WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2017

Ooh @luciusmaximus any new hoglet photos?

Also, what do peeps think-got a patch in my border where i had three white lupins-had to trim them right back because of that white mildew problem. They look a bit naf. Do u reckon I shoud dig em out and put them in a pot for now and replace them with something new for the GW visitors? Or just leave them??

 

Snorky, yes out with those lupins....dig up, divide and pot up. Its what I do after they have flowered cos they look awful for the rest of the summer
How about leucanthemums or echinacea White Swan instead? Or gaura Whirling Butterflies?

 

I will take some tomorrow. He is still quite scared and wondering what's going on no doubt.

 

Its been raining here most of the day, I popped out this morning for some larger pebbles for inside and outside the pond, I thought they would look nice, they also fills some gaps where I want the birds to drink and bath and frogs etc to climb in and out, while I was there I bought two more plants ,

Anyhow when sun came out for a short period I went and put them in place, the waters gone cloudy from the disturbance hopefully it will clear in a few days.

 

Envious of your lovely pond @martin-f let me know if you have any probs with cloudy water as have done lots of reading into it!

Thanks @Verdun ! I will do just that! I've got echinacea purpurea in the bed so more echinacea may be overload. I'll google your other suggestions! It's a shame my delphiniums are only just growing back again after their first chop. Thing is-they might not even film the whole garden....who knows!!

 

But you can't sit on a rose bed WO

 

Thank you Snorkey ,

I think it was just the disturbance its starting to settle now and looking cleaner again, I'm not too concerned about the water colour at the end of the day its a wildlife pond and I want to keep it as natural as possible, having said that ive done as much as I can to keep it pretty clear, lots of rocks and plants in the pond and its location is very important from my reading,

I also have the water fall flowing into a plant full of small pebbles that will filter it naturally, it should clear a little more in the next few days, I can certainly see a improvement from yesterday .

 

We have been busy this afternoon taking down an ornamental apple tree (John Downey) which has got too big for its space and we are worried that the roots might start affecting the house foundations so on the advice of a surveyor we are getting rid of it plus a holly tree that has got too big as well and both trees were blocking out the light from my kitchen and upstairs bedroom.... Mr Kandy has used ropes tied to various branches so that the bits he cut didn't fall into next doors garden and I have been helping by cutting up the branches and bagging them up.The car is now full to the brim with bags and buckets and we have had to stop for a rest before we take the whole lot over to the Lottie for burning.

The birdies are not very happy at losing their perches and kept telling us off all the time we have been working so they have had extra rations of seed this afternoon

 

We have had a great year for gardening, so now it is time to start picking. As there are only my wife and myself there is much more than we can use, so we will be giving some away. Our postman is a really nice man and he recently told me the rain wiped out his garden, so today he will find a pleasant surprise in our mailbox when he makes his delivery.

 

just some weed pulling. and discovered another yellow jacket ground hive. got to gas it, and blow it up. later at dusk. it seems active.

 

Thank you for your kind words A I find them reassuring , I tend to read up on things now I'm getting a bit older, a few years ago I would just get on with something then read up afterwards then have to do it again ,

Your pond looks lovely you've obviously got a happy balance, not too much direct sun light plenty of stones and plenty of plants ,

Its still early days with my pond but I have followed a few guidelines and hopefully it will be thriving this time next year, probably too many plants in but its no problem to keep them in check,

I've moved the CCTV camera today I now have a birds eye view of any wildlife turning up .

 

Whilst puttering out there today I picked my second large zucchini (you call them courgettes?) some tomatoes and some hot peppers. I see a nice acorn squash is forming and a cucumber growing close to edible size

I took some pictures of some of my garden but did so on my blackberry - and I will upload them later

Because we are looking at a long hot spell, I decided to up the time on minutes that the overhead fans in the greenhouses are running. There are 19 on/off settings and I use them all so that the air circulates as well continuously exhausting using louvres, vents and turbine fans. So far I have had zero mildew or mold and no spider mites in the three of them. Had a problem with mites in my indoor growing area so sprayed spinosad and installed fans to keep the air moving. so far, so good