What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

Not doing much today, as I'm watching the tennis. Though I have started on 'arrys winter house. I'n glueing a thick piece of polystyrene to the base to give it a bit of insulation. I've some left-over polymer roofing felt from when I changed that on the shed. I'll staple some to the sides for more protection and insulation tomorrow.
I won't be changing the houses over until September, it'll give the smell of glue and roofing felt time to dissipate a bit.
I don't like handling him, but in the exchange I'll take the opportunity to attempt to determine the sex, if it'll let me.

Last night he turned up at around 9.00 pm. ate some of his dinner, than ten minutes later went back to bed! Probably because it was light.

But he was on patrol down at the bottom of the garden around 11.00pm.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Cracked it! hung a bird feeder with seed for small birds from the bird table, a squirrel stated pinching them. Then the sister-in-law gave us a feeder with a sprung outside that drops under the weight of a squirrel keeping him out. Then the jackdaws discovered it, they are too big to perch on it, but they discovered that by flying up into it they could knock the seed out, six of them can empty it in ten minutes or so. Next I hung some wires under it, they didn't like that and it took them some time before they figured they could fly down from above, back to square one.
Then the other day I came across a shallow box I had made out of aviary wire to put over a seed bed, pegged it down under the bird table and Presto! They could still knock the seed out but couldn't reach it where it fell, after quite a short time they gave up!
I was thinking I would get some large hole chicken wire so the little birds still had access.Then this morning I saw Mrs Blackbird creep in under the side where it didn't quite touch the ground, I expect the sparrows and other small birds will soon learn it is okay and not a trap, there is always some spillage, and some prefer ground feeding.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Went over the grass with the electric rake, and then the mower. It is not worth using the box on the rake, it has such a small capacity one spends the whole time emptying it, I got two full boxes of grass with the mower. In the afternoon I took on the 'leylandi' at the front. It is sort of bullet shaped and getting on for fifteen foot tall. The missus had trimmed the bottom half once, but it was growing straight out at the top. I tied half an extendable ladder to it and got up there and took the center out. Then I cut it up to about about seven foot from the ground and cleared up. It still has a fuzzy haircut, but I'll get round to that. Then I went and watered the greenhouse and generally put stuff away before tea while the missus picked a pudding basin full of strawberries.

 

[Amateur Gardener]

Pruning the roses. Whacking the weeds.

 

[Sean Regan]

I tarted up 'arry's "winter palace."
It's now got roofing felt on all four sides

Plus a 1" thick piece of polystyrene stuck to the base for insulation.
There will still be a gap between the base and the paving slab it sits on.

There's a bigger roof I made which just fits over the existing one to give more protection from rain at the front. It slopes slightly front to back and left to right. At the moment it's protecting his summer house.

I'll put this house away until September.

 

[Sean Regan]

Not a lot. Gave everything a good water. I'll probably get into it tomorrow afternoon after doing the week's shop.
This is our euonymus behind the rockery on the side fence, earlier in the year I pruned it back as it was overhanging the rockery and depriving the phlox of some sun. I had to use wire to rearrange the branches to fill in the gaps.

Well hidden has been an immitation robin's nest we bought years ago, just like this, but never occupied.

Since the prune, it's been much more exposed. As I walked past it with my hose in hand this evening "something" flew out. It was quite small. So it could have been a robin. We often see "Rocky" on the patio, he's the bravest of all the birds.
I looked from a distance and the left half beyond the entrance seemed to be well blocked up with stuff.

I took this photo on zoom from the other side of the pergola balustrade, as I did the first one, so as not to disturb it.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

At our previous house there was a brick shed that I think was once a privy. It had a pillar to one side of the door and the robin used to nest on the top of the pillar.

 

[Sean Regan]

Spent some time on the front garden. Reduced the height of a viburnum which was starting to touch the underside of the acer tree.
Did a bit of hoeing and then cut the grass. Gave the drive a dose of blower vaccing.

