What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

More watering, including the lawn.

I also did a bit of lawn "edging."


I usually just run my Flymo over the bricks on the left-hand side and the strimmer down the line between the lawn and the path on the right.
But a couple of times a year I run a kitchen knife along between the bricks and the lawn to remove any grass that's trying to creep over the bricks. It's OK when it creeps a bit over the path as the strimmer cuts it back, but
It only takes fifteen minutes.
I won't use the strimmer on the bricks as I'd make a hash of it.

 

[Sean Regan]

Pruned this viburnum in the front garden. I don't like it getting too tall or "bullying" the acers and rhodos. It would if I allowed it and it would prevent their growth.

Dead-headed another rhodo.

Gave this acer a haircut. Took about four or five inches off it all the way round with garden shears. It'd be huge by now if I didn't do it at least twice a year.

Gave all three acers a mist spray at 3.00pm. They need it when it's hot, otherwise some of the leaves can go a bit "crispy."
Everything will get another water tonight.

Vacced up more wisteria blossom.


Given my other hobbies, I'm wondering how I coped with looking after a koi pool as well as all his.

 

[big rockpile]

Watered, repotted plants and moved some outside.

big rockpile

 

[Black_Thumb]

Mowed my lawn, mowed half of the neighbor's lawn (about two acres), trimmed off some chard and lettuce for dinner salad, pulled some more Bermuda grass out of one of the raised beds, adding some more pine chips in the chicken coop (Henitentiary), watered tomatoes, squash, raspberries, blackberries, watermelons, and some of the flower beds.

The expansion valve on my heat pump decided to break today, which means the drip tray filled up and leaked in the basement. That's going to be several hundred dollars to fix. Such is life. Take it as it comes.

 

[YumYum]

Mowed my lawn, mowed half of the neighbor's lawn (about two acres), trimmed off some chard and lettuce for dinner salad, pulled some more Bermuda grass out of one of the raised beds, adding some more pine chips in the chicken coop (Henitentiary), watered tomatoes, squash, raspberries, blackberries, watermelons, and some of the flower beds.

The expansion valve on my heat pump decided to break today, which means the drip tray filled up and leaked in the basement. That's going to be several hundred dollars to fix. Such is life. Take it as it comes.

Are you sure the line going from the drip tray to outside isn't clogged? That happens alot. Take an air tank and blow it out.

 

[Sean Regan]

Just a bit of dead-heading of the roses today.
They've put on a reasonable show but I think that very cold spell in February put them back a bit. Three older ones look very sorry for themselves, one on this patio and two I've put behind the shed a bit out of sight.

They all have huge root clumps.

They may be replaced if they don't recover, I'll get some bare root ones from David Austin at the end of the year.

I've opened a file and taken photos of those in each pot, so I can decide if any need moving about or "relegating" to the side of the drive at the end of the year. Easier that way than writing down the names on the labels, those that still have them.

A few nice ones.

 

[Black_Thumb]

Are you sure the line going from the drip tray to outside isn't clogged? That happens alot. Take an air tank and blow it out.

It was clogged, but not completely. Further testing did confirm, however, that the expansion valve is shot. Fortunately, the pump is fine, so that's one less added expense in the repair. I also have a slow leak somewhere in the system. I just had a pound of Freon added last September, and it's already low again. So, after the expansion valve is replaced, further testing and troubleshooting will be required to find the leak.

 

[Black_Thumb]

Spent a long time last evening watering all the plants only to wake up to rain all day so far. It figures. No rain in the forecast, but rain all day so far nonetheless. What other job can you have where you're wrong all the time and still get paid quite well (besides being a politician, of course)?

I'm looking around the yard, contemplating where I'll plant some new Lily bulbs. The trees we planted last year are doing quite well so far, so that's a plus. They don't need much attention.

Pulled a bunch more Bermuda grass from the raised beds and our pollinator garden. That stuff is relentless.

Next up is edging my driveway in preparation for putting down now asphalt sealer.

 

[YumYum]

I went out and scouted for slugs and bugs....

in the dark.

 

[Black_Thumb]

Are you sure the line going from the drip tray to outside isn't clogged?

Not garden related, but just an update. Turns out the expansion valve is shot, AND my coil is bad. This is going to run into the thousands of dollars to fix. The coil has a hole in it and the Freon alarm is off the charts. Fun times!!

 

[Sean Regan]

I was going to strip some of the two foot long, dying and dead blooms from this wisteria.

I was using a step stool so I wasn't constantly looking up to do it. I got a couple of feet into it from the far end, when I heard a flutter and a blackbird flew away from a nest she'd built in the branches, close to the left-hand main beam. I noticed there were eggs in the nest.
So I called it a day and went indoors. I came back half an hour later and she was back on the nest. The eggs will have come to no harm as it's a warm day.

I went about several other jobs I do in the garden any afternoon and as usual, passing backwards and forwards under the pergola, but she wasn't bothered. It will be one of, one of the three pairs of blackbirds that visit our garden. They "hang about" waiting for me to put food in the feeders each afternoon.
But there will be no more pruning of this wisteria until the eggs have hatched and the chicks flown.

So I'm watching the women's semi-finals from Roland Garros.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

The eggs will have come to no harm as it's a warm day.

I was amazed the other day reading about a robin that had laid eggs and left them, they said the eggs would live so long as the bird came back to incubate within three weeks. I don't know if that would be the case if incubation had already started mind.

 

[YumYum]

I went out and scouted for slugs and bugs....

In the daylight.

 

[Eeilee]

So beautiful and peaceful Sean

 

[big rockpile]

We burnt.

And I thinned and weeded Beets.

big rockpile