popular What have you done today in the Garden?

We have a large compost area and a couple of Dalek ones and it was always the Dalek ones that got the attention of rats.For the last 5 years they have been standing on a brick base..and all has been fine.

 

Spent just over an hour checking over the garden.

Cleared away all soggy leaves near the emerging bulbs as slugs seem to use them for an undercover hideaway near to they fave takeaway food outlet !!

Had to stake quite a few ...Daffodils!! Never had to do that before but the ground is so very waterlogged that it seemingly hasn't got the guts to support them !!! First for everything I suppose.

There really isn't much I can do and hubs is bored and suggested that we head out for lunch...so off we go again.

 

I had some shopping to do this morning, then get my golf gear ready for tomorrow. I've swopped my winter wheels and gone back to the standard one, as I'm sick of trying to clean the mud off the winter wheels with an air gun with insufficient pressure. The standard one will slip a bit on the steep sections of the course, but I can manage.
I then got into the big acer in the front garden and gave it a bit of a trim all the way round.
I needed both my Barnel telescopic pruner and my long Fiskars extending lopper.

"No ladders were necessary."

It doesn't look as if I've done much, but, I've pruned the ends off dozens of small branches, as well as doing a bit of shaping. I've probably missed a few but i can come back to those. I was beginning to get a bit of a stiff neck, constantly having to look up.
Hopefully, the buds on the side of the branches I've cut will grow laterally and the tree will keep its shape.




There's tennis and Olympics on the TV now to keep me occupied.

 

Oreti— interesting that your Daleks were also susceptible to rat invasion.
We only have two compost depositing things. One is the Dalek and the other is self-made and much larger.

The self-made one has the leaves, stems, tree leaves and things like that; the Dalek is where we pur veggie and fruit refuse, thinking that because it was closed that it was impenetrable. WRONG.

This is the first time the beasts have penetrated the perimeter. We do not need this type of uninvited and unwanted guest.

Hopefully the measures we took will keep it out. I will consider the brick flooring if not. Ta for the info.

 

We have exactly the same set up as you do @Sjoerd !!

The big ' home - made one is used for everything except the kitchen organic waste...all that goes into the Daleks.....perhaps the horrid rodents prefer fruit and veg scraps ???

 

Oreti— I know for a fact that you are right about what you suspect the rodents’ preferences are. I look around the allotment complex and see the fruit and veg that the antisocial gardeners have let lie-about on the ground— restaurant offerings for the beasties.

It is the manifested preference of the rats and mice that led to our refuse segregation.

Sometimes gardening is a string of problem solving.

 

It stopped raining for 5 minutes today so I hoiked 4 dumpy bags of leaves into the other bags. I aim to reduce 14 bags down to 2 by the end of the season. Mind you, I've still got 3 from last year

 

That's just to confuse you


I've got 3 of those darlek bins, got them on the patio slabs and don't have any trouble with rats.

 

Today I set to work again removing unwanted fruit trees. There were 2 remaining to remove.
I replaced the chain on the chain saw, gave it oil, sharpened the pruners, and got to work.

I cut down most of the first tree. It had multiple trunks. Then the chain saw quit working. Possibly, it tripped a circuit breaker. I didn't locate the problem. I gave up for the day.

Here is a log from the Stanley plum. Such pretty wood.



Then I decided to work on the roses.
there are about 20 bushes, with about ten needing a major job. I cut them about 3/4 of the way in early winter.

Here is a 'before" for one. New growth is about a inch (In early feb?!?).



It's not just pruning the rose bushes. The ground is covered with thorny wild blackberries that trail and snag feet, and root themselves every few feet. Those have to go. Tough work.

Here's three rose bushes after major pruning and cleanup



I hope I didn't kill them!

I did another smaller one and started another big one. Plus got started cleaning up, the worst of the trailing blackberries.

Goal is to finish Rose pruning this month. Also the tree removals.

I'm tired now! And sore!

 

I did not do much today, but yesterday, I was mostly digging up more sedums to toss. I also dug out some rose of Sharon bushes, and replanted some elsewhere. I have loads more sedums, and rose of sharon bushes. I have a berm in the very back of one area made up of used cat litter. It is on the edge of my woods. I sometimes plant extra flowers there that I don't know what to do with. I try to give some away when I can.

I want to plant echinaceas, zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, calendulas, and other flowers in those areas I hope. I started on another area, and there is some old carpet from an old dog house that is long gone. It was for a dog we had long ago. That will be difficult to remove. I have heard some say old carpet is good weed control. They are WRONG. And it is a pest to get rid of. That area will be hard to clean up. I don't know why I never removed it sooner, but possibly I did not have trash service back then. It is hard to burn off too. Maybe my claw tool will help remove some of that? There are phlox in that area, and they are fine. I like the phlox.

 

Daniel— that plum stump is absolutely gorgeous! Mate, a slice of that would look great cured, sanded and polished with wax or something like shellack. It is stunning to see. I am thinking, table top or end table.or even simply hung on the wall.

I personally do not burn things; however, if you would burn it in say, your living room…the small would be delightful.

I almost forgot to say that your rose work looks accomplished. That is good graft.

AANight— too bad about that piece of doggie mat. If I had that, I would place it on top of my compost pile/bin. Good luck struggling with that. Mind your back.

 

I need to do that too. I feel guilty because they are such good plants, drought tolerant and deer dob't ear them. But there isn't space for so many big ones.

 

Stanley Plum is very attractive. Might Make a nice outdoor end table.
I had no idea you had so many roses. They are a lot of work here in the PNW . How do you keep black spot from attacking them?

 

Hubby has slowly been pruning the roses, we probably have about 50 of them.
The ground is too wet to do anything.