WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

Picked a lot of Gooseberries, just got to top and tail them, later do some deadheading.

 

I've never seen red gooseberries ... are they sweeter?

 

They're just the same as green ones for sweetness, if they're left on the plant to ripen, they're sweet enough, i can eat them just as they are.
The varieties are Pax and Xenia, Xenia is supposed to be thornless but no. The way to pick them is to hold the stem up and the gooseberries hang down under the stem and i can pick them without the thorns sticking into me.

 

I like gooseberries but you don't see them here ... well you don't see many berries down here in the South.

 

@Victoria, do you get guavas, paw-paws, loquats (Natal plums) and persimmons there? I know you're OK for citrus but I should think your climate lends itself to a host of lovely fruit?

 

Yes, in fact have two loquat trees in front of my gates, horrid fruit! I am not so fond of tropical fruit and T'other Half won't eat it at all. Once upon a time I had a Natal Plum shrub but that was in a distant memory.

 

I'm watering, I dug out one of the tomato plants that was going limp all the time.
It was planted near other stuff and it was bone dry, despite me watering it from time to time.
At least it wasn't some nasty disease.

 

Moved a Chocolate Vine which was not doing very well and prepared three holes for shrubs being delivered this afternoon - then they rescheduled delivery for tomorrow!
Mind you, we will be lucky to ever see them. DX have a fondness for delivering to other number '20s throughout the village but seldom here. And our little cul-de-sac has a postcode all to itself.

 

Today we received a couple of Hydrangea (lovely specimens) and another Clematis Montana. I had holes ready dug so we planted them out using Rootgrow and quality topsoil.
This evening looked quite pleasant so I got the hose out and gave everything a good soaking. It was surprisingly nippy in just a tee shirt (well not just a tee shirt. It's chilly around the Trossachs). I was just putting the hose away when the rain started. Typical.

 

I repotted many of my many cacti ... and there are many left to do

 

Start off with dead heading and weeding.

 

Picked a lot of gooseberries, some watering later.

 

It rained all morning so we just looked. Once it dried up my good lady did some dead-heading. I have ordered her a trug so she does not need to go around with pockets full of rose petals and weeds. I went out this evening and watered the hanging baskets and pouches. The rain didn't do much for them.

 

With the last of my plants now in the ground I spent a couple of hours washing pots and labels ready to store until next Spring. I use a pencil on plastic labels and neat washing up liquid cleans them pretty well.