What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

@hydrogardener they look impressive! Mine are only just starting to colour. Did you grow them hydroponically?

 

The answer to your question would be yes and no. I mix my own media for the pots and put sand, sphagnum moss, perlite, and compost in it. The auto-pots are then fed with liquid hydroponic nutrients throughout the growing season. I could go straight hydroponics but I found this works best for me. I'll do whatever it takes to get a big tasty tomato.

 

We grow all our tomatoes outside and finally picked out first yesterday. Mmmm..you can't beat a tomato that freshly picked and still warm from the sun !

 

Not much to do at the moment in the garden apart from a bit of squishing, but to be honest the Ladybirds doing a very good job now and a quick round of deadheading.

I am making the most of walking round and discovering what I'm happy with and what needs amending . I am beginning to make plans for next year's borders, and will begin sowing some seeds in readiness for '21'.
That what I absolutely love about gardening.....looking forward to the future!!

 

Our tomatoes are woefully behind this year, we're only just getting the first couple of tiny fruits forming. We only grow them outside at the moment but we'd usually have at least a few ripe ones by now.

Yesterday afternoon was productive, the red cabbages are now somewhat haphazardly netted and I also potted on the fig tree. I know it's the wrong time of year but we'd already lost most of the fruit in moving it from the old flat to here, and in it's smaller pot it was coming out the soil at almost a 45 degree angle I was worried one windy night would be the end of it so we moved it on and straightened it up, and it does look a lot better! Hopefully the pot isn't too big and we'll do ok on fruit next year instead.

Today, amoungst inside jobs, I am hoping to finish painting the small shed (as long as the paint turns up, the right colour was out of stock everywhere locally so I've had to order it online) so we can put it back up and finally have a bit of dry storage space outside. Also researching cordless lawnmowers to replace the corded one that doesn't have a hope of reaching down a 170ft lawn At the moment it looks pretty wild, which is lovely in a lot of ways but it would be good to have a slightly shorter area for sitting - and for the cat to not keep coming inside coated in seeds

 

A beautiful morning so I washed my pots in the greenhouse.
Deadheading nepeta, geraniums, lavender and roses.
Pulling weeds and cutting overhanging branches of tamerisk which is growing over the fence from next door. They seem to plant everything along the border so we get half the branches. The worst is their wisteria which grows at an alarming rate. The neighbour said to throw it over the fence so we do that now but I always feel a twinge of guilt doing it. On the other hand I pay £88 a year for my two green bins so why should I fill it with their clippings?

 

I know, it can be a bit of pain..
For my tiny vegetable patch I made fixed sides, which can slide down when sowing, and a "roof" secured with velcro.
That makes it easier to open it up for a quick peek, but honestly it was a pain to make and it is only suitable for very small areas. I just hope it lasts me a few years.

However, I remember somebody on the forum (@misterQ perhaps?) came up with some ingenious liftable "boxes" which looked quite effective and a bit more versatile for larger areas. I cannot find the thread right now but there are some photos somewhere.

 

Today I only watered. Now that most plants are mature I start struggling to keep up with watering. On a warm day they need around 40 to 50 liters. It is not a lot with a hose I guess, but carrying that every day down the stairs is a bit time consuming.
I guess I will get into the habit to do the first half early morning when I go pollinating pumpkins..

I keep finding bumblebees and bees in the pumpkin flowers. I grabbed a flower and it was like a mobile phone had started vibrating furiously in my hand. I stepped away while a very unhappy bumblebee made its way out, circling furiously around a few times, looking for the enemy

Yesterday we collected all spinach and radish, and half the pak choi. Most were bolting and flowering, and the radish were all leaves and no radish :D It all ended up stir fried and the rest in a soup, including the radish greens, along with a bunch of basil. Admittedly I am not very good with leaf veggies and tubers..
I got some perennial spinach and breakfast radish and I will plant that next, it should be easier.

Also, I came up with another cardboard and plastic temporary "pot" and planted there my last 5 spare cucumbers. It is a good position for squashes, so perhaps the spacemaster will be happy there.

 

Managed to get out into the garden after tea. Wow the soil was so dry, I reckon a good gust of wind and my garden might travel. One of my 15Ltr. Pots with a rose had been knocked over and the rose dislodged. I love having a fox in the garden, as he seems to be keeping the cats away, but hey reynard me ole' mate. You must stop digging. Honest. There are holes everywhere. There is so much requiring my attention, including picking up after foxy has bought food packaging and toys home. I just hope the weather doesn't get too hot...........sorry.

 

Yesterday we put up another “fence trellis” along a house wall, for the climbing rose and clematis to grow up. A bit naughty, as we shouldn’t have been using power tools outside, it being a public holiday. But the neighbours are quite a distance away, and we literally used the drill to make 20 holes to secure the fencing.

it’s looking good!

oh, I also potted on another 10 or so chillies, put a support stake in for a rose at the back of the patio bed, and started an experiment with the lychnis (deadhead a stem v cutting out stems v leaving be). I want to see which gives us the tidiest plants, and any possible extra flush of flowers. They are not hubby’s favourite plant, because they can look quite scruffy, so it’s worth an experiment!

 

Today's effort - shifted a load of gravel and placed around and in the new potting shed base - not a single twinge - anywhere . You can see that I've also added some more post supports.

It looks almost level doesn't it? In reality the gravel is wedge shaped.

Raining tomorrow - so going to do some serious lounging about.

The potting shed that I have made this base to fit - it has 23 - 25 weeks delivery - for goodness sake...