WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2018

@martin-f i feel your pain when we moved to our house 8years ago there was around 30 conifers between the front and back gardens made the house very dark so they came out not the easiest of jobs

 

Martin, we have all been there. Think of the immense satisfaction when you get that stump out.
18 months or so ago I removed a large conifer whose stump was bigger than the top it seemed. Digging, levering, severing roots, pick axing and a few "dearie me's" accomplished the task leaving me with a 20' x 20' space to plant new stuff. Now the bed is full of colour, structure and interest

 

I definitely like that arrangement better.



G.

 

Looks a different garden Gary . Nice one !

Despite the good weather, I am not likely to be in the garden today, alas
Earlier though, I potted on argyrantemums into 2 litre pots and now outside during the day. A few variegated pelargoniums similarly potted.

Another teaching stint at horticultural station.....folk with learning difficulties . Very satisfying

That gorgeous innocent little puppy has drawn blood!!! Teeth like needles. For this I gave him his food, a gentle walk and playtime!!

 

Sown loads of seeds today-did 100 jiffy pellets and a few trays. Hopefully they will have germinated by this time next week and they can go into the greenhouse whilst I'm away in Belgium.

 

I had to make some changes today.

These are six hebes, three in each of two troughs either side of the tea-house steps which we've had for some years and always did well for us. We bought them from Waitrose, they had a stand outside, they were small but they were "three for two" and didn't cost us more than £10 the lot.



They were badly affected by the very cold weather a month back when the temperatures fell to below zero and were reduced to this after I'd pruned off all the dead wood.





At my age, I couldn't be bothered to wait to see if they'll recover and they looked pretty ugly in their prominent position. I've saved four which look as if they've a bit of growth coming around the roots. But they've been relegated to "The Alley of Shame," (the gap between the tea-house and the side fence). If any recover, I'll squeeze them in somewhere.

We now have these, I bought today from Wyevale, which cost the usual, "arm and a leg."

A "Purple Pixie," flanked by two "Pink Pixies" in each.

 

An expensive but productive day sees us with some sleepers, brackets, screws and nails to make two new flower beds, alongside some membrane and 720l of compost to fill them with. Now for the weather to improve enough for us to want to be outside that long in it!

 

Many thanks, ive had to remove lots of trees hedges from this house it was in a right old state when we bought it, the privet on the front was the worst to get out,


My rear garden was ten times worse than this but mainly big trees it took me over one year to clear the back garden and seed it in my spare time, did it all by hand apart from block and tackle,

The tree now stump in question was very useful for securing block and tackle to pull the bigger roots out really helped,

My hands are quite tough but not used to swinging a axe ive got two lovely blisters .

 

@Doghouse Riley The Alley of Shame did make me laugh! Better that than you give up on them straight away though, fingers crossed they pull through and earn themselves a place back in the garden

 

Planted another 5 Beech saplings in front garden. Another 5 to do tomorrow. Planted out several new Aquilegias, one of them by the pond.

Had the obligatory peer into pond whilst out front. The water is now clear, no green scum and I can see the bottom. It seems to have improved since I added the last lot of plants. I can't believe how quickly it's cleared. Don't know if it's the marginals or the oxygenators that have made the most difference or combination of both.

Best news of all is that 5-6 metres away from the pond we found a large, beautiful Toad . I was surprised to see her as it was middle of the afternoon and I thought they were mostly nocturnal. I wonder if she's heading for the pond. Even if she is it might not be to her liking as, although the marginals are growing there is still not a lot of surface cover yet.

 

Great news Luci it wasn't the rare Natterjack Toad by any chance.

 

Its out next job is getting it out of the hole its too heavy to lift but two men should be able to roll it out i will ask my neighbour to help tomorrow, my pal with the chainsaw is away on holiday for a few weeks i will have to cut it up at a later date.

 

Well done martin. Yep, same problem for me, viz.,,getting it out of the hole. Can you tip it towards the grass?
What plans do you have for that space?

 

When we moved to our house there was one of those Wirly gig washing lines in the garden. I hated it because it was in the middle of the lawn and there was a really deep hole in the lawn where it went. Over time grass grew over it because we never used it but the grass was spongey so I asked hubby to dig it out. OMG ! He dug and he dug and I was convinced the bottom of the concrete boulder was in Australia. Eventually he could see the bottom but the problem was how was he going to get the Boulder out the hole. He put metal poles under the bottom of it and then he was able to rock it free However, it took forever to get the Boulder out, which reminds me it’s still at the back of the garage and we need to dispose of it but I don’t think we’ll get it in the back seat of hubby’s BMW . When he filled the hole in and put a large square of grass back on top of it, I am convinced the neighbours thought I was in there.