What did you do in your garden today?

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks Verdun. It doesn't come much more basic than digging by hand but I agree with you entirely; there's something fascinating by digging like this; I can daydream thinking about projects to do in the workshop and be at peace with the world enjoying the company of wildlife and birdlife as I dig; something so simple costing nothing other than aching bones but very rewarding. My intention is to dig over as much as possible to bury the grass and moss then let winter take over; the garden though is one huge network of roots of all sizes many roots can be seen in the picture but I'm picking out the thicker roots. I think it would be possible to use a small rotavator once the ground has been dug over by spade clearing it of roots and stones but this first dig is hard going so I need to pace myself; not bad though for today working in 4C with a chilling breeze.

I've already started planting Verdun; thanks for asking; groundcover Ajuga and Pachysandra; shrubs already planted are Zinnia; Viburnum; Euonymus; Ceonothus; Choisya; Leucothoe and French Lavender; over 200 narcissi have been scattered around and I've just bought another six Viburnum. I've got about 30 French Lavender seedlings in the shed and about twenty cuttings of Pachysandra coming along in the cold frame.

Most of my time has been spent wrecking rather than building trying to gain control of the garden; I've removed about 160' of tall hedging this year and felled a few trees also I've done a lot of work in clearing a site and making it level with paving slabs then building a new hut from scratch; reducing the 30' tall laurels down to 3' tall just to name a few jobs; in between I designed and built a new 4hp saw bench plus other workshop activities; I only stop when I'm laid in hospital otherwise I'm busy; I'm never bored.

With thanks to forum members I've also bought seeds some of which are Petunia; Gaillardia; Delphinium; Cosmos; Zinnia and Rudbeckia. I've also got meadow flower seeds for the big area at the top of the garden where I've just removed the Snowberry hedge from; I'm pleased with progress so far to say I've only just nicely started to get serious in the garden; I'm being careful not to over plant knowing the garden will look rather bare for a couple of years but I also plan to scrounge free loads of woodchip and mulch; in the meantime I'm now digging. being fully retired sure is hard graft with too few hours in a day unaided by bad weather and a long winter ahead. The picture below shows a bit more digging progress.

The huge box of chocolates and biscuits you earned in moving the coal sound nice but I'd decline the lagers; I've just bought two big boxes of Black Magic chocolates for myself which I do every Christmas scoffing these over the Christmas period. I served my apprenticeship down a deep coal mine and locally few now burn coal most being on gas central heating? I come from a family of coal miners and my late father and grandfather used to get "Home loads" of coal each load being one ton; us kids used to barrow the coal and yes however coal is moved its hard graft.

Well done Verdun take a pat on the back for grafting.

Kind regards, Colin

 

[alp]

Esther. I too have a mountain of leaves. I also use the tarp method for removal. My method of choice however is to gather the leaves in a pile and run my old lawn mower over them until they are well broken up. This reduces the pile drastically. Once it is chewed up it makes great mulch.

I wish I could do the same. I had to pick them up out the Baptist Church and drove them home. I will run the lawnmower over them when the cold spell is off ..

 

[Logan]

This afternoon planted my raspberry canes.
Dug a shallow trench, put some stones in for drainage. Put some compost on top, put the canes in, covered them with soil and put some more compost on top. Watered them in.

There's 6 altogether. The robin came down to look for some worms.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Well done Logan. I could have sent Blackie down to save you watering though?

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Verdun]

Colin, I like your style ....Planting sounds good to me
Ha ha, those Black Magic chocs....my mum used to love em but not sure they are as good as they used to be, but I am sure you will enjoy them.

Pruned back cotinus Royal Purple......excellent value shrub that looks better with a hard prune right now.

Had a chance to cut the grass again too...still growing quite fast

Those raspberry canes look good logan.....yum, yum!

 

[Logan]

Thanks @Colin yes i could have done with blackie. Thanks @Verdun got to make sure that they don't dry out over the winter.

 

[MoonShadows]

Finished insulating the East wall of my greenhouse. Also, put weather stripping on the door and got one of the 4 x 1.5 - 3 level shelves set up. Still more to do. Trying to do a bit each day amidst other chores and errands. I'm determined to get my greenhouse as insulated/weatherproof as possible to extend the season and start the new one off early.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks Verdun; I'm making steady progress. I agree with you regarding Black Magic chocolates not being the same as they used to be in fact I think certain ones have quietly been phased out? I'll enjoy scoffing them though also I like fruit cake with a topping of marzipan and white icing; I've got to be careful because of my dairy intolerance hence I can only consume dark chocolate; I enjoy Fry's peppermint cream bars which are dark chocolate but on their wrapper it states not for those with dairy intolerance? I've got to be so careful in what I eat. I've got a good cure for growing grass Verdun; I'm burying ours together with all the moss.

