What have you done today in the Garden?

It will probably be Schipp Laurel since it can grow almost anywhere and has bright green leaves and flowers in spring. These are planted here in tough conditiond like under established trees in borders, which is just where I need them.

 

Portuguese laural is drought resistant once established. I planted them across the front of the property to keep the deer from cutting thru the pastures to the woods. They grow thick branches preventing a path blocking deer and antelope from passing through. Hardy tough plant that can grow to tree size if left unchecked. Also stops pocket gophers, belding ground squirrels and rabbits from digging underground tunnels thru the entire area. Not to mention moles , voles and mice. A plus plus for this area.

 

Today I had a lot of planting to do. I planted out a courgette that I had potted up three times. Third time was into a 6" pot because it was too chilly outside, I thought I'd wait with it. .

Then I had bought a dozen glads, a pack of crocosmia lucifer, 25 in there, a pink canna lily, a pack of 5 rudbeckia goldstrum roots. I planted all those out after adding compost and other soil amendments to my sandy soil. Then planted out the only two Stifa that came up for me from seed.
All the above are in the same bed next to my veg in the raised beds.
After that I planted out 4 cucumber plants in my raised bed and erected a sort of tee pee for them to grow up. I still have 2 cucumber plants under grow lights to plant out for a later harvest. That's all I'm doing today.

 

Those do really well around here. Drought tolerant, deer and rabbits don't eat them, hummingbirds love them. Nice plants!

 

Today I planted grass seed, where I had removed garden beds and cleaned up overgrown areas last summer / fall. Much easier to keep them tidy if I can just mow them.

I still have more than enough things in borders and elsewhere, to keep me too busy.

The garlic (Chinese) chives are growing nicely. Yum, dumplings (in a couple of months). They are in a tall container, about 2" tall sides. That keeps weeds out and is easy to maintain, for the less-able gardener.



The strawberries that I dug out and replanted 3 plants per container, instead of six, have grown new leaves. I still have two more containers (of the original four), to divide. I keep these containers on a ledge, for easier maintenance and harvest. Last year they were on permanent benches on the front deck. That deck is gone now, so they are on the ledge of a raised bed. For now.



Onions, sets planted in January, growing nicely. I think the ones planted in February are beginning to grow, too.



The new roses are starting to grow.



Today I planted tomato seeds. Most, but not all, old seeds and most are dwarf varieties.



I used reusable silicone six packs. Twice the cell size of the small plastic six packs, don't dry out as fast. They are on the warming mat now.



There are two more to plant. I'll start mini dahlias then too.

I think gardening season has begun

 

@Daniel W Silicone 6 packs.. something new. Good idea.

Yes, Spring has Sprung…
I can tell by the activity of moles openings and the deer scat lying about in the pastures that garden season has begun with a bang. The mole , gopher and Belding ground squirrel wars are on . They are all settling in many new ground tunnels to infiltrate many posts from past attacks. Priming positions to feast on all that hides in the earth. Spent several hours setting traps and narrowing the entry points thruout the garden and pastures.

It rained off and on creating clay mud packed tires to flap out mud balls leaving a trail resembling a herd of wild animals.

Ah well it’s all in a day’s work.Tomorrow’s another day.

 

I hope they like it here. I have very well draining soil which is very sandy with a clay/sand mixture that lies at varying depths (between 1 and 2 feet )beneath the sandy layer. I have amended the soil yearly for two years, since I started that bed, didn't amend it for the crocosmias, so, I'm hoping it will fit their requirements.

 

Nothing in ours, but we cleared the last of the branches, in the garden between ours and another neighbour's. The guy between us is in a long-term hospital facility.

I noticed the little phlox plug plants on the shed window sill are starting to show little purple flowers.

A week ago, as here, there were none.





Trafford Borough Council has sent a letter advising of the community charge increase.
The "good news" it will only be 7.5% (The maximum they are allowed to raise it is 7.9%)

The "bad news," is that we will now have to pay £50 a year for the green, (garden waste) bin to be emptied each week. This will bring the charge up to err.. 7.9%
Strange that isn't it?

 

The rain stopped so I got my snow peas picked. They are now drying on a towel in the kitchen after being blanched.
Rain is coming again, so that's likely all that can be accomplished today.

 

Can you find a corner to compost Mr Riley?

 

There were 2 beam ends sticking out of the apex so I boxed them in to make a nest box for the Blackbirds

 

Are you sure that that green man won't put them off it?
He scares me !!

 

Unfortunately, there's not an inch of spare space in our garden.

I'm more a "garden manager," (workforce of one, me!) than a gardener.
I won't say I'm happy paying the fifty-quid a year, but honestly, I'd rather do that than get involved in composting.

It was very cold today, so all I did was give everything a feed, as it hasn't rained for a few days.

Might go to a garden centre later to get another azalea (or two) for a patio pot(s)

I've been making a play list for a USB stick for my latest car, a Honda Jazz Crosstar hybrid, which has a few of these sockets (two in the dash, two in the back) instead of a CD player. I could upload my library of 3000 or more mp3s. I do have them in several different collective files, but it would be a pain to find individual tracks of the different genres, when I should be concentrating on driving.

This is my first automatic keyless car. I'm finally getting used to remember to put on my seatbelt, then my foot on the brake before I press start. (It will remind me if I haven't and won't cooperate until I have), then put it in "brake assist; mode" (it uses the engine to help slow you down like a "normal car," which adds extra charge to the battery), then disable the "Lane mitigation," to stop it from "grabbing the steering wheel," if I'm not dead centre of a traffic lane, before I can go anywhere.

I went to B&Q atr the Trafford Centre this afternoon and bought two more decent sized rhodos for the bed at the bottom of the garden which is a bit bare and an azalea that can do duty in rotatation with the other plants in the big ceramic pot by the front door.
I also bought three small heathers to replace the one that's died in a trough on the main patio and a pack of shady area grass seed for under the acer near the tea-house. I didn't think about getting them intro the boot of my car, as with the CRV there was loads of space. But they went in with room to spare, although I had to temporarily remove the parcel shelf. I'll get them all planted tomorrow.

 

Did a little clean up outside yesterday. It was warm and windy but did get a little bit done. Also mulched around my lilac bush. Nothing today as it has been a light rain today.

 

Sowed a couple trays this morning as it was a bit nippy out in the garden, this time of year it remains shaded until lunchtime.
This afternoon watered the overwintering plants and tidied up a small border. It was a little 'warmer' this afternoon. Still nippy though.Brrrrrr!!!