What Jobs Are We Doing in the Garden Today... MK3.. 2013

I got the long pulley Lopper out today and went down into the South East corner of the garden to deal with the overhang of my neighbour's Conifers. It's a shady corner as it is so having a tall conifer looming over it doesn't help. My neighbour keeps his Conifers to a sensible height and will enlist my aid when he's pruning them so he understands when I do a bit of pruning myself
Although I do have areas in the garden where I allow Nettles to grow as a food source and habitat for caterpillars I don't have them in the borders but they still manage to sneak in. So I had a check of the borders to see if there were any....and of course there were so I evicted them. It's funny how you can look for weeds and even though you're sure you've looked properly when you go back for a second look you find more..........I'm sure that they hide until you're gone!! I've still got to plant the Cannas in the pots so I'll do that soon.

 

Very little for me today - swept up and hoovered up the glass from the broken greenhouse pane, sprinkled handfuls of chicken manure pellets all over the place (even the tomatoes got a sprinkling) which I will water in once the temp outside cools a bit, sowed some spring onions and Mrs C sowed the nemophila seeds in the wee barren strip at the end of our patio.

Barring watering later on, that is it for me for today.

 

No more than 12-inches if it were up to me!

 

I did take a few wee photos whilst out in the garden today:

My sole surviving Lupin - few young dahlias on either side as well as the roses, and one of my unruly lavatera on the right; border still to be filled up with marigolds etc.


The nasturtiums seem to be making themselves at home under the parasites conifers





And then my unfinished 'main' border (still need to put the French marigolds in on the left half at the front, and will hopefully be squeezing five Dahila XXXL in at the back once they arrive



Since planting out on Friday, this wee fella has decided to bloom - gorgeous colour:

 

Thanks Loli

I can't stand the things - if I owned this house, they would be hauled out by now; the only thing they achieve is to stop the garden looking completely naked in the winter.

 

I've tried Nettle Tea, Loli,..........not impressed I've not tried Nettle Soup but I'd have to have a couple large glasses of the red stuff before I did!!

A reasonable height for conifers?? Well, that would depend on what they were, and where they were. My neighbour's conifers back onto a lane so he has them around 8 feet in height and keeps to that height. They don't block the light and by agreement he doesn't grow any along the fence in borders with my garden. But I would say for any conifers that grow along a fence that borders another persons garden a reasonable height would be 6 feet. Having said that what conifers I had in the early years as a hedge were taken out because they starved the surrounding soil and nothing would grow properly within 5 feet of the root area.
I do have two Conifers planted in the ground and they have been there for around 30 years. They are Cupressus "Gold Crest and" Chamaecyparis "Boulevard" and they are in an isolated bed, from other borders, Rock Garden. They're well behaved and don't grow rapidly as they are key points in the garden I let them get to a height of 10 feet which I prune back every 2 or three years...so they're not hard work, especially if you use a extending pole Hedge Cutter!!

 

Thanks Jenny - I've all but handed the keys over to Mother Nature now, and in a few weeks time I will pretty much be a passenger watching the garden's journey for the year - - looking forward to seeing it all bright and cheery to be honest.

Still a bit to do though - got to pot on my Malva Zebrina, and then decide where they are going, make the frames for my beans and peas, make the strawberry tree(s), move a whole host of stuff out of the greenhouse to leave room for my peppers, greenhouse toms and cucumbers, treat the grass with the Evergreen 4-in-1 that I bought a big sack of today, and then I really need to deal with the front of the house!

I have a dandelion type weed growing behind the front wall that is about three feet tall, fallen blooms all over the place from the camellia, and weeds galore. I also need to empty the three troughs that are up the side of the driveway - two of them are going up on the outhouse roof with upright and trailing nasturtiums in them to cascade down over the edge of the roof, the third is going behind the front wall with lavatera novella rose and dahlias in them, and a wall basket is to go under one of the porch windows (driveway side) with petunias and nicotiana in it, and finally my hanging basket tree needs to move out front.

And then there is the bringing on of perennials that are to be planted later in summer, as well as more veggie stuff......

Need a rest after typing it out, let alone doing it!