You're welcome Logan; pity Blackie can't be persuaded to leave me though.

Well done MoonShadows; a bit each day is the way to go and is the method I've adopted. I took Bron over to M&S in Pudsey first thing this morning; one hour twenty minutes to travel 22 miles; as we entered the site then we had to drive over lots of traffic calming; this might calm traffic but infuriates drivers and occupants. In-store it was to be a happy visit giving Bron some well deserved retail therapy and I offered to buy her absolutely anything she would like. What a total disappointment; Bron fancied a coat but what's happened to M&S; Bron has better coats she uses for pottering around in; how about a cardigan; same again Bron had better cardigans at home; we left after spending around £20 on a bit of food; I was most disappointed because I wanted to spoil Bron for Christmas.

After dinner I did an hours digging and I'm getting the hang of turning over the grass/moss and roots; just chop around a nice sized rectangle levering the patch up then hopefully flip it over roots permitting; an hours hard digging is enough in the cold with Gale adding a chilly blast whilst all my joints are put out of alignment on the slope; I really know how to enjoy life to the full; I do however feel a lot better for the exercise and five minutes into the digging I quickly warm up; what's a bit of frostbite on my nose?

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[MoonShadows]

Today, the gas company is here hooking up our new generator, so it has kind of thrown a kink in my routine. I will plug up a few more spots in the greenhouse where there is air infiltration. I have decided to drop the ceiling down a couple of feet also to keep heat out of the highest point.. After looking at it and contemplating it for a while, I think I am going to go with pvc 3/4 piping and attach some leftover greenhouse film from building the cold frames with snap clamps. This will make it easy to remove it and replace with shade cloth in warmer months.

 

[Verdun]

Ha ha Colin.....I too have indulged my marzipan tastes today, viz., a rich stolen marzipan cake. Very, very moorish . No dairy intolerance for me though....my enjoyment of gold top milk knows no limit
Your cure for grass! Its what I do too, viz., burying turf upside down at least a spit deep. Creates good quality loam quite quickly.

Plant delivery today and ordered another this evening. Always exciting to receive plants

Moonshadows, well thought out and makes sense there. Your winters are a tad colder than they are here I think

 

[alp]

And I quote Colin's

ideally one leg longer than the other would be good for working on the steep slope;

In that case, I, and not you, should be working on the slope!

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Last Christmas our very good neighbours bought us a large expensive Stollen Cake; too much for Bron and I couldn't touch it due to my dairy intolerance so unfortunately we gave it away; all our contacts know of my dairy intolerance but every Christmas we end up with tins of all butter shortbread biscuits; strange how such things don't register unless personally suffered? I wonder how much shortbread is heading our way this Christmas? You can have my share Verdun; enjoy.

You're most welcome alp to do some work on our mountain and I can guarantee you won't need an hose or watering can. Working on the slope plays havoc with my hip joints.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Verdun]

Oooo, thank you Colin
A dairy intolerance would be a big shock for me.....I live on cheese, butter, milk, cream (cornish clotted of course) . A while back I was persuaded to have a cholesterol check by some friends of mine because of my dairy intake. Came back as 3.1 which is pretty good and I took it as a green light to carry on consuming dairy.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

I was ill for the first 57 years of my life Verdun; in and out of hospital seeing specialist after specialist ending with major surgery for Crohn's Disease; how wonder all this was only for my lovely Bron to read out a short paragraph from one of her girlie magazines regarding dairy intolerance; two days later after dumping dairy and switching to Soya I was 80% cured; I'm now 70 behaving like a five year old and shortly I'll be going up the mountain to do a bit more digging in freezing conditions. I used to take cheese sandwiches to work; consume lots of dairy products and they were making my life a misery. I'm pleased for you Verdun being able to scoff the lot but I'm also pleased Bron found the cause of my misery.

A couple of days ago I bought through eBay Microsoft Office Professional 2016 at a very low price not expecting much but as I've been running the 2003 version I thought it worth a try. I've just created a new account and installed it; rather strange as I tried to activate the account it states the Key is overused? Anyway so far I can access Word and my email page looks a lot different so I've got myself another learning curve? In the meantime I'm going to have a brew then head up the garden for a bit of fun.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Verdun]

Good for you Colin Yes indeed a lot to thank Bron for
Another learning curve keeps the grey matter going I think
I enjoy both physcal and mental actvity.....they complement each other I think.