What have you done today in the Garden?

@Anniekay , I will mow most of the seedlings in the yard when my mowers get fixed, and hopefully my son can fix them in a few days.

The ones in my compost, in my veggie garden and containers, and flower beds have to be pulled by hand.

Those other weeds that I have been pulling get about 6 FEET tall, and if I mow those, they keep growing back with more stems. I have no idea what they are. They are ugly. I get hives and rashes from pulling them. I have pulled about 5 wheelbarrow loads in my front yard, and there are many more to pull.... At least my horse doesn't mind eating them, that makes them 'free food' for her... I will try to look them up later.

I dug up a couple buckets of black-eyed Susans and transplanted most them. (I have water in the buckets to help them). I am putting those in containers and some in flower beds. I love those. Some will get mowed anyway, and I will give some to my horse for treats. Some of them are wild, and some are tame ones with the much larger flowers. I cannot tell which is which before they bloom. Most likely the bees have cross pollinated them anyway. The pollinators love them. Some are putting out buds and will begin blooming soon.

I read where some varieties of pecan trees might get fruit in about 4 years, but have not found out what variety I have. They came from the state nursery.

I know of a giant pecan tree here in my town, and a friend knows who lives there now. (The lady who used to live there was a friend, but she died a few years ago. She gave me phlox from her garden once, and I have three huge beds of them now.) The friend is going to try and get a few more seedlings from that tree. I like pecans far more than black walnuts. (I love English walnuts, but I don't think any grow here.)

Oaks are quite slow putting out spring foiliage, but the pecans are even slower.

Other than my 'grass' and weeds growing like crazy, the rest of my gardens are doing nicely.

My Walker's Low Catmint looks lovely. And some lilies near them are blooming. Also, my transplanted purple milkweed is blooming. The milkweed plants from @Willowisp0801 are doing nicely. They do not bloom until the third year according to the internet, so next summer they ought to bloom. I planted more milkweed seeds, but don't know if they are growing yet. I forgot where I planted them, but I think I put them near my Walker's Low Catmint and the transplanted milkweed? I hope I recognize the seedlings when I weed that bed again --it needs it again, and I weeded that bed 2 or 3 times already this season.

I did finally see a few zinnia seedlings out there. I ought to have loads of them.

 

Not a lot because it was raining when i usually do things but later i cut off the old lupin flowers. Sunday i re sowed a lot of wallflower seeds, the first didn't come up.

 

Mow mow mow row row row ur boat…the pastures. Set the Squirrelinator trap for the ground squirrels. They are Baaack. Let the wars begin.
Found a couple mounds in the east pasture the last couple of days. Heading them off at the pass setting mole traps.

Trimmed with weed wacker battery op., the area round the peony’s and other areas the weeds began to start up all of a sudden. It’s warm today counting on the heat to knock them off at the cut ends.

Moved the cardboard away from a couple walkways in the garden blocking weeds. It was a rewarding removal not one weed in the paths. I usually take them up to soon and end up with a bunch of weeds. This year I waited for June seems to be a better strategy.

Changed the gas pump to the filled 55 gal barrel for the mower. Have 245 miles on my mower I year I month old.

First pic are Three 55 gal blue metal barrels and showing one hand pump in the blue barrel , hose reaches to fill the small red tank in second pic with auto hand pump for the mower fill up. Nice set up. Only zoned agricultural areas can legally have gas delivered to homeowners. This system saves gas from constantly driving into town to fill small hand held tanks.

 

I picked a slew of tomatoes, watered all my raised beds last night all but the last two that are still situated by my red oak tree. Those 2 got watered this morning. Then I finished mowing. My battery was only at 35% yesterday so I could only get about 1/4 of an acre done yesterday afternoon. Later I need to pick more blackberries.

 

Soo.. your battery was low … take a time out for a drink of water and a short coffee nap.. that will recharge your batteries and your good to go in 20 minutes or less.. Works for me… most of the time.

Seriously … How do you like the new battery op mower? My son just picked one up he said it was so quiet he could hear the music on his iPods. These high tech kids… driving his tesla and hi tech everything . So…what’s next a battery op snow blower?

My house is all electric. I am trying to lower my elec bill over 200 per month. And that’s not winter or summer. The pump to water is all electric also trying to lower the water use. On a well pump inside well electric pump to house and garden electric. I do adore those outdoor solar garden lights though. Also several solar water fall features too. They light up the garden at night add movement and so many on Amazon to choose. Handy when power outages too.

 

Hand pump sounds good @Pacnorwest We recently got a syphon pump for ours which works great but we have to lift the 5 gallon barrels higher than the tanks.

 

I left 3 Kale plants in, partly for seeds and partly for the butterflies. We have hardly had any over the past few years.

Today I found that we have our first babies on them

 

Lifting for me is a hassle not good with wigged out shoulders. I used those siphoned pumps with batteries to fill the compact tractor , it takes diesel an occasional use for a heavy lifter when I need the bucket to do heavy jobs.

Your butterflies will be coming to the party soon. We have had several so far this year. Tiger Swallow tail, Red Lacewing, huge Pandora moth - wing span 3”. They zip so round so fast hard to capture a pic.

 

love the butterflies...

I got the rest of the black eyed susans that I have dug so far in the ground this afternoon in one of my flower beds... my shoulder is still sore (even though some better). I have a doc appointment in a few days, maybe I will ask her about it. I would prefer not to.

It has been hot and muggy. My tub of ginger root has a sprout this afternoon. The #2 pot has multiple sprouts. I hope I get a lot of ginger in the fall... Only 107 days until fall. (I don't do well with heat).

The second planting of sweet potatoes are not yet up. The first planting has a good start.

Parsley is going to seed and looks a lot like last year's parsley. The leeks are still tiny. The red beets are looking good, as are my first two patches of potatoes. The carrots are still small. My various onions and garlics are doing nicely. The tomatoes look good, but I want to get a few more.

 

Pac— super-dooper moth and butterfly piccies. Stunning, actually. It looks like Marlin dropped by your place for a visit.

Lotsa work in the garden these days. The toms have to be suckered and tied-in almost continuously, planted out some courgettes and papriks’s. Continual clipping or tying in the climbing beans. Harvesting the peas and strawbs. The broad beans are up to my shoulders and have to be stabilised. The Laurier got a serious cutting-back…and of course, weeding, weeding, weeding.
Today we processed the first batch of strawbs— seven pots.

 

Butterflies are very minimal here but there is a thing where populations go down every 7 years. We had a glut of butterflies here in 23 but this year, not very many at all.

Hahaha !! @Pacnorwest I run on solar !!

Not doing one thing in the garden because no sun, just rain.
See I said I run on solar !!

 

In this border i dug up the tulips and planted gladioli that i started in pots, cosmos and Snapdragons.

This is part of it.

 

Loggie— smashing. It is always so pretty there at your place.