stop cats hiding in the azaleas and pouncing out on the birds that use the ground feeder. It's effective for that.