What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

Nothing today as it was a golf day. Very pleasant, for much of the time it was "shirt-sleeve order." Did three loads of laundry when I came home. Now watching the tennis on TV. Dinner to get, later.
Quite a bit to do tomorrow. I've still some rails to get to repair the 4ft post and panel fence that separates our drive from that of next door's. The new trellis needs painting. There's more weeding to do and the lawn is, "desperate for a mowing."
I'll probably have to do a bit of shopping too.

 

[Meadowlark]

Today, I thinned out the first planting of okra for this season. Plant spacing is important for Okra production and I'll likely need to thin these once more. I like to keep them a bit dense start with to provide some back-ups/replacements should they become needed due to storms later.

This is Beck's Big Buck Okra,

and a planting of the jambalaya variety will follow later.

Okra is a summer staple around here all the way to first frost.

 

[Sean Regan]

I got quite a bit done today.
Went to Monton Fencing to get the bits for the fence next to our drive. On the way back called in B&Q near the Trafford Centre to see if they had a bit of the trellis I needed. They didn't and I was told it was discontinued!
Then did the grocery shopping.
I also resolved this impending problem in the tea-house.

I don't have more than a couple all day if I'm working in the garden and sometimes none, like today.

Anyway... I got the trellis painted. Including the top beam and the frames.

You can just see part of the pink wisteria, top left-hand corner.

I'm going to repair the end bit, the difference doesn't matter.

It was a pain trying to paint the back around the wisteria blooms.

I then repaired the side fence, it needed new caps and a few batons.

All the houses were built in 1965. We bought it in 1972. That same fence was there at the time!
OK It could do with a paint, but I'm not bothered, it's now as sturdy as ever and "it'll see us out."

These days, you would do well to get more than fifteen years out of a Waneylap fence panel. It looks a bit "up and down" but the reason is because, two panels are over drain covers.

The lawn got the mow it needed. The third of these azaleas is coming out just as the one on the right side is beginning to fade.

Of the twelve roses on this patio, there has to be one that wants to be the first to bloom.

One of the dahlias in the five big pots in the shed is starting to show!

This stuff in the side bed is really rampant now. Here a hosta is trying to get through.

Here it's a peony.

and here a hebee.

The blue wisteria on this pergola is in full bloom, the white is nearly there.

If it's dry tomorrow, I'll give the balustrade of this pergola a coat of paint, before the falling blossom becomes an inconvenience.

 

[gary350]

600 potato plants look good I can't tell they were frost bit 2 weeks ago. Zinnia seeds are always fast to germinate 4 days. None of my, corn, beams, tomato, pepper, melon, cilantro, seeds are germinating. It has been raining 3 days and 5 more days of rain in the forecast. 300 onions are getting larger. 100 Garlic is very large. Blue birds in the blue color houses are very busy feeding babies. It takes mommy & daddy Blue bird 10 seconds to Puke up worms then 5 minutes to find more worms.

 

[oneeye]

I got quite a bit done today.
Went to Monton Fencing to get the bits for the fence next to our drive. On the way back called in B&Q near the Trafford Centre to see if they had a bit of the trellis I needed. They didn't and I was told it was discontinued!
Then did the grocery shopping.
I also resolved this impending problem in the tea-house.

View attachment 108318

I don't have more than a couple all day if I'm working in the garden and sometimes none, like today.

View attachment 108319

Anyway... I got the trellis painted. Including the top beam and the frames.

You can just see part of the pink wisteria, top left-hand corner.

View attachment 108320

I'm going to repair the end bit, the difference doesn't matter.



View attachment 108321

It was a pain trying to paint the back around the wisteria blooms.

View attachment 108322

I then repaired the side fence, it needed new caps and a few batons.

All the houses were built in 1965. We bought it in 1972. That same fence was there at the time!
OK It could do with a paint, but I'm not bothered, it's now as sturdy as ever and "it'll see us out."

These days, you would do well to get more than fifteen years out of a Waneylap fence panel. It looks a bit "up and down" but the reason is because, two panels are over drain covers.


View attachment 108323
View attachment 108324

The lawn got the mow it needed. The third of these azaleas is coming out just as the one on the right side is beginning to fade.

View attachment 108326

Of the twelve roses on this patio, there has to be one that wants to be the first to bloom.

View attachment 108328

One of the dahlias in the five big pots in the shed is starting to show!

View attachment 108329

This stuff in the side bed is really rampant now. Here a hosta is trying to get through.

View attachment 108332

Here it's a peony.

View attachment 108330

and here a hebee.

View attachment 108331


The blue wisteria on this pergola is in full bloom, the white is nearly there.


View attachment 108333

If it's dry tomorrow, I'll give the balustrade of this pergola a coat of paint, before the falling blossom becomes an inconvenience.

How much do you pay your hired help Sean? You should give him a raise because between the both of you, ya'll do a lot of work.

 

[Sean Regan]

How much do you pay your hired help Sean? You should give him a raise because between the both of you, ya'll do a lot of work.

