What did you do in your garden today?

Sean Regan

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Just a general check around it's sunny and +10c.

My only concern is our one resident hedgehog and whether it survived the very low temperatures last week.
Its house is protects by the fence surounding the azaleas to the side of the main patio. Only small birds and hedgehogs can get through it.
The house is up on small feet on a paving slab and there's a block of polystyrene under the floor to provide some insulation. It had plenty of hay in the sleeping area.
There's an extra oversize roof on top which protects the entrance from rain.

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There's hay that's blocking the inner doorway, which will prevent draughts. That's all we can do.
It would be unwise to check on it. We'll just have to wait until late March to know if it survived. There's always peanuts and suet pellets I leave for the birds and squirrels in a big plastic saucer a couple of yards away, so if it comes out fo a short time as they sometimes do in the winter, it'll find it.


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Meadowlark

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...
Around here we never pull the turnips until their is a good frost in the ground.. makes them taste much better.. sweeter.
We have had several days of subfreezing temps over the last two weeks...a good time to test out the "sweeter" theory @Heirloom farmer1969 , @pepper2.0, and I discussed.

Its anecdotal, but these turnips I harvested today definitely have a sweeter taste than those previous to the freezes. I'm voting in favor of the theory.

turnips post freeze.JPG
 

Oliver Buckle

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The snow has gone, but it is not very inviting out there. Put first potatoes to chit, Charlotte and Pentland Javelin, planted some seed for propagator, moneymaker and bush tomatoes and leeks. Took out the onions that have started sprouting, I'll give them a bit of time to adjust to the temp change before I pot them on. Potted on the very early tomatoes I did, then the cat walked through them :) There are about a dozen of them and I will only keep the best two or three, so it's okay.
 

Sean Regan

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Nothing today, although it was dry.
I've hade to replace a hose nozzle for the one on the reel on the side of the shed. It was plastic and they don't always survive being dropped. This one had a tiny but irritating leak. There's never much of a variety in the sheds or garden centres and I didn't want another plastic one.

Huge choice on eBay.

Settled for this metal one. £9.62 with free postage.
s-l1600.jpg
 

Oliver Buckle

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filled my bird feeders and suet containers.
Went down to 'Feathers', our local specialist bird food shop and they had completely sold out of bird seed, even the 50lb sacks they usually have on pallets in the centre of the shop. They are going to have to make do with sunflower hearts, peanuts and fat balls for the moment, it's a hard life :)
It feels cold enough to snow, I started to pot on some onions that had been in the greenhouse a while, but my hands started giving up and I thought 'This isn't good for them or me'. Put some chilli seeds and some lettuce in the propagator indoors.
 

Meadowlark

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Too cold for taking a picture of the harvest today...but harvested broccoli, cabbage, and kale prior to temps plunging to 18 deg F tonight. Birds going crazy and can hardly keep them in seed in their feeders.
 

Sean Regan

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My new hose nozzle arrived today. It's all metal except for the trigger and the eight position rose. It's well made and quite heavy. Well worth the money.
 

Oliver Buckle

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Spent most of the day indoors, but went out late and turned over a bit where I had spread manure. Robin was there instantly, like, "Where have you been all day, it's almost dark and I'm cold and starving." This is at the far end of the garden, I think it is a different robin there, the other and his missus have been around the bird table all day. There was a jay under the bird feeders picking up bits, animal behaviour has changed, when I was a boy we often found jay feathers with the blue streak, and heard them in the orchards, but never saw them, much too shy. Same with badgers, as a boy I was told to avoid one wood because badgers lived there. Then they would desert a wood if humans walked through it, but now they forage around the bird table fifty feet from the house and have a well worn track from hedge to hedge where they cross our garden to next door either side.
Chris Packham on 'Winter watch' tonight was enthusing about a bit of rewilding where he saw badger, fox, and deer, he should come round our close, badger and fox in the back garden and deer prints in the snow in the front.
 

Sean Regan

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I'll really have nothing much to do until February.

I've then got to think about the hedgehogs. We've only one in residence. I hope it survives the winter. The other two houses are presently in the shed.

I need to get a paving slab for this one. It was sitting on bricks. The posts and wire is to prevent any visiting cats, or a fox, getting at the food.

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I'm also going to move the one that sits on these slabs, further up the garden, a bit closer to the house, it's probably a bit too exposed here for them.

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I also need to make a new feeder, as this one has a split in the roof.

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I'll be able to re-use the entrance I made.
 

gary350

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This morning 7 am it was 20° garden cabbage heads feel very hard. 2:30 pm it was 51° garden cabbage heads feel like wet toilet paper. Cabbage did not like 4° we had 2 days ago. Maybe I should have covered heads with 5 gallon buckets?
 

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