What have you done today in the Garden?

Tied up more clematis, they are starting to put on a bit of a spurt.

Noticed the blossom has come out on our Stella cherry, more or less overnight.




The birds tend to get to the cherries before we do. I've tried putting a net over it, by they still get in and can trap themselves. So I don't bother now.

I got into this mayleen over the front door, there was quite a bit of dead stuff. I like it to cascade, so I'll have to prune off some of the untrainable top growth in a month's time.






I gave the path around the front bay window and the front step a go with Wet n' Forget.


Mowed the front lawn. The azaleas in the front garden will have a lot of blooms.





Cleaned my golf clubs, shoes and trolley. But won't play until Monday.

 

Indoors, I potted up the eggplants, or aubergines for the more sophisticated among us.

Those colorful pots are new. My old pots have become fragile, splitting and chipping, after eight years, or more, of use. Some might be a decade old. I hope these new ones last a lifetime. They are more sturdy. The test will be if they survive sterilizing in the dishwasher. I try not to buy too much plastic, but I hope these will last many years.

I planted snow peas and sweet peas in large containers.



I hope those bamboo labels are legible for the season's duration.



The raised bed of snowpeas looks OK. The messy fencing / bird protection seems to be helping, so far.



I also planted some Sweetpea plants.



Then I cleared blackberry brambles, until Rufus insisted on going inside. He doesn't seem to like rainstorms. Why is that?

I up-potted a Schlumbergera.



And cut the growing tips from the largest pepper plants, so they will be bushy with many branches.



I sprayed aphids with dilute foliar feeding spray. I think that's why the peppers (chilis for the more sophisticated) are greener and growing faster now. Plus, warmer and new soil, bigger containers.

I also brought the dormant Brugmansia into the sunroom. Time for sleeping beauty to awaken.

 

Gosh Daniel, you’ve been busy. All those new things are looking quite good. I see that you have taken stern measures with protecting that snow pea bed from jays.
My Bride would say the bed looks messy, I would say the bed looks effectively protected. For me its all about achieving the wanted result.
BTW— are you planning to remove the protection when the peas grow taller or let them grow through it, and remove when they die?

p.s. — Your handwriting on the pictures is a nice touch. I enjoyed seeing that. It is a sort of personalised labelling.

 

I bit the bullet today, and replaced the bearer on the other post on the garage pergola. Like the other, it was a right pain to get done. Worthwhile as. under the paint, part of it was soaking.
Took all of two hours. Fortunately, I still had a bit 4" x 2" left. otherwise, it would have been a trip to the wood yard next week and I'd have to buy a 3mtr length.
Luckily, neither the beam nor the post had any rot. I gave both a good coat of Cuprinol whilst I had my lunch. Then painted it and applied some clear silicone over the joints.




Got into the quinces on the side fence. I don't like them growing too tall as they shade the plants in that border, I can prune them from the lawn with my telescopic pruner, but it's a bit laborious.











The first of our clematis is coming out. The one on the fence by the kitchen window.








I let it do its "own thing," it fights for space with a jasmine in the same small bed.


This small acer is already nearly in leaf, it gets pruned several times during the year to stop it getting too big. It doesn't give up, keeps producing new foliage all summer.
It will get much bushier by next week.



Mowed the lawn, second time in five days

 

Looking good everyone. @Daniel W Rufus probably doesn't like the sound of the rainstorms or it's the heavy rain. Berry doesn't like it especially when it gets on to his face, he won't go out at all if he knows that it's raining.
Nothing today i went to see my friend Marion.

 

Today I spent a few hours removing Himalayan, and native, blackberry brambles. It was a neglected spot, with a woodpile. Blackberries quickly invade and take over such areas. I cleared about 2/3 of that area. The pile of cut brambles is taller than I am.

Once that is cleared, the plan is to sow grass seed and just keep it mowed. The blackberries don't survive repeated mowing, but some persist for a year.

