What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

Today (well, this afternoon - a.m. was spent battling with a failing sound system at church!) was a “did I read that correctly?” sort of day.

First task was to harvest the chillies. One tray at a time (there are 15 trays, 5-6 chilli plants per tray) brought outside to the patio table - the nights are now too cold for the plants outside. Each plant checked for pests, spent flowers stuck to forming chillies, etc, and then any red or damaged chillies harvested and sorted by variety. Hubby has this idea of making our hot chilli jam “single variety” - I blame the new generation of cider-makers! We now have 9 bags of different chillies, with as few as 1 chilli in one bag (more to come) to 300g+ in another, ready to go in the freezer. In a few weeks, we will start to make the jam.

Second task was to treat the lemon tree. First step was to move the plant to the middle of the garden, far away from the two ponds. Then wash the leaves - all the leaves! We have had so little rain over the past 6 months, Some of the leaves were black with dirt and mould. The ripening fruit also were treated to a clean. We harvest 5-10 lemons a year, using both the flesh and the rinds (candied peel is so easy to make!). The washing also helped to remove some of the scale insects - the main pest for our lemons. Finally, the plant was sprayed thoroughly, both sides of all the leaves, with neem oil. Excess neem oil spray was used to treat the date palm and the generic large Ikea palm (Sorry - forgotten the name) which both have mealy bug.

Time for a G&T, before roast rabbit for tea!

 

I've started a new thread for this....

New border bed

 

Plant some of the things I bought yesterday and then probably paint the shed with waterproofer.

 

Planted some more wallflowers and tulips, been cutting back some of the lavenders when hubby wasn't watching.

 

So glad I decided not to do my laundry today @shiney .

Busy preparing the greenhouse , coldframes and the big covered storage area that will be home to all the tender plants soon, hubs has had to mend/ replace some parts of them. Nearly ready now.

I have been seed harvesting and taking loads of cuttings this morning.. why do I do it!!!I do the same every year. I must resist the urge!!!

Need to start digging up and storing all the frost tender bulbs next. I have begun to sort out the bulbs for planting out in Oct/ Nov. I don't plant out Tulips until November as it's still too warm here and I try to avoid them succumbing to Tulip Fire.

It's now to hot to work around the greenhouse area, that is strictly a morning task on warm days.

 

I must remember not to invite you for dinner as I have 6 rabbits

 

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. Had an hour or so pottering around, dead headed dwarf buddleja, pulled weed out of pond, cut grass in side garden and added clippings to the new grass pile.

The hedgehog who was in the house under terms willow that I mentioned before has died . Someone is going on around here, had four unexplained deaths this year and three last year. I can't say for sure they are connected but there are definite similarities. I suspect poison.

 

Just keeping the garden ticking over at the moment hoping to hold onto summer as long as possible and its felt like summer the past few weeks. I've been potting plants on for next year and getting ready to order some seeds from chiltern seeds, I've not ordered from them before and they are a little bit on the expensive side but I've been disappointed with my seeds suppliers this year so I trying a new supplier, just waiting to see if they put a autumn discount code out I am being a cheapskate.
I lifted some wonky red carrots yesterday , I wonder why I bother with carrots erractic germinators and they a very cheap to buy anyway . And I collect some raspberries for once which reminds me I need to check on them first attempt in freezing them .

I may strip the tomato plants tomorrow of their leaves to help ripen the many left.

Back into lockdown in some shape of form , having the garden has been a god send for lots of people on the first full scale lockdown which won't be the case over the winter months . Its very high here the covid cases think its second highest in the country behind Bolton.

 

Yesterday I pottered, clearing around this year’s planting on the drive bed, and a final wave of deadheading - including removing the spent stems of water-mint.

Today looks like the last dry day of drought. The coming 8 days is rain forecast each day - at last! But it means I need to get the dry stuff done soon. So I hope to manage to do some of the following:
- Bring the last few bagged garden compost up to the top of the garden, where it will go on the veg beds when they are cleared
- Remove the turf on the planned extension of the border behind the pond’s bench
- empty the final compost bay into old compost bags, to stack where the remaining bags are now
- cut back the encroaching ivy around the compost bays, along with brambles and nettles, so that access around the bays is manageable over winter, when any contact with undergrowth will mean cold, wet trousers
- maybe, but unlikely! cut the grass

I will definitely need slices of fruit cake to keep me going!

 

Yesterday planted more wallflowers and tulips and watered them in, the ground was very dry so gave them a good soaking. It's raining today so nothing in the garden today.

 

Hmmm, a little ambitious, I was!

When I went to move the bags of last year’s compost, there were 8 full bags, rather than the “few” I thought. That was 8x40l bags to wheelbarrow from the lowest part of the garden to the highest part. Then dismantle the sides of the compost bays, and bag up 16 40l bags of compost, lifting them out of the bays. The best 4 bags went up to the top of the garden - probably the best compost I’ve seen in years, be it homemade or commercial - ready to be used. The remaining 12 bags stacked under the hedge. Two toads had to be carefully lifted out of the compost and set so that they could safely retreat into another bay - one common, the other a midwife....

.... I did pick 1lb of walnuts though?

My back and shoulders now hate me with a passion, so I’m calling it a day!