Today I did something in my Garden

blackbox · 25-06-2018 9:35pm #1

In the car maintenance forum there is a popular thread called "Today I did something to my car"

I'm proposing a similar thread for gardening that the mods might consider making a sticky! Please give a THANKS if you think this is a good idea.

I'll kick it of with:

Today I picked my redcurrants. They seem to have been early this year. They mostly ripen together but I will get a handful more over the next week. I have a small bush in a dodgy location but I got a couple of hundred grams that will make some nice jelly.

macraignil · 25-06-2018 11:08pm

Just a little bit of weeding and watering today. Distracted by world cup after work so not a great job made with either. Storing up some energy for rescuing a new hedge from undergrowth tomorrow.

Harry Palmr · 25-06-2018 11:12pm

I watered the tomato plant, that will be the only entry on most days this summer

jellybear · 25-06-2018 11:15pm

Did a bit of dead heading and watering. Waited till this evening as it was so hot out today!

milout · 26-06-2018 9:35am

Looked at the grass, cursed at having so much of it, decided it was to hot to mow.

Did treat the recently planted magnolia to a water though.

ShiverinEskimo · 26-06-2018 9:50am

Today I watered the 5 horse chestnut trees I replanted after growing them from Conkers that came off a 140 year old tree in my Mam's garden.

I have a human child that doesn't get the same level of care and attention.

magicbastarder · 26-06-2018 10:16am

tried digging up the first of the garlic as they've been yellowing a bit for a week or two. disappointingly small.

Wheety · 26-06-2018 2:50pm

The stormy weather recently knocked the only apples off my tree. I hadn't been keeping on eye on it because of that.

Checked at the weekend and there were a lot of aphids and ants. I mean a lot. Some branches were covered near the tip. I took a spray bottle and my hands and sprayed and squashed all of them. Dyed my hands green doing it. I think it was a mixture of aphids and the leaves. Very hard to clean it off.

Is this where 'green fingers' came from?

Wyldwood · 26-06-2018 10:48pm

Took photos of all my borders so I'll remember where I need to plant stuff in the autumn.

lordgoat · 27-06-2018 8:31am

Watered everything.
Picked the ripe black currants and strawberries.
Weeded.

Today I'll do the above but also...
eat the first peas of the year!

blackbox · 27-06-2018 5:14pm

Today I hacked back a load of blackthorn that would routinely scrape me while mowing the grass.

It didn't give up without drawing blood - my forearms are in shreds!

I also watered my apple tree - its leaves look a bit grey (mildew?). Probably a waste of time

27-06-2018 5:39pm

Today my daughter shouted with delight, "Theres apples on the tree!".

Must have been about 12+ years ago when my first daughter and myself planted some pips from apples we were eating. We planted them in paper cups and watched the seedlings appear, and then we repotted them when they were bigger.

Then we moved house 11 years ago and we planted them in the garden.

And today we discovered there were little apples growing. One of those amazing moments that money could never buy. It's been a great day in our garden!

milout · 01-07-2018 12:53am

Unboxed and assembled my new garden hose, admired it briefly then popped it into the garage until it rains again.

I'm winning at this gardening business.

Gingermac · 01-07-2018 10:38pm

Planted some new fruit trees, dead headed the roses, thought about a new border...resisted buying a lot of plants I do not need, but would love, at the local garden centre.

ShiverinEskimo · 02-07-2018 7:39am

Tried to save a plant by cutting off all its half dead flowers.

scarepanda · 03-07-2018 7:21pm

I pulled and chopped out weeds from my new wildflower border type bed. It looks all airy now, less full looking, but the flowers stand out a bit more.

byhookorbycrook · 03-07-2018 7:27pm

Wheety wrote: »

I took a spray bottle and my hands and sprayed and squashed all of them. Dyed my hands green doing it. I think it was a mixture of aphids and the leaves. Very hard to clean it off.

Is this where 'green fingers' came from?

I've been having the same problem with squashing the tiny red spider mite type thingies!
Pulled the scallions and a lot of the beetroot as we are going to be away for a bit and they will have bolted otherwise.

Lumen · 04-07-2018 8:46pm

Finally got to use my chainsaw for the first time.

Now there's one less Cordyline in the world. And space for my shed build. Woohoo!

magicbastarder · 04-07-2018 9:46pm

you going to dig the root out?
i think it was a cordyline i dug up (had been killed back to ground level by the bad winter in 2010), but had started to sprout again when we bought out place. was a massive tap root on it - looked like a 3 foot long parsnip, about a foot wide at the widest.

Lumen · 04-07-2018 11:24pm

No, I was just going to cut it down to ground level as the shed is going to sit up on ground screws.

