WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2017

Hip hip.......... ......

 

Yes, but those twiddle sticks are so expensive
Wet morning ...dry now....and no gardening except to order a few more Crinum powellii bulbs
Freebie lunch with my great niece. Found photos of her grandmother .....died young...when she was the same age and the likeness is astounding

 

I try to keep away from the old photos ..... and fill time by creating cheap and cheerful twiddle sticks - there`s the little skinny twiddler for hard to reach places, and then there`s the big macho one - old metal busted broom handle with a lavvy brush on the end fixed with tuf tape - mind you the latter needs very careful manipulation to avoid mutilating creatures.
They said we`d have rain today........they lied

 

Ha @Tetters im lucky and inherited a twiddle stick...and have borrowed a friends pond vac too. My goodness you are right about the blanketweed...it has gone crazy. Had a real problem with suspended algae but used a youtube video to make a pre-filter and it has been fantastic and now the water is crystal clear....excluding the blanket weed. That's the big koi pond anyway!

Cleaned out the little "nature" pond today as it had gone an awful colour. It has a little pump in it too to keep in flowing. I made that pump a pre-filter too today....popped it in an aquatic basket and made a drawstring bag to put around it....made it out of two dishclothes sown together to make a bag and did a drawstring for the pipes/cable. Pleased with today's inventions!

 

Ok Snorkles, now I suppose I shall have to look up pre filters ....can get the dishcloth stuff on a roll - don`t do sewing if I can help it
I chucked another two bunches of nice fresh watercress in the pond this arvo from the farm shop...there is a watercress farm near me. That should help.
I don`t have posh fish, only shabby old dropouts that someone else didn`t want, but I do want them to be happy. They seem to be so far, as there are a few tiddly ones in there too.....unless of course they got dropped in by that stork
I`m a bit worried about pond vacs in case they hoover up some goodies...when I cleaned the pump the other day there was a poor little newt sucked up in it

 

Omg a newt!!!! Well my pond wasn't my own choice-it came with the house and they left 5 huge koi 3 golden orf and about 15 goldies all with various problems (mainly severely egg bound poor things).

This is the youtube link for the pond pre-filter that u put around the pump...



It worked brilliantly-within a couple of days. Had to swap the wadding on the second day as it was thick slime. Now the floating algae is sorted I'm making a cage to go round the big pump to stop the blanket weed clogging it up so quick.

This is the big pond filter cage (just got to make the mesh bag now out of curtain netting)

Above is the little pond filter including the bag-u can see how the dishcloths gone black already filtering out the gunk.

 

Thank you for that Snorkles, guess what my main job is today

 

Back home from a week away. Project Greenhouse back on track. As it was raining I was staining inside. X

 

Well, yesterday I pottered enjoying the growing stuff, then mowed about half of the grass between thunderstorms.... eventually decided that discretion was required, and retreated indoors.

This morning, it was lovely looking out of the bathroom window at the garden, whilst cleaning my teeth. I love the busyness of the birds, flying this way and that, feeding their young. I've just watched a hen blackbird cleaning up the edge of the patio for me - picking up the edge trimmings that I'd missed, then flying off to re-line her nest. Isn't nature wonderful?

 

Thanks @shiney They are horrid. My gran is 85 and still suffers bless her. Mum suffers too but not as bad-a women thing in our family-all the men are fine. But i know some men who suffer v bad like you must have done.

Having a flare up at the mo. I predict another one this afternoon! New docs have also told me they dont prescribe codeine anymore (it was the only thing that helped). Have been on daily preventatives for years but the side effects are not nice. Hoping this all clears up for shineyland!!!

 

Thanks @ARMANDII looking forward to it. Glad everyone is friendly.

Went out for compost and a tens machine and accidentally came back with all this....


Loads of aquatic plants, herbs & pots, some poker primula thingys off the market and a clematis.