What did you do in your garden today?

[gary350]

Last fall I built a seed stratification box with random supplies I had around the house. I've gotten tired of growing native plant seeds indoors every year and never have as much success as I'd like anyway, so it was time to do something different.

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I peeked in it today and some seedlings are appearing! If successful, I will be able to grow SO many more native plants each year!

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I built 1 of those mine got 200°f inside in full sun on a 70° day. I turned mine to face north so it only received bright shade all day. Mine works best if it is under a shade tree so it never gets too hot inside.

 

[Sean Regan]

Just a couple of hours of general garden housekeeping.

I mowed the small front lawn. It always suffers where the azaleas shade it around the perimeter, a band of about a foot in depth. I gave it a feed and it may need some iron sulphate at the week-end as there's a small amount of moss.

The big acer tree has a lot of buds on it. This is despite me taking 12" off it all the way round and on top in the winter to stop it getting too big.

Gave my Flymo a bit of a service before mowing the lawn.
The lawn in the back garden is recovering, I mowed it all except where there's the new turf, which seems to be taking. I'm watering that twice a day. The rest benefitted from me leaving the two pop-up sprinklers on for a while.

Hard to see the "join" where the new turf starts.
The acer palmatum's leaves are progressing at a pace.

This little acer is doing its best despite the drastic haircut I gave it a week ago.

The blossom on this quince is now fully out.

I put another containing wire around these three azaleas. They've been there for ten years. They want to spread out and shade the grass next to the brick circle and attract moss. I want them to grow upwards and hide the Sambucas's big plastic tub.
I'm winning!

I've removed the containing wires that encourage this wisteria to cascade.

My wife bought this blue-tit feeder from "her" shopping channel a year ago. It wasn't cheap, but it's well-made. We had it hanging from the pergola over the French windows, but they didn't want to know. They used the feeder under the azaleas with the rest of the small birds.
So I've moved it here in this pergola, maybe they'll like it there better.

This acer palmatum Taylor is doing well. The leaves are all the same colour at the moment but later, they will go, yellow, green and pink.

I'm pleased to say that there's no sign of blackspot on the roses, they still have patches of white on some leaves, it's the residue of the sulphur.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I built 1 of those mine got 200°f inside in full sun on a 70° day. I turned mine to face north so it only received bright shade all day. Mine works best if it is under a shade tree so it never gets too hot inside.

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What was causing it to get so hot?

Mine in sunk into the ground, no bottom, and has a screen top. Heat should be no issue.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Not a lot, I went to see a friend of mine and we chatted a fair bit. He has an allotment in South London near the top of a large hill, which is completely artificial. It was built in the eighteen hundreds and consist of the spoil from digging out level approaches for the railways coming into South London. From his allotment there is a view right across the river basin to North London on a clear day. He was moaning about not being able to grow root veg there, I am wondering if it is a combination of drainage, being on a slope, and having to haul water from a communal tap at the bottom. Anyway, a good time was had. When I got home I planted four courgette seeds, I'll do a few more, but it's a start. Tomorrow I have some serious watering to do, glorious sun and no rain for ages, hardly typical English weather. Mind you I am not sure there even is such a thing, an island stuck between the North sea and the Atlantic, it's not surprising, that's why we have sayings like "Don't like the weather? Wait ten minutes and it'll change." And why we are always talking about it. When it's always the same do people who live in the Sahara have conversations that go,
"Hot isn't it?"
"Probably as hot as it was yesterday."
"Yes, what do you reckon it will be like tomorrow?"
"Hot probably."
"You could be right there."
In England even the weather man sometimes gets it dramatically wrong, and any forecast is only a best guess, plenty to talk about.
"What sort of summer do you think it will be?"
"Remember the coronation year?"
"Rained and never stopped. But how about the Summer of '76."
"That was a once in a lifetime."
"Maybe; this is England."

 

[Meadowlark]

Harvested more celery today. Temps have been hitting 80 deg F and above regularly now every day but the celery quality has remained excellent. It will be interesting to see when it starts to decline in quality.

 

[Tundra20]

was a nice day here little windy but temps are staying down enough to keep the greens a growin we got lotta rain coming sayin 10" here over 3-4 days we shall see hope i dont lose my onions

i got peppers n tomatos growing in the greenhouse so thats a headstart

 

[gary350]

Yesterday I watched about 15 YouTube videos how to grow celery, every one plants seeds. NO ONE tells what month of the year to plant celery. No one tells what fertilizer celery needs. I assume celery needs nitrogen. No one tells there geographical location and weather conditions, first frost or last frost. Lots of good information on the correct way to grow celery in a 8" deep row 8" wide of very soft compost soil that must stay wet all the time with celery planted 5" apart with stalks hilled up 6" high like potato hills. Celery is a 120 day crop I assume that means from seeds. Many people claim celery seeds are hard to germinate same as carrots. If I spend 1 month trying to germinate seeds does 120 day crop start the clock ticking after seeds have germinated? No videos tell what weather celery likes. Our Amish garden store has 4 packs of celery $5 each. If I buy celery plants now plants will get 2 months of swap then 2 months of 100° hot dry no rain desert. If we have more toxic contaminated celery in the grocery store I will probably wish I had grown celery this year. Should I spend $10 and buy 8 celery plants or wait and see if grocery stores have good none toxic contaminated celery this year. At the moment TV Weather says we are no longer in a drought but are now in a condition of too much rain. Our last 60 mph rain washed my potato plant hills about 2" shorter and 5 more days if rain in the forecast. We have 45 mph wind gust today, rain, hail, tornados, again today 6pm to 4am again. Garden is too much mud I loose my shoes trying to walk in it. I better wait and see if we get hail before planting anything in the garden. All the YouTube videos but 1 show everyone harvesting ALL their celery after 120 days but 1 oriental person harvest celery only when they need some to eat. In the past we have always harvested celery only the days when we need to have some in the kitchen. Amish garden store will have celery plants Friday.

 

[Sean Regan]

My hydrangeas arrived late yesterday afternoon, so this morning I potted them up and put them on the patio steps. For the last few years, I've been putting plants in plastic tubs that fit neatly inside our many Apta ceramic ones. Someone on a message board mentioned it as a good idea. It means I can ring the changes and also there's some air between the two walls of the tubs as a layer of insulation.

I've stuck a bit of the pots with the labels on it in each of the tubs.

I've taken the hebes out of the troughs in front of the teahouse.

I gave the troughs a bit of a clean. They won't need re-painting.

New turf doing well, I'm still watering it twice a day.

My mixed dahlia tubers arrived this morning. I'll pot them up this afternoon and leave them on the bench under the window in the shed.

My intention was to put these in four plastic tubs in the troughs. But I'm debating whether or not to put the troughs back where they were, as it had become impossible to pass between the acer and the troughs to get to the side of the tea-house and the hedgehog house. It'll mean I will be walking on the same part of the lawn on a daily basis. Not a good idea.

The hebes are temporarily residing in "the alley of shame." Our drive where, apart from two myleen clematis, roses "out of favour," spend their time.
I'm not sure what i'll do with these hebes, there's nowhere else to put them.

Two more at the far end.