What have you done today in the Garden?

My hydrangeas arrived late yesterday afternoon, so this morning I potted them up and put them on the patio steps. For the last few years, I've been putting plants in plastic tubs that fit neatly inside our many Apta ceramic ones. Someone on a message board mentioned it as a good idea. It means I can ring the changes and also there's some air between the two walls of the tubs as a layer of insulation.








I've stuck a bit of the pots with the labels on it in each of the tubs.

I've taken the hebes out of the troughs in front of the teahouse.





I gave the troughs a bit of a clean. They won't need re-painting.



New turf doing well, I'm still watering it twice a day.





My mixed dahlia tubers arrived this morning. I'll pot them up this afternoon and leave them on the bench under the window in the shed.






My intention was to put these in four plastic tubs in the troughs. But I'm debating whether or not to put the troughs back where they were, as it had become impossible to pass between the acer and the troughs to get to the side of the tea-house and the hedgehog house. It'll mean I will be walking on the same part of the lawn on a daily basis. Not a good idea.

The hebes are temporarily residing in, "the alley of shame." Our drive where, apart from two myleen clematis, roses "out of favour," spend their time.
I'm not sure what i'll do with these hebes, there's nowhere else to put them.





Two more at the far end.

 

More hedgehog activity last night. It attempted to get in the feeder, but despite the entrance tunnel now being very short, it didn't try to push its way in.



Contrast this with last year where in the old house entrance was very much longer, which presented no problems




As I mentioned before, this seems quite a large hedgehog. The one that hibernated in the house under the azaleas ought to be much thinner without eating for months. So possibly, It didn't survive the cold weather.

The contrary camera at the bottom of the garden, after not picking anything up for weeks, not even me when I've been down to the tea-house to collect a couple of beers, after the camera is activated, picked up this, (extreme right edge of the photo).

I would think it came through the new doorway.

It always shows that the battery charge is low despite having an adapter connected to it, like the other one.

I've ordered another camera to replace this one. They've come down a lot in price, £38 with free postage direct from Apeman.









As I mentioned earlier, I'll point the other camera at the hedgehog house under the azaleas, this evening.

 

@Doghouse Riley That is a very fat hog and he might be older, a bit claustraphobic, thinking he might get stuck half way in !!

 

Watering is now firmly part of our everyday routine , the ground is so dry.
Likewise so is weeding and pricking out....but all part of the Springtime fun!

 

Even here in "The Tropic of Trafford," it's going to be warm and dry until at least the beginning of next week

Tomorrow I'm going to put a dab of silicone over the drain holes of all our pot movers.
So after I've watered the pots, any water that drains through, will remain in the mover.
I leave it on until the autumn when I'll take it off again.

These roses need a lot of water when it gets warm.

 

I tied a bit of string to 2 road irons today

 

I repotted another container of Alpine strawberries. I grew them from seeds last year. They are smaller than most garden strawberry plants, so I planted them closer together than the everbearing strawberries. As it turned out, I think they are much too crowded.



There were eight plants per "window box". I separated them so now there are three plants per box. The roots had completely filled the box, much more than I would have expected for such small plants.



I mulched with arborist chips.

I have one more box to separate, but no spare containers to transplant the extra plants into. Maybe I don't need so many (true) or maybe plant them into one of the raised beds.

The alpine strawberry plants already have some flower buds.

One of the rhubarb divisions is looking very good. Three years old.



The parent plant is in a difficult location, but it's the best rhubarb I ever had. I don't know the variety. It came with the house. Thick, bright red stems, no green, with pink flesh. Sweet / sour mild flavor.

Always stop and look at flowers.



I tied some climbing rose canes to the kitchen garden fence, so they are not in the way and not as likely to draw blood. They show promise for dramatic blooming this year.

I repotted a grocery store micro mini rose plant. They do better outside, so that's where they are now. This one - a red variety - was outdoors all winter.



The challenge with having them indoors, is they are magnets to mites and diseases, even though my other plants don't have those issues. Outdoors, it doesn't happen.
I had one do very well, indoors, this winter, but the others did not.