What did you do in your garden today?

[gary350]

Here we go again...this thread is about "What did you do in your garden today?"

Start your own thread @gary350 about Sugar Baby videos if you wish, but KEEP THIS ABOUT TODAY please in respect to all those who faithfully use this thread.

Research to learn about melons and buying seeds is what I did for my garden today. OK, I think this thread must be about physical work, not education. Next time I do physical work in the garden I will take pictures an post it here.

 

[Sean Regan]

No gardening today as it was a golf day. Mild for the time of year +6c and dry.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm going to put a hedgehog doorway in a fence concrete base panel on the other side of the garden near the tea-house.

Since the garden on the other side of the existing doorway has been completely cleared and half of it paved, there's little cover for hedgehogs and no places where they can rummage around for creepy "crawlies." The opportunity for them to come in and out of the other garden, might suit them better, as it's generally uncared for and will present them with a better foraging choices.

It'll be a pain to cut a hole in this panel (as was the other one), as I'll have to stitch drill a lot of holes through the panel with a masonry bit in my drill. Then knock it out with a lump hammer.
But it'll just be a 5" rectangular hole. No fancy doorway like the other one.

To be honest, I did that more of a joke, so I could tell my wife I'd found a fairy door at the bottom of the garden.

It was originally to keep 'arry in, as when we found him he wasn't well and we don't think he was "a full shilling."

But after 'arry disappeared, I took the door off to allow any old hedgehog in or out.

I'm going to put it at the end of the border under the side fence.

There's power points in the tea-house, so it shouldn't be a problem.
I can't put a doorway in the back fence as there's nearly a two-foot drop, on the other side.

 

[UrbanWild]

I did a small amount of brush clearing. I leave all of it over the winter for bird cover. But...I don't have many snowdrops and they were covered in dead Salvia 'Black and Blue' stems. Then I started thinning brush around where spring bulbs were trying to surface.

The rest of the time was all about day critters. Restocked suet feeders, nut feeders, and did some ground scatter with seeds and tiny suet balls. We're coming off a snowstorm and today it is still cold and rainy so they need more nutrition.

Then I got a number of jugs sourced, cleaned, and ready for some more winter sowing. I got the putting mix ready as well.

I sourced my passionflower plants (native) to go over the animal ladder...I mean trellis I'm making to allow animals to come and go into the yard...I mean support the vines. Full truth... It's a ladder for the night critters. I am just disguising it with vines in case it attracts the wind kind of human attention.
The upside is that we love passionflower and I'm hoping to get passion fruit!

 

[redback]

Love the typo, 'Time for a barbie' ?

A dip in a friend's pool and honeyed chicken wings on the barbie. The really cold pasta salad tasted best.
There was one fire in the hills but the firefighting volunteers and the water bombing aircraft had it out before it spread.
That was the hottest day of my life. Cool change now.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

I finally made it out to look my ground over this evening. We have had six inches of snow and nearly three inches of rain here since Sunday night which is on top of all the snow and rain in January.
It's only two more days until the traditional pea planting on Valentine's Day in these parts.
The long-range forecast is calling for more snow and cold through the end of February, meaning it's not looking good for my early veggies.
I didn't get anything done while I was out, just too depressing looking at all the mud and water, so I came back and packed in wood and coal until the rain put a stop to that.

 

[Sean Regan]

I got the second hedgehog doorway done today. But as often happens, it wasn't without incident. After drilling a dozen or more holes in the concrete base panel, my forty-year-old electric drill gave up the ghost, (I've ordered a replacement). So I had to finish the job with a hammer and chisel. I found some scrap wood and plywood in the garage and made the correct size aperture and painted it. I used a bit of sand and cement mortar, to make a smoother entrance. The wood could do with another coat of paint, but that can wait until the week-end.

I put out one of the feeders this afternoon, in case the hedgehog in the house under the azaleas to the side of the patio decides it's time to wake up.
I've set one of my trail/cams to cover it.

