What did you do in your garden today?

[Black_Thumb]

Very hot here these last two weeks. Very little rain to speak of, so the grass is growing much slower. My edging is still a work in progress, as we've had guests staying with us for a couple of weeks, and another arriving tomorrow. Gearing up to put down some Tenacity on the yard in an attempt to get more control over the weed population. Crab grass has been growing like wildfire and Scott's Weed and Feed was useless against it.

I pulled two more cucumbers out of one of our raised beds. They are so delicious!!

My wife planted some more flowers. Photos to come later...

 

[Black_Thumb]

We received some much-needed rain today...FINALLY!!! My yard had its proverbial tongue hanging out in thirst. I tried to water as best I could, but it takes a long time to water the lawn effectively. We had some wonderful lightning and thunder all afternoon along with the heavy rain for a couple of hours, so everything got a good drink!!

I picked six cucumbers from one of the raised beds. The others weren't very big this morning around 9 AM. This afternoon, my wife went out there around 6 PM and they had grown so much today that she was able to pick another seven or eight of them. I didn't think they could grow so fast. As you can see from the photo below, our cucumber plant is going nuts. It's like something out of the Adam's Family. LOL It seems to almost double in size in just a day or two. I'm really surprised, given that the soil has so much clay in it.

We had some flowers bloom as well! I am trying my best to learn them all. I think the ones that bloomed are called Monrovias. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

It's like something out of the Adam's Family. LOL It seems to almost double in size in just a day or two. I'm really surprised, given that the soil has so much clay in it.

People are down on clay, but really it is great stuff. Those tiny particles hold water and nutrients really well. Mixed into soil it is a real asset. Haven't you noticed that when you dig down and find a football size chunk of clay in that dry, dry earth it will still be damp if you cut it with the spade? And I don't know how many times I have found a chunk of clay with a root right through the middle, plants can handle it so long as it is not all there is.

 

[Sean Regan]

Only spent a couple of hours in the garden today as I wanted to watch the tennis.
Changed the azalea in the pot by the front door for a rose from "the alley of shame." (those along the side fence of our drive you can see).

I've put the azalea on the patio where it will get more sun and thus aid its growth.

Got the ladder out and pruned off all the unwanted stringers from the wisterias on the pergolas. The one over the French windows always puts a lot of thick growth at the extreme right end, so I thined that out, so the left hand end will benefit.

Got up on the roof of the shed to prune off branches of next door's trees with my Barnel telescopic pruner, where they were hanging over it.

Did the same from the tea-house roof.

Just an observation. We often have trees that can overhang shed's etc., with felt roofs. It's important to check now and again that the tree's branches don't grow in such a way as they start to rub on the roof unnoticed, as this over time will wear a hole in the felt.


Gave this acer in the bed at the bottom of the garden, a severe prune as it was getting too big. Looks a bit thin at the moment but it'll soon put out more growth, it does so every year after pruning.

Went round everywhere with the garden vac.

Gave the main patio a scrub with hot soapy water around where the bird feeder and the hedgehog feeder are situated.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

watered, the situation is getting serious, almost all water butts empty and wall to wall sunshine forecast for the foreseeable future. I am going to have to pay for the stuff or watch plants die soon.
Started cutting the front hedge which is tall enough for a ladder, but not strong enough to support one. It is going to have to be steps for the top, awkward.
Took the wire netting cover off the strawberry patch, checked through, only two last ones. Fitted it over the raspberries.
Worked to improve a bit of flower bedthat was pretty awful, raked out a lot of clay lumps, sieved and dug in a couple of buckets of compost, some bone meal, and some crushed terracotta mixed with wood ash from burnt clay.

 

[Palladini]

Garden Update July 5th, 2020 - VidLii

Here is My Garden Update for July 5th, 2020

www.vidlii.com

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Went back to that front hedge, it is a complete mish-mash of all sorts of things, wild and ornamental, and shot through with bramble, ivy and briony, made it about the right shape and then pulled loads of that stuff and dead sticks out of it.
Filled the water butt with the hose and watered with the can, it's more targeted.

 

[Sheal]

watered, the situation is getting serious, almost all water butts empty and wall to wall sunshine forecast for the foreseeable future. I am going to have to pay for the stuff or watch plants die soon.

I wish I could say that Oliver. I'm still waiting for summer to start, if it's not already skipped to autumn.

