What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

I was wondering why my back is sore - I think you’re right!!

 

I've been quite busy again today, (no change there then, eh?) Golf in the morning, then went to Wilko's on my way home after lunch. The decking I bought to replace the missing floor in the former koi pool filter room, is in 22 lengths. So thinking that the minimum number of screws I'd need is six per board, that's 132 screws. Wilko's sell them as "pick n' mix." So by tapping the bottom of the back as I put them in, I reckon I have enough for the price of one bag. £3.75. That's really cheap.

I painted the walls and ceiling of the room this afternoon. I'll be screwing down the floor tomorrow morning and hopefully installing the exterior 13a socket in the former pump sump ready for the fountain. Then one final trip to the tip with what scrap wood I've got left. I need to get it all done in the morning as my wife wants to go shopping in the afternoon.

I really need to sort out what goes in that room apart from the garden furniture and give the garage and shed a good tidy up, I can do that when we get home.


Gave everything a good water this evening, some of the pots seemed a bit dry on the surface.
Several of our clematis are already flowering and our acer palmatums are nearly in full leaf. I'll take some photos tomorrow.

 

Unfleeced carrots, spring onions, beetroot and the rest to reveal everything is growing away beautifully. Will thin carrots later today or during the week
Not expecting anything too cold now so taken most of the remaining tender plants outside. Have an awful lot of spare plants now so many will be off to the local hospice for their open day incl a few pineapple sages that, apparently, are appreciated by patients and staff alike

 

Back now to find a delivery of agastaches....duly potted up. Why do growers still use those hessian plug bags? I did an experiment a few years back ....when I removed these bags the plants grew faster than those with bags left on.
Pinched back fuchsias in containers, fed and mulched them.
Mixed up more compost for container plants
Glorious day today

 

I was half-way through screwing down the decking in the former koi pool filter room, when at mid-day I got a phone call from a carrier to say they had a pallet for me. "When do you want it delivered? Today or Thursday?" So I said I'd have it today.

About 3.00pm it turned up, it was our new fountain. On a pallet in a huge very strong cardboard box, all 71 kgs of it. I got the box off the pallet and cut it down. The fountain was "smothered" in heavy hessian cocoa sacks, I got a few beans in the deal too. It was in two parts, I guess the bottom about 60 kilos and the top eleven.

So with my trusty sack truck with a few bags to protect it I managed to get it through the door in the fence between the house and the garage, up the two steps between the patio and the path using my ramp, to the bit of path between the former pool and the lawn.
I had to fit the external 13a socket to the side of the sump and the transformer. Hard to do when you can't really see what you're doing.

I was dismayed to see there was some water in the sump. Then I worked out it was what was in the pipes when I took down the filters, they were empty, but there would still have been some water in the system. As the standpipe socket is about four inches tall the water couldn't drain away, so I got it out with my wet n'dry vac.

I had to drill a hole in the stepping stone on which the fountain was to sit, to pass the cable through and plug it into the socket. I did check it worked before manhandling the fountain into position.

I finished about 6.00pm. I've put it on the same double socket as the low voltage spotlight on the fence which used to illuminate the waterfall. But I've trained it on the fountain.

We're quite pleased with it as you can still see down the garden, round and over it.




The switches for it and all the other lights in the garden are hidden behind the lounge curtains.


It was a bit windy today, so there's some spray on the patio.



It needs a bit more water. If it gets a bit mucky there's a bung in the bottom of the bowl, so you can drain and change it. My only complaint is that there's far too much cable that has to fit inside the pump chamber.




I'll tidy up the base tomorrow. I had to level the fountain by sticking a crowbar under the stepping stone and putting bits of packing where necessary, between the stone and the rim of the sump, then mortaring up all round it.




I'll take some more photos when it gets darker.

I spent an hour finishing off the last bit of the floor and tidying up, finished around 6.00pm.

I've another length of decking to get tomorrow, to replace that odd coulored one. It's not screwed down I'll use bits of it to the edges on two sides where there's a gap of an inch or two between the boards and the wall.



