What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

Great day today..really enjoyed myself. Pinched some flowers from my cherry toms...in the hope that more energy will go into making them redder and juicier. Planted in some basil and spinach. Picked some lovely runners, although racking my brain to establish what keeps attacking them half gnawed runners and aphids!! Waaaah. They're getting planted elsewhere next year. Picked some lovely victorian plums. And removed rocket that had flowered and turned woody. Better luck next time! Oh and i staked my marrow (given to me by a neighbour who told me it was a pumpkin) doh! I was getting excited for halloween pumpkin pie

 

Earlier this year I removed what I thought was a dead Buddleja from a pot and added it to the pile of stuff waiting to be taken to the recycling centre. Now recycling centre is back open so the pile is reducing and I discovered the Buddleja is still alive. Yesterday evening I planted it in the front garden but may move it. Yanked out a load of blanket weed and marvelled over how big the baby Newts have grown in the space of a couple of weeks. Cleaned out two houses.

 

Today we all felt like it was the weekend already, because yesterday evening we finally got to use our new brazier!
It burns quite fiercely, as you can notice I kept a watering can at hand just in case and also cobbled up some protection for the grass. Not that my grass looks very worthy of protection, but anyway.
It burns through lots of wood but then will stay warm for hours, so surprisingly quite suitable for grilling too.
Given ti was the first time, of course we stayed until night to watch the embers and pretend we were camping, while fumigating our clothes beyond redemption..







I collected a second round of blackberries, ready for more jam..



..and a bunch of pumpkin flowers.. I realize that I am obsessed with pumpkin flowers, for some reason I loved them as a kid, but we had them very rarely.
So I collect them, stuff them and fry them in unhealthy amounts. I guess I should find alternative recipes, lower in cholesterol..

 

Watered the garden and filled up the water butts.

I had a fight with the hose and the hose won - I got drenched! At least it cooled me off having roasted in the greenhouse.

Now nipping out to get some refreshments (cider).

 

Had to do quite a bit of watering, despite also doing it last night as well. Made sure to only water directly at the roots .

 

I planted a few seeds (in peat discs) of Hibiscus sinensis 'Ice Cream' and Hibiscus mutabilis 'Confederate Rose' ...



... and Clianthus puniceus (Kaka Beak) ...



My Hibiscus Albo and Hibiscus Pagoda Red each have one bud on them ... well actually the latter did but yesterday T'other Half knocked it off examining it!

I also organised tree pollarding of the remaining Jacaranda and the Almond tree for mid-September. We will let them grow back as we have the other Jacaranda.

 

@Victoria that Hibiscus Ice Cream looks lovely. Does it grow true from seed? I have tried finding it online but keep getting recipes instead!

 

Potted on some more wallflowers and a lot of watering, deadheaded the marigolds.

 

I watered, removed a full barrow of diseased leaves, added some support to various plants and moved some strawberry tubs, given they were continuosly targeted by mice and/or squirrels..
I am leaving a Marina di Chioggia trail at their place.

The evening sky was quite beautiful, perhaps tomorrow will be nice weather.

 

Start with deadheading and removing weeds, finish with watering. In between depend on what I see while doing the first bit.

 

Morning Caroline. The answer is simply I don't know but willing to have a go. I love Hibiscus and have seven now. I also got some beautiful Petunia Bordo seeds from this supplier in Ukraine. Very prompt service and in original packs written in Ukraine/Russian!

Hibiscus Ice Cream Flower Seeds from Ukraine | eBay

 

Thanks for that!
When I took the picture I was actually thinking of an Italian saying along that lines, and wondering what the English equivalent might be !

The Italian one goes:
Rosso di sera, buon tempo si spera
Rosso di mattina, il maltempo si avvicina

Which roughly translates as "Red in the evening, you can hope in good weather, Red in the morning, bad weather is approaching".