WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

Lots of rain battered flowers in my cutting garden so they are now in a vase indoors to be enjoyed along with the sweet peas which had their first pickings.
The roses are smelling glorious after the rain. I'm happy to see one of the climbing roses (Cecile Brunner) has spread over a nearby weeping birch. Ain't nature grand?

 

Mother Nature certainly is Alana... she brings amazement and joy into our lives every single day!

 

Thinned out the wallflower seedlings, have to keep them covered because the blackbirds like to rumadge in the compost and disturb the seedlings and watered the hanging baskets.

 

Bought a braided hisbiscus plant. Dug a hole and put it, still in it's pot, in the hole. I am not going to make the same mistake I did last year and assume it is hardy and can overwinter in my zone.

I only need to water inside the greenhouses after last night's rain and there are only three plants that have to be done by hand as the rest is capillary fed from containers filled by my small/low flow irrigation system.

And I switched out a sprinkler head on the big system as the spray pattern was no longer suitable for the area and I wanted to get that done before the next dry days. I call it the big sprinkler system because it covers all of the lawn and beds.

Got lots more little chores to do. A couple of my spiral stakes need to have their stake portion straighten back out. I had tried to pull them out of the soil before realizing that they just frozen hard down to about 10 inches. I'll go out to the concrete kerb and use my 2 lb hammer to perform the percussive maintenance needed.

 

Had a lovely, but much longer than anticipated, bike ride this morning around the quiet lanes. Still some wild flowers blooming along the hedgerows, cows and sheep in the fields and a delightful smell of freshly cut grass. Didn't see any other humans, just those in a few passing cars. Now, the trouble with the lanes is that one looks very much like another and there are very few sign posts once you get into the interior of the island. We got lost or slightly misplaced. So we looked for a big hill where the view is across the island to find a land mark we know. Very tired when we got back.

Didn't have the energy to do the jobs I had planned so settled for fiddling around with the planting I did yesterday, refreshed all the bird baths, put out more bird food, topped up pond, watered a bit and wandered around front garden cutting down lots of dock like plants. Not sure exactly what they are but think related to docks. Don't like to use weed killer if it can be avoided, so slow their spread by cutting them down before they go to seed.

 

I’m glad I’m not the only one planting some forgotten gladioli! We’ll have to share photos of them in flower

 

Not a lot today just watered the hanging baskets.

 

I haven't even done mine either , I'm hopIng I might have left some in and that they survived the winter.

 

Sadly I've not been able to do much as my pain levels have been hell. I just about managed to deadhead all Lupins before I had to admit to defeat and call it a day.

 

Was busy bidding on business equipment this morning but from 1 until 4 I got time outside.

May sound silly but over time and using up pieces here and there, my wood pile was humping in spots plus since it was covered in a brown tarpaulin was cosmetically ugly. And the stand needed leveling. So I pulled the whole lot off, added a skirt to make the underside into hidden storage. Then put all the wood back, except for the short pieces. Arranged them so that I no longer had thick logs on one side and getting smaller as you go to the other end. I think I did a good job of mixing the sizes.

Then I emptied all the junk under the wood oven. Added mesh sides and put all the smaller wood pieces there.


Then I opened a bag of "kindling" someone sold me. It was mostly sawdust and ants. And the little blighters were crawling up my arms and biting me! I've never been bitten by an ant before. Oh well, learned another lesson from mother nature

 

Not doing much at the moment recovering from a uti so haven't felt like doing a lot.

 

Just swallowed down my meds, off out for a blood test then ... might start sowing some perennials for next year. The sun is out!!

 

Oh was it diagnosed as that @Logan. Once on the med hopefully it will clear up swiftly.

I think I mentioned it to you before.....but it really helps, my hospital consultant recommended it after my op.
D Mannose.

I also take high potency pro-biotics daily too. Mine aren't always UTI's...I know I have other issues but the two in combination really help.

Wishing you well .

 

Think I've gone a bit mad pruning a garrya...but it looked a mess! it was out of shape and lots of black spot-so being brutal. I want it to be bushier.