WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

Picked some redcurrants before the birds eat them all

Blackcurrants and raspberries

 

@Auricula I have no worries of sweaty feet as my feet are always cold.

I don't wear them out to 'do's or special events. For nipping out to see family, in the garden/ house and for a couple of miles ( Summer) walk I find them really comfy as they are a wide design . I have arthritis in both feet and have had to have bone fusions so they make me feel like I'm walking on air. I don't have the fully enclosed clog style all of mine have cut out patterns so get plenty of ventilation!

 

For the time being I am not wearing backless shoes, flip flops, slip ons. I have narrow feet, size 37/4 so have to be careful.

 

3 coats of sealer on the slabs so that's finished, just potted up the osteospermum cuttings I did for my neighbour, got full sun in the garden now so that's it for me, just too warm now.

 

No I can't cope any more with backless Vicky, maybe in the garden as I need to kick them off to go in and out of the house. These shoes have a heel strap that I can use for walking any distance or push up over the front to make them slip ons.

 

This week I've cut back the Lonicera fragrantissima to let sun and rain get to the Anemone japonica and Hydrangea macrophylla at either side of it. I have about half-a-dozen nice unused pots in the back garden on my patio, and the task for June is to generally tidy it up and plant the rest of them up. Hard to know what to actually put in them as I've hardly ever done any container gardening in my decade of gardening! Was pleasantly surprised to discover that Myrtus communis was hardy enough for my region (in the right part of the garden), so I've ordered one of those to put in a large glazed pot I have! And I just remembered I want a Choisya 'White Dazzler' in another, so I'm off to order one of those now!

Nick

 

Makes me feel tired just reading about what you were doing!

 

I went out & watered many of my pots as they were getting very dry - & that's in spite of nearly drowning them yesterday thinking about the high temps forecast by the Met Office!

The balcony faces, more or less, SSW so it gets all the going sunshine from about 11am till the sun sets. So imagine today what its like today! The wind at 4pm wouldn't let me open the balcony door to go out & water the pots, I had to strain against the door to get it to open! It may be a laugh but I really did have to PUSH HARD!

 

Yesterday when I went out to water the pots I noticed that one Dahlia was covered thickly in BLACKFLIES! So I went back into the flat & got out my hand sprayer which I then used to blow them off the stems! It's very hard work! All that squeezing soon makes your hands & arms tired! I also noticed that the ants were among them as well - no doubt "milking" them for their honeydew like we milk cows! I cleaned as many off as I could but some are back again today! So tomorrow - in a thick jumper- I will go out & try to get rid of more of them!

 

The alleged "heatwave" up here means I didn't freeze when doing my Big Pond Makeover. Neither was I at risk of sunburn.

Anyways, my small pond in the impossible corner was nice but I wanted to lift the water level and also had a small suspicion that the liner might have a tiny leak. So I bought a preformed liner to make things easy, after all, the ad said "Just Dig a Hole!"



Easy! Because the old pond already has a hole all I need to do is to add light touches to make the shape right for the pool.

Enthusiastically I emptied the pond, ripped out the liner, underlay and an impressive ecosystem of unspeakable creatures and little presents Mr Blackbird likes to throw in for good fortune, and commenced the gentle re-shaping.

Very quickly remembered that we have extremely hard clay soil. "Just Dig a Hole", my bum! Two hours of hard core whack-whack-whack sitting in a Rosemary bush. One the bright side, my nether regions smell lovely.

Anyways, the hole got dug, pool went in, backfilling was done and whilst I took a quick natural break, the User Acceptance Testing was carried out. Full marks from Sparrows and Mr Blackbird.



I ripped out the Geraniums and re-planted them further away to the spot where I had ripped out the Vinca Minor destined to surround the pond. Everything looks a bit tatty and shocked but the plants should be ok.

The front corner that always gets bone dry received my Semprevivums as a swap. The edge needs sorting out after been squashed by the Geraniums.



A very lovely surprise turned up when I finally retired with a well deserved glass of wine. No idea what this visitor might be, perhaps a Warbler?



Tomorrow we'll have to go for a walk to get some more stones from a nearby field. If I'm able to move, that is

 

A good neighbour gave me some kidney bean plants, although I said I didn't have room for them, but he 'insisted'
Well I really haven't got room for them, and I haven't got any spare bean sticks either, so I planted them between the raspberry canes and they can use those for support