WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

Looking good Woo, well done.

 

Planted a few more wallflowers and helped hubby tidy up after cutting the pyracantha hedge, he hasn't finished it though, he'll have to do it in stages because it got so out of control.

 

Sowed some Hollyhocks...some say to sow in late Spring early summer and some say they are much better sown in September. Thought I would test out both.

I am digging up our Hollyhocks ,as they are now 3- 4 years old and get rust quite badly, I might even ditch them every year and grow new plants.

Despite my initial concerns as to whether or not our 12 Dahlias had survived their 2nd winter being left in the ground they have been absolutely fantastic. I deadhead them every other day and the blooms keep on coming. I'm a tad nervous as really I would like to move a few to a more prominent area so they can be seen more clearly from the main garden .... nail biting times!!!? Shall I, shan't I.

 

@Upsydaisy I know the feeling, I don't like moving plants at all but sometimes there is no choice or you know in your heart that plant would do better elsewhere, I don't like things bugging me for long so I take a chance, all I do is water in the evening and move them in the morning and then sit and worry, well I wont be sitting for long after today , you have vastly more experience than I do and you will have your method and you know it has a good chance of working, it must do, look at your garden

 

Never suggest to a retired electrician that its nice outside but a bit dark, so I put lights around the pergola, still a little dark dear so the lady got this lot, just finished the colour changing orb and its cement cast base today, taken tonight after the big switch on ( and a change of plaster on my botty )

 

Looks fabulous @Plantpot. We have solar lights in our garden that add a bit of a twinkle but nowhere near as grand a sight as yours..

Thanks yes I'm always very hesitant about moving established plants....especially my Dahlias. I definitely don't have a vast amount of experience I can assure you, everything I do is down to good old potluck and wishing on a lucky star! Not forgetting to keep everything crossed too of course.

 

@Upsydaisy little secret, those globe lights in my picture where solar lights originally, I just removed the circuit board and battery and fitted a length of 12 volt led strip (3 led sections ) in each and wired them up to a 12 volt transformer on a timer, its easy to do if you can solder or know some one who can for you. Solar doesn't work well in this country when you need it, after summer, you need a full days sun to charge it up enough for a few hours at night. Went through a lot of solar lights, non last long because rain destroys them, unless you seal each light, so settled on the globe lights on metal poles because rain runs off them, any condensation runs out through the base.

I doubt is your garden is down to pot luck, you may think it is but looking at your pictures and those of other gardens I have seen and studies for ideas, its more than pot luck, there is a knack to it, your just being modest

 

Must be "light" day. I was rewiring some LEDs in one greenhouse. I had to trace the wires back to the batteries in the cellar to find a short. Believe I got it fixed as it seemed to stop blinking blinking. Nightfall will tell as they are on a timer set to come on in the gloaming.

And the batteries are chocker because the sky was so blue, there is no Navy big enough to wear the trousers it would make @Plantpot ...

Just pulled some sad annuals and played in the soil long enough to need the nail scrubber.

 

@CanadianLori well done you for bringing the light back to your greenhouse

If you have enough blue sky, I am in need of a new pair of trousers after my mishap yesterday when my best gardening trousers had a chunk taken out by some wire, don't mind blue, they wont be blue for long

 

If its a nice day I may start making wall boxes from the baseboards I took out for a few trailing fushia next year. my little hosta is in bloom, was not sure what colour the flowers would be because this is my first hosta, a nice satin white, have moved it to a more safe area because my daft hounds tail would remove the stalks.

 

Have to say that Hubs has also' doctered' some of our older solar lights too as you have done @Plantpot , as you say we don't really have the appropriate light levels during the majority of the year to recharge them.

 

I’ve been busy in the garden, if not busy on GC!

Most of the work has been trying to cut the wildflower meadow. We did the No Mow May, and hubby loved it so much he persuaded me to leave it for June and July too. We had a fairly wet August, combined with a very delinquent puppy (!), so not much got cut. I am now struggling to cut 1/2 acre of long grass, with a standard lawnmower. I have to cut it with the mower on back wheels only, then back and forth again to get it down to the highest cut setting. Job made more complicated by the fact that of course, I have now got copious amounts of grass cuttings to put on the compost.
So I’m also trying to empty the final bay of compost, so I can rotate them round, and get the cuttings in…
…must dash, it’s dry today, so more cutting to do!

 

Oh gosh @Sian in Belgium ....sounds like very hard work!!! Hope that gorgeous puppy of yours is behaving.....as all pups do!!