What did you do in your garden today?

[Oliver Buckle]

Found some potatoes I had left in the garage last Autumn. A few were well chitted and I dropped a couple of hefty chunks of wood in the bottom of each of three plastic bags, scraped up the area around the chopping block and levelled off with wood chips and mud , put in a layer of leaves, then mixed rotted horse manure with some topsoil heavy in clay I had put aside , put in four or five inches, planted the potatoes that were chitted a couple to each bag, then put another four or five inches on and rolled the top of the bag down. I have five of them. I don't know what the potatoes were, ones the missus had left as being small, at least they are all a varieties she would buy.
Chopped up a couple of days worth of wood, removed a dead branch from the old apple tree and chopped it into manageable chunks with the chain saw. The tree is ancient and worth nothing as an apple, but quite picturesque with snowdrops around the base, which will come soon, and some snake s head fritillary. I let the grass under it grow wild all Summer and chop it down in the Autumn, it really seems to have increased the number of insects in the garden.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Over years, the top layer of ply gets multiple cracks

The roof is very strong, it easily takes my weight when I'm pruning next door's trees.

So far so good, careful. My missus insists I take my phone out in the garden with me and take the bolt off the back gate if she is out, just in case. I laugh, but it's sensible really.

 

[Sean Regan]

So far so good, careful. My missus insists I take my phone out in the garden with me and take the bolt off the back gate if she is out, just in case. I laugh, but it's sensible really.

Yes! I too take my phone if I'm in the garden. I also make her wear her alarm bracelet if i'm in the garden. She also wears it when I leave the house. It connects with a call centre. They have the code to the key box on the side of the house. We've had it for six months, fortunately so far never used. Well worth the £7.50 a month.

No gardening today, it's a bit wet and I'd quite a few chores to do. Including "vacuuming everywhere." (Not that it needed it. My wife's physio was coming at 1.00 pm and you know what women are like, if there's visitors coming!)
But I did order eight creeping phlox plug plants on eBay, to add to the rockery.
I like this colour.

I'll pot them up and put them on the windowsill in the shed for the time being.

 

[gary350]

Today I pulled up 3 lbs. 2 oz. of carrots from a 10 ft row. The other 120 ft of carrots will stay until May 1st. 3 months from now remaining carrots will be larger.

 

[UrbanWild]

Yesterday, after several days of warming following the deep freeze, I thought the ground in beds was thawed enough to work. I was wrong. The to 2-4 inches were workable but before that was a 2" layer of ice. So after chopping up two larger beds, I was done. I did stop a bunch of make seeds in one of them. I had wanted to plant tatsoi in the other but I've temporarily lost my seeds.

I also did work on the steel trellising, maintenance in bird feeders and poles, and got the compost area for another delivery of leaves. My friend delivered that load today and being full of acorns, the squirrels are having a field day. He also brought me about 20 or so used but sound privacy fence pickets. Now I won't have any excuse for doing some fence mending soon.

I finally got my hose thawed so I was able to wash out buckets (for various composting connection efforts), animal watering dishes, etc.

Today I started receiving seeds and it looks like a few plants I ordered are in a city 2 hours away so I might get those tomorrow.

 

[gary350]

Today I tilled to kill chick weed. Soil is too wet but I tilled anyway we have 5 days of rain forecast. I planted pepper seeds & tomato seeds in 7 pots when weather gets right I hope seeds will grow. I hope no seeds grow until April our last frost is April 20.

 

[Sean Regan]

No gardening today as it was a golf day. Warm for the time of year.
Tomorrow, I've to go to a garden fence manufacturer in Eccles.
Waney lap panels are at least £20 each now. But this firm sells all the bits. I need a bottom rail and one strip of panelling. I'll get a few. At the moment there's only a couple of panels that need attention. But it is as well to be prepared in case I need more during the year.
I did the same three years ago for several panels where the top caps had weathered away.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Today I tilled to kill chick weed. Soil is too wet but I tilled anyway we have 5 days of rain forecast. I planted pepper seeds & tomato seeds in 7 pots when weather gets right I hope seeds will grow. I hope no seeds grow until April our last frost is April 20.

View attachment 106841View attachment 106842

That's almost two months away, surely you would expect some growth by then? I have found things that are susceptible to frosts survive if if I lift them up off the ground, could you find an old table? Those I don't have room to lift I have an old net curtain I throw over them overnight. I also use bubblewrap from stuff the missus has ordered, but for some reason the net seems to work better.

 

[Sean Regan]

The temperature is at 0c and there's frost on the lawn. It would appear that our tall mimosa has survived that really cold spell and may be ready for another one. I'm impressed with the thickness of the trunk. If I hadn't "topped it off" in the Spring last year, it would be a lot taller, which I wouldn't want.

 

[gary350]

That's almost two months away, surely you would expect some growth by then? I have found things that are susceptible to frosts survive if if I lift them up off the ground, could you find an old table? Those I don't have room to lift I have an old net curtain I throw over them overnight. I also use bubblewrap from stuff the missus has ordered, but for some reason the net seems to work better.

I don't expect anything to grow before our last frost about April 20. Seeds that are lost in the garden soil all winter never germinate until weather is the correct temperature about April or May. I hope seeds in pots left in the garden for mother nature to take care of will germinate at the correct time. If seeds don't germinate at the correct time then I will buy plants in 4 pack. I only want 1 of each type pepper I hate to buy a 4 pack then throw away 3 plants from each 4 pack.

 

[Sean Regan]

I collected 10 batons and three individual panels from Monton Fencing this afternoon.
A bit of a job but I managed to finish the fence.
I used up all the batons, replacing those at the bottom of the panels and two individual panels for the bottom one on two sections.
The cable strung between the posts is the 12v supply to both lanterns.

Job done for a few more years, at a cost of £34.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Potted up leeks and purple summer broccoli from the boxes they had germinated in a bit over twenty leeks and half that number of broccoli, they had gone from propagator to windowsill and now on to the warmer greenhouse, after a week or so there they will go to the old, leaky, unheated house for a bit, and then get planted out, it's the easy road to acclimatizing them, Planted a half tray with peppers one side and chilli the other and put it in the propagator.
Chopped up a day's worth of wood, made up a couple of sacks almost ready for planting. covered a patch 8x4 with glass and plastic to warm up ready for first early potatoes in March.
I have Meteor peas in half tray size polystyrene boxes with six compartments each, they stack on top of each other and with a lid on seem to be pretty mouse proof, though I have found them making tunnels through polystyrene when it is used for insulation. Anyway, I unstacked them to check for early shoots, none yet, and to give them a water.
Moved some early tomatoes from the window sill to the greenhouse, they have got proper leaves and are ready for potting on, but I'll give them a few days to get used to the change first.

 

[Sean Regan]

My eight phlox plug plants arrived today. I potted them up in a mixture of compost and topsoil in a couple of 18" long oblong containers. They are in our "freezer room" in the back of the garage. They're on a tray on top of them. So they'll get a bit of heat from them and light from the skylight. It'll be a while before I put them in the rockery.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

So they'll get a bit of heat from them

That sounds a bit optimistic, "So , with luck, they won't freeze." I'm sure they will do great.

 

[Meadowlark]

My eight phlox plug plants arrived today.

I really like that Garden Phlox...here it comes back every year and really attracts butterflys.