What did you do in your garden today?

[DirtMechanic]

Southern California actually, and it says on the back of the seed packs (scarlet nantes and danvers) that this is the last month for carrots. So according to what it says on the seed packs, I still have time left but time is short. What do you think about where I should plant, direct sunlight throughout the day or only part of the day and shaded for the rest?

I would go full sun and use a shade cloth if necessary.

 

[Chuck]

According to that seed packet, I too can plant carrots. Well, I can plant them and they will sprout and grow tops but not any decent carrots. They will be skinny and gnarley, not even worth eating. I would save the seeds for the fall when you can grow carrots. All the rest of the seeds should do well. I don't use shade cloth and it gets really hot here too. Melons especially like it and if you like okra it likes it the hotter the better.

 

[Logan]

Potted on the rest of the Chilli plants 16 altogether and 8 sweet peppers. Also potted on the rest of the verbena bonerenses that's 48. Haven't worked out where to plant them yet.

 

[Chuck]

I staked up and corraled my tomatoes.

 

[DirtMechanic]

It is a lake out there. I managed to weave a cascade rose transplant onto a support, and pick up some sticks but that was all for today.

 

[DirtMechanic]

This helps trick pests.

Make DIY Fake Wasp, Hornet and Meat Bee Nests

Fake nests will keep territorial bees from bugging you. They nests drive off competition and make your yard more kid friendly. Will not harm native bees!

littlehousebigalaska.com

 

[Chuck]

This helps trick pests.

Make DIY Fake Wasp, Hornet and Meat Bee Nests

Fake nests will keep territorial bees from bugging you. They nests drive off competition and make your yard more kid friendly. Will not harm native bees!

littlehousebigalaska.com

Personally, I like all of the wasps, hornets and bees to be thick. If I don't mess with their nests they don't mess with me. And the reason I like them around is that they are the #1 predator of caterpillars. Its probably why I seldom have caterpillars in my garden. And if kids mess with them they will probably only do it once. Twice if they are learning challenged.

 

[XxDetrimentalxX]

Added some native unidentified seed pods to my native hill. I collect natives. I also use them to feed my baby Desert Tortoises. Also weeded, added some edibles like Pansies, Dill, Peppers, 'Simson Elite' Lettuce, Curry Plant, 'Lemon' Thyme, Sorrel, Sugar Snap Peas, and added more Buckwheat to my native hill. Also attempted to remove the Natal Plum, which ended up as me going to the E.R because I decided to go bare foot.

 

[Sean Regan]

Nothing today, as it was golf this morning, I picked up a couple of bags of kibbled nuts for "Cyril the squirrel" from Wilko's on the way home. You have to get what you want and then some, as their stock availabilty is often poor and particularly on pet stuff.
The cheap hedgehog pellets I bought from Wilko's on Tuesday that I left in a dish outside 'arry's "place in the country" and for the hedgehog that comes into the front garden, had both been eaten.

I need to to get shot of all the catkins on the lawn that have blown off next door's "unsocially tall" trees, but that can wait until tomorrow.

Nothing on the camera last night as for some reason it didn't record anything not even me. It may be that I didn't have the SD card properly engaged or I might have left some grease from my hands on it. I've given the contacts a wipe over witth switch cleaner and I've rearranged the rose pots, so the camera has a better field of vision.

 

[Sean Regan]

Not a lot.
Mowed the back lawn then used the vac to get what catkins from next door's trees were left.

Sometimes grass seed you spread refuses to grow. So for patching very small areas, I put some in with a soil and compost mix in an ice cream tub and some water, shut the lid and put it on the windowsill of the shed. A week later I've got this.

I'll let it "grow on," then use it for patching.

I played 24 "B sides" on one of my jukeboxes whilst I was in the garden. It's a "necessary" maintrenance exercise now and again so that part of the mechanism that selects them gets some use.

