What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

Rrrrrrain Nick?? Glorious here from early morning to now. Hot

 

It's been hot but cloudy up until about 20 minutes ago so I started replacing the window film on the 6x8 greenhouse. This is the stuff people use inside to insulate/create an airlock when they don't have storm windows or double glaze. Last year I had replaced one side and was applying it to the surface of the metal channels and it is not doing badly but I decided to experiment with sliding out the polycarbonate panels and applying it directly along the edges. Then reassembling and heating the film with a blow dryer to tighten it up. As soon as the sun started beaming again, I quit with the dryer. Too hot for that!

I did get the door panels heated up so you can see that it is fairly clear when finished



I'm going to make sure everybody is watered before going out to a party tonight. I have some friends who bought a very nice 10 acre property and tonight is their house warming . And I will be wearing my eau du bug repellant as they are in mosquito territory. Obviously second shower of the day will happen when I get back home. Really don't like that sticky stuff!

 

Not a lot.

Overnight heavy rain.

So much so, that I had an e-mail from the pro shop this morning to tell me that the course is closed due to the rain last night. No golf yet on TV either, due to the rain.

It's stopped now and there's no standing water in the garden, the path I laid has a slight fall towards the lawn so no water on that. The soil's a bit sandy so drains well.




No water on the new paving over the old koi pool. Mind you there's 20 tonnes of hardcore under it so it would surprise me if there were.





Not so the patio, a good two or three inches each side, as this has a two brick high curtilage wall and steps front and back. It's dry in the middle as again, there's a fall away from the house towards the drain holes in the bottom of the walls.




It'll take a few hours to clear.

I checked out the old pump sump under the fountain, by putting a cane down the redundant hole in the pavng stone. It came up completely dry. So my efforts to keep the ground water out of it have been successful.
Not that it matters now as the new low voltage supply connects to the pump and LED lights in the small void under the middle of the fountain's plinth.



I'll drain off some of the water in the fountain later, through the removable bung near the centre.

It's all a bit of a mess out there, I'll give it a tidy up, but not until tomorrow afternoon.

 

duplicate post.

I've severe problems posting on this board these days, it takes an age to load. It won't accept photos, I have to use a hosting site for those as it "times out" before anything uploads. A host has done their best to resolve the issue, but to no avail, so I haven't posted much recently.

Who said "Thank heavens for small mercies?"

 

Could do with some of that wet stuff down here but only during the hours of darkness please. Everything, even in the forest is tinder dry, grass is down to hay, no green and the water but has been empty for some time.

 

@ARMANDII Can't see your image from PB here, I'm afraid. I simply upload images directly from my PC or camera and it has always worked so far.

Nick

 

Rainy, cloudy day up here so most of the gardening was done by the dining table.

My latest batch of clay pots are finally dry, so I repotted and thinned out various cacti and succulent seedlings:

The Lithops are great and the nearly-Lithops (I keep forgetting the name... Tithanops maybe?) look very perky in their new pot I think.

Find the Lithops :




The pillar like seedlings are quite vigorous, this is their second summer and I'm running out of windowsills. I have about 15 of these in various shapes, it'll be fun to try to identify them when they are a bit bigger. The one in the middle is Agave Victoria Regina. Yes, really. (OK, somebody needs to wipe up a bit before the dinner is served )


"The Nursery", unidentified seedlings and leftovers:


A brief trip outdoors, reduced the bramble-ivy ratio in the wild corner back to my liking, and took cuttings from Viburnum. Wrong time of the year I know, but I had to remove some of the new growth and the cuttings will certainly do better in a pot than in the brown bin.

Hid a lion behind the pond:

 

Very hot out there In for a lager.....one of Cindy’s ciders would have done the trick too

Wind n rain forecast tomorrow and/or Tuesday so been checking supports for dahlias etc.

Cut back a couple of hardy geraniums.....if I keep new growth separate and trim off the old foliage I find I can keep them flowering, compact and fresh Pruned/dead headed buddleia and this keeps it flowering longer.
Picked a load of tomatoes.....all cherry varieties this year.....strawberries, blueberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants over for this summer although the strawberries may crop again, we’ll see. Still picking rhubarb but I guess I ought not to this late in the season
And carrots.....living on them! Shop carrots simply cannot compare for taste and crispness
Picked runner beans too....yum yum

Sorting out a few give away plants....at the garden fete yesterday I promised more than I should have

Trimmed back lawn edges ready for mowing soon.

 

I 'bravely' cut back a couple of mine yesterday (endressii and 'Johnson's Blue'), but how low do you cut yours, Verdun? Some websites say cut down every single bit of foliage, which suggests that even new growth should be removed, but it sounds like you leave the freshest growth intact. I think I should perhaps sprinkle some Fish, Blood and Bone around mine to get similarly good results to you in terms of floriferousness.

Nick

 

Hiya Nick, it depends on how the plant looks. Wish you had asked before I did mine because I would have taken pictures.
Recently I cut Ann Folkhard right down to soil level and it has now spread a metre or so and flowering.
However, with some geraniums you can see the fresh new growth above the old flowered stems and you can simply lift the new growth out of the way and cut the old stuff.....Rozanne, Jolly Bee etc. Keeps it looking neat and ready to reflower. It depends on the variety....I am trimming back only the old flowered stems on Coombland White, did it today, cos it doesn’t tend to produce a second flowering I find. For me, it’s a tall geranium...metre high this year....and has a lot of brown foliage below. When it’s clear that it won’t flower again I cut it to the ground...it makes an attractive mound of non flowering foliage then through to autumn
Geraniums are tough things and you can experiment with them when you see what they do. Elke, for instance, is more compact, less vigorous, and I removed some of the foliage and all the spent flowered stems a month or so ago; again it’s flowering again
Hope it all makes sense Nick

 

Thanks Verdun, very useful! You may have noticed I have a bit of a thing for these so getting such a detailed reply is great. I've recently contracted salviamania from this bloke in West Cornwall, too! (wink)

I wish this blooming rain would stop! I have a Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna' that I want to plant in the front garden but no chance yet here!

Nick

 

Ha ha, nice plant Nick....if you deadhead regularly it will flower non stop u