What jobs are we doing in the garden today 2016

Does this mean you're taking the bed out of your bedroom and re-planting it in the front garden ?

What are the neighbours gonna think

 

I'll let him off then.

 

Project fence. Day one.

Well what fun that was. I've made some progress today, but it's been hard going.

First job was to move the existing chicken wire a few feet in, to gain access to the fence I want to replace. Remove chicken wire from posts, start to dig out wire, while wondering what prat buried it so deep in the ground in the first place. Get very annoyed and knackered trying to extricate buried wire from numerous roots which have grown through it over the years and are now beautifully entwined within it.

While I was still wrestling with the chicken wire, my brother-in-law turned up, he saw my plight and took pity on me, so he helped out for a couple of hours. He is one of those people who 'knows how to do things', unlike me.

I eventually got the chicken wire re-positioned, after more chuntering and general ineptitude on my part (see below). Note the wobbly, half-arsed attempt to get it upright and straight.



Meanwhile, brother-in-law was making good progress on getting the first fence post positioned. At this point we discover that I have bought nowhere near enough post cementing mix to fill even one post hole, let alone the two which I need to do today.

Luckily, I have a little cement left in the garage, and our neighbour is a builder, so I popped next door and scrounged a barrowload of ballast to mix with the cement for a post mix.

Anyway, I eventually got the second post in place, (after initially digging the hole for it in the wrong place) and that's as far as I've got today. Not much to show for a day's toil, but ho-hum, it's about par for the course when I tackle a DIY job.



The chickens, looking distinctly unimpressed with my efforts.



Find of the day. A matchbox metal toy lorry, circa mid 60s, which Mrs Trunky unearthed when digging out some surplus soil in the chicken run. My dad bought me several of these when I was a nipper, I kept a few and gave them to my daughters to play with when they were small. One by one they all disappeared, I wonder how this one ended up in the chicken run?

 

Bravo @Trunky !! It is plain to see just how hard you have worked today.
At least two of your girls have that look of: "We're not laughing, honest!" about them

The P.R.A.T (Person Recognising All Things) who buried it so deeply was caring for their chooks so that Mr Fox couldn't burrow under it and harm them

 

Rome wasn't built in a day Trunky and if you rush the job it'll go wrong. Easy does it!

 

Don't worry Sheal, I'll take my time, then it'll still go wrong, just more slowly.

 

Ooooh, I shall look forward to seeing that @Loofah ... I was only mentioning a stumpery to @wiseowl the other week

 

I've spent most of the day tidying the summer house ready to resume work on it, then it was onto moving four satellite dishes and tidying up another mess outside and putting a border in,

The grass here is a bit of a mess where the satellite dishes have blocked the light, i have some spare turf from digging other borders so will patch it up.

 

Finished work around 3ish and straight around to the grandmother in laws while the weather was glorious. Clipped the privet back around 6ft too a manageable 5ft. Planted a large wisteria which was in a large pot. Pruned all the roses. Fixed all the guttering which was hanging off the GH. Starting to look like a garden again now , then burnt all the rubbish, clippings in the bin incinerator. Just the other privet hedge on the other side now . Wished I'd took pics before I started

 

Puttered around watering everything with a little fertiliser today, and inspecting how things are waking up. The big Fuchsia is almost awake, leaf buds beginning to pop.. the little fuchsias are still dormant but the stems aren't dead, so I hope they'll wake up soon. The Berberry buds are about to pop, and both Clematis are leafing out and forming flower buds!

Transferred the strawberry pots to the summer house, and the sweet peas are breaking through the soil too. Also planted some Nasturtium seeds the other day.

 

You've just reminded me, I've pulled mine out , planted 3/4 last year, while supposedly weeding ive removed them , I best put them back in .

 

Its been an easy garden day for me today. First job was moving some Japanese Holly. To do that I used the spade I made a few weeks ago. The one I posted a photo of. I'm pleased to say it worked as well as I had hoped.

After that, I made a start on edging the lawn in the rose garden.

I would have taken everything I took up when scarifying to the tip as well. At least, I would have done had they been open today.

 

Potted up loads of seedlings that I had grown in soil blocks. Then played checkers with the plants in the greenhouse to try to make space for more pots. There are now just over 2 square feet of standing room in there now. I have to remove pots to find a stepping place to reach the plants at the back- think I need longer arms ...

Then started some more soil blocks with vanilla grass seeds, cardinal flowers and false sunflowers. The first and last are apparently native perennials to my part of the country.