I looked at a few on YouTube, but I wasn't that impressed, a lot of sticky tape in evidence, some were made using the box the right way up, which would make it difficult to clean

So I've put my own on my YouTube Channel.

 

[Meadowlark]

Second planting of Yukon Gold potatoes today. The soil is a bit wet, and I'll wait a couple of more days to plant out the red potatoes.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

But it'll just be a 5" rectangular hole. No fancy doorway like the other one.

That doesn't look like 'Just a 5" rectangular hole" to me Nice job as usual Sean.

 

[Sean Regan]

That doesn't look like 'Just a 5" rectangular hole" to me Nice job as usual Sean.

No it's not, it's the hole in the concrete panel which is rectangular. It's far easier to do that than try to make an arched one. But you have to end up with just a "hedgehog shaped entrance," so cats can't use it..

 

[Sean Regan]

It's +4c, but feels colder. No jobs scheduled for today, but there's tree lopping in next door's garden, with another neighbour tomorrow.
No hedgehog activity on the patio overnight and no little footprints in the cement render below the new hedgehog door.

 

[gary350]

Wife wants carrots for dinner but carrots are frozen in 23°F mud. It is suppose to warm up to 50° later today maybe I can pull up carrots then. We had 5 days of rain about 3" each day and more rain forecast through Sunday. Some locations near us had 8" yesterday and 8" forecast for Sunday. Dry stream behind our house had 15' of water 2 days ago and 20' yesterday and will probably have 25 ft or more water by Sun. I need 4 days of no rain to till garden and can't plant onions until March 1st or potatoes about March 15. I picked up all the trash in the garden this morning. All of my 7 ft tall cement rebar tomato stakes are leaning up against a tree. Blue Birds are here already checking out the bird houses, I have to make sure poles that hold up the bird houses are in the soil deep enough that none of them fall over for 3 months. I often see Indigo Bunting in the garden but I never see where they nest. Indigo Bunting are always setting on garden plants looking for bugs. If you have garden bird houses you need to build houses for specific birds that you want.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

If you have garden bird houses you need to build houses for specific birds that you want.

Yes, small entry holes I get blue tits, slightly larger and it's all sparrows.

 

[Sean Regan]

No tree lopping today, as it's raining.
My replacement corded electric drill I ordered on Thursday arrived today. Most people use battery drills these days. I do have one, but to drill multiple holes through thick concrete, something more substantial I think is needed. It seems well-made and is quite heavy, the body is all metal. It has a detachable side handle with which you can use the supplied depth gauge. It comes with a 2 year guarantee. Curiously, it was supplied with a spare pair of motor brushes.
At £42.95 I don't think I could go far wrong. They've sold, 1336 of 'em.

 

[gary350]

Yes, small entry holes I get blue tits, slightly larger and it's all sparrows.

I am not getting sparrows? I have tried many times. Do you have sparrow bird house photos with dimensions? Where do you put the sparrows houses, poles, tree limbs, etc.? Google search shows generic birds houses 1 size for all birds is not true. Red birds & Robins do not live in houses.

We are expected to get 9" of rain tonight, and tornados. Wow. Garden will be a swap tomorrow.

 

[Sean Regan]

I am not getting sparrows? I have tried many times. Do you have sparrow bird house photos with dimensions? Where do you put the sparrows houses, poles, tree limbs, etc.?

We don't have any dedicated bird feeders.
We have an area to one side of our patio, close to our French windows, devoted to closely planted azaleas. We have a hedgehog house under them. The area is contained with posts and wire fence, with a couple of gaps big enough to allow a hedgehog in and out, but no cats, wood pigeons, or anything bigger than a blackbird can get in.
I keep a large plant pot saucer under there with food for the birds and peanuts for a couple of squirrels. So we get blackbirds, sparrows, a couple of dunnocks, robins and blue-tits regularly feeding in there. They know it's quite safe for them. I've seen any of them on the patio visiting the adjacent bird bath, but if they feel there's any threat, they'll fly off or duck in through the fence.