 

[Black_Thumb]

I pulled out a bunch of crab grass, clover, and some other stuff of which I have no idea what it is. Picked more cucumbers. We have tons of them growing. We gave away two dozen in the last two days. We just can't give them away fast enough. LOL I looked at my carrots and I think I totally destroyed them again because I did it all wrong. I can never get carrots to grow right and it's frustrating.

Our tomatoes are starting to grow now! I don't like tomatoes at all, but I get excited just seeing something grow successfully for a change.

Thunderstorms in the forecast for the next several days. I sure hope we get some rain too because my lawn is thirsty.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I wish I could say that Oliver. I'm still waiting for summer to start, if it's not already skipped to autumn.

Looking at the map Scotland is way above me, could we run a pipe? Should be downhill all the way

 

[Sheal]

If you hit on location in my avatar box it will show you a map of the area I'm in.

I'd have to run the pipe from the local loch that feeds my house, it might take a while to come south though.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I pulled out a bunch of crab grass, clover, and some other stuff of which I have no idea what it is.

This I like, not "I don't know what it is, shall I grow it 'till it flowers? " but, "I didn't put it there, I don't want it there, it is a weed, pull it"

My lawn is getting all the water from the washing up bowl on the brown patches.

 

[Sean Regan]

Did quite a bit this afternoon, in between watching some of the two womens semi finals on the TV in the tea-house.

Tidied up the Mayleen clematis over the front door.
Mowed the front lawn.
Gave the drive a go over with my garden vac,
Weeded the long border in the back garden
Tidied several clematis.
Mowed the back lawn
Went over the beds and patios with the garden vac.
Treated a few spots of moss at the back of the lawn with iron sulphate.
Sprayed the roses with sulphur rose.
Watered every thing.
It looks no different than any other day, just tidier.
But it took me four hours, (including watching tennis and drinking three Busweisers).

I might get into the rockery (again!) tomorrow afternoon after playing golf in the morning and dig out the grass. But there will be the men's semi-final tomorrow to watch too.
"Novax" v Norrie.

I won't stint on water for the plants, I'd rather pay a bit more for water than have to replace any plants, it'll be cheaper.

 

[Sean Regan]

Not doing much today.

Gave the lawn a feed.

Fought my way into the azaleas in the bed on the side of the patio, to remove some convulvulus that had grown through the fence from next door and was tangled up with a clematis.



These azaleas give a lot of shade for 'arry the hedgehog's house. It must get very warm in there in hot weather. This is his "summer house" as I drilled ventilation holes in one side just under the roof. He has a "winter house" with insulation, I'll change them over in September, before he hibernates.

I gave his patio a sweep this morning as he'd chucked out some unwanted hay.


The wire fence is to stop cats getting in there and pouncing on the birds feeding at the ground feeder on the patio. There are two gaps in the fence wide enough for him to get through but not a cat.







He has a regular routine. He comes out of his house about 9.00 pm and checks his feeding station to make sure his chicken dinner and pellets are there. He eats some of his chicken, then goes back to bed. We think he's just checking that the food is there so has no need "to go shopping." He then comes back to feed several times in the night.


Trail cam photo.

 

[Lmbauer2017]

Where to begin...I mowed the yard today. That took about two hours. Then I had to tinker with my power edger. It was being stubborn and wouldn't start. I finally got it started and began edging my driveway. I ran out of gas twice, and I'm not even done with half of the back driveway yet. It is about 90 degrees today with very high humidity, so after edging for two hours, I called it quits and will resume in the morning when it's cooler.

I put out two sprinklers in the front yard because I have a large dead spot developing, and I have no idea what is causing it. We haven't had much rain, so it might just be some "weak" grass. What I really need is a long and steady rain to saturate the ground, but the rain keeps missing us.

View attachment 91183

View attachment 91184

We just finished building our new deck, and so I tried to clean up around that and rescue the flowers that got buried in concrete. I think they are cannas. I need to clean up a bunch more little pieces of concrete and get some water on that grass. You can see how much damage there is to the grass in the picture above of the edger. It got pretty trashed.

Here are a couple quick shots of the deck. We are excited to finally be done with it! I built a 3-tier plant holder for my bride, so she'll probably put that on the deck and start populating it with flower pots. You can still see the concrete chunks in the grass that I need to clean up too. I should get it all done this week.

View attachment 91190

View attachment 91189

That deck is glorious! Are they composite boards? I built a 8x8'-ish deck last year and really wanted that color, but decided to go with a darker brown trex that they had in stock. I'm so happy to see that someone else used that awesome grey color though! Congratulations!

This is half of the backyard I have available haha. The deck completely changed the vibe of the area and made us enjoy being out there now!