What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

all day yesterday but still a little wind keeping it on the cool side. Had a bike ride in morning then settled into the garden. Dead headed several plants and swept the patio and a section of pathway around the house. One of the bun runs (no longer used by the buns ) has become quite congested with cleavers, brambles and nettles. I had to cut half of the grass back to be able to commence battle . I do have several areas of nettles as good for wildlife but I have some ideas for this run - not sure when though but hopefully this year. Netted the pond.

No gardening today as we decided to go to Yns Fydlyn. Every time R and I go for a hike/ long bike ride he decides to off road it, even though we have looked at maps and planned the route along designated paths. My views are totally ignored Today was no exception and involved crawling under electric fencing and scrabbling about on a steep cliff face on wet grass . There were a few very un ladylike words from me. But Yns Fydlyn was amazing

 

I emptied and cleaned the capillary troughs for the greenhouse plants. Found the short in the power to one of them and fixed it plus organized the wiring ti make it appear a little tidier.

Got out some netting with the intention of protecting my brussels sprouts from the bunnies but decided it was too late for the shorter ones so will figure out the set up for next year.

Stared at all of the slef seeded nicotiana hugging my kelsaes

Then number two son dropped by after work for a beer and that was the end of any productivity

 

I've not seen it on sale in these parts but if it makes a good strong brew then i'm all for it.

 

It has been pouring down since yesterday afternoon. Cast an eye over a friend's troublesome lawn, advised against hiring landscapers to dig it all up and re- turf and recommended to join GC. Does that count as gardening?

 

Rain and bad light has stopped play in the garden today..Grrrrr....I feel I need to go out there and fluff my plants up that are getting weighed down with rain but that's not 'normal' behaviour..is it ?

 

climbing a few trees today to trim lower branches out, saplings things.

 

Hmmm, do I start with the running out at 3am in my dressing gown, to bolt down the side gate that was trying to join the main gate in its brokenness? Or in the same apparel at 7.30am, to stop one of the apple trees trying to touch its toes in the high winds?

Serious gardening? Not really possible in these high winds, but I’ve done a more permanent tie-job on the apple tree (needed a roofing tack to stop the tree tie slipping down the 45 degree tie-post). The remaining goldfish in the pond have been fed. The mangetout peas will be re-wound into their supports, this time with string, as the winds seem set in for days here. (This is Day 4, after all). I need to go and harvest some herb-leaves to go in the salad for tea, then it’s back inside to my beer, and some steak for tea.

 

Some planting, tying in tomatoes, picked couple strawberries and some gooseberries.
Lovely afternoon....clouds hover and threaten now n then but didn’t rain or spoil a walk to the beach

 

@Sian in Belgium ...thank the lord there is someone out there that is as barmy as me..

Enjoy your tea.

 

Heavy rain all day and all week if the weather forecast is right, so fetched the square pot into the greenhouse and planted up some Calibrachoa, Bacopa and Begonia Angelique, decided I'm going to spray the pot holder with metallic copper spray.

 

No rain!
Cut the grass, strimmed and scissored the edges and corners, cut yet another side of the hedge (why do hedges have to have so many sides ?), pulled out the massive brambles growing through the ivy and was left with very impressive pile of bramble on the back lawn. The bin is bursting full so that'll just have to wait for next week. The stems are as thick as... you know, a Cumberland sausage.

Everything is growing well apart from the dwarf Buddleija, I think the baby Sparrows have destroyed the buds and tips. I have seen them doing something odd with them. Ah well, it'll grow.

Fished out some biodiversity from the pond. Yuck! I'd expect to be rewarded with a frog or two seen how much plant and invertebrate material the thing has, but no. Probably because there is no natural water source nearby. The birds love to drink and splash in it though

 

Alternating between sun and heavy rain, so didn't do a lot.

Dismantled my cheap garden vac to give it a clean.



I bought it on ebay for about thirty quid three years ago. it's quite powerful, 2,600w.
Trouble is, after a lot of use, there gets a build up of mud inside. So the efficiency slowly reduces. Fortunately, it's held together by screws...over a dozen of them! So easy to take to pieces, clean and lubricate.

Changed our thirty-two year-old tea-house, to "summer mode."

I keep my vinyl jukeboxes in here. They don't like damp and prefer to be at room temperature.
This is because they have in each, four electric motors, some gearboxes and a lot of exposed leaf switches. Difficult to maintain in the winter in an unheated glorified garden shed. The cold thickens the oil and if you try to use them when it's like this, they can trip out (three breakers protect the circuits) and keep having to be reset.
So I cover them with multi-layered dust sheets and keep a 60w inspection lamp on, sitting inside both of them on their floors.

The opposite problem occurs in summer. It can get very hot in there.

So I uncover the vents at the back.



Raise the roof cover at the front, (it's just like a heavy wooden box lid) and insert the vent made from two halves of a recycled dishwasher cutlery tray. I designed it to let air out and prevent anything getting in.



Then set the timer on the extractor fan.




On really warm days I just open one of the doors.

My neighbour came round to return my Fiskar's lopper, he'd borrowed. Took the opportunity to walk round to see how my fish were doing.
They are all in good condition. This pool is only three years old and has a very sophisticated filter system, capable of sustaining a denser population of fish than was mine. The "biggy" is just one which was mine, a tancho sanke. So I'm pleased they are being well looked after.

 

Planted up my 2 hanging baskets and managed to get compost in my eye.
It's been about 2 hours ago and it feels like it's going away.

 

Pulled up spent Forgetmenot plants,which @longk will be pleased about then gave them a shake in the borders for more plants next year..which @longk will be rather peturbed about. Did some weeding and dead heading and general faffing..then spent a good while just sitting and watching the Bees on the Foxgloves and Geraniums..Happy Days..

 

Just an odd spot of rain so weeded under the pyracantha by the side of the shed and potted up a couple of tumbling tom's.