What jobs are we doing today in the garden ?

Just got back from scraping up the cut grass and chopping back the errant 'chokes. Fed a load of cut grass to the 'osses in the field next door. Had a good chuckle at an allotment two down.

They planted their spuds and earthed up right away, (a practise I find incorrect as you want the spud leaves to collect sunshine as soon as poss' and earthing up later does a good hoeing job). However, their spuds are up, straight through the side of the ridges ! ! ! shouldn't laugh. . . .cheers, Tony.

 

Kleftiwallah, People do that on my site too and I have often wondered if they were right and I was wrong so I'm glad you think the same wasy as me.

 

Spent an hour or so hand weeding the herbaceous border this afternoon, I never let it get too weedy, little and often is my motto when it comes to weeding.
With all the recent rain though, I hadn't done it for a while so it's good to get on top of it again.
One weed I'm always on the lookout for at this time of year is that pesky Bittercress. You know, the one which hides itself away in amongst all the other plants, then goes 'ping' and fires tiny little seeds in all directions as soon as you touch it.
Didn't find too many this time thank goodness, and most of those I did find hadn't quite seeded yet. Just a couple of 'pings', I could almost hear them saying 'See you next year'.
The chickens were more than happy with the big bucketful of weeds I gave them. Lots of contented scratching about. They haven't enjoyed the cold and wet weather this week either, only one egg today.

 

Busy day at last

Went down to my mates house you may remember the post about the dahlias last February /March, he is 84 in June and not well and has grown dahlias for over 60 years he lost all of them last year so I got him 30 for his Birthday (june) early present (i WAS GETTING ABOUT 10) But 30 came up in the conversation !!! , all planted up his wife supplied me lots of tea .

I went down in November dug them all up and kept them in my frost free garage put them in the greenhouse about 10 days ago gave them a good watering and within the 10 days buds apeared on 29 so not bad out of 30, all catus and giant catus, I will get some photos in the summer massive block of dahlias it is impresive when in full flower.

In my own garden taken 18 inches off the lawn 3/4 away around (daylilys going in very soon) and a spade depth deep then broke up with the fork, the stones in my garden are amazing all old river cobbles so it shows you at one point my garden was probaly the river bed many moons ago , manure old tomato compost and emptied the compost bin in the bottom sprinkle of bonemeal. The robin this year is very bold so as I dug he was only 6 feet away grabing quicky what he could find, the ferns I never sold on (another post) I ended up keeping all of them got them for £1.00 should of been £6.00 or £7.00 each from the garden centre that closed down I added to the front of the corner border in front of the tree ferns dug in a bag of bark before I planted is their a special name for the roots they are so fine ?.

Everything checked in the greenhouse so thats that for today , I had a can of cider and then straight into the bath for a soak of these old bones

Lawns tommorow , and then B&Q get some compost ....

Its going to pour down on Monday so need to make up for lost time I am about 2 weeks behind no way can I put the bedding out at I am just glad I sowed the seed later than normal.

Baskets !!! still waiting for the T&M Begonia's crackling fire, I can see me getting Surfinia petunias tommorow at this rate !!


Spruce

 

General tidy up after the rain but what a difference it makes! Greenhouse is bursting but folk lore here says don't plant out until after 10th May so roll on Thursday.

 

Been making more plant defences to keep the chooks off,earthed up the spuds...they look nice and cozy now....checked out the GH....Mr L sorting out the path down the side of the house and ended up with a few barrow loads of soil that needed going through to get rid of the weeds etc....i was then busy painting the verse i wrote above the door in my summerhouse/Shed so thought i'd get the apprentices to do that job for me....the chooks did a great jobmozzarella for their supper....if only that wind wasn't so bitterly cold i twould have been a perfect spring day.....had to have a whiskey to warm myself up:WINK1:

 

I've been out and dug over a small patch of ground, shoved some shrubs in it, and then removed my awful 'temporary' path from when I sowed the lawn last year. Levelled it up an area that is going to be an extension to the lawn, and then seeded it all up. Strimmered some of the overgrown corners, moved a few plants about about, and pulled lumps of stray grass out of my new as yet unplanted flower beds.

 

sorted green house as advised on here

bubble wraped the roof put paper under seed trays to drain exses water

added a electric rad

cut all 3 lawns lovein the new mower ebay bargin

duz a bostin job

 

Don't know if they will still have them in yours (worth asking) - but in my B&Q they are still selling off the old 70L bags of GP compost for £3 each. Picked up a few yesterday. They are hidden right in a back corner which is probably why they aren't selling.

 

Seems to have rained every day for the past two weeks so did some much needed hoeing and weeding. As soon as I was out there it started to rain so potted up some calendulas for friends in the shed. Made myself a 'make-do-and-mend' cloche from bits and pieces found in the shed and a piece of cloche plastic I bought. All in all cost about £3. Very toasty inside. Hope it holds up.

 

Pricked out some Hellychristums,built a cold frame, planted Pak Choy and Iceberg Lettuce. Built an access plank for the raised border bed, planted Runner Beans applied liberal amounts of Slug Pellets. Tea then a glass of wine!! awesome day!

 

I weeded and dug over my two tier bed ready for planting. I need the weather to warm up so I can get the plants hardened off first. I can't move in the greenhouse and they really need to come out. Just managed to get the watering done early evening when my son called me from America on Windows Messenger.

 

Rather boringly, I continue to dig, weed and thin out the new garden. I'm now about half way through the main bed. Another four sacks of weeds, Daylilies and other by-products of this process were taken to the tip today. So we carried on an extra eight miles to one of our favourite local nurseries where I bought a Lobelia siphilitica "Alba" and Digitalis parviflora (which I forgot to lift from my old house) for £2.50 each.
When I got back I potted on my Tibouchina cutting, Fuchsia thallia and some Isoplexis. Planted my Polygala myrtifolia in the bed (still in the pot so that it can be lifted), Salvia glutinosa and Penstemon digitalis.

 

Well, the last couple of days have been DRY here so in between amusing the kids I've managed the following;

• Cut the grass
• Weeded
• Potted up my Cannas in to larger pots
• Potted up my young Gooseberry bushes in to large patio tubs
• Planted a few perennials that I'd grown from seed last year
• Bought a couple of young Fuchsia thallias (lost mine over the winter)
• Bought a couple more young Clematis at £1.79 & 50p

There's probably more bits and bobs too, but I know I never stop pottering; one day I'll be popping in and out of the house and forget where I'm up to and plant my baby son....

 

Pricked out some viola,cosmos,nicotinia,Malva,rudbeckia,thyme while standing in the rare sunshine and had red cheeks and nose by the end of the day lol
Earthed up the potatoes, weeded the parsnips which I'd germinated on kitchen paper, they are doing really well. No sign of life from the I sowed direct though. Set some chillies out in grobags. A lovely day, what a welcome change