What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

Back into the "bamboo forest" at the bottom of our garden again today,and pruned out a lot of dead canes.

I mean a lot, around 100.

I usually do it every year, but didn't last year.

Doesn't look much different, thinner than usual, but it should fill out during the year. Has for the last thirty years.

Not much left of the white quince after I chopped out the dead wood yesterday.

With all three quinces I prune them so the blosssom is restricred to along the top foot and above and the fence.The ptoblem for me is that in a "straight fight" quince will always beat rhodos and azaleas, So I keep the quince branches away from them.

The three wisterias (blue white blue) on the garage pergola have produced more branches that I've trained to cascade. Most are starting to fill out, but I expect one or two may have died off.

The roses are doing well, no sign of blackspot. Gave them all a light quick spray of Sulphur Rose.

 

[Neno Baylov]

Back into the "bamboo forest" at the bottom of our garden again today,and pruned out a lot of dead canes.

I mean a lot, around 100.

View attachment 88337

I usually do it every year, but didn't last year.

Doesn't look much different, thinner than usual, but it should fill out during the year. Has for the last thirty years.

View attachment 88338


Not much left of the white quince after I chopped out the dead wood yesterday.

View attachment 88340

With all three quinces I prune them so the blosssom is restricred to along the top foot and above and the fence.The ptoblem for me is that in a "straight fight" quince will always beat rhodos and azaleas, So I keep the quince branches away from them.

The three wisterias (blue white blue) on the garage pergola have produced more branches that I've trained to cascade. Most are starting to fill out, but I expect one or two may have died off.

View attachment 88341

The roses are doing well, no sign of blackspot. Gave them all a light quick spray of Sulphur Rose.

View attachment 88342

Magnificent garden, very beautiful, well done.

 

[Neno Baylov]

Bulgarian sanitary logging, it is a pity that the state is so corrupt together with part of the people.

 

[Marck]

What is Bulgarian sanitary logging? Is this some type of illegal logging operation?
The photos do appear to show some devastation, but what is the land use history and intention?

 

[Neno Baylov]

Medical felling means removing rotten trees, as we can see from the photos, these are healthy trees. This is a forest that does not bother anyone, that is, there will be no road on earth, for example. Bulgaria has strict rules for deforestation, even if the land is yours, you need permission from local authorities. In this case, the local government violates the law.

 

[Neno Baylov]

It is mainly an acacia forest, also inhabited by many species of birds and mammals. There is a small river nearby, there are also many ancient trees.

 

[Sean Regan]

I guess I was looking for something to do this afternoon after playing golf in the morning.

When we had the koi pool filled in and paved over to create our "rose patio" three years ago. I bought six David Austin roses and six green glazed ceramic pots for them. All the other roses are on plastic pot movers, I bought from Wyevale over a few years.
I wanted six more pot movers but by then they'd become, "made of unobtainium" so I lucked out.
I found six on eBay from China, they looked a better quality, had four castors instead of three, but only available in white. No problem, I could spray them green which I did.

Over time some of the paint had flaked and chipped off, so they looked a bit naff. So I'd decided to spray them green again. I gave them a good scrub and a rub down with wire wool and resprayed them. I looked at the plastic ones and they were a variety of shades of green, caused the action of the sun, depending on where they were on the patios. So I did those too, another eleven of them!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I was out all day, got back late and thought 'I will just plant a row of carrots'. Picked up the seed packet, but the small packet of seed itself was missing from it. Searched everywhere, finally found them in the back pocket of my jeans on the washing line, very wet. I don't know if the temp and detergent will affect them, but I planted them anyway. They tended to stick together, so I will have a few clumps of seedlings to separate if they do still work.
Not an over productive day, but the surgeon who removed my eye said the socket was "As good as he could possibly expect." which was a good start to the day.

 

[Marck]

Medical felling means removing rotten trees, as we can see from the photos, these are healthy trees. This is a forest that does not bother anyone, that is, there will be no road on earth, for example. Bulgaria has strict rules for deforestation, even if the land is yours, you need permission from local authorities. In this case, the local government violates the law.

Interesting. So this is a public woodland. I suppose another case of th e'Tragedy of th eCommons'.
By Acacia, I think you mean False-acacia or Black-locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), which is actually a tree native to eastern North America. However non-native species can still have wildlife value and serve ecological roles. Robinia pseudoacacia is also a Nitrogen-fixing legume.

