What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

"In the never ending quest for looking for something to do," I did a bit of "plumbing" ready for the new hose reel that's going to go on the back of the shed that should be delivered on Saturday.

Unfortunately, my"friendly local plumber's merchants," is closed, so I had to use what I've got.
Ideally I want a "T" connector to attach to the speed-fit pipe that supplies this tap, connect the tap to it, then have more speed-fit pipe goig to the left of the connector.

(Digressing the bit of pipe attached to the connector to the right I use to fill watering cans. It stops the water going all over your feet if you're standing next to the tap).

The hose real will be going above this tap. What I need is some speed-fit connectors, a 90 degree bend, etc., and a bit of pipe but it'll have to wait. I'll have to swop over the pipes for now if I want to use a watering can.

Other than that it was just a case of a check round.

The "lollypop acer" will soon be out, it'll need regular checking and a spray as greenfly love it.

ray as


We love the early leaves which will be salmon pink.

The wisterias are nearly in bloom.

These are always the last as they are quite young, but plwnty of blooms to come, blue at each end white in the middle.

The acer palmatums are in full leaf, the smaller one is more or less behaving itself.

The big one is a bit all over the place. I'll leave it for a couple of weeks until the weight of the foliage makes some of the branches droop more, then I'll give it a haircut to a narrower "dome shape, " but I have to avoid the, "giant cocktail umbrella look."

The lawn's doing well and always looks better when the sun is behind my camera. I'll cut it again tomorrow.

I gave the giant lilies a spray. I've only seen one lily beetle, that was a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't get at it as the lilies are up against the side fence and I'd have had to fight my way through some rodos to get near it.

 

[Sean Regan]

Found a couple of jobs to do.

We've two low voltage Blagdon halogen spotlights. They weren't cheap, best part of £40 each, but you do get a wall bracket, a stake and four different coloured lenses.We've had them for at least ten years.

The spotlight that shines on the rockery and fountain, didn't work when I switched it on last night.
This one.

It appeared that there was no power to the socket, so it was a case of tracing it from the transformer which was working. In the end it proved to be a dodgy socket although it looked OK.
These are ceramic and set in mica or whatever as they get hot and the casing is only plastic. They aren't designed to be replaced. It went a few years ago so I drilled out the socket and replaced it with one of a pack of six sockets I bought cheaply on e-Bay. I also bought two five packs of halogen lamps at the same time, they cost a fraction of those available from Blagdon. It's working again.
So me, "1" Blagdon "0"

I've a Hoselock hosereel on the back wall of the house, but it's outside the high fence between the corner of the house and the garage. It hangs on the wall on two brackets and is kept there securely by a tab that passes over the handle and slots into the top bracket. So they're easy enough to take down and use like a portable hose reel. It's been there for six months and anyone could remove it if they walked up our drive although it can't be seenm from the road.

Anyway I got round to fixing an "L" shaped bracket to the wall and the reel's casing.

 

[Sean Regan]

The hose reel I ordered on e-Bay for the back of the garden arrived as promised today. So it's on the front of the shed, connected up with no leaks.

Then of course, it started to rain, but not before I'd mowed the lawn. It's stopped now.


It's going to be a bumper year for wisteria blooms, even this small one is making every effort.

The many azaleas in the bed next to the patio will soon be out. There's no uniformity of colour, a mixture of red and white and they "fight esch other for space."
The red ones are always the first to flower.

 

[Sean Regan]

Nothing much more than a stroll around checking for pests today, as I'm completely up to date.
Just a bit of watering later in the day.

I did spend a couple of minutes painting the supply hose to my new hose reel, only because it was bright yellow and "in your face."

I may not now change it for speed-fit once the lockdown is over and if I'm still around. As I'll be eighty at the end of a month, I was aware that the family had planned "something" but this has had to be cancelled. To be honest I'm quite pleased, as I don't like any sort of "fuss,"
if I'm the subject of it.


I'm very pleased with the five rodos I "rescued" from Aldi at £7.99 each. I'm sure those that were left would have likely died as they don't water plants as a policy.


These are four of them.

The blooms are quite attractive.

The Mayleen on the side fence is in bloom. We should have a good show of roses here later in the year, despite the fact this "alleyway" gets very little sun.

As well as watching a dozen or so TV highlight programes of last season's American Football Matches and some films, I've spent more time on my musical hobbies. I can't understand why so many "snowflakes" have difficulty surviving the lockdown.

Tomorrow, my wife's new craft desk/storage unit is being delivered, so I've that to set up. I'm quite pleased about that, it'll mean hopefully, I won't have to shift some of her "stuff" any time I want to sit down in that room.

