What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

Lawn cutting and planting today. Brilliant but it is breezy.
Never mind Upsy, you can claim all the strawberries when they fruit
Going to a new nursery later ...new to me as I have never been there before. Always looking for something unusual

 

Do you know @Verdun I have 15 strawberry plants of my own.....and they aren't even one of my favourite fruits!!!!
Much prefer Raspberries...mmmm yum!

 

Wish I could start mowing the lawn. I was willing....but the mower had other ideas. Saturday afternoon not a good time to try to contact repairers.... :-(

 

Last year I bought 4 cheap Easter buckets. 2 of them I used with a his and hers (blue and pink) hyacinth I bought cheap. This year's crop are from a packet of mixed bulbs my wife bought me for xmas. When they have finished flowering they will go back outside.



Whilst weeding I came across this. I haven't noticed it before. It looks to me like some kind of muscari. Its growing under a deciduous tree amongst snowdrops and daffodils. If its something worth keeping I will make use of it. Any thoughts?

G.

 

Pricked out tiny Lithops, Titanopsis and Agave seedlings, how could one ever survive without dessert forks!!? It was becoming a bit of a hassle to control the moisture in the seed tray so the job had to be done.

Potted my eBay purchase of 12 Semprevivums and 4 Sedum Blue Carpet in peat pots waiting for their unbelievably stunning hand made containers which at the moment are a 12kg bag of air dry clay in the corner. Some pottery is called for tonight. I might have overdone the Semps a bit, all the plants look very healthy and ready to start some serious clump forming. But how can one resist? Link to the eBay listing 12 of those plus the rather happy looking seedlings sown in January, to add to the existing collection suddenly seems a tad too much considering the size of our suburban garden.

Oh, and all 7 overwintered Dahlias have sprouted on the windowsill, plus the new one that wormed it's way into my shopping basket. Thankfully a friend has asked me to take a look at her "easy to maintain" garden, I hope I can dump the excess there with a good grace.

Hardening off hardier seedlings to blowaway greenhouse is in full swing, next week the night temperatures should stay around 5C. Back-and-forth, back-and-forth for now.

Now off to dig out some weeds and servicing the raspberries. It's sunny and nice

 

Mowed the lawns,checked on the little green kidlings in the Greenhouse and did much watering.
I have never had to water containers of Tulips before in these parts ..The world has gone nuts.

 

It's taken me all week but I've finally reached a point where I can move on to the next stage. The biggest problem was the tree roots that stick out from underneath the cage. I undermined them the best I could and re buried them. Hopefully they will continue to grow downward rather than outwards. I will have the same problem (possibly worse) when I excavate the earth around the corner but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. The green circle at the end is where I'm going to locate my obelisk. Now I have 2 sides and 2 ends marked, I can start back filling soil up to the required level to lay the membrane. For aesthetics reasons only I intend to lay membrane and part gravel this section before I move on to the side section.

G.

 

I've been working really hard tearing down the old filter room. Five hours yesterday, eight hours today.


Koi Pool Close Down

 

Cut the grass this morning. The weather was bracing to say the least ! The petrol strimmer kept cutting out on me which was strange as it was working fine on last years fuel and today it was filled with fresh fuel.

Then potted on a load of tomatoes and chillies which has filled the benches up. Next job is to plant some more seeds.

 

Its a quiet week for work so we've decided to work in the garden and check on work stuff when we have a cuppa.

Moved two big Brugmansias out of the tunnel and into position. Started to move agaves out into the garden - 8 out, more to follow. Split an agave that was totally pot bound but seemed to enjoy it that way. Thats given me another 10 pups to plant up. Arid bed is taking shape with a few agaves planted - just need to lift the tulips and daffs from the bed when they've done flowering.

Tunnel is now emptying, ready for the fruit and veg to be put into position.

 

Been pottering before driving over to be with mum for Easter...

Grass cut; turf from geranium bed extension moved to make a soil bank on the steep part of the slope; final dogwood planted in the geranium bed extension; “spent” hyacinths planted around it; 20 violet plants planted out; 20 pansy plants planted out; oleander moved into its final position; first sowing of mangetout peas planted in veg bed (in cloche); pond topped up (has our summer drought started already?), and a cuppa drunk by the pond, as the tadpoles were admired.

 

Wow you've been busy @Sian in Belgium !!!!

 

The potatoes in bags, Lettuce, peonies, beetroot, sunflowers and some others are through, just need the other beds to shoot through. Also find my labels as I tidied them up but can’t remember the safe place I put them in.
I have fitted a misting system to water them from the butt pump on a timer, much less waste and I can position the misters where I want, I have enough left to go down the other side as well. Cost so far is under £15.
The new beds in the poly tunnel are working well and are easier to maintain.
The back breaking part on the other side is ongoing I am sieving down to 6” and will cover with plastic to suppress weeds, they’ll never disappear will they, but when done I will build another 3 beds but not as tall to use for more veg.

Mower told me it wants a new drive belt as it kept coming off, when I tightened the already shredded belt it smoked, just waiting for a new one to come.