Just did a tour of "inspection." As well as our little Acer palmatum Taylor suffering from the frost so did the buds on our smallest wistera, first time this has happened. There are a few buds which will flower.

Same with our Stella cherry, I won't bother to put a net over it this year as there will be only a few cherries.

But some old favourites never let you down. This is the first rhodo to flower. The lawns still a mess in a few places. Hard for it to grow under overhanging foliage.

Both the established acer palmatums are in full leaf.

I need to get some grey paint on the way home from golf tomorrow, to "tart up" the pagoda roofs. It's looking a bit "abandoned."

Using the word "abandoned" reminded me of this.

 

[Logan]

Started to get the toilet roll tubes ready to sow the wallflower seeds in,300 so far.

 

[Sean Regan]

Not a day to be giving the garden more than "a coat of looking at" from the French windows. as it's raining. The fountain and bird bath are full to overflowing.

"Cyril the Squirrel," was probably here at half-five as usual, as his kibbled nut food tray in the rose pot I filled last night, is empty. The blue "umbrella" in a stick I made from the bottom of a plastic waste paper bin keeps it dry. Likewise, the ground feeder I made from stuff I found in the garage that only small birds can access, is half empty.


'arry has done his bit, by piling up his empty cat food and hedgehog pellet dishes again, but left his water bowl in its usual corner.

I may have a wander down to the tea-house this afternoon and take the records out of my jukeboxes and give them a clean as I intended. It's a boring job, but there will be rugby on the TV in there. My camera makes the screen look very "blue," but in reality it's not. It's a 32" Panasonic Viera HD TV, (it got "relegated" when I bought a bigger Sony android for the front room).

The picture is perfect, thanks to this aerial in the void in the roof space which I've used for different TVs in there over the years, as they got replaced in the house.

At one time this was a skylight, but it made it hotter in there in the summer, so I felted it over. It all looks a bit "tired," up there, but it's just a glorified shed that's now 34 years old. It has always stayed perfectly dry inside.

The bit of triangular shaped wood is one of a pair attached to the skylight, so when I raise the front and put in this "ventilator" made from a bit of 3" X 2" and two halves of an old dishwasher cutlery tray are there to stop any bird or whatever getting in when it's open during the warmer months. I usually also open one door during the daytime if i's hot.

I put in the fan when we had fox cubs under the floor, as I didn't want them getting inside if I left the door open which they would.

I've not used it since they left.

The ventilator looks better from the outside.

 

[Logan]

It's raining today so I'm washing my hair instead of gardening.

 

[Sean Regan]

I decided to attempt to repair the bowl of our original birdbath. I replaced it a few months ago as the frost had caused it to "blow out," a bit of the underside of the bowl and it developed some hairline cracks.

I needed to mask off the decoration on the rim with masking tape. Why can't they make this stuff so it doesn't tear as you try to pull it off the roll? Everything seems to made down to a price.

I needed a flat base on which to set the bowl, I used a surplus wardrobe shelf, with a bin bag to protect it, on the bench in the shed.

I used a strip of cardboard taped around the rim to act as shuttering.

I've just used a sand and cement mortar mix with added latex plasticiser and yellow dye.

I made the mix the consistency slightly damper than "sandcastle mix."

I'll leave it a couple of days, then smooth it all off with some coarse sandpaper or a file.
Much like my Japanese lanterns I made over thirty years ago, this birdbath will have the same construction, a centre core of fine concrete mix and an outer skin of mortar.
If it holds water, I'll site it on the corner of the small patio. Hopefully the woodpigeons which visit the main patio, at which my wife throws magazines at the French windows to scare them off, will use this in its new position.

 

[Meadowlark]

One of my favorite garden dishes, especially after a hard winter is peas and potatoes. Sugar snap peas make a great companion plant with potatoes and seem to enhance production of both.

Made the old fashioned way that's a meal I look forward to every year in May. Green beans and new potatoes is also very tasty combo but not as good as peas and potatoes flavored with fresh 1015 onions