What have you done today in the Garden?

Nothing today as we've been out all day.

 

This morning was taken up by going to the fracture clinic for another x-ray, it's doing well and have the plaster off in 3 weeks then some physio.

Later picked some more currants, blackberries and did some watering. For me i think that it's time to grow things that don't need a lot of water.

Here's 5 that i might buy

 

I've got/ had all those plants including the grass and cat mint ( just be wary if you have cats in your neighbourhood.) They have all done well .
I find the real issue for us is this year we seem to have more potted plants and these have required continuous watering and monitoring . We tend not to water the borders that often if they seem OK, we want to encourage their root systems to go deeper down to reach the water table. So one thing I will most definitely try to change is having potted plantings next year. I have earmarked potential new permanent homes within the borders for most of our potted plants to settle down into either in the Autumn or next Spring.

 

I know what you mean, Loggie.
That was a great vid. I have grown all of those, except the Agapanthus. I have planted a couple this year and they have done well so far. Times are changing, that is for sure.
Great posting.

 

Mowing the paths, cleaning plots, cleaning along the paths, cleaning the brassica patch, gave water to the neighbour’s garden, gave water to strawbs ( they have begun growing out since their serious haircut), harvested the blueberries, netted the apple trees and harvested.

This small trug-full was for us, and the rest went to the Food Bank.


One of these days we shall have to begin potting-up tom concentrate and compôte.

 

Today I harvested the rest of the onions. I watered the onion bed, which I had let go dry to cure the onions. Maybe tomorrow I will plant more beans there.

I did the usual watering.

I harvested a nice zucchini, a few strawberries, and a couple of tomatoes.

This was tucked away in a corner of the kitchen garden, and forgotten. Now it demands attention!

I've had good luck with any sedums, and agapanthus. Rock rose was disappointing this year. Maybe next year! Lavenders do great! Amercrinum does great, I never water it. Last fall bought a modern Kniphofia variety, all yellow and stayed small. it turned out very nice and didn't need water this summer at all. Deer ate all of the manzanitas. I think the hesperaloe died. Too bad,
i was looking forward to that one. It might have been done in by moles.

 

Daniel— what a beauty. Do you have more?

 

Thanks Sjoerd!

That's the only one. It's a few years old now. I'm surprised it bloomed now.

 

Yeah, that surprised me as well. It is way early.

 

I burned some brush, and watered some of my containers, and did a bit of mowing out there. At least none of the grass (other than the pond path) is way overgrown. We were supposed to get some rain, but it went and blessed others. Maybe they needed it more.

 

There's not much I need to do in the garden today, other than the weekly prune of unwanted wisteria shoots like these on the top of this pergola.









So I'm going to clean the exterior of the tea-house, a job I've been putting off for a couple of weeks.
To use a technical term, "it's hanging."




















It will give me the opportunity to check for any rot, but I don't expect to find any.

If it stays dry tomorrow as, is forecast, I may give the "weather side" another coat of Dulux Trade Woodstain. The other side, is protected by the fence, so will be OK. I might do the floor of the verandah too.


This building is thirty-eight years old this month, I built with soft wood and roofing ply. Sadly, the quality of soft wood available today, now "from sustainable resources," doesn't last, regardless of how well you look after it.
"Roofing ply" is often substituted with Sterling Board, made from compressed wood strands bonded with resin, which is nowhere near as durable and you wouldn't want it exposed to the elements.

Of course, during my labours, my jukeboxes will each get a good "run out."

 

Half the job done before it rained as expected.

I cleaned a lot of dead bamboo leaves out the passageway between the rear of the building and our back fence.
The back has two vents, these I cover with the lids of two thick polystyrene boxes during the winter. You can just see the wood and mesh frame below the base, which I put to stop foxes getting under there once our family had left. The other three sides of the building have 9" skirting boards attached to the base which finish a couple of inches above the paths.





I put guttering on the back of the roof to stop water running down the party fence. There's a drainpipe that takes it to the edge of our back border.

The conduit houses the low voltage supply to the spotlight that illuminates the pagoda and one to the two Japanese lanterns in the side border.




The other side of the building is protected from the weather by the side fence.
The plastic window, I put in over the side balustrade, is to stop visiting cats from using it as an easy way to get over the side fence.




The wash down is completed. It started raining before I finished. You can see the water dripping off the roof.

I'll let it all dry over-night.

It should be dry enough for painting by lunchtime tomorrow.
The framework rails, balustrades verandah floor and "skirts," will get a bit of rub down and then painted. Shouldn't take too long. It will then be back to looking more "shiny" as in my avatar.
The "shine" helps repel the rain.