What have you done today in the Garden?

Nightowl, rosemary does repel deer. I don't know about insects.

 

No gardening today.

 

Nothing today it's raining

 

Quite sunny this morning, so I had a few jobs to do, people to see etc., but I had an early lunch and got into the garden.
Dug a lot of grass out of the rockery. It can be a bit "baby and bathwater" with the phlox, but when I'd finished I sprinkled about 30ltrs of compost over it. It's going to rain later so that will get washed in to the phlox. Stripped some dead foliage from a few clematis and pruned a jasmine right back near the kitchen window. It likes to take over every year.
It's golf tomorrow morning and delivering a few presents to friends in the afternoon. Then it's the weekly shop on Thursday and then I'm finished for Christmas as it looks like rain on Friday so no golf.

 

Nothing today it's raining and son came to visit.

 

Knee is acting up. My fault. So not working today.

A few weeks ago, I harvested a fruit from one of the Schlumbergeras. It was the product of me pollinating the flower, two years ago. It hung on that long!

I cut it open and washed the seeds in a coffee cup. They were too small to use a sieve. They sank to the bottom, so it was easy to pour off the water.

Then I planted them on the surface of moist seed starting mix. I kept them moist, on a warming mat, under a desk lamp for light.

Here they are today.



About ten tiny seedlings are visible. I don't know if the desk lamp is adequate. So far, so good!

Flowers blooming for the holiday. The Poinsettia was over-summered. I kept it out of artificial light for a month, so it would bloom. A couple of branches broke off - they are brittle! - but it looks nice.

 

Good that those seeds germinated. I will be interested to see their flowers.

Your Christmas plants are lovely.

 

Robbie and Gary Gardening Easy on you tube in southern CA have deer ALL OVER their rosemary bush. Theirs is quite huge and the deer LOVE it. They have caught them rolling in it on their night cameras.

I don't know about it repelling insects either. It is in the mint family as are about 200+ other herbs. It smells good, but tastes like pine needles.

I do like to grow it. I might make some salve with it.

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Curly leafed parsley is my favorite. I don't care for cilantro or flat leafed varieties. When I was little, a girl down the street and I used to sit in the alley and reach through the picket fence and eat her mother's parsley every day. I do not remember her name any more, but we often played together and went to kindergarten together.

 

Lamiaceae: Mint Family (Labiatae). Identify plants and flowers. (wildflowers-and-weeds.com)

This also lists coleus as in the mint family, though he says it has no aroma. Hmm. The red coleus that I let go to seed has gone wild and is growing all over the place, and has a definite aroma to it. I had no idea it was in the mint family! There is a large patch in my horse pasture, but I don't think she likes it. And there is a patch out behind my chicken coop.... I think I need to get out there and remove as much as I can?

I don't know if this is the site I was thinking of, but also listed in the mint family are lavender, basil, oregano... (and the rosemary I mentioned above.)

 

Really? I forgot to water my plants before break so I went in today and did it. I have a couple coleus. I never noticed them having square stems.

 

I have not noticed the square stems on coleus either, but will try to look when I am out there again. It is pouring rain today, so only pet chores today. We really need the rain. I used to grow them indoors, but have not since they have gone hog wild outside.

 

@AAnightowl that's interesting about the southern California deer. My place has deer every day and they eat lots of plants but don't touch rosemary (or lavender, sage, oregano, thyme, etc). I think deer in different places have different tastes.

 

Maybe so @Daniel W . Rosemary here does not grow as huge as Robbie's in Southern CA. Maybe her climate is more like a Mediterranean climate so it grows huge. Mine might get large, if it survives enough winters, but I often have it in containers too.

 

Nothing in the garden, apart from feeding birds and squirrels, but I did a little job in the house.
Over thirty years ago I made a shelf for the hall.
I made it at the same time as I made this bookcase on the other side of the hall.





Over time the shelf has got a bit scruffy, with stuff being put on it. Like infusers that might leak a bit.

So I cleared everything off it this afternoon and rubbed it down with a couple of grades of glasspaper, then repolished it.

They are both made from 9" hardwood bullnosed edge skirting boards.
Ideal at the time, as I don't remember the wood being that expensive. It was cheaper than buying a bookcase and I could make it the size we wanted.
But not any more. The length of wood for the shelf would cost about £100 now. I shudder to think how much the wood for the bookcase would be.





I'll give the shelf another coat of polish after Christmas.

 

Just had a look at this wisteria, as will the others, it'll get it's annual winter prune next week.





I'm going to reduce the number of "heads" as it's producing too much foliage in the second half of the year and it's a pain to clear it when it dies off. It will still produce well over a hundred blooms. I'll remove some of the old wood.








I won't be so drastic with the one on the pergola on the back of the house. The foliage becomes quite dense and acts as a bit of a sunshade for the lounge.
Forty years ago, I made this retractable sunshade. But it had to go when I built the pergola.






I'm pleased the bamboo seems not to have suffered from the replacement of part of the back fence. The roots would have been hard up against the lower of the two concrete base panels and the two concrete post which were replaced.