Didn't realise they can regenerate. Maybe I should treat the stump.

macraignil · 04-07-2018 11:48pm

Lumen wrote: »

No, I was just going to cut it down to ground level as the shed is going to sit up on ground screws.

Didn't realise they can regenerate. Maybe I should treat the stump.

Definitely seen Cordyline resprout again from the ground after being cut down and knocked over. There is a really nice one just outside the front door of my aunts house and it is great to see it flower in the summer so close to the house. Might not be a bad thing if it respouts near the shed as you would not have any foundations to worry about, but I guess it depends on weather the stump is directly under the shed or just near to it.

Lumen · 05-07-2018 9:24am

macraignil wrote: »

I guess it depends on whether the stump is directly under the shed or just near to it.

Yeah, right under, dead centre.

Brushwood killer on the stump?

macraignil · 05-07-2018 10:01am

Lumen wrote: »

Yeah, right under, dead centre.

Brushwood killer on the stump?

I read before the best approach was to drill a few holes in the centre of the stump and add caustic soda.

Lumen · 05-07-2018 10:03am

macraignil wrote: »

I read before the best approach was to drill a few holes in the centre of the stump and add caustic soda.

Ah. I just realised I have an open bag of hydrated lime I used to repair the driveway. If it works on corpses it ought to work on tree stumps, right?

edit: further research suggests that lime delays decay, so presumably bad people use it stop animals digging up the bodies.

bobbyss · 05-07-2018 8:39pm

Got down on my hands and knees and pulled wild growth and weeds. The following morning I was full of aches and pains. I always overdo things. A little often but never can do.

jellybear · 05-07-2018 9:56pm

A bit of dead heading and swept the patio. It's amazing how many cobwebs build up and all the leaves and petals that get stuck in them!! Washed down the garden furniture too

With a bucket and cloth, not a hose!!:D

ShiverinEskimo · 06-07-2018 7:04am

Just pulled a load of long grass within cages surrounding a couple of trees and shrubs I have to protect from my dog. Hateful job. Cages too small to get in with the strimmer and the grass has enveloped the bottom of the cages meaning they wont lift out without bending and buckling.

Like and idiot I sliced the base of my thumb with the secateurs while I was at it and all. Bad start to the day.

magicbastarder · 06-07-2018 7:49am

sieved some compost from the compost bin yesterday - had dug it out and left it stand in the shade for a day or two to allow the worms to escape. was a little disheartening to see how many teabags i had to pull out of it. far more plastic in them than i'd suspected, obviously.

Roen · 06-07-2018 8:06am

magicbastarder wrote: »

sieved some compost from the compost bin yesterday - had dug it out and left it stand in the shade for a day or two to allow the worms to escape. was a little disheartening to see how many teabags i had to pull out of it. far more plastic in them than i'd suspected, obviously.

There was a list going that had who uses what in their teabags. I think Pukka had fully compostable bags. Most of them use polypropylene in the mesh.
Fecked if I can find it.

AndyBoBandy · 06-07-2018 8:13am

Installed Philips Hue Smart lights in my garden.
Philips have just released a new outdoor range of their popular smart lights. I installed 5 of the ‘Lily’ spots.

The lights are fully controllable from smart phones as well as wireless sensors & dimmer switches, and go through all colours as well as warm to cold whites.

Im still playing around with placement to give the best effect, but so far I’m really impressed, photos don’t do them nearly enough justice.

blackbox · 07-07-2018 8:16am

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

Just pulled a load of long grass within cages surrounding a couple of trees and shrubs I have to protect from my dog. Hateful job. Cages too small to get in with the strimmer and the grass has enveloped the bottom of the cages meaning they wont lift out without bending and buckling.

Like and idiot I sliced the base of my thumb with the secateurs while I was at it and all. Bad start to the day.

I have similar issues with my cages that protect young trees from the deer.

I hope that cut heals up quickly - nasty spot to get it.

blackbox · 07-07-2018 12:10pm

Today I picked a cherry - yes, just one cherry.

I have a few wild cherry trees around the garden and I have never had any cherries on them before, but this year one of them has a fair few.

Most of them are still green but I spotted one red one and got out a stepladder so that I could get it before the birds (I guess there's a reason people call them Bird Cherries).

