What did you do in your garden today?

[Esther Knapicius]

More snow fell Wednesday over night. so just making sure prior that the bird feeders were all full. and shovels ready to grab.

 

[Don Perry]

The onions I planted in the raised planter inside the green house are frozen. The soil is hard as a rock and that is with a space heater, It's only 20 onion sets but maybe they will thaw out. who knows? Onions are pretty hardy. it is 15f here this morning. Not expected to get above 32 for another week. This is some of that global warming 'stuff'.

 

[Sean Regan]

Yesterday I unsuccessfuly attempted to repair several fine cracks in our stone bird bath, with silicone, a result of frost damage.
So we needed a new one. Instead of traipsing around garden centres if they were open, looking for another. I ordered one on eBay of the same size and of a similar shape. The supplier says they are "frost proof." It was seventy-two quid but it included delivery, so I thought it was worth it. It'll arrive next week.

 

[Logan]

I only water the potted plants and the plants along the side of the path in the front garden when it's really dry weather.

 

[Logan]

Today pricked out the chilli seedlings.

 

[Tess]

Today we got some cedar planks milled by a friend of ours. We are preparing to make raised garden beds with copper tubing tops (that tip was from Logan!) We also sourced some top soil.

 

[Sean Regan]

Too wet to do anything today, but checked out the mimosa in the big tub on the patio. It had one or two leaves affected by frost in the past week, but the blooms are perfect and coming out.

I thought it was late this year, but I checked this photos from 25th February last year and found that it isn't.

 

[Andrew_]

Tried (and failed) to get this tree stump out today. My arms are going to hurt tomorrow

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I had a bit more success, managed to get the stump of a Quince tree that I have been attacking for a while out. When we moved in here there were two quince trees. One, nice, two, excessive.

 

[marlingardener]

Andrew, this may or may not help. We get rid of stumps by putting charcoal embers on them. The stump slowly burns out without endangering anything around it When we finish grilling, we let the charcoal cool a bit, then transfer the remaining bits of charcoal to a stump. Sometimes it takes a few hours, so we do it when we can keep an eye on the stump, and have a bucket or two of water handy in case it is needed. The water has not been needed so far.
I hope your arms don't hurt too much. I've found that a glass or two of wine is a pain killer

 

[Andrew_]

Interesting. Will consider it. Half of it rotted away so was easy but the rest just wouldn't budge. Well it was budging enough to give me false hope.

If you look top left of the pic there's another 2 smaller stumps. On one hand should be easier, but they are so close to the fence and electric cable, may prove just as difficult.

 

[Logan]

Nothing today it's been going to rain again at 10am maybe.

 

[Tetters]

@Andrew_ , another method of stump removal we have used involves drilling a few nice fat holes in the stump and packing them out with Epsom salts. Cover with black plastic and tie down. Leave in place for several months and the stump will rot.
The Epsom salts are great for the plants surrounding the stump, but an overdose will rot the stump out.
For one particularly big stump though we have used a similar method to the one @marlingardener has explained - good luck, and watch those hangovers

 

[Sean Regan]

Did a couple of hours or so in it today. Mostly clearing more dead leaves and loose moss that's the birds have chucked out of the gutters.
Really need to get more dead bamboo leaves out from between the stems in front of the back fence, but that's a hands and knees job, not for today.
At some time I'm going to have to jet-wash the patio, it's beyond a bit of "Wet n' forget" treatment. I'll wait until it's a bit warmer.

This amount of time in the garden means I can turn on my jukeboxes, I select 30 sides on one, then when they've played through, 30 on the other. I do play a couple of sides on each, twice a week during the winter, but they need a good "blow out" every couple of weeks or so, it keeps the mechanism and switches from stiffening up. They were built for heavy use.

 

[Andrew_]

Managed to get the other 2 stumps out pretty easily. So cleared the bed and put some manure down ready for planting in a few weeks.

The garden is in an absolute mess atm. When lockdown is over and I can have people round to help clear it, will take days. There's a half knocked down wall, a pillar, what I think used to be a waterfall near the pound, 1000 odd bricks, pile of concrete pieces, pile of branches and a few more trees to take out.