What have you done today in the Garden?

What a crop!!! your Tom's are looking brilliant @Anniekay.

 

Thanks Oreti. These babyboomers are the most prolific, and non acidic cherry tomatoes that I've ever grown. Highly recommend !!

 

Remember this?



Well, here in the North-West, it's what we've been promised for the next week.

Just did some watering and sprayed some of the roses which had a bit of whitefly. Won't be cutting the lawn for a bit.

 

Too warm to do anything today, until much later, other than mist spray the acers, to stop the sun burning the leaves.

I'll be watching a lot of tennis on TV.
Jack Draper won again!
Came back from the loss of the first set 6-1.
He's into the quarter-final, but he'll be playing Alcaraz.










This one has completely recovered from this "hatchet job" I did on it less than a month ago to reduce the size. Something I do every year to keep it from growing too big.





The pink wisteria on the side of the house is fully out.
It's never looked this good in twenty years, despite its huge length now. I'm already pruning off unwanted side shoots appearing all the way down.
























My colour combination of azaleas is a bit off here.





The four rhodos I bought from B&Q over a month ago, are starting to bloom. I anticipate they will completely fill the middle of this bed, between the bamboo, the azalea, hydrangea and the acer, within a couple of years.






The patio roses are doing well. I'll need to do some dead heading this evening.




These two David Austin roses weren't dong well earlier. They were quite expensive and I'd bought them a wooden trough to go under the kitchen window. They get quite a bit of sun.

They had a severe black spot infestation. So I stripped most of the leaves and then sprayed them with Sulphur Rose. Then they had a lot of greenfly. But I got rid of that. They are now starting to recover.





This honeysuckle in the end of the bed next to the shed, does well in this corner every year.

 

Just watering things that need it.

 

My most dreaded job continues.....removing the tatty aftermath left from Daffodils and Tulips, keep saying I'll stop growing them but desperation for colour after Winter always weakens me. I find them a real eyesore as they wither and fade away. Some I will leave and just hope they get successfully hidden by other plants Only trouble is I will still know they are lurking there. Out of sight is not out of mind in this case.

Watering is now firmly part of everyday life, once again emptied out all the plants from the greenhouse, two large walled lean-to coldframes and the smaller ground level one and gave them a feed and watering.

Hubs mowed the lawns and trimmed some overgrown shrubs.

 

Started planting out the outdoor tomatoes where I've stripped the turf off, this lot are "Outdoor Girl" and I've got 2 trays of "Manx Marvels" to get out as well

 

It showered off and on so, between the sprinkles I planted out 5 morning glory plants, 2 snapdragons that came up very late. Then I have malabar spinach, 6 of those, but I only put two out in the bed as I want to sucession plant them.

The last thing was hardening off ... 21 zinnias!! Yep, way late for down here but I need more color !! Then I transplanted a marigold plant that was getting shaded by a tomato plant.

 

I got my tomato and pepper plants out the other day. I have planted a lot of seeds, like cucumbers, garden sage, carrots, scarlet runner beans, flower seeds,...

My mowers are down again...

Today, I tried to burn my brush pile. It kept going out, but it was smoldering at dusk...

 

It's been raining heavily for a few days, so I haven't done as much in the garden.

Today I cleared wild blackberries, thistles, and other weeds from another section of the back yard. It's about half cleared now. I was thinking, "I'm too old for this" but then
I think about some others here, and that helped. Plus, maybe all of this is what helps keep me going. I have an e-trimmer that works kind of similar to hair clippers, except much larger. I use the kneeling pad and trim close to the ground. Much easier and faster than pulling by hand.

I labeled the bearded irises that have bloomed so far. That will help me make decisions after they finish blooming. Some are real champions, but some have had their moment and will need to make room.

I finished adding drip emitters for all of the squash vines. I still need to install a shut-off valve for the 4th branch line. That line will irrigate some squashes, two mini apple trees, some of the containerized strawberry plants, and probably some containerized pepper plants. That will save me many daily trips, hauling water buckets this summer.

Installing and troubleshooting drip lines can be a little tedious, but it's less time spent per plant than carrying one bucket of water, one time.

I finished thinning apple clusters on all of the mini trees. It's enjoyable and meditative work. There are still three larger trees in the front yard to thin.

Before bed time. I scattered lots of slug bait. The gigantic slugs here have been quite active and destructive.

 

It said on the news that our area has gone twenty-one days without rain. I think most people were aware of that. No chance of any for at least the next five days.
I'm surprised no talk of a hosepipe ban yet.

I won't be spending much time in the garden until this evening. Temperatures during the day to reach 21c.

 

I didn't get anything done today, and probably won't with the weather being the way it is, but I did plant some new stuff, I got some mini daffodils that are white with orange/yellow centers, they are dying off so i won't have any pictures until next year, I also got some oregano and nasturtiums. I got some forget-me-nots, as well as a few other plants, I can't remember. I transplanted my lupine but I am pretty sure i killed it, I'll get another one at the nursery when i make my yearly round. I also ran over one of my lilies and it broke in half. I have the broken half in a jar of water as they are about to bloom and looks like it's still pretty healthy it might bloom. The other half of it is still growing too and hoping it will get enough energy to come back next year with prettier blooms... i really need to extend my garden out and re mulch so that doesn't happen again Lots to do so little time and energy!