 

[Sean Regan]

Did nothing today as it was golf in the morning and I'm now watching the tennis at Queens.
My rack of screwdrivers has arrived from Aldi. Fits nicely in the corner of my workbench in the garage. There's even a plastic dust cover for it. Twenty-five pounds well spent.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Need to spend at least 2 hours digging out the biggest mistake I ever made with plants, it goes in the trash can. The plant is nice, just in the wrong spot. Every year I am working on getting it out, its nuts. Then moving a nice sweet plant to somewhere. and a few hosta's need moving.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

As I walked past it with my hose in hand this evening "something" flew out. It was quite small. So it could have been a robin.

Mine quite often comes down when I am hoeing, or disturbing things generally. I have noticed he has quite a loud wing beat for such a little bird, it's quite distinctive and often the first inkling I have that he is there.

 

[Black_Thumb]

I've been absent for several days as we've been putting a new deck on the back of the house. Yesterday and today, my lovely bride and I were pulling weeds, roto-tilling an area that was full of weeds, rocks, and roots. There was also a blackberry bush in there but we just decided to till the whole mess and start over. It's 94 degrees with 80+% humidity today (and most of the week), so I'm sure we've sweated off five pounds each in two days. This photo shows some of the roots sticking out. Most of them have already been pulled.

Some more flowers appeared that we weren't aware were in the yard. Photos below. We are also very pleased that our cucumber plants are doing so well. They are growing like wildfire and we're anxious to harvest them. My carrot plants are quite large above ground but tiny underground. I'm not sure why I have so much trouble getting carrots to grow. I have never been able to get them to grow. I think I have a picture of a couple of the cucumbers to share as well.

This is just two cucumber plants in one of our raised beds. There are about eight more in the raised beds in the back of the yard.

This evening, I believe we're going to try planting some flowers where we were tilling this morning. It depends. There is rain in the forecast, but the weathermen here are about as reliable as our U.S. economy. It's the only job I know of where one can be wrong all the time and still keep their job and get well-paid. Ridiculous. If the rain holds off, we'll probably try planting.

Oh, and we also had a visitor this morning. I found that they have dug a hole in my yard and there are at least four little baby bunnies in the hole. I was very careful not to run over the hole while mowing the grass on Tuesday. I just hope they move on soon so I can finish mowing the lawn in that spot.

Have a great day, friends!!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Regarding the robin Sean and I were talking about he is Erithacus rubecula, a small insectivore in the flycatcher family. When I wrote a piece about robins and put it up on a writing forum I quickly became aware that Englishmen have traveled all over the world and called birds with red breasts 'A robin'. The American 'robin', for example, is in the thrush family.
The British robin is generally friendly to humans, but just over the channel in France the same bird is shy of humans, and they can migrate and it be literally the same bird, but the French are likely to fire guns at small birds. They tame quite easily, and remember people, and have one of the best songs in the garden.

 

[Sean Regan]

Didn't do much yesterday as it was too warm. Spent some time in the garage going through all the stuff I had in cupboards, drawers and on shelves, with intention of chucking out stuff I would never use. Didn't find much. But I did find things I'd forgotten I had, "which might come in useful."
I might dead-head the last rhodo this evening.
Two items I'd ordered from eBay arrived this morning a new "Arrow" staple gun. I'd been struggling with a cheap one I bought ten years ago when I was attaching the roofing felt to 'arry's winter house. £32 well spent.
I remembered Arrow staplers from when I managed a departmental store in the seventies. Each window dresser had their own, they were very reliable machines as they got a lot of use. I often borrowed one to use at home. This was pretty much the same model. I don't know when I'll next need it, but I like to be "prepared."
I also bought a new cutting head for my twenty year-old Dahle paper trimmer from a small stationery supplier.
I'd seen some at silly prices. This was advertised at £6 but I got it for £4, might have been as they only had the one.
Dahle list them at £10.99.
It took only seconds to swop over.

 

[Sean Regan]

Went into the garden this afternoon to give the acer palmatums and Taylor a mist spray with the hose. On really hot days, the leaves can burn otherwise.