There are other affected areas too. Two acres is enough for me to say, "I'll get to that one day" and I don't. The out of the way corners are the biggest source of such trouble.

For the most part, once they are cleared, they will be mowable grass.

I also finished grafting projects. I noticed, the base tree is a bit sad looking. It was a seed grown stone fruit tree, leaves look like apricot. Maybe it's not worth it. But if it remains, I want it to become a productive plum tree.

I found some more sprouted small potatoes -Kennebec- in a container behind the Brugmansia. That the trouble with de-cluttering - I find stuff LOL. They actually look quite good, so I planted two rows.

 

The weather the last few days is much like the weather at the Golf masters tournament showing 100’s of umbrellas.
‘We got soggy real estate’…Soggy, sloshy, windy, and very slippery..need to get out my slickers - rain gear and where did they find those water huge water squeezes for the landscape. I need a couple of those for the roof..

 

Daniel— that one quote: “ the trouble with de-cluttering - I find stuff”. Mate, that is priceless on several levels.

 

Got into the rockery today, to get the grass out of it. It's a bit of a "baby and bathwater" situation, trying to avoid pulling out the phlox. But I got most of the grass out and a fair bit of moss. A few gaps but the phlox will spread out, a few flowers beginning to show.




Did a bit of painting on the garage pergola.

Then just had a check around.

The big acer in the front garden, is none the worse for its usual winter prune.




Lots of buds on it.




The "relegated" roses on the side of the drive are doing well.




The wisteria on the side of the house has more flower buds on it this year. Probably because I've stopped it growing further along the wall.





There's fewer at the "front end" but some may yet come. They are of course more than the length of the house away from the root.





The wisteria between the tea-house and the shed is doing well.




Blooms like these, "everywhere."

 

Part 2.

These on the rose patio are doing well except for two, but "replacements are on the way."
No sign of the dreaded blackspot. I'll give them another spray of Sulphur Rose, next week




Heathers, "the flowers that keep on giving."




The sambucus survived the winter in its big tub.






Sadly, I have to report that there's been no sign of 'arry the 'edghog.

He left his insulated house which had plenty of hay in it sometime during the winter. He may have made his way to go under the tea-house. But he might have come out as they sometimes do and been taken by a fox, or died under the tea-house. I can't imagine why he would want to leave his house as it was very secure with the fence around it and only he and small birds could get through it.

So we're going to give it a week and then open the little door in the side fence to see if any others want to come in.

 

That's a shame about 'arry the edghog' I hope that others will come.

 

So sorry @Doghouse Riley to hear about 'arry. I hope he's just hiding.

 

Rainy all day. For the most part, I stayed indoors. For the most part, tending to seedlings. It was very nice in the sunroom, with rain pelting on the roof and streaming down the windows.

I repotted the verbascum so that each had its own cell.



Ditto for the dusty miller ( no image) and stocks.



I've never grown any of those before, let alone from seeds, so that is fun.

Also up-potted all of the sauce tomatoes - about 7 "Supremo" and about 7 "Roma VF". A couple will be gifts.

Also up-potted some of the other tomatoes, mostly dwarves plus a few others.

These were already up- potted and looking nice so far -





These are some that I up-potted today. I know because used the blue cell trays.



Some of those will also be gifts. All will get a final up-potting before it's time to plant them outside.

Not all are dwarf but I think I have roughly seven dwarf varieties now. Maybe more, but the number "seven" seems about right.

The old LED lights make these look weird. The leaves are really green.

Tomatoes Reisentraube, because I thought the first ones seemed more vigorous than they were last year, so I wondered if I labeled incorrectly. Also the Echinaceas and Rudbeckias that I stratified.




The Brugmansia and Pelargoniums / (Geraniums in USA) are waking up from their long nap in the garage.



That's probably enough for one day.

 

Impressive work, Daniel. That kept you out of trouble, didn’t it.

 

I did get into some trouble, but not too much