What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

Planted all of the bedding plants and the tubs yesterday, today re sown wallflower seeds that didn't come up.

 

Did the second potting-on of the rest of the chilli plants this morning, that are growing well now they are out of the duff compost.
Planted out a thymus fragrantisima (sp?) I grew from seed, as well as a couple of tomato plants - tumbling tom in the veg trough next to the house, and a yellow pear by the patio.

this afternoon I mowed the lawn, discovering a fox hole under the fence in the process. Needed a shower, then a beer next to the pond after that!!

 

It's been a pretty relaxed couple of weeks for me in the garden as we have had pretty heavy rain most days. I did a little deadheading and have just been watering the pots that don't get wet due to being close to a wall. Things in the greenhouse are looking pretty good and are coming on fast.

The Californian Poppies have sprinted from seed
So glad I managed to get the greenhouse now.

 

The wind blew my tomatoes off their supports yesterday, so I had to spend some time tying them back up. Thankfully no damage that I could see. I gave the sunflowers more support too for the same reason.

My poached egg flowers in the strawberry bed are finally big enough to identify so I weeded that bed yesterday too. Definitely starting those in pots next year so I can arrange them more neatly in the bed.

Other than that it's just continuing aphid patrol.

 

I'm jealous! I missed the window on a greenhouse this year - I have an unusual size requirement and the one I've chosen (and the second choice) are out of stock everywhere. I'm just hoping I can get it ready for next year's growing.

 

So far today it’s been mainly pottering in the garden.

I’ve blocked off a fox hole under the fence to next door, by filling the hole/run with , ummm, dog-poo. I doubt the fox, or regularly-visiting cat will want to use that as an access route now! Another week’s “supply” added, and then I’ll cap it off with inverted turf from where I’ve widened the drive bed (to make it easier to mow - the grass now ends before the incline).

I’ve checked the veg-beds, picking a generous handful of mangetout peas. These are all coming from the Oregon Sugar Snap I sowed indoors in March, at the start of Belgium’s initial lockdown. The Shiraz mangetout are finally starting to flower, but still no sign of pods yet. They were sown about 4 weeks later, with a second sowing of Oregon, which are already podding up. So slower to develop, we shall see how they crop.

The runner bean flowers were admired, and the french bean flower-buds encouraged. The green courgette is now carrying male flowers, but is looking well. The yellow courgette is developing tiny yellow bases to the first flush of flowers, although there have been no flowers opening yet. I think they did the same last year. It doesn’t look as if the “courgettes” will develop - I’m wondering plant would do better if I cut these off?

Dead rhododendron flower clumps have been removed, where they can be reached. They never properly opened this year, because of the lack of water...

I walked the edge of the patio bed banking (rather precarious, as it is not yet fully stabalised), cutting down the grass, pulling up the spent forget me nots, and dead-heading the Charles de Mills rose that has pretty much gone over now.

Then hubby came out for a breath of fresh air from home-working, and we both admired the young walnut tree. It looks like it will crop well this year! We considered the scrub-growth below it, and planned what needs to be removed, to help the trees develop better. With competition for water, waiting until winter to remove unwanted trees is not the best plan. I guess the pruning saw will be out this weekend!

 

Hi @Arlandria , I was looking for a pop up one for a while online during lockdown. The only ones available had gone up massively in price and looked really flimsy. When our local GC opened I managed to get a pretty decent one from there for a quiet reasonable price. I was too late to get tomato or chillies in as I would of liked to give them a go this year but the cuttings are doing well.

 

Picked some red and black currants also some alpine strawberries and raspberries, so we had a fruit crumble for tea.
Would be more but the blackbirds and sparrows were eating them, and my dog was a regular eater as well we found.
And this fella.

 

Yes the black birds are eating my blackcurrants and pink currants, they haven't before but i have to cover up the blueberries, they eat them before they're ripe.

 

I’m hoping today will be a busy day in the garden.

As is so often the way, although I could have had a lie-in - it’s the weekend !! - my mind was so busy going over what needs to be done, I was wide awake at 7.16 (alarm normally goes off at 7.00am). At 7.30 I gave up, and got up, got dressed, carried the dog downstairs, and headed off into the garden....

So far I have cut down 5 young trees that are growing too close to our young walnut tree, and pulled the trunks out onto the grass, ready for cutting up for collection. I’ve taken out some side branches of trees that were crowding out a young mountain ash tree. Pruned out a sad-looking “stags head” from one of the old rhododendrons, that suffered badly in the drought last year. Cut back hard two of my three rosemary bushes - I did the other last year - to get them to regenerate lush and bushy.

8.55, and it was time to come in for a coffee and biscuit for breakfast, before going back out to take out some brambles and nettles, also growing in the wild scrubby bit between the walnut and the composting bays (where I took the trees out). Cheers!

 

I had a pop up one before and it didn't do well. The seam around the zip ripped almost immediately and it blew over in a rather uneventful wind.

 

I had a pop up from Argos in the early 2000s and it lasted until a few years ago, a bit battered and bit of welding it did the job. Have saved the side panels as they are well made, last year I bought a £20 pop up off flea bay and it lasted until December when the winds tore it apart.
Now have to make do with a permanent one, saves all that taking down and repairs I used to do

 

Well took the clematis down off the tree today and found why it died, looks like the roots have disease and I was able to pull it apart by hand


so as there are some small shoots in the ground I’ll dig those up and transfer to a pot, as the tree it was around will have to come out as it was dead when we moved in 8 years ago.
There are also holes all over it and it’s split down the middle, still it’ll burn well

 

We’ve now taken down a large chokeberry tree (hubby managed to drop it ON the mountain ash ), tied in the Passion flowers and summer jasmine growing on the house wall, put up low trellis for the second climbing iceberg rose and autumn clematis, taken the dead/crossing branches out of the various plum trees, and thinned the apples on the August apple tree.

...oh, and topped up the wildlife pond, and barrel water feature, as we’ve no more rain forecast until Monday afternoon, and they were both looking low.

Time for a dog-walk, to get all the tweaks out of our backs!

 

We got the keys for our new house yesterday So todays job is ferrying all of my pots and garden bits over. Luckily it's only a 10 minute journey, because I think it's going to take a few trips - this is about 50% of what needs to go...