WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

Last year I dabbled with producing home-made insecticide from my Melia azedarach tree. It's closely related to the true Neem tree, Azadirachta indica, and shares many if not all of the Neem's beneficial properties. It did seem to work on reducing the cottony scale and leaf-miner infestations on the citrus trees.
Well, I'm better informed now, having read through lots of Indian studies on the 'net.
So this morning, I stripped a load of 'beads' from one of the trees, bunged them in an old food processor and tried to pulverise them. They're tough, but I put the resulting gunge in an old pillowcase and suspended it in a barrel of water in full sun on the terrace. The optimum temperature for oil extraction in water is said to be 40C. That's handy, because that's what we're forecast today
I'll keep you posted on the results....

 

Deadheaded three spent Cosmos flowers (this qualifies me to post in this thread right? ), otherwise just followed the drama on the windowsill.

I noticed the catch first thing in the morning, the victim was still trying to escape but the plant won.

12 hours later I took some photos of the happily burping plant (I could almost heard the burps and the sucking sounds and the happy sighs, swear! ) when the sun came out and...

The legs of the victim started to move!

 

Your evil, you are.

 

I'm NOT evil, @pete , the Cosmos flowers were truly spent and since I snipped them off today (on my way to the bin) I fully qualify in posting in "What are we doing in the garden today 2023"- thread. There!

On an unrelated matter, one of the legs of The Victim just moved a bit, as if waving a goodbye to the cruel world. Unfortunately the video is too dark to see it well.

 

I have been getting the garden ready for when 22 women descend into it for a Hen Party...... I best not find anyone asleep in my raised flower bed!

 

Oh, I say. Gosh!

 

Yesterday I watered the tomato plants with tomato fertilizer for the 2nd time this week. In the 3 weeks since I've been doing this they have grown tremendously! Of the 9 plants I have on the balcony 3 or 4 are already at the limit I can reach standing on the floor! I will have to use the chair to reach them in a couple of days time!

I deadheaded some of the Morning Glories but now some of the plants are out of my reach & have reached the top of the strings!

I also removed the spent flowers on the Petunias. I've already replaced a couple of them & I do more of them next week. They have been flowering very well but the mildew has brought them to a premature death!

I'll probably find some Geraniums & Fuchsias to take their place until the frosts begin, possibly later October.

 

I am not looking forward to it.... I hope they behave

Or they will be getting a telling off

 

Watered the hanging baskets and ordered some seeds from Mr. Fothergills and D.T. Brown, they have a 20% off on everything this weekend, also they do free p&p.

 

Yesterday I did some watering of the flowerbeds in the church gardens. The Cosmos are starting to flower & there are lots of flowers on the French Marigolds which seem to last a long time as I haven't had to do much deadheading of them since they started to flower. Just the opposite with the Calendulas which are not growing nearly as well as I had hoped! The Dahlias I planted in a triangular raised bed are coming into flower now & they are sooo much better there than they had been the 3 years they were growing on the balcony!
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Just watering the plants on the balcony. Some of the Morning Glories were beginning to flag a little this evening. I am rather surprised to have got 5 or 6 colours this year, when I was expecting a predominance of purple! They are from seeds I saved from last year which were possibly from seeds saved the previous year, not sure now. They are producing 100s of flowers a day now! Here are some pictures I took a couple of days ago:
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We have just had a heavy rain shower, shame it's dark now or I could have got some more shots of them with raindrops, which look really nice.
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Deadheaded the cosmos,
snapdragons and marigolds.

 

Starting some autumnal tidying, the biggest of the buddleias has been cut back, bits put through the shredder and mulching has begun. Roses weeded round the bottom of the plants and home made compost put on. Patch for next years carrots had a heavy feed of home made compost from the heap. Potatoes dug up, these are freebies from little 'uns chucked in the corner from a previous crop.

 

Same as Logan ...deadheading Cosmos, Marigolds, Snaps, Dahlias also picked some grapes, pears and blackberries, these will mostly go on our breakfasts.

 

Deadheaded, then realised that the big Buddleia needs a bit more than just deadheading so did a passable impersonation of Indiana Jones and hacked down a binful.

Behind it, I found a Hydrangea I had totally forgotten about! It's a lovely one, and has been totally hidden by the enthusiastic Buddleia all summer. I didn't even notice it was flowering.

Forgetting about the existence of a mature Hydrangea surely must be a sign of... er, liberal approach to remembering things?

(This is an "after" picture)




Another rather touching find, I grew an Abutilon from seed for a houseplant just because my Grandmother had one and it was lovely. It's career as a houseplant was short, I didn't like the way it grew so chucked it into the tatty corner (aka half way house to the brown bin) in it's small houseplant pot and forgot about it.

The plant survived two years outdoors without any attention or watering so this spring I plopped it into a spare space in the border and promptly (again) forgot about it.

Deadheading Cosmos took me thereabouts, and lo behold the wonder, the brave Abutilon is flowering!

Find the Abutilon:

Here it is!