What have you done today in the Garden?

Oh great, Cayu. You ought to send a piccy of them. When will you be able to get to composting your plots? The feeling is in the air, isn't it. Cool that you have made a beginning on the beds at home too. I am curious to know how that little bed near the steps that your man repaired is doing and will do this season. What was it that you replanted in that, I have forgotten.

 

Tidied up the old and new clematis, some needed some more tying up. I also got rid of a lot of unsightly little ties, I used last year which now aren't connected to anything on the main support wires since I did a bit of pruning.
gave the roses a spray of rose food and the first few giant lilies that have poked their heads through a spray of insecticide. Whether it'll stop lily beetles is debatable.

 

You do have a good memory SJ! I am planning to put annuals in that plot so they will bloom all summer.
My husband relaid the rest of the bricks on our front walk, so it all looks pretty spiffy!

I'll post a photo of the garlic the next time I am out.

 

Replaced one beam on the top of the pergola and an end piece that ties the thing to the back of the house.
Nothing's easy, as well as being on the top of a ladder, dodging the wisteria, the fairy lights and the ceramic pots on the patio, I had to remove part of the gutter under the lounge extension's roof, to secure the end of the cross beam to the back beam.

Gave it a coat of Woodsheen. There's a bit of rot in the tie at the other end, I'll replace that tomorrow. Thast will be easier. Then the job's a good 'un. It'll need further coats of Woodsheen.

Bought some grass seed from Wilko on Saturday, I'm going to rake out the dead moss in the lawn under the azaleas in the front garden and seed it. I do this most years as the front of the house is North facing and the shade of the azaleas doesn't do that bit of grass any good.

 

More raking of garden beds.

 

cleaned up and burned all the apple prunings, all the tunnel tomatoes, cucumbers and weeds etc... burned off the debris in the asparagus beds.. oodles and oodles of plant material.. work work work outside as much as I could. kevin and the children helped today too. planted a few more things in the greenhouse and transplanted a few more plants that were too itty bitty to mess with earlier.

 

Our snow has finally disappeared and I have been able to start cleaning up parts of the yard. My first job was to finish with the woodpile and rake up all the bark and pieces. That took a lot longer than I expected and my rake broke so I need to buy a new one. Today it's raining, so it's an indoor project day.

 

Good weather today--not at all like the rain in the Emerald Isle! I planted our potatoes and still have to cut broccoli and pick sugar peas, and cultivate the onions.
Happy St. Patrick's Day to y'all!

 

Finished repairing the pergola on the back of the house.



It was a right pain replacing three bits of wood.

Nothing's ever easy. The pergola is attached to the house by means of a long beam screwed to the back wall of the house above the French windows.

But the kitchen window is in the way at the left-hand end so thirty-odd years ago I had to design it to accomodate that. So the end piece that connects the double front beams to the wall next to the top corner of the window is important and that had a bit of rot in it.

Removing the old bit was difficult, as I'd used very long screws and the old ones were hard to get out when you're on the top of a ladder.



But the new piece is in and the cross beam that also had a bit of rot in it has been replaced. The one that is slightly lighter in colour. More coats of Woodsheen will darken it down.



This end bit was just has hard to change being so close to the party fence the top of which you can just about see at the bottom of the photo.

The whole structure is now "rot free," and as we say, "will see me out."



Another less than easy job was building the garage pergola, a long time ago. I had to find a way to connect it to the garage and accommodate the gutter, so I had to make special wooden brackets. But like the other one it's as solid as a rock.



This and the rail on the right are due a coat of Woodsheen, "soon."

The house pergola beams slope slightly away from the house, a fall of about an inch, so water dripping off the wisteria foliage won't run down the beams and onto the brickwork of the house.

The garage pergola slopes about the same towards the garage, so any water from the wisteria foliage, will run down the beams into the garage gutter and not at the time I built it, into the koi pool.

 

You obviously put a lot of thought & work into this design Dog.

I have begun cleaning up the perennial beds here at the house, but I just found out today that the deer ticks are emerging! Bummer! I'll continue with the work but it means taking many more precautions.

 

Oké Cayu. Thanks.

More clean-up and planting in the lottie today...I am beginning to become a bit stiff now.

 

Pricked out some more of the snapdragon seedlings, some of the last lot collapsed so i finished the rest that were left. Snapdragons do that so i wasn't surprised.
The tithonia, calendula, tomatoes and cucumbers are up, so next week I'll do those.
Hubby pruned a few more roses, then it started to rain.

 

Weeding, weeding, weeding.

 

Trying to get on top of everything in case I get the virus.

Cut the lawns and treated some moss patches with iron sulphate.

Fed all the pots. I'll give the roses a spray with rose tonic tomorrow, too windy today.

Did a bit of prep work ready to give the garage pergola another coat of Woodsheen tomorrow, the tea-house will not need doing.

Played a couple of dozen 45s on both of the jukeboxes in the tea-house, as use with these, is the best form of preventative maintenance.

Loned a neighbour my long tree branch loppers. The tall trees in the garden of the house between ours are encroaching way over his garden. Fortunately he has a tall scaffold, I may ask to borrow it to do the ones my side.

 

Nothing, but hubby did get some bark for the paths.