What did you do in your garden today?

[Sheal]

I'm also wondering how long it normally takes for weed and feed to work on the lawn.

Assuming it works the same in America as it does in Britain, it will take two to six weeks.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I cut a sheet of corrugated plastic in half with a junior hacksaw and started on assembling my makeshift greenhouse. It will take a while, there is so much else to do, but it doesn't matter, I have things in pots and there is plenty of room in the other greenhouse until things grow. Planted some leek seed. Broke up a pallet for the planks, I'll edge a bit of vegetable bed with them. Uncovered the french beans in the greenhouse, they were in a bubble wrap bag something came from Amazon in. Spread some 'Growmore' and hoed it in.
It was too hot to get a wriggle on, nice.

 

[Black_Thumb]

It rained overnight so I took advantage of the moist and workable soil by raking the top two to three inches of areas in the yard that are just dirt and then seeded it. My wife put down some more edging and

mulch as well. I also raked along the fence line and seeded that.

 

[Sean Regan]

My wife put down some more edging.

I disliked "edging." It was always a pain, as it was hard to keep the borders straight and avoid "border creep." and I didn't like the way I had to create one under features. Like this.

So fifteen years ago I bought a lot of small rectangular block paving bricks from B&Q and created edging out of these.
I dug down verticallty at the edge of the lawn about six inches and created a trough and lined it with about three inches of hardcore then set the bricks in damp concrete mix, so that they were level with the lawn. It's easy to get them level when the concrete is only damp. You just need a straight edge across three bricks and tamp down any that aren't level. I did both lawns in half a day. Then pointed them up the following day. I created a slope of the concrete mix down to the soil/hardcore from half way up each brick on the border side, to make it stronger. They've not moved since.

They were "in your face" for a few weeks until they weathered. Then you didn't really notice them. I can run my Flymo over them so "edging" was elimated.

I also did the front lawn.

The edging runs the full length of the lawn.

I took these today.

The other side of the lawn meets a crazy York stone path. So just a case of running a strimmer now and again, down the edge where they meet.

The lawn is slowly recovering, but it's the worst it has looked in decades at this time of the year.

 

[Black_Thumb]

My riding lawnmower clears this cheap edging with no problems, so I don't have any concern there. My tractor has a 54" deck and it extends beyond the wheels. That way, the wheels don't run over the edging and the grass gets cut just fine. At some point, we may do something more elaborate but it works for now. I want to spend more time trying to get my lawn cleaned of weeds and grubs. The previous owners never did anything to take care of the lawn except to cut it and so now it's overrun with clover, dandelions, wild violets, and a few other things of which I have no clue how to identify. I'm ordering some beneficial nematodes and will put that down as well. I don't want a yard that is "green" but the green is mostly weeds. I hate that.

I love how you did the brickwork around the various trees, shrubs, and such! That looks superb! If I can get my lawn looking good over the next couple of years, I'll probably do something like that. It really looks great!! Thanks for sharing those photos!!

 

[Sean Regan]

My riding lawnmower clears this cheap edging with no problems, so I don't have any concern there. My tractor has a 54" deck and it extends beyond the wheels. That way, the wheels don't run over the edging and the grass gets cut just fine. At some point, we may do something more elaborate but it works for now. I want to spend more time trying to get my lawn cleaned of weeds and grubs. The previous owners never did anything to take care of the lawn except to cut it and so now it's overrun with clover, dandelions, wild violets, and a few other things of which I have no clue how to identify. I'm ordering some beneficial nematodes and will put that down as well. I don't want a yard that is "green" but the green is mostly weeds. I hate that.

I love how you did the brickwork around the various trees, shrubs, and such! That looks superb! If I can get my lawn looking good over the next couple of years, I'll probably do something like that. It really looks great!! Thanks for sharing those photos!!

Our garden is quite small, 85ft long, two thirds only 18ft wide, the last third about 30ft wide. So for power tools, I get by with a Flymo, a strimmer, a garden vac and a scarifier.

The problem I have with my lawn is shade. The grass doesn't like it.

At the bottom of the garden it's shaded by next door's big tree, our "bamboo forest" and the tea-house, by the two acer palmatums and all along the left-hand edge by the azaleas and rhodos. The sun starts at the front of the house then along the left-hand party fence and then round the back fence.

It's deceptive (intentional) so it looks bigger in photos than it actually is.

