WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2018

Ah! Wallflowers. They appear to be coming back in fashion again. I remember as a kid, 'yes I was one, once'. Going to infants school with a bunch of wallflowers for the classroom.

It amazes me how the garden centers charge so much for a potted wallflower. I take it Verdun, that you sow your own seed, probably in the open ground. I just picture you having quite a large garden.

 

I did manage to get into the garden 3.4.18 It was very warm here. I soon started to get uncomfortably hot and the skin rash broke out. It's like hives. To begin with, I had to use the hedge trimmer to save time and energy. The path leading to the main part of the garden was restricted due to the Iris forestii [that's as close as I can identify it] leaning over. Then, and you will laugh at this. Campanula has gone mad, it's everywhere. So this was trimmed back, as it is growing on and around a raised area that has a small alpine area and a pond.

Then I turned my attention to the roses. Compassion, beautiful rose, very strong grower, and really thick stems. This took most of my time. Much had grown through the trellis and was overhanging the downstairs garden. So much cutting, bending and tying. I find now that my spine dictates so much. Sadly it got to the stage whereby I didn't need a watch. One hour and STOP! Today the gods were with me. I had received some bare root phlox from Haylofts. Into the greenhouse and quickly potted them up. Then...................armchair here I come. Yes I was hurting but, hey! the 'old fella' is smiling.

 

Shredding, grass cutting, weeding and admiring.

 

Morning Mike.....morning everybody

No Mike, I sow wallflower seed in trays; usually 4 or 5 different colours and about 10 to 15 in each tray and will do so over the next few days. That is usually enough as they make large individual specimens come the winter rather than beds of wallflowers. They will be potted on into 9cm pots and then planted into nursery bed for the summer. In September through to late November they are moved to their final positions.
No Mike, not a huge garden but of decent size; enough to grow most of what I want to Think you deserved your armchair after your exertions

A visit planned to local nursery today even though I have loads of perennials in 3 to 5 litre pots needing planting. What is it about us gardeners that we have this compulsion to buy more and more plants regardless?

 

Verdun, I know what you mean. I’ve been working on getting the spring bulbs planted for the last month at least but I can’t stop looking for more!

Great day in the garden today. Planted my garlic, onions, walking onions, sweet peas and one of the peonies. Lots of researching online and an attempt at pruning the wisteria (fingers crossed). Other half rigged up some edging for the area where our raised beds are and we filled the rest of the paths with wood chips. No more dirty old carpet!! Yay!! He is very excited too as it often gets caught in the mower :/

 

Planted out another helenium, rosemary (Mrs. Reed's Dark), divided a large dahlia and, hey ho!, returned from nursery without buying anything!!! Superb nursery with loads of tempting plants but not what I went there for and nothing better than plants available here. (However, the proprietor will try and source plants I wanted so .......)
I should think about netting the blueberries soon......wont be long before fruits start appealing to the birds

 

Potted on a load of snaps and stocks. That's all I'm growing from seed apart from my tomato plants this year. There's still too much to do in the new house. The bathroom is getting ripped out next.

 

I did quite a bit today, either side of doing a bit of shopping and bringing home fish n' chips for lunch.

I gave the pool pergola rail a lick of Dulux Mahogany Woodstain, at around fifty quid for 2.5ltrs. it doesn't come cheap, but if you're just over-painting, it goes a long way.






Did the same for the exterior of the tea-house and the two troughs that sit either side of the steps.

Painting the crown (which needed a good brush and vac. as it collects catkins from next door's trees and some moss, necessitates getting up on the roof with a ladder and not falling off due to the slope of the roof. lifting off the crown to paint the woodwork under it, putting it back and painting the castellated trim. Fortunately my wife couldn't see me, as she believes at 78, I shouldn't even be using a step stool!

(excuse the sun in the lens).






Preparation of both is an ideal way to check for rot, but there wasn't any.


I then changed the koi pool filter pump from the winter, 9000 ltrs., ph., to the summer one 15,000 ltrs. ph. They don't pump at those rates due to the head height of the intake. I also scrubbed down and re-pointed the waterfall which isn't connected in the winter. It'll have dried off by tomorrow, then after a bit of a scrub it'll be OK to turn on.

Then everything got a good water. Had the lawn sprinklers on for the first time this year and the leaky hose system that feeds all the borders and the rockery, that I've left running until it shuts itself off later this evening.



I've resisted shaping the two acer palmatums as yet as they're doing their best to conform to the mushroom shape I like.





The flox on the rockery is going from strength to strength.



The patio-side azaleas are beginning to show, it's always the red ones that flower first.
There's no colour coordination.

 

Ive been out all day all ive done is water the new turf at 7am then again about 5pm, some of the grass has started to stand up so that's a good sign

 

Love the acers.

 

First thing this morning I nipped down to Aldis to buy some pond plants, as they were this week's special- so they needed planting up, and placing in the pond. Hubby helped me move the large water Lilly to its permanent position at the bottom level of the pond.
I've managed to find some new homes for some of our surplus chilli plants, and will be taking them to church with me tomorrow morning. So needed to put some on to the next size pot (running low on initial-size pots). Someone has also expressed an interest in the tomato plants, but I think they will find them too small - sown to be ready for planting out at the end of this month, so just showing 2nd or 3rd leaf pairs.
We went to order 1 tonne of gravel to improve the drainage at the bottom of the drive, so we don't have to jump a puddle to go in and out of the front door. Delivery next Friday!
Hubby mowed some of the grass, without the self-propelling system (my back can't cope with it, in this slope).
I sieved sifted some of the roots out of the top veg bed, and then worked at making the frame for the bottom raised bed, but had to retreat indoors, as being bitten badly by flies.
Time to relax, I think!

 

Today I turned off the indoor grow lights and moved the orchids to the greenhouse for the season. If I have to turn the heat on for a few nights it will be less costly than running the lights 16 hours a day.

 

shiney...they're beasts