WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2018

I've spent the last few days measuring and cutting timber, creosoting it and putting it into position for assembling a 10' two tiered bench for displaying my Bearded Irises which are in large pots aganst a South facing Garage rear wall. But the last two days have been really frustrating as every morning when I have got all the timber in place, the Drills, screws, metal angle joints, etc, in place it has started to rain within half an hour I've managed to get half of it done but today I had to give up working on it again and went into the House dripping wet.!!

 

Because the weather remained dry all day I managed to cut some tarpaulin to size and place under the 3 compost bins which I've placed on concrete slabs. I put the plastic base soil grids onto the tarpaulin covering the slabs and then placed the compost bins onto to the bases, so I can now start compost leaves, dead plants etc. There is a trick with composting on concrete and that is remembering to put a couple of spadefuls of soil into the compost so that bacteria is introduced and cause the compost to rot down.
Work carried on with constructing the two tiered 10' wooden bench for displaying the large pots of bearded irises and I managed to get the main framework done. What needs doing now is strengthening the framework so that there is no movement in the frame and everything is locked into place which, if the weather is dry tomorrow, I should be able to complete. The bench has to be very firm and sturdy as it will be taking a lot of weight from the large pots and the last thing I want is for it to sway or collapse which would be a disaster Since there was no breeze I got the blower out and cleaned up the sawdust and bits of compost lying around........and then went for a Mug of Tea.

 

Did some mowing and lawn edging and cutting back of roses.

 

I nearly did some gardening today but only got as far as looking at it.

 

I started to move the pots of Bearded Irises onto the two tiered display bench and got all that I could on it, but then discovered another 12 pots I'd temporarily put down at the bottom of the garden while the landscaping work was being carried out. I guess I'll have to find some space and way of displaying them near the two tiered bench?
I also dragged up the large, heavy shrub and rootball of Dwarf Philadelphus "Manteau d'Hermine"
from the bottom of the lawn and up to the large clay container that had previous held an 35 year old dwarf Conifer that had been damaged by Aphids. I might try to put the Mock Orange into the container tomorrow but the weather forecast is for freezing rain, snow, below zero temperatures so I may stay indoors, like my Cat Jenny, and look out of the window.

 

Last week I started clearing leaves but it got too much for me. On Friday we had someone come in and help and we both used blowers and he then collected all the leaves, put the willow leaves in the wheelie bins (he had to jump up and down in the bins to compress them) as I don't compost those and all the rest went on the compost heaps.

 

As he started clearing them I started mowing and got all seven lawns mowed. Knackered!!!

 

@Perki Yes, he started on Friday and will come in about once a fortnight. A professional gardener once said that to look after our garden properly it would need a gardener two or three full days a week, depending on the time of year.

I'm going out to trim the edges of the lawns now and will stop when my back tells me to.