WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

I wish it would rain again here. After Friday's offering, I planted out nicotiana, cosmos, zinnia, marigolds into borders yesterday. I hoped that as the trays of plants had been soaked and also the ground was wet....that I'd get away without having to water them in. But felt sorry for them and worried they'd crumple, so out with many watering cans it was....

 

Yes that's the big worry at this time of of year with seedlings and young plants....I've been madly watering everything in the evenings too. Not really sure if our 'light rain' will actually penetrate the soil today...but you can only live in hope!!

 

Overcast today so looks like an ideal day to get out and do a bit more , first job is to mow the lawn, I may move the camellia and plant the acer out today but I think about that first .

Got quite a lot done yesterday, even had shorts on which is a rarity for me and then took me t shirt off and scared the neighbours , they don't need to sunglasses for the sun you'll need it for my almost milk white skin, You'd think I was half Latino descent judging how tanned my arms and neck are , I've got a nice square sun burned patch on my back where I couldn't reach properly . I did gets so gardening done after lounging around eating ice cream in the GH and on the garden bench and a bit of procrastinating .
Planted out my last tomato Suncherry premium the best in my opinion , Also planted out one of the large dahlias jackblack - Salvia amistad - 3 Echinacea pallida - 2 tropaeolum speciosum which reminds me I haven't watered in and probably the other odd plant . Also got some weeding done willow herb are always hiding under various plants , and plenty of watering in the GH and throwing away plants in pot that haven't come back this year.

 

Cut grass in one of the bun runs, bit of dead heading, pulled algae/ blanket weed from pond and from the mini ponds in plastic pots, swept patio and made a start on pruning the cherry trees, starting with the one in the side garden.

 

I dug my first new Potatoes this morning, early before the Sun came around,
smallish but enough for the two of us.

I always find it's a bit hit & miss, the tops are quite big/tall, but will leave the rest for a couple of weeks.

I know the general opinion is to leave until the tops flower and die off.

 

Mmm,I love new potatoes with lots of butter and mint sauce. Enjoy.

 

Today I re-potted a cactus. It was an ungrateful little sod.

After I picked the spines out of my fingers, I put in some mini dahlias with the dwarf columbine and evening primrose in one of the big tubs. There's also an eight foot cherry tree and an amarylis in there somewhere - might be a bit packed but I'm hoping it'll help keep it from getting soggy once the rains kick in.

Stuffed some lithodora in a rail pot where the columbine was - opinion seems to be divided as to whether it'll trail, but I thought I'd give it a go. Now all that's left is to swap two of my rail pots around (this is trickier than it sounds) and while doing so confirm that the giant thing growing in one of them is a sneaky weed and my dicondra isn't just tall for its age.

Best wishes to everyone and their gardens

 

I had to repot Albuca bracteata as it had split the pot over the winter despite being kept completely dry in an unheated greenhouse...........

 

I too put the shade fabric on the greenhouses. It is people shading so not a lot of sun gets through but it is only for short term so the plants still get lots of light. When not in use, I simply roll them up and store them upright in a plastic wine bottle crate.

It is a bit of a mess in there at the moment as I toss things on the floor in there until I use them up or store them because I didn't need them after all. By friday, all should be emptied but the plants and the roll of clear 4gge plastic which I will use to make clear twin wall out of these polycarbon panels. The heated greenhouse gets new plastic first and then I'll see what's left for the others.

And Water. Water. Water. It is 96.5f. And some plants are really struggling. My foxglove seems to be affected the worst - it looks like it needs a little blue pill until I feed it over a gallon of water!