What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

Too wet for gardening, but I did some related shopping. I bought some Hedgehog food, from Pets Are Us, which was reduced in price, don't know why, they're only just coming out of hibernation.

I also bought some, "Grass Gains," for £7.50 (less than half retail price) from the local Homebase, which is closing on Saturday and being replaced by B&Q.

My search for brick setts goes on. To remake the ones around the smaller of our two acers.

The nearest I've found are these from a brickyard 20 miles away at 80p each.

Or these at £1.85 from B&Q. "Your local rip-off merchants."

"It's just lawn edging." I'll leave getting the cheaper ones for a couple of weeks.


I've linked another hedgehog video from last year, to my, "Build a Better Hedgehog Feeder" on my YouTube Channel
It's of the old feeder, but demonstrates how a 4" pipe entrance, is quite acceptable to those hedgehogs who used it.

I bought a replacement corded drill on eBay, knowing it wouldn't come with a case, just in a cardboard box. But I thought it deserved a case rather than just being stuck in a cupboard. So I looked on eBay and saw this and thought it had possibilities.

For what it was originally used, I had no idea as it had two hard foam plastic inserts that completely filled both halves. It arrived this afternoon. So with a hacksaw blade and a bit of fettling, I now have a case for my drill.

Maybe I've too much time on my hands?

 

[gary350]

I bought 3 bundles of candy onion plants at the garden store. To prevent plants from drying out for 2 weeks before planting I put wet potting soil in empty coffee container then put all 3 bundles of onions on the wet soil. I never did this before I wonder if 74°f in the house will do something bad to the plants. Years past plants lay around for 2 weeks root dry up and fall off then roots need to grow back after planting in the garden. There is suppose to be about 75 plants per bundle = 225 plants. I also bought 21 Red onion sets.

We had 2" of snow garden is WHITE. It was 14°f this morning and has warmed up to 20° so far at 1:20 pm. Colder tonight 8° f tomorrow morning. How cold hardy are onions what will 8° f do to them? Garden soil is frozen hard as cement I can't plant onions until it warms up next week. March 1st is always onion planting day every year.

 

[Meadowlark]

Keeping with the recent carrot theme, today I harvested a few of the Thumbelina carrots. These are a very cold hardy and great tasting carrot that I like to grow in HK containers. These were pulled today in 28 deg F and show no cold damage.

The Thumbelina carrot.

 

[gary350]

Carrot plants have NO tops I think 4° & 8° killed the tops. Next week it is warming up to 50s & 60s maybe I can dig some carrots to see what is there. Onion plants grew several inches taller inside the house so I moved them outside it is 30° now warming up to 44° later today. I hope to be able to plant onions soon Feb 27 to March 1st. We have a very good crop of chickweed that needs to be gone to plant onions.

 

[Meadowlark]

... We have a very good crop of chickweed that needs to be gone to plant onions.

Chickweed is everywhere it can find an open space here this time of year. Its days are numbered however as we will soon see temps going above 90 deg F.

They say it is edible and has medicinal properties.... but it is just a pain for me.

 

[Sean Regan]

Did quite a bit today.
Gave my garage a good tidy and chucked out any stuff I thought I might never need.
This still left quite a bit!
I keep a lot of bits and pieces in these thick walled polystyrene boxes, which are used when on-line suppliers send the frozen food we've occasionally ordered over many years.

Then I sorted out the "cupboards" under my bench. They are really an old sideboard which I recycled when we bought a new one. Then vacced everywhere.

By lunchtime it had warmed up and was bright and sunny.
So I got my lawn scarifier out and did both lawns, using the highest setting. I collected a lot of thatch and dead moss, without ripping out the grass.

I then mowed both lawns and gave them a feed and chucked some grass seed about. If the weather stays mild, I expect to see an improvement over the next two weeks.
Watered the rose pots and sprayed them with Sulphur Rose, which is supposed to stop black spot, but doesn't.

Although there's been no hedgehog activity, it can't be long now, so I put out the second feeding station. I did put a brick on the roof.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Gave my garage a good tidy and chucked out any stuff I thought I might never need.
This still left quite a bit!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

No mowing my lawns, we had puddles, there must have been a lot of rain.
Took out a little six inch deep trench on the new bit, which took out the top soil and showed the clay underneath, had a short break and came back to take out some clay and found 1/2" of water in the bottom.
I slept in late and mostly did odds and ends, like planting a potato bag with three Duke of York reds and putting it in the greenhouse, just on the chance of some really early ones. The trigger was the one from the garage that I had planted earlier is just showing through green. It was from a flower pot that I had left in our cold garage of shop bought potatoes that the missus had rejected as too small, so I don't know what they are.
Relit the heater in the greenhouse, it had blown out, it's only a very small flame to keep the frost off, it keeps the small plastic house about 1.1/2 degrees warmer than the larger glass house which is unheated.

 

[Sean Regan]

Today was the day, I and a neighbour two doors away were going to tackle the silver birch trees in the garden between ours. The owner is in hospital, long term.


We want to bring them down to the height they were when they were last pollarded, removing the branches that overhang our gardens. Each year we have to contend with the catkins and later the falling leaves. Such trees are unsuitable for small suburban gardens.

Here. I'd just collected a lot of the leaves. The conifer, behind the "offending" trees, is in the garden next door to the garden behind ours and doesn't block out any light.

He has a scaffold tower, I have a heavy duty Fiskars telescopic pruner. So we're well prepared.

These are just the ones, "my side" there's three but, one died a couple of years ago.
You can just see the other tree, even taller, on the other side of the garden.

But it's raining!
So we'll have to choose another day.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

But it's raining!
So we'll have to choose another day.

You are not playing cricket, haven't you got any waterproofs?

Daughter and family visited today, ate too much, played with m grand daughter and never went out in the rain.

 

[Sean Regan]

You are not playing cricket, haven't you got any waterproofs?

Daughter and family visited today, ate too much, played with m grand daughter and never went out in the rain.

No way would I want to do any sort of gardening in the rain.

I've got a couple of complete sets of wet gear for the occasions, when I play golf for three and a half to four hours in the rain. That's different.

 

[Tundra20]

cut some microgreens today
chked my carrots and i have seeds poppin up and started some seeds of peppers tomatos and more lettuce
weather is really nice mabe we wont have any more huge temp swings

 

[Meadowlark]

chked my carrots and i have seeds poppin up

Those carrots are something...never give up on them. How many days did it take to get germination?

 

[Tundra20]

bout 29 days week of jan 27th they wer planted so i dont guess thats too bad for the weather weve had

 

[Meadowlark]

bout 29 days week of jan 27th they wer planted so i dont guess thats too bad for the weather weve had

29 days is a record in my experience...longest I ever went was 25 days. Gotta love carrots.