Help?

I've never had any help.

That's a lie, I did once, our youngest son helped me put new felt on the tea-house.
This was fifteen years ago.

I stripped off the old stuff and got it ready.

He rolled the adhesive on whilst I followed on laying the new stuff.

We were both up there for much of the time. As I'd built it, I knew it would take both our weights.

I did the scary bit above the neighbour's greenhouse.

I did the corners, the "fiddly bits" and the skylight.

He had to dash off to tile his mother-in-law's kitchen.

Kids eh?

 

[Meadowlark]

Reference post #5473 in this thread re Buckwheat.

Today, with the stroke of a disc, the Buckwheat in a flash was turned under as green manure. It will be replaced with Sunn Hemp as soon as the harvesting of the spring potato crop on the left in photo and the spring onion crop on the left of the potato row are completed.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Today, with the stroke of a disc, the Buckwheat in a flash was turned under as green manure

you are going to miss machines when it all comes down to containers, is it really going to be easier in old age?

I have been mixing horse manure with things, spoil from old pots, commercial compost, a bit of blood fish and bone, a little wood ash, a bit of Epsom salt, aiming for about 50% manure, filling HK containers (buckets) and planting up tomatoes. Good to see them in their final homes and know from now on it is just watering and fertilising.
Moved everything off the shelf unit I had in the greenhouse and reunited it with the cover that has been in my wardrobe to turn it back into a mini greenhouse, then moved a few things out into it to start making room, the buckets are a lot bigger than the pots the tomatoes were in before, and there are still peppers, cucumbers and chilli to come, so room is needed. They are saying last chance of frost this week, so the salvias and stuff like that will come out and go in the garden soon. Some of the hardier stuff is coming out already. There is a huge patch in the main flower bed that is forget-me-nots, they go mad every winter, look much better than bare earth, and kept the bees busy over the last week or two, the rest of the bed has already had a good coating of compost and manure, ready for all the greenhouse contents and the cosmos etc. that are on the window sill indoors.
Went to Wicks, last day they were offering their compost at £4 a 50 litre bag instead of £6.50. Bought four they will come in handy for those peppers and stuff. I ordered some larger containers, which should arrive soon, for the aubergines, in buckets I was only getting one or two per plant, they are not big enough. I'll see what they are like and might get some more for the sweet peppers if I like them. I have been growing chard and kale in buckets, one plant to each, they have worked very well, and easy to keep the pigeons off, so I am thinking of doing the same with some of the cavalo nero seedlings I potted on yesterday, moving to the larger containers will give me a few buckets over. Watered a lot, including my Malling Champion strawberries which are already setting fruit.
It's all happening out there.

 

[gary350]

Slow rain here every day about 1" per day, beans are coming up before corn and corn is usually up before beans, weird? Potato plants like like they grew 3" taller over night. Zinnias are growing and tomato plants are 3" taller. Melon seeds are NOT germinating I think they need 80°+ temperatures??? My Egyptian walking onions are making babies already I want another 400 of them growing this is a good sweet flavor variety onion.

 

[Sean Regan]

Did a bit of pruning in the front garden.
The two viburnums "battle" for space with the two rhodos and several azaleas. If I left them to their own devices, they would always "win,"and grow far too tall. So they get a good pruning every year.

I also have to prune back the viburnam, rhodo and azaleas, where they grow over our curtilage wall and "try to block the pavement."
The rhodo with the small blooms is already out, the azaleas are starting to come out. The other rhodo will be later.

Our acer tree is at its best, all pink and green foliage and pale green blossom.

I painted the balustrade of this pergola.

It dried before any bits of wisteria blossom could fall on it and spoil the finish

The last of the wisterias is now in bloom. No foliage as yet, just as it should be.

This little acer has nearly filled the gaps caused by me significantly reducing its size.

The tree azaleas are nearly out.

The lawn here is recovering quite well.

 

[Meadowlark]

Several inches of rain overnight saturated my spring onion row necessitating pulling some of the smaller onions to enable better air flow. After pulling, you couldn't even tell a difference in the row...its going to be a bumper crop.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

The last of the wisterias is now in bloom. No foliage as yet, just as it should be.

Did you catch Gardener's World tonight? One of the features was somewhere with a big collection of wisteria cultivars, some were stunning.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

My uncle doing what he does best, working ground!!
We got the cover crops plowed in on the section of ground where I'm going to be planting my corn, but the rain is setting in, so it's going to be a few days before I can spread my organic manure.
All this rain has made my cover crops grow like crazy. It was a job cutting and plowing under.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Got the back lawn cut, used the mowings on my earthed up potatoes, it keeps everything cool and moist below ground, and it will dig in quite well when I harvest. Made supports for the netting over my cabbages, they are starting to grow, and I saw a cabbage white butterfly a little while ago, watered

 

[Sean Regan]

Did you catch Gardener's World tonight? One of the features was somewhere with a big collection of wisteria cultivars, some were stunning.

Thanks for that, I'll check it out on i>Player