Anyway, it was only about 10mm in diameter and even though juicy was quite sour. If I can get a decent few over the next few weeks I hope to cook them (with plenty of sugar!).

jellybear · 15-07-2018 3:56pm

Didn't get anything done in the garden due to the (much needed) rain but we went to the rose festival in St Anne's and I got these beauties

finla · 20-07-2018 11:48pm

Today I harvested french beans and planted my third lot of beetroot! Also deadheading and more deadheading...and put out a plate of water for the birds but they don't seem too interested...!

magicbastarder · 07-10-2018 5:52pm

got the garlic in the ground today; earliest i've ever planted it, it's usually around december i get it in.
50 cloves of garlic and 6 of elephant garlic - knowingly making a mistake in that it's the same ground we've grown garlic in for the last four years or so.

macraignil · 07-10-2018 6:12pm

Most of the day chopping wood to put in the garage to dry a bit more before being used to keep the stove going over the next few months. Also picked some autumn fruiting raspberry and ate some of the grapes in the polly-tunnel. Also harvested a courgette and picked a few weeds. Planted some garlic last week as would usually try to plant it about this time of year. Actually have one garlic plant I forgot about flowering at the moment.

magicbastarder · 07-10-2018 6:24pm

that garlic has quite thin leaves, does it?

macraignil · 07-10-2018 6:53pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

that garlic has quite thin leaves, does it?

I suppose it does. It's probably a full bulb of garlic cloves growing in the one spot since it was never harvested.

magicbastarder · 07-10-2018 7:19pm

one issue i have in my garden is i've a little woodland section, and a friend gave me a load of wild garlic bulbs to plant in it.
unfortunately, they were three cornered leek rather than actual wild garlic. the taste is a little too bland for me, but they're not easy to eradicate.

blackbox · 07-10-2018 10:45pm

I spent an hour harvesting walnuts. I was like a kid lobbing a log up at the tree. Something is competing for them - I suspect squirrels, but I haven't seen any.

There is a huge crop this year - I actually have no idea what I will do with them all.

magicbastarder · 07-10-2018 11:04pm

how old are the trees?

blackbox · 09-10-2018 10:16pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

how old are the trees?

Only one tree. I planted it about 20 - 25 years ago. It has had a few nuts a couple of years ago. None at all last year.

ShiverinEskimo · 11-10-2018 2:03pm

Yesterday was the long but satisfying task of mowing, scarifying, aerating and mowing again of the entire lawn (~0.4 acre).

It was an interesting year for the lawn. At the end of the drought period I thought I'd have to start over - thought it wouldn't recover. I took the opportunity to spray selective weedkiller as the only things thriving were the docks, thistles and dandelions while the grass was dying away. Fast forward a few months after a couple of rainy months and a good dose of lawn fertilizer and it has never looked better and more weed-free.

The selective weed-killer devastated the weeds and the grass recovered so well it seems to have filled in around the weeds. A conscious decision to raise the lawn mower and leave it raised for the rest of the season after the drought worked wonders too I think. Yesterday was the first time I scarified and aerated the lawn after 4 years of laying it. Fingers crossed that will only improve things for the spring.

Harry Palmr · 18-11-2018 7:21pm

Pulled down the Tigerella tomato teepee, chopped the stem and fruit into the ground and re-potted a spring graft apple tree m26 + Bewleys (Knights Tem) into one of the determinate variety tomato pots I had in the front room. I have no plausible spot for said tree so someone will be getting a 'gift' at some point!

magicbastarder · 02-05-2019 10:08pm

anyone else here dealing with a mad profusion of robin run the hedge/cleavers/goosegrass?
we have a plague of it this year; i don't know if it's been the weather conditions we've had this year, or the weather conditions last year was perfect for it setting seed, but i've pulled a huge amount up this evening. and my forearms look like i've had an allergic reaction (not actually the case) with all the tiny little scratches i picked up for my efforts.

Roen · 02-05-2019 10:18pm

Sticky backs as we call them ^^. Yep. Rampant this year compared to the last three I'm in the house.

Today I sawed up the willow that fell last weekend in the wind, used some of its branches to plug gaps in the ditch and piled the rest up on the compost heap.

The wood will be used for outdoors burning in the fire pit. Not going near the stove.

magicbastarder · 02-05-2019 10:58pm

my next job, probably tomorrow, is yanking up the three cornered leek in the back garden. i was given it by someone who told me it was wild garlic (and it is, according to some people) but it's not the real thing, and it really needs to be knocked back.

Truckermal · 04-05-2019 10:11pm

I started digging this earlier today and whilst it's not finished the plant's only cost €350 I have a lot more work to do!

Lumen · 05-05-2019 6:53am

Truckermal wrote: »

the plant's only cost €350

:eek:

paddylonglegs · 05-05-2019 7:15am

Removing dead pampas grass - I would prefer to serve a prison sentence.....

I killed it off a few months ago, let it die back, cut as much with a hedge trimmer as possible, now going at the rest of it with a pick axe.

Any other tips welcome, can’t wait to see the back of it

longgonesilver · 05-05-2019 8:01am

I have seen pampas being burned, even when still wanted to reduce the size of the crown. Crowbar with a stone for a fulcrum would be my best option

Today I did something in my Garden

Comments