WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

My garden helping lady helped me rearrange some shelves in my greenhouse, and then brought some things in there to spend the winter with the cacti - Loropetalum, Coprosma,Trachelospermum ...

I also planted the Erythronium bulbs I received yesterday.

 

It's now almost 5pm and too dark now to really do anymore for today.
Tidied up the big Helebores, some leaves were gigantic!!! I still have 12 new ones to plant up yet too. Might get to do that tomorrow.

The patios were swept this morning so it was the turn of all the paths around the garden this afternoon.

I came across a clump of Bacopa that had been hiding away in a sheltered spot so I very carefully removed in and planted it up and placed it in the greenhouse.. Not sure if it will survive but as it was in full bloom and our temps. are dropping with a possible frost tonight I decided to chance it. Even if it doesn't make it I hope to be able to harvest some of it's seeds.

Despite still having a couple of blooms on them all I still cut down the Hollyhocks as some of their leaves were very tatty looking now..

All in all it was a good whole day out in the garden and the big bonus was .....no rain, not one single drop!!

 

Hi,

Assembled the chassis section of the Howard rotavator; chassis; two drive units; two wheels and both sets of tines with their hubs; used sack cart to drag it up our 42' long sloping pathway; then along the rear of the bungalow to the stone steps; drag it up the steps then really suffer whilst dragging it up to the garden hut; I don't want to do this often. I can now start on the engine and once it's done I can then complete full assembly in the hut; it's too heavy to completely assemble in the workshop it would need winching up to the hut hence the way I'm doing it.

Roll on the time I can start it and use it in anger in the garden rotavating the meadows.

The order from J Parker's arrived today so I'll plant these tomorrow afternoon hopefully when the sun shines and it doesn't feel so cold. A good day today with something to show for it.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Wrapped my Musa Bajoo up for winter today with our first frost predicated tonight ...roll on april

 

Although it was quite chilly on the balcony this morning I spent about 10-15 mins examining the Cyclamen on the balcony railings. This is the first time I've done this since I put the pots in the rings on top of the railings. I was checking to see if they had been damaged by the rain we have had the last few weeks as well as removing any dead/dying leaves & flowers. While I was at it I also removed the seed capsules that were forming as I'm not interested in growing new plants from seed.

I came across leaves on some of the plants stuck together which immediately rang alarm bells in my mind! I had been seeing this sort of thing all summer on the balcony, participially with the Geraniums & Pelargoniums. This was even worse on the Carnation seedlings which all had the tips of their leaves glued together. I quickly found the culprit on the Geraniums & Pelargoniums but it was months before I discovered what was happing with the Carnation seedlings! In all cases they were tiny green caterpillars. It was easy to get rid of them on the geraniums & Pelargoniums but I couldn't find them on the Carnation seedlings for several months until one day I noticed one tiny caterpillar letting itself down on a thread like a spider. But that was the only one I ever saw no matter how much I examined the leaves & unstuck them. They also attacked the "Chinese rose", (My name for it as the seed for it originally came from China. It flowers end March through April till the first days of May.), balling up the growing tips of all the branches. I never did find the culprit, no matter the times I carefully opened up the balled growing tips.

I don't know what kind of moth (?) lays it eggs on my plants but very few escaped them. I say moth as I've seen very, very few butterflies on the balcony during the summer this year. Most moths are nocturnal so probably lay their eggs at night as well. Even the caterpillars must be nocturnal as, unless I've unrolled a leaf stuck together with silk, I have never seen them active during the daytime.

I didn't know they attacked Cyclamen as well until this morning. A few plants didn't seem to have any but as I went along the pots I found more & more leaves stuck together as I went from left to right. Some of the last few plants had several active caterpillars as I opened up the rolled up leaves. One I nearly missed as it fell down from a leaf & started to "run" away very quickly!

I have to keep a sharp eye on all my plants, even the ones I've brought into the house to make sure I've not missed any that might survive the winter indoors. I also checked very carefully all the Geraniums & Pelargoniums as I prepared to put them in the Mini-Greenhouse on the balcony table. I don't want the caterpillars to survive the winter. As the eggs are invisible (to me at least!) there is nothing I can do about them. I just hope I've been able to eliminate all the caterpillars as well as the eggs.
.

 

A calm, sunny but cold day and raking more leaves was this afternoon's chore. Not before I started off a lamb stew in the slow cooker though - tatties and dumplings added later.

 

Hopefully you will be able to reverse the latch before fitting (outwards opening door!)

 

I don't remember doing that?

 

Hi,

What a beautiful gardening morning here in sunny Yorkshire; no rain yesterday or overnight allowing the water to drain from our steep rear garden. At 6.2C it's not scorching in the shade but the sun came around the big oak tree and it was just gorgeous putting in the plants that arrived yesterday from J Parker's. The soil was perfect; nice and soft after all the recent heavy work removing masses of ivy and other unwanted stuff completely clearing the area creating new beds for planting. I've removed another two hollies and found more yet to remove.

I intended doing more work restoring the Howard petrol rotavator but am making the most of this rare weather; fingers crossed the rain will hold off after dinner too then I can get stuck into more gardening; good job I'm wearing a hat otherwise my solar panel might get sunburnt.

Life can be so brilliant.

 

I finished cutting down the Runner Beans in the Sun, yes Sun

 

Potted up winter containers, nothing fancy but just something nicer to look at than broadband cables.

Hellebores are full of buds and the roots looked sturdy, a sixpack from Lidl at £8.99 was a good deal. Three here and three in the back, with some Ivy.



I didn't have anything trailing at hand so "pruned" the Ivy wilderness in the wild corner for just a little something around the Hellebores. My worst fear is that the Ivy cuttings may root

If something nicer trails my way I'll pull them out.

Violas, they would look better if I hadn't dropped half of them upside down causing most flowers to break



And a leftover Viola in the herb container, what a cutie



Then I braced myself and tackled the most off putting, terrible task ever. I tidied up after myself! Heroically put things back and even swept worst of the compost and Ivy bits away. Well done me