WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

I picked some more broad beans and put them in the freezer, which are covered in black fly.
Repotted a couple of canna plants and generally fiddled around.
I don't seem to do any thing specific these days.

 

What, you froze greenfly and all ... extra protein?

 

They were BLACK fly.
And I've sprayed the freezer.

 

I apologize, I did say greenfly.
Did you spray the freezer inside or outside?

 

A 'to-do' list is what you need! You look at it each morning, pick out the things you fancy doing and studiously ignore the rest

 

Finally got around to chopping the oleander hedge that surrounds the terrace. Half was done in autumn (vertically) so that will flower now, but the half overhanging and smothering the 'exotic' beds is now on the bonfire heap. Then got carried away and took some big, low branches off the biggest pecan tree, so I can put a seat under it, in the shade.

 

The last two of my Rosa rugosa "Alba" arrived today so despite swearing we were going to have a day off we cut doocots in the bottom of the hedge, dug holes among the roots and planted them.
I then fed my garden with Miracle-Gro liquid feed on the hose and then set the sprinkler up to water the flowers around the house. As I was winding the hose in the rain started!

 

I've bitten the bullet and watering my potatoes
I dug one to see what was going on, just the size of marbles, mind you they are main crop, but the ground was like dust even the masses of compost I dug in was bone dry.

 

We have been enjoying some serious rain, things are now growing like mad. Here's a snip of High Summer in the North East



The Iceberg is lovely, somewhere deep down there is a 6 foot obelisk but I rather like the tangle of pendulant branches that sway in the wind.

Found a stash of grubby gloves and washed them in a bucket, throwing the muddy water for the container plants. Deja-vu, that's exactly what I used to do at Nana's place, sitting on the doorstep and washing gloves, chucking the water to the magnificent Rosa Rugosa by the door. Only in modern times the water comes from tap, not the barrel.



Not clean enough to use for fine dining but 5,5 pairs of perfectly useable gloves rescued.

Mrs Blackbird is my new best friend, she is refurbishing their nest with dried blades of grass and hardy Geraniums. And I thought I should rake and pull the dead things out- nope, Mrs B is there for me. A very pleasing aspect of gardening is that if you are lazy and something gets out of control, there's always a creature who appreciates it.

Did also a round of Fairy Gardening Selleri style and washed houseplants in a soapy water to control the aphids. Aphids are ok but I rather fancy my kitchen herbs slightly more vegan.

Here's my today's task.



My toms got a bad start as I was forced to harden them off in early May so that they could be left out during a holiday away. They all survived, but the growth got stunted and they are now getting bushy rather than going up up up as expected.

I have started to sort this out and found two cucamelon fruits swelling (a significant improvement from 0 in 2020, 0 in 2021, mathematically speaking an infinite increase ), found cucumber Venlo pickling flowering and French dwarf beans that just accidentally slipped into the soil last week well germinated. The melon is ornamental gourd and the Gladioli are bulbs I found in a box in the garage, I like to call them my Cutting Garden

Overplanting, moi?

 

My gardener came first thing this morning and took the last of the hedge trimmings away. I went out with the hose and gave the shrubbery a feed with Miracle-Gro.
I have tried reseeding the Meadow with no success. Either the seed is off or the birds are eating it. I put seeds down in a couple of spots then stuck propagator lids over the top. I held the lids down with wire stakes to prevent them from blowing away. This should tell me if it is bad seed or naughty birds.

 

Nothing today it's been raining all day

 

I spent most of my day working inside but took an hour to go out and water everybody. A teensy bit of deadheading in one garden got done. I tried to tie up my cucumber plant to the mesh wrapped around a teepee of poles but I'm not sure they're going to stay in place.

And I washed some pot saucers that looked yucky.

I did enjoy the monarch butterflies flitting about my raised garden