What did you do in your garden today?

[YumYum]

Hello, friends. I haven't posted in a long time because, well, it's winter, and I haven't done a lot to my yard/garden yet. We are currently building a chicken coop. We should be done with that within a week or so. I'm also going to be relocating at least two of my raised beds, and placing them at the back of my property because the soil there is rich and fertile soil that was trucked in from a riverbed some years ago. The rest of the yard is pretty much clay. Hate it.

We are going to be changing up our desired crops this year, so that we can use what we plant for our chickens as well. I think we are just going to start out with five chickens (for eggs), and then play it by ear as to whether or not we'll get more later.

Last year, we had great success with tomatoes, Romaine lettuce, and cucumbers, but everything else was a dismal failure. We are new to gardening, and so it's been challenging for us. That's my nice way of saying that we suck at gardening. We'll get it figured out one day.

Looking forward to doing some indoor planting soon!! Spring is just around the corner (or so they say).

Don't hate clay. It holds minerals but also too much water and it is something to build off of. Compost is your friend. I would rather hate sand or silt.

Gardening is something you learn from all the time. You only suck at gardening if you quit learning from it or think you know it all.

 

[Meadowlark]

Speaking of compost and fertilizer, I started my annual pile of residue today from feeding the cattle all winter. It made quite a heap. I'll let Nature heat it up and I'll stir/mix it up a few times over the next months and then it will be ready to go on the garden.

This stuff is better than BlackCow and all other commercial amendments because I know exactly what is in it. After Nature does its thing and I mix it up a few times, this will be the stuff garden dreams are made of...nothing better.

Together with the green manures/cover crops that I grow 365 days a year, garden soil just doesn't get any better.

 

[mikejohnson]

Today I planted and fertilized a new tree in my garden.

 

[Sean Regan]

Had a go at the bamboo forest at the bottom of the garden this afternoon. I do this every year, I end up with quite a few dead branches that could be used as canes, but I don't bother, it all goes in the green bin.
Some dead wood, a lot of dead leaves and moss in the bed.
It's mostly in shadow down here.

The grasses got a prune whether they liked it or not, they had a lot of dead leaves.

The bamboo looks a bit thin here, but the sun when it is setting always shines through it. It'll thicken up as we move into the warmer weather.
The pagoda needs a bit of a re-paint, I might do that later in the week.

There's no sign of 'arry. but there's a couple of cats that get picked up by the cameras a few nights each week.
I've swapped 'arry's house over. Better to put his "summer house" out when he's not there. He's now got a lot of fresh hay and some of his old stuff, so it won't smell strange. Assuming of course he'll put in an appearance within the next few weeks,

 

[Sean Regan]

Did a bit today, gave a lot of plants and pots a drop of liquid plant food. Fed the lawn.

Finished messing with the new troughs. The hebes have put on a bit of a spurt, so I repotted them into bigger pots. They were a bit root bound. Reduced them down to just two per trough. Put a block of wood under each saucer as they are still quite small.

The snowdrops are fully out now.

Assorted spring bulbs in this narrow bed are coming through. I think several of the hebes are dead. Probably left them for too long in pots before planting them out and the freeze got them. Both borders will be "knee deep" in bluebells, as they are each year.

Pleased with these primroses. There were twelve in a basket, given to my wife as a present two Christmases ago. I planted them out in January of last year in the long border and all have come out. Here's a few.

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I need to get some grass seed tomorrow for patching at the bottom end of the garden. I'll give it a go, but if it doesn't take in a couple of months, I'll get two or three rolls of turf.
I'll spend some time in the garden tomorrow, there's the clematis to tidy up and I might weed the rockery before the grass gets a hold again.

