WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

Had a busy day out in the garden feeling warm on minute then very damp the next....just love our British weather!!

During the dry weather I tidied up a few pots of deciduous plants that still had some old tatty bits on them. In the drizzle/ light rain weeded 4 borders. Torrential rain was perfect for cleaning another patio....just one more to go now.

 

Had all sorts of fun recently lol. Long story short, my back neighbour, whose garden also borders my next door neighbour, has had an ivy tree (vine or bush doesn't really do it justice) for over 20 years which has been on a rather successful campaign of invasion since I moved in. I mentioned that he might want to do something about it last year when I cleared my side and had new fences put in as looking at it from my side his panels were going to fall down soon (I had a trellis put up in front of his fence at the same time firstly because I wanted a trellis and second as a precaution in case it collapsed - no one wants someone else's doberman getting territorial in their garden). Apparently I was too polite about it lol - he thought it was coming from my side and only realised it wasn't when he got fed up with it and scaled his shed to peer over.

He was mortified and immediately called a council of war between us and my next door neighbour to plan a counter attack. We're all short and so had to stand on things to see each other - the discussion took a while as one of us kept disappearing with a squeak every so often before clambering back into view.

He got some new panels, but the concrete posts are a bit odd and not all standardly spaced so there was some customisation required. We all helped by contributing labour (I, uh, mainly supervised), spare wood and power tools and now the ivy is vanquished and I have some nice new fences to look at behind the trellis - result!

I also feel a little more secure against intruders - when the old fence was removed and there was only a trellis between me and my back neighbour, my dogs went absolutely mental to see people moving around. If we do ever have a burglar I don't expect the event to pass quietly lol.

 

That's certainly a good result @EmmaJane . It's nice when things get resolved amicably...phew!!

 

As I read this, I “cackled” laughing, according to hubby. His comment “no excuse!” - until I read him the story!!

 

Nothing today it's been raining again all day.

 

I'm still wringing myself out, may not have rained all day but when it did........you could hardly see through it!!

 

Agreed No one got shirty and it just sort of got taken as read that we'd all help. I've always known I'm lucky to have good neighbours but it was good to see it in action.

I'm glad to hear it - we could all use at least one good cackle a day. It was a comedy of errors at times as the fance panels were a good 6 inches taller than any of us (almost a foot taller than me, which is why I stuck to supervising - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) and the whole thing made me laugh so much I nearly fell through my composter

 

most of the day and stuck indoors on mammoth resin seascapes session ( started at 9.30 am and finished at 8.00 pm. Raining this morning, although supposed to clear later, so may get an hour or so outside.

 

A day of getting wet again by the look of it, hope to get some plants into the ground today , save having to water them in I suppose.

 

Not much today it's going to rain again later. But just managed to check on the wallflower seedlings, got 96 toilet roll tubes of them come up, when they're bigger I will thin them down to 1 in each tube.
It's just the right temp for them to germinate.

 

Well well well... I have discovered why the small pump in my newest pond keeps falling. It's not the water pressure nor the flimsy suction cups, it's Mr Blackbird enjoying his bath.

I considered putting up a sign "Strictly No Bathing, please use the appointed bathing pond behind Astilbe" but that seemed a bit harsh. Probably I'll just go with "Bathers are kindly asked to mind the pump" or something. As a precaution I swapped the piece of slate where the pump is attached with a glass jar that hopefully should keep it more firmly in place.

Anyways, I made a good start with back garden, planting Cosmos collarette, Dahlias and Artichokes that have been hardened off. Scratched about and top- dressed the soil with a special mixture of compost, sand, bloodfishandbone and manure, ratio unknown but as my soil is very heavy clay, everything is a plus.

Lost a 100l bag of manure, I'm sure it is somewhere but can't find it!

Various pottings and tidying ups also took place and things are now looking quite all right. Today I'll tackle the front garden and put up the walkinblowaway greenhouse so that my Tomatoes, Chillies and Cucumbers have a place to stay when things warm up a bit. That is, if I can find all the greenhouse pieces. Perhaps my garage needs tidying up?

 

Is it warm enough for pelargoniums to be outside yet? mine are flowering away in the greenhouse and I need space.

 

Which bright spark who suffers from hay fever chose to buy a house surrounded by farmland and boasting 3 lawns? Yes, mowed the lawns or should I say cut the hay?

 

I've been out in the pouring rain planting some of mine out today @Snorky85 ...so far planted out around 20. Mine are all in bloom too but some I have been cutting back in the hope to save their energy for blooming a little later.

If the rain calms down a bit I'm group planting a few smaller ones into the big planters.

Nice to have space in the coldframes now so as to move plants out of the greenhouse.

 

Oh no @Vince ....poor you!!