What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

More wisteria pruning. If I stood still, I bet I could see it growing.

 

Look similar to some of our new chairs Woo. Nice and comfortable.

 

Lucky You...any tips lol

Bah Humbug!
Our local B&Q here in Northern Ireland along with Homebase have discontinued my beloved Somerset Green (Cuprinol Shades) garden paint.
This is a major catastrophe as any wood in the garden has been painted with Somerset Green...the nearest supplier bar the internet is in Athlone over 100 miles away....Guess Old English Green will have to do now...not a happy teddy...

 

Palletwood..dont just throw it away, make something!
5.20am gonna get up at around 6 Make a nice cuppa Twinings English Breakfast tea and get painting this new Sempervivum stand I have made. Early morning Peace and Quiet nothing but birdsong and plants...Simple and Beautiful..

 

Nothing essential required doing, so I just carried out a bit of maintenance.
I gave my cheap (around thirty quid) Chinese blower/vac. a service.

One of these.





Ir's quite powerful. 2.kw. and is extremely well made.

But like many similar ones there gets a build up of compacted soil in the fan housing, which can't be shifted without dismantling it. Eventually the efficiency of the machine reduces, as the fan can't shift enough air. In fact, over time the build up can start to wear the vanes of the fan.
Now a lot of stuff these days is often labelled "no user parts accessible" or whatever...

But the two halves of this are connected by 18 screws. So it was an easy enough task to to separate them. The motor comes away from its housing quite easily so you don't have to disconnect any wires. Then it's a case at getting at the build up of soil in both halves of the casing with a chisel. It compacts that hard. Then a bit of silicone spray on the nylon bearing of the fan at the front and a drop of oil on the metal bearing at the back of the motor and put it back together again. Good as new!

I usually do this a couple of times a year.

 

We've been having a hedge dispute with our neighbours for many years. It is a 12 feet high laurel hedge which intrudes into our garden by several feet if unchecked. We cut our side and until recently disposed of the spoil either by burning or shredding and putting in our green bin. I was told that laurel is toxic and is a component of ricin so we will not be burning or shredding it in future.
The neighbours are not speaking to us now because we asked them to keep it in good order so I've been throwing the manageable clippings through the hedge.
This morning I've been cutting back the laurel and most of the other overhang from next door which includes a mile a minute wisteria, jasmine and tamarisk. They are getting it back. Some of the laurel are like trees with huge trunks so it's not just a case of using secateurs - I've resorted to loppers but I think a chain saw would be better.
Apart from that I've been arranging flowers from the cutting garden, tidying my own patch and now it is raining so a good excuse to do nothing.

 

Well done.

Someone might come on here to tell you what is the legal position regarding to the stuff of theirs you've cut off. But nothing else gives the message better than chucking the stuff back. It shows you won't be bullied. We've a similar problem with a creeper that's trying to climb over or through the fence between our garden and next door's. I'm sick of asking them to control it.
What I can see of it on our side I spray with weedkiller.

 

Nice cool day compared to recent days so I have been using the old knapsack for most of the day treating lawns.

 

Rain didn't stop play this morning. Had a few hours in the tunnel potting stuff on



Took some of the lower branches from this tree and cut it back a bit where it gets close to the car



Swept the drive around the tree - got a load of needles up

Dug out a couple more ligularia which were taking over.

Dug out a shrub which was past its best

Tidied up a bit of the tropical look area



The skip is filling nicely

 

Cutting wood, drinking cider and nearly killing myself with a drill that slipped!

I'll be glad once I've finished off the kitchen and get back to my Veg!

Played my cd's to keep Carol at bay!:giggle:

 

Good to see that the cider drinking didn't have to fully stop @Vince

 

Tried to sort out the tomato jungle. I don't grow them seriously, but want to have a plant or two because they are fun to grow and smell nice. I usually sow a couple of seeds from Tesco's baby plum toms which are always reliable but totally unpredictable in habit, and this year decided to also buy some nice, tidy mini toms seeds allegedly "great for patio containers".

Clearly I'm doing something wrong, or perhaps other people have patios the size of tennis courts. This is the mass in a walk-in blowaway greenhouse that now serves as a support frame, it's 2m tall...



But at least the plants smell nice and the first tiny fruit are starting to colour


Deadheaded and gave guidance to my Climbing Iceberg roses, a big thanks to everyone who recommended Icebergs. The flowers are just so perfectly white and beautiful Can't wait for them to cover the obelisks.

 

It has to be given back to them. Can complain to the council about it. A hedge shouldn't be more than 6 1/2ft but it might not be cut to that. It might be done in stages.

 

On the way home from collecting the free compost bins I mentioned previously I saw a gift shop. I don't know what possessed me - particularly as I have decided to not do any arty stuff during summer - but I sent them an email. I didn't think they would be interested as the stuff on their website is very different to mine. But, they said to take samples over next Thursday. Problem is I haven't got any canvases and just a few random poured tiles and bowls. So, frantically trying to paint/ pour enough to take over. Rather predictably because there is pressure involved the canvases are not going well .

I have managed a few small gardening jobs, such as weeding and dead heading. This morning I cut grass in the smallest bun run ( lots of tough grass they don't like ) and this evening I removed a small Jasmine from a pot. Tomorrow I will put it into the ground. I planted the Jasmine a couple of years ago and thought it had died but it's now got new growth and a good root system. Also plan to move the pot it was in tomorrow and set up one of the compost bins in its place.

We seem to be down to just one baby wild bunny .