I get patches of moss where it's most shaded. I use iron sulphate to clear it and then rake it out. I've used my forty-year-old scarifier about thre weeks ago, but only had it on the middle of three settings.

As w're talking gardens and what's in 'em. I thought this might amuse.

 

[Black_Thumb]

That's hilarious!! LOL

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Sean, you are a man who knows where your edges are and will remain. I couldn't do that, I am forever making a bed a bit longer, or putting a curve in. Maybe one day when I grow up.

 

[Sean Regan]

Sean, you are a man who knows where your edges are and will remain. I couldn't do that, I am forever making a bed a bit longer, or putting a curve in. Maybe one day when I grow up.

My garden has evolved over time.

Fom this, in 1978 (the only photo I seem to be able to find) when I built this when half the garden was still devoted to veg with a cedar greenhouse which was here when we bought the house, in the bottom corner where our tea-house now stands.

Through this, 1985

Then this in 1986

To this, in 2019.

I think I've exhausted the posibilities and actually my need for change.

 

[Meadowlark]

Today, I created my 2022 garden compost pile by pushing up the leftovers from this winter's cattle feeding. It's a mixture of hay, manure, urine, and some topsoil. It started heating up within minutes of it being piled up. I'll turn it every couple of months or so and by this fall it will be some of the richest, most potent compost that money can't buy. Estimated volume at 1800 cu ft. That would fill a good many 2 cu ft bags typically sold in stores but far more valuable because I know exactly what's is in it.

 

[Black_Thumb]

Today, I created my 2022 garden compost pile by pushing up the leftovers from this winter's cattle feeding. It's a mixture of hay, manure, urine, and some topsoil. It started heating up within minutes of it being piled up. I'll turn it every couple of months or so and by this fall it will be some of the richest, most potent compost that money can't buy. Estimated volume at 1800 cu ft. That would fill a good many 2 cu ft bags typically sold in stores but far more valuable because I know exactly what's is in it.

View attachment 89018

Awesome!!

 

[Sean Regan]

Did a bit, took a few hours but had not a lot to show for it.

We bought this expensive bit of trellis from Bent's Garden Centre about fifteen years ago. It had been painted witrh a light brown (I won't call it preservative, I think it's just wood stain}. I would have painted with Dulux Woodsheen to match all the other woodwork in the garden, but my wife wanted to keep the original colour.

Fifteen years later and "the bottom fell off." Well the bottom bar had rotted away, so I replaced it with a bit of tanalised 3" X 2" then gave the lot a coat of Woodsheen. I managed to pull the new clematris away from it whilst I completed the work. It's a Cardinal Rouge.

There's a lot going on in this area. To the right is one of my trailcams, in its new location plus the "stop" to stop the garage side door swinging open and damaging it. There also a loop of cable I use to tie the door open when I'm in and out of the door. There's a porch light which passes through the trellis, (I'd put it there years before I bought the trellis).

To the left is the control for my two "pop up" lawn sprinklers.

Further left is a tap, for watering, there's also a connection for the hose on the back of the shed. I weould have done this with "speed-fit," but I did it in the middle of the Covid business when all the plumber merchants were closed. So I used a bit of hose pipe. I've a long piece of hose on the end of the tap. This is handy when filling watering cans if you've put a powder fertiliser in it. The hose, as it reaches the bottom of the can does all the mixing when you turn the tap on, no need to stir it.

Pleased with the number of blooms on my "cascading" wisterias on this pergola. They go blue, white, blue. Though the two blues are more advanced than the white this year.

Tidied up this "Amber" clematis on the fence between the corners of the house and garage. There was a lot of dead wood in it and the rest needed tying up. The fence could do with a coat of paint, I might do that next week, it was previously difficult to get at as there was a huge jasmine in the bed near the door, about eight foot tall in mid-summer, sometimes "I had to fight it to get through the door." But I've cut it right down and left one small branch which has shoots on it. So it'll be more controllable this year.

Gave everything a good water, the ceramic pots on the patios dry out very quickly.

 

[Black_Thumb]

Made some homemade week killer last night and sprayed a bunch of weeds. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain in the middle of the night, so I can only hope the weeds ingested some of my potion before the rain washed everything away.

 

[KGun12]

I WAS going to get started planting some of my baby plants but mother nature had other plans.

It's not like we are almost a month into spring or anything *cough*

 

[Genevieve]

Yep same here lol I'm just trying to keep my plants alive and growing in the greenhouse right now.