What did you do in your garden today?

[DirtMechanic]

Too cold to do much other than mow the lawn.

I've decided to record through the year all the colour changes in this little acer at the bottom of the garden, there are so many.
It was new to us in 2012 and grew rapidly, so in 2014 it looked like this, a bit like a dog.

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Or as I thought at the time, like the small figure in Monet's "Sunlight Under the Poplars."


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I gave it a drastic prune and have kept it to this shape and size over the years. I gave at slight trim this morning before taking this photo.

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I planted these three azaleas several years ago in attempt to hide this tub. It's still a work in progress.
I couldn't get three the same at the time so the one at the back though similar in colour flowers later than the other two. Each year I tighten the wires I'm using to make them grow upwards rather than outwards. The advantage of this site is that we can ring the changes in what we put in a big tub here. For the last three years it's been this sambucus. We originally had an almond tree planted in the circle but that inexplicably died after a few years.

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The pink and red quinces are in full bloom though the white one is almost finished.

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The clematis next to this one as are all our others, is doing well.
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Some blossoms on the Stella cherry have come out since yesterday.


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Gotta disagree with that first picture. Definitely a unicorn! They are hard to see so look hard!

 

[karstopography]

Sprayed a mist of kelp on my blooming tomato plants. Added oak leaves as a mulch. Busy in the garden lately, but what else is there to do? Actually, grateful to have the garden, especially now.

 

[DrCase]

Lazymans garden this year. But it has begun.

i miss having a fire spot

 

[DirtMechanic]

Given our 5pH leached out clay soil, rotting twigs is a waste actually. The liming effect and the potassium of ashes align very well with the needs of a spring garden here. Not to mention residual charcoal and other trendy bio-char type residuals from a cave mans firepit.

 

[karstopography]

Beautiful morning for a walk in the garden.

 

[Sean Regan]

Beautiful morning for a walk in the garden.

This is true, but in my case it's quite a short walk.

I have to confess that during my shopping trip this morning I bought another two of Aldi's £7.99 rhodos. That's now five in a week.
The attraction for me was that we did have a couple of gaps and the price was less than half what I'd expect to pay in a garden centre.
So a bit more "arranging" was necessary, I've gone from one to three here.

Another squeezed in here.

I've a decision to make at some time. The big one is our tortoise shell one. I wired it a few years ago, if I hadn't it would be twice as wide as it is now.

It was the same size as the one on the left here, both in 12" pots and reduced to clear as they had frost burn on the few blooms they had.

I don't like anything "dominating" in the garden, other than our acer palmatum which is much slower growing. Ideally, as it's quite attractive. I would like to move it back nearer to the fence in November, but I might kill it off.



The papers are all about the plants garden centres will have to throw away as they are closed. They won't throw away any perennials.
If they manage to survive financially, this year's stock will grow on and they can sell them next year having put up the price as they usually do.

 

[DirtMechanic]

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Beautiful morning for a walk in the garden.

Oh just stop teasing me!

 

[karstopography]

Hedge trimming time. Great upper body workout. Looks nice when it’s done.

 

[Sean Regan]

Just another walk around, still nothing that needs doing.

But this warmer weather has brought plants along.

This little acer is showing a little bit of green now, before it goes more yellow.

The wisteria buds are progressing nicely.

The acer palmatums are changing from their ugly naked state.

Come on bees! Get polinating our Stella cherry!

The roses on both patios are doing well.

Even this little acer palmatum Taylor is beginning to show some interest in life.

I had to alter the small bird feeder I made, I had to lower the grill as the wood pigeons learned to get their heads under it. We don't like them.
Now the largest birds that can use it are a couple of collared doves.

The "avenue of shame," (the drive to the side of our house) featuring the six roses my wife doesn't like. (well not completely true, it's just that the dozen or so in pots on the two patios she likes better), are also doing well and the two mayleen clematis on the fence are about to come into bloom.

Hmm..

I'll go and watch some more Jesse Stone episodes.

 

[DirtMechanic]

The garden got the first tilling, added a yard of black kow. Becky spread pinestraw, got into the blueberries and blackberries and some flower beds and pulled so many weeds around the house I could not count. I have to be observant and notice her hard work, but at the same time it looks natural and I am prone to go past it to my later regret.

 

[Sean Regan]

Just a check for aphids, a spray of the giant lilies for lily beetle prevention, (that never seems to work that well, you can pick them off when they appear, but by then the slight damage has usually been done) and gave the lawn a light feed

We had a light shower this morning for just a few minutes, but it's forecast to be dry and warm for the next several days. I turned the leaky hose system on that waters the borders yesterday for a few hours and the lawn sprinklers on for a few minutes.

Need to check the patio pots reguarly as the heat from the sun gets bounced off the York stone paving and the flags and can "cook" the roots.

It's amazing how quickly everything is growing.

As an example this acer palmatum yesterday.

and again today.

There's still a few small dead patches of moss on the lawn, but I just let the new grass grow through it and it gets hoovered up with the Flymo as the season progresses.

 

[Arden Sage]

I caught up with Gardeners World 2020 Ep 3 and decided to put my best foot forward on the "Grow Your Own" ladder: fingers X'd!!

 

[karstopography]

I put up a Wildlife net, net completely encircles garden, to exclude the raccoons, opossum and squirrels from the sweet corn and melon patch. I have 28 sweet corn G90 variety up and growing, did a fish emulsion spray on those, plus side dressed with the 3-2-3 Medina organic. Corn is in the back left, heart of gold cantaloupe in back right, crimson sweet watermelon front right, sugar baby bush watermelon front center and spaghetti squash front left. This garden is entirely grown from direct seeding. Net can be easily taken down in one corner for access. Plan is to trellis the various melon/squash.

 

[karstopography]

Pruned off the bottom rung of leaves on many of the 20 tomato vines I have. Did the same on a few squash and cucumber plants. Helped a few runners on my pole beans find the trellis. Just sort of took a look around and made sure all looked good. Will likely do that at least once or twice more today before the sun sets.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Well its planted. And the grass got cut and edges trimmed.