WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

Yesterday Ben the Gardener spent four hours doing a grand job of cutting down (halfway) the Melaleuca, Jacaranda, Brugmansia, taking the lower skirt off the Cycad, repotting it and the Hibiscus syriacus and a few other things, then spent two hours visiting with us, so I was outside for 6 1/2 hours yesterday (till 3pm) when it started to lightly drizzle. I plan to repot a few things later this morning and take some pictures of the work done and post in An Algarve Garden later or tomorrow.

 

Finally removed the Cosmos, after first cutting all stems with buds to bring to house. The border looks so empty without the mass of Cosmos.

Checked on cuttings, Hydrangeas look very promising and Iceberg roses are still perky. Fingers crossed

Harvested tatties- perhaps not enough to feed a family of 10 over the winter but very cute and tasty. And considering that the input was a broken bucket, spent compost from flower pots and a sad potato found in the corner of the fridge, worth it.

 

Hi,

Not in the garden but hopefully eventually it will be; more work on the rotavator restoration. Yesterday went badly; everything I tried to modify the oil seals failed ended up in total frustration. I'm stubborn and have endless patience; this morning an hours work on the lathe brought success; I turned a "Jam" chuck from aluminium allowing a friction fit of an oil seal; it took ages taking extremely light cuts but now all four seals are at last modified. One seal already installed so I know the other three seals will now fit much to my relief.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Is composting 'not a thing' in Pennsylvania, or have you gotten a taste for wood smoke?

 

the piles I put way out in the woods last year still not broken down, still major hills of leaves. My garden is huge, leaves are huge amount, huge huge huge. Yes, folks compost. And I don't light my piles until there is no wind so the smoke goes straight up.
Just my front yard alone will take 20 drags of tarp heaped up as high as my waste, tarp is 10foot by 10foot, that is dragged to the burn pile. 20 Times. I know folks with those tiny lots have no comprehension of it all. Now the back yard, then the bottom garden. Then the side yards.

 

Cleared away some dying annuals and cut back fading perennials from one side of the large central border, will make a start on the other side once my dinner has gone down.. So hate getting indigestion.
Hubs hopes to get the lawns cut too but I'm not convinced they'll be dry enough.
Found a few lurking Geraniums hiding under some undergrowth....even though I go round checking I always come across some hidden away a few weeks later. So they are now trimmed back and potted up for overwintering.

 

Finally not raining. A bit of tidying up in the garden. Pulled out cosmos and wild rocket plants, cut ivy. Moved pots with strawberry plants into the greenhouse for winter. Brought cacti inside. Planted daffodils.
A couple of days ago noticed presence of rats (I presume) in the composter. Damn, it's the first year they came to the garden. Not adding anything from the kitchen from now into composter. Rat traps ordered, no way I would go for poison, neighbours have a little dog, cats and foxes around.

 

Due to over night frosts, all the pots in the greenhouse now plunged in the border soil and covered with fleece, mostly strawberry plants and I picked the last one to end the season.

 

Finished removing spent blooms and clearing the remaining annuals from the far side of the central border. Still have a final weeding to do but I like to have as clear a border as possible for that and I still have Dahlias in bloom and to eventually get blackened before cutting down and covering for the Winter.
Hubs did cut the lawn at last, I did some of the edging.
We were out there until 4:45, it gets quite dark now at that time.

 

Not even put a foot outside the balcony door today! Perhaps tomorrow!

 

Spread compost over the garlic. Found the plots previous owner had put down plastic sheeting as a weed membrane under a woodchip path, so pulled it out. Picked some leeks. Caught another mouse

 

Hi,

Goody; pouring with rain allowing me to test my new waterproof beanie hat; I've just returned from shopping and my solar panel is dry so the new hat is working.

I'm grounded this morning; we've a friend visiting us so no workshop until after dinner; it's pointless donning my waterproofs because trying to dig in the waterlogged soil the soil is heavy and clings to the spade; I can resume digging next July all being well?

Things are no better in the workshop; the rotavator tine hubs refuse to come off the drive shaft; they are splined taper fitting and locked solid; I've tried using a 2lb hammer; puller and MAP gas torch to heat them but I need to remove them to replace the oil seals; everything's normal; I'll win in the end.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Cut the edge of the grass to tydy it up.