WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

Glad you find it useful John

 

Deadheaded, judging by the fact that I filled two bucketfuls of spent Roses I should be doing this a tad more often

Swept, The Child has started with the hedges so sweeping is the least I can do. She's my hero! The bin is now bursting so no idea where tomorrow's hedge clippings and lawn mowing debris will go.

After donning a seriously protective clothing (waterproof jacket, gloves and glasses) took the saw out and cut some of the inner branches of the ridiculously misplaced conifer, then tied some metal wire around the branches to pull them inwards so that they will not completely block the path.

As a result of an hour's hard work and itching arms (I'm allergic to the stupid plant ), the circumsphere has been reduced by a glorious 10cm!

To pamper myself I continued to pull of any unproductive growth of the Tomato jungle, and underneath the masses discovered this:



It's either Venlo Pickling or Piccolo di Parigi, so should have been picked when it was thumb sized. But it was very nice indeed.

 

Sorry to read this @Jocko , I hope it settles down soon, back issues are so debilitating. Take it easy.

 

Went all round the garden deadheading as I haven't had time to do it for the last 2 days. It 's amazing how much nicer it all looks afterwards.

Had to make a support for 2 of the Catananche caerulea as the breeze has battered them a bit, unfortunately it doesn't take much to make them look a tad messy.

More watering as the soil is still bone dry despite the recent ' drizzle '.

 

Pulled up the sugar snaps, replaced with romanesco cauliflower. Planted out some fennel. Picked a few huge courgette, will probably just donate them, I'm already sick of them picked more lettuce.

 

Now that my son has brought me the 3 growbags I can now plant out the tomato plants!

I've finished planting out the Cosmos & Calendulas in the church garden so I have more space for tomatoes.

 

Got the watering done, me the Nursery and J the rest! It is 30c already. I had J drag a big pot to me and I took out a mass of dead leaves, which included three Mandevillas. One was alive so J repotted it in the trough by the house trellis and I repotted a Double Red & White Brugmansia rooting which I bought last year but it never bloomed so .



Pot before ...

... and after ...




There were also lots of Freesia bulbs in the pot so I replanted some back and had j put the remainder in the base of the Oleander pot.

 

I fed all my plants today on the balcony as well as inside our flat! Must have taken me around an hour in part because I had the onset of a migraine! After 3/4 hour of trying to continue to measure out the fertilizer from its bottle into a 2lt bottle that I then had to divide among another 4 2lt bottles, I took a couple of Paracetamol tablets, before filling them all up to take out onto the balcony & repeat! I can't have a hose to use for watering so I use 2lt water bottles that have been recycled 100s of time every summer for the last 22 years! (They don't make bottles like they used to!) I finished my watering after about an hour & sat down in my armchair - would you believe it - the flashing lights & wavy lines ended just 5 mins before I sat down!

Always a "glutton for punishment" I spent another 40 minutes this afternoon watering all the plants I've put in the church gardens in the last couple of months! This entails walking backwards & forwards carrying 10lt watering cans to the places I've planted them!

I should have done it on Tuesday morning as I planned but the weather had a different idea & decided it would do it for me! How thoughtful of it!

But for the migraine I would have gone this morning. Tomorrow we are forecast 27C & lots of hot July sunshine so I couldn't leave them for another day or all I'd find would be a load of frazzled plants!
.

 

My better half and I went to a garden centre that had just been taken over by a big, southern brand to buy seeds at 75% off, plus some tools at a big discount. Various varieties for pots and salad and vegetable seeds. The BH is so good at the plants from seeds enthusiasm, and it has saved us a fortune, based on the garden centre's prices.

 

Weeding and deadheading, gave the rue a good haircut.

 

Cut the front grass, if i could call it that, it has a lot of yarrow plants in most of it.

 

Can't do much in the garden, the builders next door are making clouds of dust, can't open the windows or door at the back, fed up.

 

Rescued what I could from the greenhouse. I haven't been doing much gardening this year due to a health crisis, so I'd delegated it all to the wife and kids who, despite their best intentions, are just not very good at looking after plants.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines all desperately needed potting on and a good feed, so I've done that. Courgettes, total failure, I think the slugs must have got to them. Rainbow chard has been slugged, but still surviving, so I've moved them up onto the shelf.

I reckon most of my plants will do something, whether I get a bumper crop or not, that's a different story.

 

Got home this afternoon to some very droopy and sad looking plants so had to go round giving everything a good soak. The recent rain may have filled the butts but didn't make much of an impact on the garden.