This is the door from the room into the garage I've still to sort out what's coming out of there into this room.
Some sophisticated lighting in here. A fluorescent which was over the quarantine tank and an inset ceiling light on a dimmer switch. When I had fish in the tank, I gave them a bit of low light, otherwise it would be pitch black in there which would have been unnatural.

 

Some more photos.

Just the fountain and the low voltage spotlight on the fence, with an orange filter






Plus some more lights.


Plus the pool spotlights



To be honest we rarely turn them on, unless we're in the garden on a warm summer evening.

 

Magical DHR
Hoping to get few jobs done in the garden later today incl thinning carrots (a job I hate!) and mulching between the rows. Also potting on tomatoes

 

I love your garden DHR. As a new gardener it gives me inspiration.

 

Mulched some of the roses and watered the polyanthus and blueberries in pots.

 

The tom starts had grown buds that were threatening to open so I spent the better part of the day mixing media and planting them in auto-pots in the greenhouse. I found it best to top water for the first week or so rather than connecting the feed lines.

 

Played the Greenhouse and Cold Frame Shuffle all day today!! Moved out all the plants from the greenhouse that can now progress ( hopefully) to living in the cold frames ...tidy up and rearranged the greenhouse before moving most of the seedlings from inside the house that can ( hopefully) survive life in the greenhouse.
So nice only having a couple of trays left inside our house now.

 

Got into a bit of gardening for a change. Gave all the pots a feed and the lawn some iron sulphate, tidied up some of the clematis.
As usual there'll be a "bumper crop" of wisteria blooms. Losing one or two as the wood pigeons think they are ears of corn. There a few blooms on the patio.









You know you've got the pruning right when at this stage, there's not a leaf on them anywhere.

 

Its been a grand day today nice and sunny , took the bench out of the GH and sat out with a brew going on for an hour noticing all the things I haven't done yet. Ended up spending the next two and half hours sanding down the bench, 8.45 pm I got in I can get so much more done now with the clocks going forward . need to catch up with Gardeners World missed the last 2 episodes , Beechgroove starts tomorrow another one I'll have to catch up with.

 

Will collect more local compost this morning. Also plant up remaining containers. Thanks to extensive mulching very few weeds to deal with. Lots of planting out to do

 

Took the last load of ex-pool stuff down to the tip.

Started moving some stuff out of the garage and the tea-house into; "The Room."

Perhaps I should explain, the shed that houses my garden tools and a couple of freezers, used to house our daughter's rabbits and guinea pigs, but hasn't seen any for more than three decades, but we still call it; "The Rabbit Shed."
"The Room's" the former koi pool filter and quarantine tank room. But that's too much of a mouhfull for it to remain that. So it will be in future be called, according to my wife, "The Room."
So far there's four garden loungers and some stuff in polystyrene boxes including over a dozen solar lights. I'm recharging the batteries and will check them out at the week-end. I've now a better place to store my spare golf bag and clubs.



I've brought my little Budweiser fridge and stand down from the tea-house. Where it was, it blocked the left-hand door from being opened. It will live here now, also a cupboard which was on the side wall over the fridge in there. Bottom shelf for cleaning stuff, top shelf for glasses and cups. My intention is to get a small leccy kettle. This will mean I won't have to rely on my wife to make me cups of tea when I'm gardening. With her MS it's hard for her to keep coming out with them through the French windows. She did make the effort to come and see my handiwork this afternoon. Seeing the cupboard, which was one of several I saved when we had a new kitchen, the rest are in the garage, she said; "Do I need to check the kitchen to see if any are missing? Nice one!



I've disconnected and removed the redundant two 150w spotlights on the garage wall which were trained on the pool. We're now down to five porch lights, the lights in the Japanese lanterns, the 15w fluorescent behind the opaque windows of teahouse doors, its fairylights and two 30w low voltage spots on the side fence. "Probably enough."





This meant I had a spare switch behind the lounge curtains. We have red berry fairy lights over the pergola on the side of the garage on a timer, they are on every night.
But I've now used that spare switch for the multicoloured lights on the pergola over the French windows.



Not that they'll be on often. Even if I'm not using something, it has to be "working" if you know what I mean.