What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

Yesterday morning did not have a very positive start for me. Sat on sofa in conservatory and sudden commotion on the roof. Thought it was a Gull as they land and slide down. It wasn't. It was a sparrow hawk. It grabbed one of the little ones, horrible screaming, and flew off . It was windy and it likes to attack when wind hides it's approach. Later I found the poorly Robin dead outside the back door .

Today was too hot for painting so pottered around garden for an hour. Some dead heading, cut back the Achilleas in one bath and cut back two Geraniums in separate pots. New compost bin is almost full already . Sat on patio in shade watching the buns lolling around in the shade. The baby wild bunny appeared and went under the willow tree for awhile.

 

Achilleas are good for pollinating insects too. I have the cultivated ones in the baths and wild ones growing in the front garden. The wild yarrow is safe for buns to eat.

 

I’m not going to be doing much today, as temperatures are due to reach 37-38c. Yesterday we were due 34c, and got 37c, so I’m planning on an indoor day.

I had my morning coffee in the morning shade by the pond, and pulled out the ragweed stalks, now that the cinnabar moth caterpillars have moved on, from the wild area. It will stop them seeding any further around the garden. Following a discussion by @wiseowl about Sashta daisies, I watered a small clump I’ve moved from the main patch. Like most things in our soil, it is not proving quick to clump up, but I wanted some up in the top border. Where possible, I try to use plants I already have in new areas. It creates a feeling of continuity, and I know that the plant has already adapted to the challenging conditions.

Anyway, I digress! I will find indoor chores for today, only emerging to water the garden this evening...

Edited to add:
One garden chore I will be doing - clearing up a mess of melted citronella candle from the patio. Our delinquent crows have taken to eating citronella candles. Yesterday one pulled the remaining wax and wick out of the ceramic holder, and onto the patio. In the heat, the wax melted, forming a horrible puddle, which set as the evening developed. I scraped and chipped off as much as I could yesterday. Today, once the heat melts it again, I will be mopping with an old rag, to try to rescue our lovely blue-stone tiles!

 

Well a day off and housework going to plan as usual. I decided to wash my throws that covers the sofas and chairs as it’s warm and I added too much woolite and found the water pumping out of the powder compartment as the suds had blocked the tube! At least the kitchen floor is clean now

 

Back now and mown the lawns
Not such a sunny day....still very warm though and a whole lot more comfortable.
Picked more tomatoes...coming thick n fast now ...but the last of the blueberries were pinched by billy blackbird today Doesn’t matter it was a good crop anyway
I may plant out my wallflowers in the veg garden later......they are prob no more than 15 to 20 cm tall but are bushy and will grow vigorously once planted out.

 

It was just too darn hot to be in the garden (never happy are we) so did some indoor chores. Sorting through a cupboard I found this brand new in its box. Anybody know what its for or if I can plant it anywhere?

 

Wot is it?
Looks an odd sort of thing ....maybe from before the digital age??? It says “logik”....isn’t that a computer brand?

 

"We" have a rule in our house. "If you buy anything that needs ironing after washing, you iron it yourself."

We don't use a clothes line, as my wife can't manage it with her MS. I've offered to hang stuff out and bring it in, but she prefers to put everything in the tumble drier. She's an expert at knowing when to take her stuff out put it on a hanger so any creases just fall out.

Inside the house and in the garden I wear "scruff." that's old golf shirts and chinos. It means I can go out into the garden in what I'm wearing, get involved in mucky jobs, come in, wash, put my clothes in the washing bin and put on clean "scruff." There's no need to iron scruff.

However, I and a neighbour with a similar way of working, have the same rule. If in the middle of a job in the garden or the shed, you find you need to get something from the village hardwear shop, it's "permissible" to go down in your scruff. Cries by either wife of "You're not going down to the village dressed like that, are you?" are to no avail.

However, I have a lot of Ben Sherman shirts I wear if I'm going out of the house, even if it's just food shopping, acquired over a few decades., As none or worn that often, they are all in good condition.
It's my responsibility to iron them, but I usually let the ironing build up until there's a dozen or more to be ironed. I don't mind doing it, I've a can of spray starch for the collars.

I subscribe to the view, that; "men are better at ironing shirt collars."

 

Fed the chicken, watered the greenhouse plants, walked the dogs THEN hit the spa! Just in from todays last visit to the spa, got to get up early tomorrow to fill it up again, if it does reach the 39oC predicted for tomorrow, I'll be spending most of the day in the tub!

 

I'll be round first thing

 

Heavens, that's a baby! It must have just hatched in the box. This is my teenager model and this is it's grown up sibling on the right....

On the weekend I had been reorganizing the basement in order to put all of the grandchildren's storage items out of sight and had to move the 4 deep cycle batteries, wires, timers etc. They power the lights in the greenhouse at night so I got going and finally got around to fiddling with the wires and timers to get things back up and running. I was a little sore for a few days because my muscles needed to recover from moving ceramic tiles including three full boxes (those things are heavy!) during that clean up. But I am recovered fully and was fit enough today to swing aroud the watering can and feed anything that escaped the last few rains.

It was a glorious sunny day! So easy to test the solar power coming in and then be back outside enjoying the cardinals go through their aria

 

We’ve got a small storm system working up from Germany. Most of it will miss us, as it passes north of Brussels....
....but hubby and I have just been running around the garden with watering cans in temps of 38c, with big thunder-drops falling around us...

We want to :
- get the soil moist enough so any rain goes in, rather than running off
- get the water level in our rain water tank down, so we don’t waste it

Edited to add:
So glad we made the effort - we had about 45 mins of heavy rain,,and hailstones. I even made a short video, but can’t upload it....


Wow! Siân enters the depths of YouTube!!