 

[Neno Baylov]

Interesting. So this is a public woodland. I suppose another case of th e'Tragedy of th eCommons'.
By Acacia, I think you mean False-acacia or Black-locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), which is actually a tree native to eastern North America. However non-native species can still have wildlife value and serve ecological roles. Robinia pseudoacacia is also a Nitrogen-fixing legume.

Yes, it was introduced in Bulgaria a long time ago and now there are many young heroes of this tree who have become a local species.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

There was a book years ago called "The Gentle art of Monkeywrenching" which was mainly about ways to stop and hinder illegal logging, such as removing surveying posts for logging roads and driving large nails into trees where they would be sawn, or taking out some of the oil of machines and replacing with water, leaving oil on top to dip. Hmmm.

However non-native species can still have wildlife value and serve ecological roles.

This is so true, it is difficult to tell exactly which trees are native in Britain, people have been importing them so long. The Romans probably brought poplars two thousand years ago for example, probably partly because they are so useful to bees. On a rough estimate about 35 of the 350 trees which grow naturally here are native, conifers it is only Yew, Juniper and Scots pine.

 

[Sean Regan]

Seventeen years ago at the age of 65, on my own, (my wife said I was daft to do it then, but I enjoy a cjhallenge) I errected a run of concrete posts and six, six ft tall panel fence, between the side of the shed and the end of the garden between our garden and next door's. Over time some panels has been "attacked and eaten" by next door's ivy. It was forever growing through thwe panels. So several panels had rotted and one was in very poor condition. My neighbour had purchased one panel this week but was unable to put it in.

Anyway, I've got him to agree for us to replace all six panels, share the cost and he get rid of the ivy. I wouldn't have wanted to know if he weren't going to get rid of the ivy.

I've a system for putting these panels in, which requires two people, but no ladders.
You do need at least a six foot space in front of the panel. Not possible from his side because of his trees.
Our wisteria is seven feet tall in place and I didn't want it damaged, but as it's supported by rows of lateral wires stretched between the concrete posts, I was able to lower the tops to below six feet.

To errect the panel, you need to screw a big "eye" into the middle of the top rail of the new panel and have a six foot stout pole with a hook in the end. You attach the pole to the eye in the panel. The pair of you then lift the panel horizontally and rest the bottom end on the top of the slots. The pole will then support the panel in the horizontal position. One person then steadies one side of the panel keeping the end corner above the slot on that side. The other person can then start to raise the panel with the pole until it's nearly vertical. At this time the bottom will start to slide down the slots. As it's attached to the pole it shouldn't fall into the other garden (unless you let go). The nearer vertical you get it the faster it will slide down the slots.
It's important to make sure the panel will fit in the slots, as over time some times the posts will move slightly. This is what has happened here as the roots of the trees, next door has raised a couple of the posts about two inches. But in our case a crowbar between the panel and the top of a slot and my lump hammer was enough to get it to slide in.

The other five panels are coming tomorrow or Friday.

We can only put two more panels in that way as our summer house is in the way for two at one end and our shed, in the way of one at the other end. But we can manage those, as I can stand on the roofs of each and my neighbour can push the panels up to me using the pole method. The panels are not that heavy.

Once finished I can re-hang the wisteria.

 

[dirtdigs]

Had a few days last week to get out and play, now not so much as the last "hopefully" cold snap goes thru.

Did add some left-over leaves to my tulips who appear more ready than I am to get out and going.

Thumbs up to those who are already out and kicking up the dirt

 

[Meadowlark]

The weather has improved 100% with what looks like the last frost front gone from here.

Today planted my trellis of beans...each trellis panel is 16 ft long and there are 5 total panels with 2 Kentucky/Blue, 1 1500-year-old, 1 Seychelles, and 1 bingo. Tomorrow will plant 5 rows of corn.

 

[Sean Regan]

Not a lot as it was a golf day, but I did change all the lateral wires that support the wisteria on the fence between the shed and the tea- house. I've used much heavier guage wire. The old ones were all a bit of a mess, as I'd added several over the years. Now there four at about a foot apart between all the posts and I'll be able to use fewer ties of the same wire to connect the branches. Once the new panels are in, I can raise it all by a foot or so.
My neighbour has a hell of a lot of ivy to clear before we can get at them.

I've ordered another trail camera and a 6v adapter, so I can keep one focused on the patio and the other on the back of the shed to cover the back of the garden.