What have you done today in the Garden?

Mowed pastures, set ground squirrel traps, trimmed the weeping cedar across the front of the eves of the garage 3 door's and scooped up trimmings in a nice neat pile to add to the compost pile, checked for other predator's found quail feathers spread out in a small section of the pastures either owl or bobcat, and sprayed the perimeter for blackberry plants encroaching everywhere. Cleaned weeds from a few areas of the flower beds. Now ready for a snack.

 

Enjoyed the whole day outside today. This morning I finally finished off all the planting out.....at long last!! . Then did a deadheading round, one of my favourite Summer jobs. It's so surprising how much tidier the plants look after their spruce up.

Did a bit of pruning on a couple of Petunias that had grown leggy and big due to my lack of maintenance of them. Hopefully now I will have more time for care management.

This afternoon I potted up another 40 Wallflowers.....still have loads more to do. Also potted up the final lot of the current batch of Rocket . It became too warm round in the nursery area so I had to cease doing the remaining potting up that I had planned
Trimmed of the lower leaves on 2 Hollyhocks that had the beginning of Rust disease.

Picked tomorrow 's servings of Blueberries .

Swept the paths.

Day off tomorrow.

 

Finished planting up all of the pots, with fuchsias, Snapdragons and marigolds. The other pots have gladioli.

 

Wow, looks good @Zigs, my redcurrants are still ripening but I've picked 8lb of pink currants and in freezer.

 

I had my exterminator come yesterday evening and he got half done spraying before it started raining. It didn't rain much but he stopped and came back this morning. Before he got here I finished weedeating, did some weeding and cut some zinnias for the house.

 

I kept wondering what you meant whenever you mentioned weedeating @Anniekay so I've had a Google . It's all clear now I think it's what we call strimming.....or very, very similar.

Due to my early recovery period I had to cut back...almost entirely on any seed sowing this year, and now I'm really missing not having any Zinnias in my borders .

 

Ta @Logan Ooo, not got pink currants

Picked the last of our currants today, found they'd got scale insects on the bushes so cut the lot down to the ground and took them up the bonfire site in the top field

 

We call it "Weedeating" since the first machines were called "Weedeaters". The same as you guys say "Hoovering" for vacuumning. Strimming is more easily understood.

I still laugh whenever I think of the German word for light bulb which translates to "Glowing Pear".
Very descriptive, but hillarious !!

 

I picked some more blueberries. Enough there for quite a few blueberry muffins .



I got my first picking of Malabar Spinach and steamed the leaves. I got three big servings (enough in each serving for two people) and have those in the freezer for later. Malabar Spinach grows like a weed !! It tastes just like spinach but likes hot weather so, spinach in the off season !!

 

Didn't do a lot outside. Gave the outdoor container garden a good watering with balanced fertilizer, keep them blooming / get them blooming again, and keep some producing fruit.

Dead headed container roses and cut them back quite a lot.

 

Pulled weeds and blackberries out of one flowerbed clipped out the wild holly small tree starts and Doug fir seedlings from the flowerbeds and limbed up a few branches to allow more sun on the flowerbeds.
Set the Squirrelinator trap in another area of the pasture and chased two young deer out if the front flowerbed. Walked the pastures looking for moles, voles and gophers. Set flags where 3 new mole mounds popped up .
Then watered two large garden beds and cleaned the mess the chipmunks made by digging out the potting soil from several pots. It’s a jungle out there .

 

Today I'm excited to be out in the garden this afternoon for a couple of hours. We've had intense rain for a week now ( much much needed) and the weeds and plants alike have thrived. We've had some tree damage with the rain, so sadly part of the day is removing a downed 30 year old Caragana from the front that split and toppled onto my Cumfrey patch. A double whammy.

I'm excited to hopefully get one last sowing of lettuce in, and to thin the carrot seedlings and swiss chard. The veggie gardens need be fertilized. And the last piece of the deer protection puzzle will be erected today. It will also be "plan for the week" day. We are going from highs of 11 C for the last week to highs of low 30's starting tomorrow, so everyone will want to grow. The blueberries, haskaps, strawberries and tomatoes will be very happy with the heat.

 

Usual chores, pruning wisterias, dead-heading roses and a general tidy up, using my two garden blower vacs, the new one just to blow without the bag, which always got in the way.
I did get into the rockery again to remove some more grass. When I lifted a bit of the phlox that cascades over the rocks on the edge of the patio to clear debris, I found a large frog!
I put him on the patio next to me whilst I de-grassed that bit, he just sat there. Then I put him back on a rock in the rockery whilst I did the next bit. Again, he just sat there! When I moved further away, he moved towards the back of the rockery. Later I saw him on the main patio. He then jumped through the fence into the azaleas.

 

A bit of watering and picking more currants. @Zigs
can get pink currant plants from Amazon.