What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

Somehow it seems unlikely, not that I know a likely cause, but it drew up enough to grow there. I would be inclined to wait and see what it does next year, did it flower last year on those parts? It is more exposed than the garden ones, which way does that wall face?

It's always been a bit of a wimp. It took eight years before it flowered, the first time and then there were only a few, just as it turns the corner of the house. It doesn't get much sun on the side of the house. But part of it is against the back wall and the end of the pergola where it does. It grows under the kitchen window then up to the end of the pergola. It has never flowered on that bit.
As I said, I'm going to have a think about what to do with it. There's no rush.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I think seven or eight years to flowering is pretty normal. It is not like it interferes with anything there, though I would be inclined to put a pot at the bottom of those drain pipes. Last house I wound a rope round the drain pipe to give a bit of grip and grew morning glories up it, improves the appearance of vertical black plastic no end

 

[Sean Regan]

I think seven or eight years to flowering is pretty normal. It is not like it interferes with anything there, though I would be inclined to put a pot at the bottom of those drain pipes. Last house I wound a rope round the drain pipe to give a bit of grip and grew morning glories up it, improves the appearance of vertical black plastic no end

It might be for some, but none of the others we have. In particular the white one we bought by the side of our garage flowered in the same year.

 

[YumYum]

Waitin on me potaters, onions, broccoli, and cabbage. Flea beetles and cabbage worms and cutworms are not bad this year for some reason, almost nil. Not even seen the white butterfly... yet.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Waitin on me potaters, onions, broccoli, and cabbage. Flea beetles and cabbage worms and cutworms are not bad this year for some reason, almost nil. Not even seen the white butterfly... yet.
View attachment 96082

Cold weather maybe cut some bug pressure. same over here. Good looking plants!

 

[Black_Thumb]

Worked on the Coop DeVille today (chicken coop, that is). I finished all of the fencing, set up my feeders to be mounted, trimmed off the large 4x4 beams, and my wife dug a trench around the perimeter. We will put wiring in the trench for burrowing predators and then cover it all with gravel. Gravel keeps the snakes out. I picked up fertilizer for my yard. I need to clean my broadcast spreader for this application. My tow-behind spreader needs some attention, so I'll have to walk through the application this time, but I don't mind.

I pulled a bunch of Bermuda grass from around and inside the raised beds. I hate that stuff. My wife also trimmed back all of the raspberry bushes. Our chard is growing out of control in one raised bed. LOL We had some in our salad last night. Home grown fruits and veggies are simply the BEST!! No chemicals. No preservatives. Just raw food, which is best!

My grass is growing VERY fast. I could cut it every two days, but I wait three. The longer clippings get mulched really well and help to self-fertilize the lawn.

The long white tubes inside the photo below are my homemade feeders made from large 4" PVC and a couple of elbows.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

That door and the feeders personalise it

I was sieving compost today, need always outpaces production still, and suddenly there was a small male slowworm in the bottom of the bucket.
I planted out half a dozen runner beans today. It is a bit early still, but they were some of the first I planted and getting big. I usually do a few of almost everything a bit early, usually the cold weather kills them , or leaves them sickly, but every so often it pays off. If there is a warm late Spring it cn mean getting fresh veg. a good couple of weeks early, if not it is only a few seeds and I can recycle to pot and dirt.
Cut and stacked some more wood, I am going to be doing that for a while.
Hoed some, and the missus came and weeded, she found a row of some sort of cabbage I planted, it was a while ago and I had given up on them a bit.
Picked some chard, growing it in buckets with the bottom third wood, three or four plants to a bucket; it seems to love it so far.
If I water the buckets 'til it runs through they are pretty good, but if I stand the buckets in a tray so the they stay in two or three inches of water for a while they seem much heavier when they drain. I think the wood gets sodden, and they seem to need watering less frequently.
My broad beans are setting seed nicely, some carrots and beetroot showing quite well, hoed the blackcurrants. The quince tree is in flower and looking lovely. It had been a bit neglected, but I have pruned it regularly and am starting to get a nice shape.

 

[Don Perry]

Everything started perking up, finally. Except for the super sweet watermelons. I'm still nursing those Maybe I can cover the raised bed with a clear plastic "tent". Your thoughts?

 

[Chuck]

Everything started perking up, finally. Except for the super sweet watermelons. I'm still nursing those Maybe I can cover the raised bed with a clear plastic "tent". Your thoughts?

Be patient. Freezing weather is over and the soil AND ambient temperatures will rise very soon. You will cause more damage with plastic than if just left alone.

 

[Don Perry]

Thanks, Chuck. All I need is a good man to show me the way! Its just a plant and I can still afford to buy another if I lose thus one.

 

[YumYum]

Its just a plant and I can still afford to buy another if I lose thus one.

Have you seen the price of Bonnie plants?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I sometimes use a sheet of glass held with three short bamboos to keep a cold wind off a plant overnight.
Cut carried and stacked wood, hoed, weeded seedlings, watered greenhouse, sorted compost; there will be more of this.
Made new bubble wrap discs to float on top of the water tanks and drown the mosquito larvae. The discs go up and down as the water is used and replaced, but over time they get gungy and sink in places, good time for new ones.

 

[Don Perry]

$5.38 for 4" plastic cups. I bought one "Charleston Grey" watermelons. There are 10 plants crowded in that cup. I'm going to separate then into half and half. Then add potting mix to fill the two cups. Give them a little time to adjust , then plant in 10 days or a couple of weeks. Soil needs to warm up some (66 deg).
I watered and put SEVEN on the potato plants. Corn is germinated & peeking up. Planted a few more onions.

 

[Sean Regan]

Just a tidy up today, a bit of weeding and mowing. But it took two hours.

The lawn has almost completely recovered. Mowing twice a week will keep it thickening up.

I gave the "hems" of the two acer palmatums a trim.

It needs quite a bit of wiring to keep this wisteria "tight" to the fence, but worth the effort.

My wife's favourite azalea and rhodo. They are very white.

The wisteria over the back of the house is losing its blooms. I'll be vacuuming them up for the next couple of weeks.

The white wisteria is nearly out.

 

[Sean Regan]

I took these photos just now it's just before 10.00pm.
It's the first time I've used my Lumix DMC LX-15 at night. I like the fact that you don't have to check whether it's "flash on or off" or "flash if it thinks it's needed," like my previous camera. With this you have to physically raise the flash light if you want to use it and I didn't.
The garden lights were more than enough illumination to see everything.
I rarely turn them on. If you ain't in the garden, there's no point. Though some neighbours do.

I'll try it again when it's darker. With previous cameras you could hardly see anything.