What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

Managed to water the greenhouse plants, extended visit to B&Q before (trusting the BBC weather forecast) setting up my table saw (it later peed down)......... In between the rain I was able to cut the flooring and we now have a nice new bedroom floor!

 

Do we know each other Armandii?

Anyways, the outer container has now been successfully retrieved from the pile of unspeakable things, bucket rinsed and inserted into the container, the precious pump balanced on an empty jar, and a square of mesh cut and bent to fit over the bucket. The mesh bit took two hours of hard labour. The solar panel is fixed on the fence and the mesh is covered with stones.

It's already making spit spit spits of water, I'll take photos tomorrow when the panel has loaded the battery and I have a small scale Fontana Trevi in my back garden

Very pleased

 

@Selleri in my pure desperation over the years to have some kind if water in my garden I am the proud owner of what everyone in the house calls the bucket pond. It's not a bucket but a cat litter tray. In it is a little solar powered water fountain I got online. I've hid it behind one of the bigger seats and when the sun comes out the sound of trickling water is lovely (to me) the rest of the household think its hilarious. Anyway I have noticed now the birds have found it and seem to be enjoying it and that's good enough for me. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine. And well done.

 

@Jasmine star my bird bath is actually pot saucer. It holds over a gallons of water and the little solar pump keeps water splashing and like yours, the birds love it. Before that, it was a ceramic potato chip bowl that was a large oval but fairly shallow. It lasted for about 10 years then crumbled.

I didn't get outside until nearly 4 and only had time to water and make a few adjustments to my low flow system.

 

@CanadianLori Brilliant! Garden design at it's best I'd say


Well at the end of a pretty traumatic day with this wind still howling strong I managed to rescue 1 tray of seedlings out of the greenhouse. (Californian poppies I'd bought online) The rest had gone to pot. It's looking like I'll be spending tomorrow staking what's gets wrecked overnight.

 

I always found that a hugely fascinating topic!
I used to work for London's local records centre. There are similar organizations everywhere in the UK, collating species sigthings into huge databases. The result being that you can have maps showing where specific animals and vegetation types were known to coexist at certain points in time.
When overlaying all of that with maps of actual developed areas and green areas, one can find out all kinds of interesting and surprising clues about how animal species manage to survive, even thrive at times, in cities as densely developed, and continuously under redevelopment, such as London.

Local authorities have a duty to ensure everybody lives within a stone throw of at least some tiny patch of green, and within walking distance of some larger greenspace. And then there are our gardens, balconies and patios of course, as small as they might be.
This creates so many potential ecosystems for animals. But most species need a variety of different environments over their life cycle, for foraging, reproducing and nesting. These environments are often quite different, and animals need them all, so they need ways to travel between them and to scout for new ones. These are sometimes called ecological corridors.

One thing about cities, compared to the countryside, is that there is very little backup in terms of both corridors and environments.
Me having cleared a section of my edge to put pots in it could have well irreparably separated some insects, reptiles or even small mammals from their foraging places, or their nests. Or created opportunities for some other animals of course.
Some animals will simply take their chances anyway, for lack of alternatives, while in the contryside that would have lead only to a small detour. The fox or hedgehog separated from the nest will cross roads and clearings, the slug or toad will chance dry areas.

So, yes, I agree some behaviours which look brazen can be due to animals being used to humans to the point of not fearing us anymore.
But they could also simply be due to pressing needs.

For instance, city squirrels might be so used to humans, and enjoying the general lack of predators, that they congregate in gangs, forage and do as they please in plain daylight and with humans in sight.

Or they might simply be aware that certain corridors and environments they use every day are free of traffic and predators only at certain times. So they do what they have to do anyway, take their chances and perhaps unusually act in groups, in the hope humans and other potential predators will not be able to target all of them.

It is really hard to say at times, but very fascinating..

 

And speaking of taking chances, that is what happens when "gentle breeze" meets tomato on top of raised planter



I put a bush tomato over there every year, but I should have used a longer cane and secured the tip given this was pretty tall. The wind snapped it in two, serves me well I suppose..
If I leave it there, it will still make some I think, and I repotted the top just in case.
But I think I will just put another one in.

In retaliation against the unfair fate, or against my stupidity perhaps, I potted 9 side shoots from other tomatoes. I will plant a few and gift the rest I guess.

On the bright side and crossing fingers, I did not loose any other plant to the winds, and the cucamelons are looking good, so I repotted them along with some basil.

 

Carry on from were I left off yesterday, so planting, preparing new beds and cutting back a jasmine that has got too big. Interestingly it doesn't have much smell, but I don't know whether that is me or it. There are some smells I cannot sense. I prefer the honeysuckle next to it that I can definitely smell.

 

Friday did a bit of weeding around 2 rose bushes, if you could call them that, they haven't grown very much so i put some chicken manure pellets around them and water them every day. Deadheaded a lupin that's gone to seed but got more flowers coming on.

 

Yesterday I planted out my courgettes. I'm trying to grow them vertically this year and so far it's going well. I have them in tomato haloes in a raised bed.

One of them fell over in the wind right before being planted out and I was worried I'd lost it, but it's rallying and looking stronger with an open flower today, so I'm hopeful.

Next year I need to remind myself to sow them a couple of weeks later as every time I've grown them they've been gagging for more space just before the weather's quite ready for them.

Today we're busy continuing to demolish the old shed, looking at the new view, and making plans about the larger garden layout.

 

So here's my new Water Feature



And some close up photos:


I'm quite pleased with it, the sound of moving water is so lovely. However, I had to top the bucket up already as the wind blows the spray away instead of returning into the bucket. Well, just another thing to water daily then