What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

I've sorted out the problem with the many starlings eating all the peanut butter. A jar was only lasting a week.
I noticed as the jar got less full, the starlings were having difficulty getting at it as they needed to flap their wings whilst standing on the feeders little perch. Eventually, as the quantity reduced, only the small birds could feed from it as they could get inside the jar.
When it was finally empty, I washed it out and packed peanut butter in the bottom of the jar to a depth of about half an inch. None on the sides as there is usually. Now the small birds have it to themselves.

 

[Meadowlark]

Very clever. We have big time problems with starlings at the feeders.

 

[Sean Regan]

Very clever. We have big time problems with starlings at the feeders.

Thanks for that.
Here's proof of the success of my "ploy."
Here's a Blue Tit emerging from the jar after getting at the peanut butter.
They are there so frequently I suspect they may have young.

 

[Chuck]

I picked the first pickling cucumbers of the season and picked a few leaves of Tronchuda for dinner tonight.

 

[Meadowlark]

Creamed peas and new potatoes from the garden, pickled okra from last year's crop, and grass fed roast beef from Meadowlark Ranch...just does not get any better.

 

[Chuck]

Creamed peas and new potatoes from the garden, pickled okra from last year's crop, and grass fed roast beef from Meadowlark Ranch...just does not get any better.

View attachment 79604

It just don't get much better than that.

 

[DirtMechanic]

The tomatoes have first flower, blueberries and black berries are soon to ripen.

 

[Diana77]

We went to Lowes today and bought some lavender and some Impatiens. I understand the Impatiens only need a few hours of direct sunlight in the morning so this is perfect for them. But the lavender will only get the same. Is there any chance that the lavender will do well in this set up? I really wanted some lavender. I also plan to buy some lemongrass in the near future. Lowes didn't have any today.

 

[Logan]

Sowing some of the wallflower seeds, I covered them with vermiculite to help them come up. I'll put cling film over them so they won't dry out, but yesterday it rained so much that the water got into one of the trays and flooded it, I'm not sure if the seeds will be any good now.

 

[Sean Regan]

Finished off repairing the fountain.

Removed the cardboard shuttering.

Tidied it up with a file.

None of this can be seen, but I like it to be reasonable looking.

Done and dusted and holding water.

 

[Sean Regan]

It was a golf day so nothing apart from having a look round to see what needs doing tomorrow.

Nothing in the front garden. Just got to wait for the lawn to recover.

The "lollypop" tree is at its best. one rhodo is out, another to come

and our azalea "hedge" is nearly there.

I prune uit back a bit later in the year as it encroaches on the pavement, well it was, but it's tarmac now. The council removed all the paving slabs two years ago as people who park their cars with two wheels up on the kerb were constantly damaging it.

I need to get into the rockery to weed out bits of grass from the phlox.

The bit to the right of the fountain really thrives in three inches of soil as the concrete collar of the old koi pool is still under it, but more grass in there.

This little tree at the bottom of the garden needs a bit of a prune. I do it through the year, as it keeps chucking out new growth.

There's a bit of weeding to do here and there and there's some grass from next door's that always creeps under the concrete base panels of the fence, so I'll take a hoe to it. But really I'll only looking for things to do.
I'll probably steam clean the vinyl on the tea-house floor. It has its own machine, one my wife was going to chuck out as she bought a better one for the kitchen.

 

[XxDetrimentalxX]

Picked some some Hibiscus for my Tortoises and Lizard.

 

[Sean Regan]

I removed a hebe on the rockery, it was getting too big and didn't "look right" in that position.

It looks better without it, I just spread out the phlox to fill the gap.

There was nowhere else to put it, so it went in a pot and was added to, "the alley of shame." Plants that are out of favour that I won't bin are put along the side fence of our drive.

We try to discourage the wood pigeons that visit our garden, there's about half a dozen in the vicinity, but we usually only see a couple of them at a time. It's the mess they make every year that annoys me.

Each year, they try to nest in this tree in the front garden once it gets into full leaf, as it is today.

So it's a case of checking it daily. I have to shake it to get them to move as they spend a lot of time in it before building a nest.
I checked it last night and had to chase one off. I checked it again at lunchtime and one was sitting on the scruffy nest it had built this morning. I used my telescopic pruner to chase it off and rip out the nest. They won't be back this year, they'll go elsewhere.

 

[marlingardener]

I harvested broccoli heads and dead-headed the Marie Pavie rose. It has been so rainy here that the garden is getting ahead of me!

 

[Logan]

Did a lot of weeding in the back garden border where the blackberries and black currants are, then planted 12 sage plants there.