What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

There's golf, football,cycling and an awful lot of tennis on TV today, so the garden will get no attention at all, apart from some watering late on.
I'm presently watching the tennis
As is the case at Roland Garros, as they are mostly on the screen, the ball kids are dressed by Lacost. They are always stylish and have obviously had some money spent on them. Unlike those at Wimbledon where they sometimes resemble what kids might have worn in a 1930s children's home.

 

[Black_Thumb]

I added some root stimulator to our raspberry plants yesterday morning, but then it started raining and hasn't stopped since. It's supposed to rain all night and tomorrow as well. So, we decided to finish the chicken coop in the rain. We finished it last night and tomorrow we will be getting our chickens! We are very excited!! Here are some photos of the coop.

 

[pepper]

I added some root stimulator to our raspberry plants yesterday morning, but then it started raining and hasn't stopped since. It's supposed to rain all night and tomorrow as well. So, we decided to finish the chicken coop in the rain. We finished it last night and tomorrow we will be getting our chickens! We are very excited!! Here are some photos of the coop.

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I love the squatch lol

 

[Sean Regan]

Just a bit of watering.

 

[lifegardener]

Did a bit today, when I came home from golf, as I'll be too busy tomorrow with shopping and the car going in to have the air-con re-gassed in the afternoon. It's working, cold enough, but I can't have "uncomfortably cold" any more. I guess after 18 years it deserves a re-gas, but there'd Honda reliability for you,
Did you know you're s'posed to run your air-con for half an hour each week during the winter? "Preventative maintenance." It'll say so in your car's handbook.

Did a bit of tidying up at the bottom of the garden. Then gave the roses a tonic spray. Mowed the back lawn and vacced up lots of dead wisteria blossom.
They are nearing the end of their flowering season.
The white one has done us proud. It's not cascaded as well this year the extreme cold in February killed off the end of a lot of long branches.

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Our two tree azaleas are fully out now. I'll wire them again in the autumn to make them more ball-shaped. I don't want them spreading out more.


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A lot of roses are coming out now on the two patios, but as you can see the azaleas on the left are on their way out.


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Very nice. Especially the draping wisteria.

 

[Sean Regan]

Nothing today, for the most part I've had my feet up watching the tennis on TV.

The downside of wisterias is that there's always blooms to vac up for a few weeks. I'll attend to these tomorrow...or Thursday.

There's a lot more to come down.

Decided that the two peace lilies in the hanging baskets in the hall were past their best so I've replaced them with a couple of Dipladenias.

Here's an example off, t'internet.

The idea is for them to grow up the support chains.
The problem is there is very little light, just what gets through the frosted glass of the side window.
I hope they thrive or I'm thirty quid out. But it's worth the chance.

 

[Meadowlark]

Corn is tasseling now, and it is time to protect it from the corn ear worm. I use mineral oil and BT in a 20 to 1 ratio applied with medicine dropper right to the tassels. It offers a very effective control of the ear worms which otherwise can significantly damage the harvest.

 

[pepper]

Discovered I've been eating far too much fast food since covid ended. My energy level is not what it was a year or two ago. Aside from that I moved a bunch of compost, tilled it in and ordered 5 new rain/compost barrels. Cut the lawn and cut up some brush. Early supper then I will water the plants and call it a day.

 

[Black_Thumb]

I love the squatch lol

My 93-year old dad lives with us and he believes in that nonsense. So, for his birthday last March, my wife and I built this "squatch." We put it outside the window of our coffee bar where we knew he would see it first thing in the morning. Well, he had such tunnel vision for his morning coffee that he missed it completely. He finally saw it a little later on in the morning staring in the window at him. LOL We also made a sign that squatch was holding that said, "Happy 93rd Birthday."

 

[Sean Regan]

I seem to go for days when nothing needs doing until days like today when I noticed that there's a lot to be done.
This was our wisteria between the shed and the summerhouse, a week ago, the blooms were fading and dropping their petals.

So I got into it today, pruning the spines of the dead blooms.

A lot of petals!

A case of sweeping and vaccing them up. Then hoeing in and giving the bed a good water so the wind doesn't blow them out of the bed.

All done!

Dug some more grass out of the rockery.

Dead-headed the roses.

and two rhodos, (the ones with no blooms). There will be another next week.

Two late flowerers. The tortoise shell one is really far too big for this garden, (see previous photo) I removed a few lower branches some years ago as they were spreading too far over the lawn. It has a wire round it to prevent further growth in that direction. Really, it wants a drastic prune, but I'm not sure it would survive.

Our two £7.99 purple rhodos from Aldi two years ago.

The lawn is now doing well, I've set my mower a bit higher as we're moving into the warmer weather, but it will get a cut tomorrow.

This sambucas is a bit lopsided, but it doesn't notice from the top of the garden.

Cleared both patios of wisteria blooms with my vac. But they will need doing again in a couple of days time.

 

[Black_Thumb]

I pulled a bunch of weeds out of the lawn while my wife was weeding an area with blackberries, raspberries, as well as some other colorful flowers. We let it get out of control because it rained for several days. I have some Tiger Lillies that seem like they are about to bust open!! They are so very beautiful!!

Our chard, lettuce, tomatoes, and squash are growing very, very well! We didn't do anything to amend the soil this spring, either. We did amend it last year and that seems to have been sufficient to foster some great growth this year as well.

I think next up is to get lime for my yard and put that down. My soil is almost exclusively hard compacted clay and lime is supposed to help with that.

 

[YumYum]

I think next up is to get lime for my yard and put that down. My soil is almost exclusively hard compacted clay and lime is supposed to help with that.

Won't help soften clay or break it up. It will add calcium and magnesium and raise the pH of the soil in due time.

 

[Sean Regan]

Just some watering today.

 

[Black_Thumb]

Mostly scratching my head today. I've put down three "installments" of weed killer over the last eight months. All three of them are supposed to combat clover. As I look around, I'd say that "weed killer" was more like clover fertilizer. I'm going to stop with the store-bought crap and go straight to commercial products for my lawn care. This is ridiculous. I have MORE weeds now than when I started these weed killing and fertilizing regimens. I have clover, creeping charlie, crabgrass, plantain, prickly lettuce, wild violets, Bermuda grass, and about three other types of weeds. This is totally unacceptable. I've wasted thousands of dollars on weed killer and fertilizer only to have it worse than ever. It costs a lot of money for me to buy fertilizer and weed killer for my yard. I don't mind spending the money, but not when it's not going to do what it says it is supposed to.

I did manage to install my chicken coop security camera. I have a couple of other security lights to install as well, and that will take care of the chickens. I am also going to install a miniature camera in the nesting area to capture who is laying which color eggs.

 

[big rockpile]

Put Shade Cloth on our Greenhouse. Put couple Fans in looking better.

Been watering need to do a bunch more.

big rockpile