 

[DrMike27]

Today was garlic day. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life right now. Last year my garlic was the size of a quarter. This year, it’s the size of my fist (all soft neck).

Harvested 10 eggplant today and I think I’m going to try some ratatouille tomorrow. I still have about 20 fruits on the bush so fingers crossed they taste good.

My sweet potatoes flowered today. I have never seen a sweet potato flower and I was stunned!

Finally, my sunflowers are officially taller than me. If my entire garden dies right now but I get my sunflowers to bloom, it will have been a complete success in my opinion for 2020.

 

[Sean Regan]

Just a bit of tying up of several clematis. These I need to watch carefully in the dry weather as they soon wilt if the roots get too dry or warm.

Our acer in the front garden is coming into its own, with the leaves opening up, showing their early pink shade.
For the last thirty-odd years this tree's canopy has grown progressively, to now around six inches each year and I've been shaping it for the last ten or more, I just take six inches off, more or less, in places, to make it retain the shape. It puts up with this treatment magnificently. I've a Barnel extending pruner, so no ladders or steps required.

I've ordered one of these for the connection to my tap and new hose for the rear garden. It'll save a bit of messing about.

In this situation brass is better tthan plastic and no more expensive.

 

[Sean Regan]

This is the three year-old Stella cherry tree I bought on eBay for £33 in May 2018.
It didn't do much in its first year and not a lot more last year, here in this tub on the small patio.

it had about four cherries and the birds had them.

So at the end of last year I moved it to here between the azaleas and the rockery, much nearer the house.

It must have liked being out of the tub as this year it rewarded us with a lot of blossom.

That's faded now.

But there's plenty of cherries on it. Just as many failed to get polinated, but that's to be expected.

I'll be putting a net over it to keep the birds of it later in the year.

The roses in their tubs on the two patios are doing really well, lots of buds on most. I gave them a spray of Richard Jackson's rose tonic this morning, they'll get another in a week or so. So far no sign of blackspot.

The two wisterias on the pergola on the back of the house are nearly out.

 

[Sean Regan]

Apart fom another job I mentioned elsewhere, I gave this "a coat of looking at."

I built this featherboard fence and tongue and groove door in 2004.

The door came ready made from B&Q and I made the frame to fit round the door (the way to do it) and built the fence around them.

I cheated with the arch (today's photo) excuse the pigeon poo.

Time hasn't been kind to the door, nor should it be, as these things supplied by the sheds are made down to a price (in this case fifty quid).

The fence is in excellent condition, needs a few more screws here and there, whereas the door... has dropped despite the extra re-inforcing I gave it at the time. The pins that secure the tongue and groove have probably rusted and caused the individual bits of wood to start sliding down to the right. I've had to move the lock keep a couple of times. It's also rotting in a few places, but I'll be able to re-use all the door furniture, when I replace it.

As the local wood yard is now open, I though I'd get some more tongue and groove and re-make it, but I want tanalised and they don't have an. They are only taking telephone orders.Anyway, I like to see wood before I buy it, to avoid the "banana options."

 

[Sean Regan]

I tidied up the branches of the wisterias on this pergola.
The newish white one in the middle is growing rapidly so I spread the branches out.

So there's three blue ones at each end and six white in the middle. (I like to be organised).

I also put a few dozen screws in the featherboarding either side of the garden door, where they were bowing a bit.

 

[La Garden]

Last nights hail storm was devastating. Going to be a few days before I know for sure what survived. I suspect half will not.

 

[karstopography]

Last nights hail storm was devastating. Going to be a few days before I know for sure what survived. I suspect half will not.

Oh no, that’s terrible. How big of hail and for how long? Hail is pretty rare this close to the coast, but I’ve seen some of the recent footage of the storms rolling from Texas on East. Pretty devastating.

 

[Meadowlark]

We had a honking tornado, very strong for East Texas that did a lot of damage and worse caused some fatalities. I tracked it from here northeast of Houston all the way to Mississippi...missed us by less than three miles.

Yours could have well been part of the same storm, La Garden. Nasty, nasty weather.

 

[La Garden]

Some golf ball size. When it is going on it seems like a long time, but looking at it now about 5 min.

I was going to ask if your garden took a hit Meadowlark, good to hear it missed you.

 

[Sean Regan]

Cleaned the drive with blower.

Made this year's garden tour video.

 

[Logan]

It's raining so not doing anything outside, but i did pot on the chilli plants into their final pots to go into the conservatory.