What have you done today in the Garden?

Pac—I liked seeing your garter snake and skink. It is good to get an idea of what is in your garden besides all the lovely plants.

Daniel— yeah that pic she took really did look good, didn’t it. It seems like you have a bit of work to do there. Not really work for a hot and sunny day though. Too bad you have so many thistles. I like thistles…just in someone else's garden.

 

That tomato sandwich was very nice. And an orange for desert.

I did do some of my pruning today. The heat is coming back. 58 days until fall arrives here.

The mower needs another carbeurator, and maybe (I hope not!) other parts. Apparently, I put the wrong carb cleaner in it.... It is son's lawnmower.

 

Today I completed removing the last of the bearded iris rhizomes from the old bed, and cut off the remaining thistles there. I cleaned up those rhizomes, shortened the leaves, and replanted them in their new home. Some were really tiny. I don't think they would have lived much longer there.

Now only time will tell whether the new situation will work out for them.

I also moved a lot of the container garden back onto the patio. Life is getting back to normal.

 

@AAnightowl sorry to hear about the mower carburetor… it seems thes issues clog the gardeners energy with more to deal with than yard.projects. . Ringing the right parts can be tricky. Good Luck.

@Daniel W giving your garden a redo/remodel too! Getting your yard/garden put back on track is always a relief.

@Sjoerd I’m sure you have a lot if critters , bugs and snakes in your garden too!


I did trim a tree the huge rhody’s a lot of work to keep them from overtaking the areas set for them in the garden. Some are 25’x 20’. I’ll need the orchard ladder to get the tops. I use a telescope prunner reaches out 10’ .

Also cleaned out the front bird bath / water feature and refreshed the rocks and boulders around the perimeter as the hummers raced in and out of the mimosa tree plumes just above my head. Pulled a lot of weeds trying to gain ground along the front flower beds in the front garden. The taller trees that I couldn’t reach will have to wait. Clipped out the blackberries sneaking in tru the middle of the shrubs and plants. And clean out all the dead branches from a huge Rosemary .

If I may offer one huge tip , don’t ever plant a Clerodendrom ‘Harlequin Bower) common name peanut butter tree . They are an interesting small tree with hot pink and turquoise fruits. The down side they send out runners everywhere and every season I have a small forest to keep contained.

Also Canadian thistle’s got axed. Cleaned up a rockery area full of pine needles. It has been windy this week all the needles are flying everywhere. I guess the roof is next to clean off the needles . The weather has been nice to be outside comfortably in the high 70F.

 

Daniel— good to hear that things are getting back to normal there. “Normal” can feel so comfortable and reassuring. Those container plants must be happy. The irises and bed project will indeed be a “wait-and-see” project. We’ll wait and you will see…then let us know how it goes. Oké?

Pac—you are right, I have plenty of critters here, it is just so interesting to see what folks in other countries have.

 

Watered the hanging baskets, picked some more white and red currants, potted on the rest of the wallflowers.

 

Beans and toms harvested.
At home we processed the four bean sorts.


The potato bed was cleaned, raked level and planted with green manure.


We lifted more onions. You can see them drying on the crates.

 

I spread some wood chip mulch in the fig tree row / border. It was nice to get started again. It's a long row, so it will take some time. Lots of thistles to remove, too.

 

@Sjoerd that's a beautiful crop!

 

Sjoerd wowowow what a huge achievement. Congratulations on such a beautiful harvest and many different types of beans. Yumm…Got your garden rows all prettied up too.

And I caught on camera a new critter just for you from my garden to share.
Do you have them there ?
Raccoon’s out harassing my cats. Little bugger.




@Daniel W Wood chips are down and now your ready to get back into your grove. …



Today had a massive mess to clean up, didn’t know where to start. It’s been windy up on the hill and needles from the doug fir , pines other trees are everywhere. Spent a few hours cleaning up needles . The driveway was covered so thick with needles couldn’t even see the blacktop surface. Used the blower on the patios, roof and paths in the garden. It’s raining needles.

Trying cut back some of the over grown rhody’s - exhausting. The good news the pastures are totally free of noxious weeds, no gophers, moles or squirrel holes. But found new ground squirrel evidence in the back garden so will fight that war another day. Mowed the lawns and called it a day.

 

I got a little bit of pruning done yesterday on some of the rose of Sharon bushes by my paths. I got a few low mimosa branches also.

I was going to mow with the rider today. Both of the batteries are down, so will have to wait for a ride to the lumber yard to either recharge or get new ones. Supposedly there is rain moving in for a few days.

I did get started on filling a new container for more planting. The lettuce got bitter from the heat, so I am giving it to the chickens. I have tomatoes ripening in the colander hanging by the window.

I found a raspberry seedling in one of my pots, so I moved it over to other raspberry bushes. I don't mind extra raspberry bushes.

My two year old parsley is going to seed nicely. I am trying to decide when it is/will be ready to harvest the seeds for later. If I let them drop where they are, I will have two beds overflowing with parsley in the spring. I want to save the seed for planting, and for sharing some of the seeds. I tried looking up pictures, but the results were too small to SEE.

 

Pac— thank you loads for your complimentary words. I like seeing rows of veg growing, but I also like the looks of a cleaned-up bed which has been newly planted.
Cheers for that racoon pic. Sadly we have those here— they have escaped and been turned loose on purpose and are posing a problem. Plants and animals foreign to country and introduced can have a disastrous result.

 

Lovely harvest Sjoerd, so much for both of you to process.

Not much today, it's hair washing day.

We don't have raccoons but can have badgers and moles, but we're lucky.
Through the years the seagulls have taken up residence, which make a lot of noise at times.

 

Cheers Loggie. It is indeed a lot to harvest, but then our harvests have to be enough to last us a year.

Ah yes Loggie— seagulls. They are also around here, being a coastal town. They are so common that I almost do not hear them anymore. They never come into our gardens, but they do fly over them, and occasionally drop off a package.

 

Fantastic harvest @Sjoerd .

We get a lot of Seagulls as we're on the coast too but as you say @Sjoerd you get so use to them that in the end you don't notice them.
They are in for a shock as all the schools here are now closed for the summer and they come in their 100's to scavenge all the playgrounds at lunchtime!!

We get Moles, Deer, Foxs, Badgers ,Rabbits and of course our lovely Hedgehogs too. However it's only the Moles that cause issues in our garden really.

@Pacnorwest ....although they're pests Raccoons remind me of my eldest son . At birth he was kindly give a soft cuddly toy Raccoon( who we called Ricky) and he adored him so much and took him everywhere he went for years. Driving through Central London once our son decided that Ricky was hot and needed some air and he managed to squeeze him through the narrow gap of his open window. However he didn't let on for a while but eventually broke down crying relentlessly, we then had great fun ( not !!!!) driving around Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square etc being honked at by irrate Black Cab and the iconic Red Bus drivers looking for poor Ricky....please to say that amazingly we found him....and all in one piece!!!!

So as you can see that particular Raccoon has sealed a place in all our hearts....and he's still here living with us.