The dry hedgehog food I put under the teahouse last night has gone. But the two cats were around that corner of the building, they were picked up by one of the cameras. I don't know if they managed to get their heads under there, or whether 'arry had eaten it.
Anyway, I've put some more under there tonight, but further under where the cats can't possibly reach it. I've re-positioned the camera. If the food disappears, I'll know it wasn't the cats.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Strange, in contrast to Sean my snowdrops around the base of the old apple tree have been out for ages, but the primroses which are scattered all over this garden are only just showing the first one or two. Maybe Sean's are a cultivar, mine look self seeded on the whole, along the dge of hedges and creeping out into the lawn.
Finished off filling in that last trench, because I dug quite deep I have managed to rake out a lot of lumps of clay, something to deal with but I have simply raked them to one end for the moment and have a nice 8'x10' or so bed for my veg seeds that are sprouting on windowsills.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

My snowdrops also have been out for ages, have two large clumps, and a few wayward ones. I am still raking up leaves. Have not cut down the spent Annabells yet, thinking---we have to get snow then they will look neat with snow on them. But, lots of my early daffs are up and blooming, others showing green. Was warm yesterday, 72 degrees.

 

[aragulacloverclover]

Tilled my garden. Thinking of what to plant.

 

[Sean Regan]

Did a bit of shopping this morning.
Two bags of topsoil.
Grass seed.
Bag of cement
Two of yellow sand
1 gallon of plasticiser.

Scraped the dead moss away from two large patches on the lawn at the bottom of the garden and covered them with a top soil and grass seed mix.

I'm now ready to jet-wash the main patio tomorrow if the weather is OK.
I've now got what I need to repoint the flags where necessary on Sunday.

I checked the cameras this morning. The only activity was one of the cats had returned and was looking to see if it could get at the dry hedgehog food. It was unsuccessful as I'd moved it further underneath. It could only get its head in the small gap I'd left by arranging some house bricks behind the skirt.
What food I put there last night was still there this morning, so no hedgehog activity yet.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Took a lot of lumps of clay off the bed I have recently prepared. The larger ones were laid out on an 8'x2' half sheet of ply, and I filled four buckets with the smaller ones, which I stood in the greenhouse. When they have dried a bit I will chuck them in the next fire I have, or some of them. Then I added four or five bags of compost and worked them into the surface, I'll get some manure on it next. As I go about it I am planning in my head; peas down the bottom, carrot and beetroot up the top, maybe plant out the broad beans I have sprouting next to the peas to keep that bit legumes and parsnip and swede with the other roots.

Brought my amaryllis lilies in from the cold greenhouse.

 

[Sean Regan]

Got the Karcher out this morning and did some jet-washing.
Having to move all the pots to do it was the biggest pain, as they are heavy.
I'll do the pointing necessary tomorrow, when it has dried and if it doesn't rain.
There's a fair bit to do. Water gets between some of the stones and when it freezes, it blasts out the mortar.

This was easier. The concrete slabs aren't porous. The jet-wash also cleans out the moss between the slabs, I'll brush in some of the sand I bought yesterday when they've dried.
The path is still wet.

These pots and the troughs will have to stay here until the pointing has dried on the main patio. This patio and path will have to wait for attention, until stuff can go back on the main patio.

It's been quite mild today.

 

[Sean Regan]

Got the big patio pointed today. A fiddly job as I had to chisel out suspect bits of old mortar. Three hours on my hands and knees.
I had to get the amount of yellow dye added to the mortar mix right, in a couple of batches made in a bucket.
It's drying the right colour, the dark patches are where it's still wet.

I'll leave it until Tuesday before putting the pots back to give it time to go off. It's a golf day tomorrow, so i'd only have the afternoon.
All the glazed pots need a clean and I'll check the castors on the "pot movers," as sometimes they don't.
I'll brush in the sand on the second patio too. That'll be it for this week as I've golf again on Wednesday and possibly Friday and Thursday's shopping day.

 

[Neno Baylov]

I pruned the trees (pears, apples, peaches) and also the roses. I saved 4 roses, they threw them away, I planted them in the yard. Blooming roses from 2022.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

BURN BABY BURN THOSE LEAVES, WHITE BILLOWING SMOKE ENGULFING THE AFTERNOON SKY. BIG CHARD LUMPS OF BROWN LAID WASTE WITH JUST A FLICK OF A MATCH. BURN BABY BURN.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Started a new compost heap with the top of the old one. The rest will go on the garden if it is well rotted, or get buried if it is half rotten. Too cold to be out long.