What have you done today in the Garden?

• So here’s my 2 cents on mowers. Heck I only get 5-8 years with my gas rider mower. John Deere is not making their garden rider mowers ‘PAC proof’-that’s me. My new rider mower is amost 1&1/2 years old. I’ve changed the oil spark plugs filters on schedule. Easy to do since it’s all on you tube. But.. the rider mower is rapidly going down hill. The gas meter from the gas tank to the dash is broken, and I have to put gas in the tank every 1/8 of empty gas tank showing on dash meter. Otherwise if the meter shows any more than a 1/8th of gas used it will read empty and stop running. Nobody likes to haul a portable gas tank to fill a mower out in the fields. So I constantly fill the gas tank. I have 3 - 55 gallon barrels set up with gas nozzle to fill the tractors.
  
  
• The repair to replace the gas tank meter reader to the dash which runs from the gas tank to the dash will cost up to $1000.00 to fix. So I merely deal with filling the gas tank 3-4 times each time I’m using it and I just plan on replacing with a new one when it finally dies. I put 186 miles on it so far in a year and 1/2 so I might get another year and a half ..who knows. In 30 years I have lost count on how many rider mowers and larger maintenance tractors with front scoop I have gone thru.
  
  
• To have them picked up and taken to a John Deer repair center is a $350.00 charge. John Deere has a monopoly on tractors..if any part is not John Deere or if repairs are not done by a certified John D mechanic the warranty becomes null and void. So they continue to raise their prices for just a tune up to over $600.00. Plus the pick up delivery charges . Not to mention greasing the joints and a list of other requirements. By then you’re up to your eyeballs in charges with parts and repairs .
• 
  I have boring stories about these JD repair centers that would curl your hair. None of the above issues even covers tire repairs or tire replacement cost. For the big maintenance tractor it’s cheaper to call an auto tire center to replace a tractor tire than JD.
  
  
• Just sayin…it’s always something.

 

I thought you were able to get the Cub Cadet series in the USA? One of ours is a Cadet - like thisand I thought they originated there. It is one of the best I've ever bought.

 

Nope mine is 42” mower deck like thus………………………

and the maintenance heavy duty compact tractor looks like this.. .

Of course there are many other tractor manufacturers. The closest to where we live is JD.

 

We do have the Cub Cadet in the US but they are not rated very highly. People buy them because they are cheaper than any of the other brands available here but they don't last.

None of these riders are made with really reliable components. They are built not to last long and built with cheap Chinese parts.

 

I had bought a bag of marble chips to put under some future but as yet unpurchased clematis. We have a wickedly acidic clay with all the rain here. I noticed a suspiciously white spot in our limestone gravel turn around area. I think I will go around with a hammer and nail down all my future plans before she throws them out with spring cleaning. My biggest headache is when she starts counting down to free dump day and I have to be at work. Oh well, if you don't get to something after a few years it is probably best to let it go.

 

The Garden o' Weedin' is tilled. Let The Games Begin!

 

Since this is the "What I did today in the garden" topic, I started a new topic for lawn mowers. They sort of overwhelmed the gardening topic.

https://www.gardenstew.com/threads/lawn-mowers-riding-mowers-etc.45268/

I hope that's OK with everyone.

 

I did a bit today.
Checked the front garden, the azaleas have plenty of flower buds on them.






This one is already out. Suprisingly, as it gets hardly any sun at all.
That's the wire mesh and posts fence I made thirty years ago, that separates our garden from next door's. I think the low post and panel ones between adjoining gardens look ugly. But they are OK when they separate the two drives on the other side.






Decided to put out the other two hedgehog houses, despite there being no activity as yet.

I'm pretty sure there's one in this house under the azaleas.




If there's no sign of it by the middle of next month, I'll be tempted to check it out.

Both feeding stations have had food in them for a couple of weeks. Once the feeding stations get used, it would be better not to make new houses suddenly appear. The houses may interest some younger visiting hedgehogs.

There's a brick on this one to stop a fox which may visit our garden trying to get the roof off. A bit of wire tied between two screws at the back will also keep the roof in place.






This larger house has a removable floor for cleaning, which should only be necessary once a year. It has latches that keep the roof in place.









I've taken the net off the acers, as the foliage will be too big to pass through it in less than a week. I've kept the restraining wires attached for now. I've also given it a trim.
A lot of the top branches are, "doing their own thing." It won't be until the leaves have "set" and they droop down a bit, will I know which need to be pruned off.




I've not given up yet on the grass under it. The combination of the removal of the huge tree in the garden to the left of ours which created a lot of shade and the shortened "skirt" of the acer, should allow more light under it.

I've planted out the three new clematis and put the eight new phlox in the rockery.
Flower buds on the trailing branches of the wisteria on the pergola next to the garage.

 

Pricked out the 12 tomato seedlings into cell trays. Hubby finished pruning the roses and did some more weeding.

 

So far this morning I went shopping !! Lowe's garden center has their annual spring sale in bagged mulch 5 for $10. so, I got twenty bags since that's all that fits well into the Murano without touching the ceiling. I also stopped at Walmart because their prices on fertilizers is the cheapest around. I got a 25 lb bag of organic fertilizer and a 12 lb bag of ironite. Then I passed by the plants !! You know, I could not Not buy some !!

 

Snap! I bought Creme de Cassis too!

 

Onions and Leek seedlings so far, the one's in the blue trays are the Exhibition Onions

 

I won't be doing much today, as I have chores and shopping on my "to do list."

I've ordered some dahlia tubers on eBay.






I'm going to remove the hebes in the troughs either side of the tea-house steps. Two of them look a bit sickly. I might find a home for the other two in the back border.






I'll put four dahlias in the troughs.

We did have dahlias in the original troughs we had there, over a decade ago.