It was 92°F yesterday, and I went out to water my plants, but the hose broke at the base, splattering water everywhere except where I needed it. I do not drive, so I could no longer run to the store for a new one. I ended up carrying water to each plant. I was exhausted. My neighbor took me to get a new hose that evening.
I now have my plums on give-away. I have made 12 lb of jam, taken some to work, given away 2 bucket loads to charity jam makers, and now have a box on the street by the front door for people to help themselves. And there is as much to come again in a week or so! All from one tree….
Not a lot done today, just watered pots out the front of the house and looked gloomily at weeds in the back lawn. Mr Cheery and I need to have a chat about those tomorrow. I was thinking of poison, but maybe we can use the weed burner instead.
Had a chat this morning with Mr Cheery and the decision was made to put put a combined fertiliser and weed mix onto the grass front and back. Any weeds that haven't died in a couple of weeks will get their own "special attention".
Before Mr Cheery started on that job, I walked one of the cats and gave the pots in the back garden and the garden beds a good drink and also raked some leaves for the green bin. He then got started on treating the grass and as he had also decided to do the front lawn, I raced out there and began raking up all the leaves that have been sitting there for the last week or so.
Mr Cheery finished the back lawn before I completed the raking of the front, he brought our green bin from back to front and cleaned up the pile of leaves I'd created, whilst I kept raking I find it takes several repeated goes to get all the leaves cleaned up. I then went inside for a tea, whilst he gave the front lawn the treatment. With any luck that will give us a good head start on getting the garden looking nice for springtime.
Tomorrow I might start cleaning up some pots of weeds and try to work out how many pots I have that need seedlings planted in the run up to (dare I say Christmas.
Went out at lunchtime to a local house that was doing a "Secret Garden" event. The lady there is Japanese, so there was Japanese food and local organic wine, and we all got to have a look around their garden.
The previous owners had an allotment out the back, and the chap grew a lot of good veg.
This has all gone now, replaced by curving flower beds planted up with plants and flowers with a literary theme - so Jane Austen roses, and Lady of Shallot (the chap said: "Roses are easy to find with literary names.") One plant is called Bertrand Russell, and there's a little bush called Tom Thumb.
I ended up sitting on a bench next to their camomile lawn (by Mary Wesley), and realised that some of the wildflower seeds I sowed in my own garden had come up after all, because some of them are camomile!
That outing sounds really delightful @Eigon. Did you have to pay a donation to view the garden?
I had a trip to the garden centre this morning and saw there were some pink lady apple trees reduced to fifty dollars. I was very tempted, but I noticed Cheery husband skirted right by them as we were leaving. Perhaps it was his sore feet, but I suspect he thought they were not for us!
Yesterday I planted a pot with 3 small white daisies with yellow centres and filled the gaps with some violas which are pale purple and yellow. I'm looking forward to them growing and filling the pot.
I was on the look out for some petunias at the local garden centre, and they did have some, but not the plain red ones that I was after. I did buy a small punnet of white ones, which I have planted in a blue pot and I think they should look nice once established.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for the plain red petunias and some additional white ones, to plant out for Christmas.
Oh dear, @Sandemaniac, what damage has Bill been doing?
I don't have any hellebores in my garden @Boogie, so I'm always looking at them in catalogues and at garden centres. The seem expensive here too! Washing the mini greenhouse sounds like some planting is about to occur, nice!
I was going to water my pots today, but it's a bit breezy. I think I might leave it until tomorrow.
Oh dear, @Sandemaniac, what damage has Bill been doing?
Bill has been digging holes- initially probably after our bulbs, which isn't great, but has now progressed on to having a good rummage anywhere the ground has been disturbed. Which means anywhere I've cleared something out or planted something, a number of things have had to be put back and laced with extra hot chilli powder.
I can't see any obvious damage this morning so hopefully he's moved on. I suspect it was he who pushed the parapet of the pond over as the plastic ball that lives in there is currently in a far corner of the garden.
I was surprised how well our allotment looks, we've weeded a bit, taken out old stuff such as French beans. Of course, many things are going over, e.g., herbs and roses. The grapes are getting big, still a bit sour. And there is an inspection in November, how marvelous.
I think you feel about your allotment inspection, the way I used to feel about house inspections before we bought our own home. Yuck, yuck, yuck!
Cheery husband did a bit more vege patch weeding and planted some seeds at the weekend. He discovered that he had several packets of bean seeds, so planted them all as well as some dwarf virginia stock. A bit of a cottage garden going on there!! I didn't dare say that though, as he's not a fan of cottage gardens, but I love them!!
I'm just debating whether to water my potplants, rain is due, so perhaps I'll just do those under the eaves today and if the rain doesn't eventuate, or is very light I'll do the rest tomorrow.
Things are looking pretty good though, the grape hyacinths and spring star flowers are all out, camellias are finishing, but looking nice. The star jasmine has been cut back (yes, we are way late with that) and looks very tidy rather than something trying to grab you with it's tentacles. The daphne are finishing and I'm looking forward to tidying those up with a good trim.
Something odd happened to one of our hollyhocks. It is actually a volunteer plant that sprouted in early June. Since it was in a bare section of our flower bed, we just let it continue to grow. A couple of weeks ago, it bloomed. A beautiful pink-white flower. Looked like several other buds were about to bloom. I had been watering it every evening during the hot weather. Watered it on Friday evening. Saturday morning went out to work on the lawn and discovered nearly all the hollyhock had been eaten. First thought it might have been ants, but no trace of ants anywhere. Then I got to thinking it might have been a larger animal, like a deer. Whatever it was, I hope it had a bellyache after it was done.
That hollyhock sounds just wonderful @Gramps, such a shame it was eaten. Is there any chance it will re-sprout from the base? I've never grown them, but would like to give them a try if I can sneak one past Cheery husband.
We've had a shower of rain this morning, and it's just begun again, but a bit heavier. Hopefully that's going to be good for my new petunias!!
Those hollyhocks sound like massive seed producers @Boogie. I bet the black one was spectacular!
We had great rain this week, really steady and most of the day and overnight, everything is lovely and fresh and so green! I was really surprised to find that my lorapetalum, which had been doing absolutely nothing all winter is now covered in hot pink flowers. I think I'll look for more of these at the garden centre.
Hoping to get a Cecile Brunner rose into the garden, but Cheery husband thinks we don't have the right spot. So I'll be examining garden spots and plants at the garden centre. I did see one rose last weekend, but that doesn't mean it will still be available. I am hoping though!
I have risked the 0 degrees night later this week and pruned the roses and some rampant geraniums today. I also followed the advice of the wonderful Jackie French (maybe not the bit about how to test for soil warmth) and mowed the weeds, the grass is just starting to grow after winter dormancy. My green bin is now full and I will take it to the depot as I will easily refill it with weeds before the next collection day. Several beds of irises are flowering splendidly, and have a rather pleasant perfume as well. Other iris beds look more like autumn bloomers at this stage. The hellebores are flowering, so I hope this means that they like their spot and will expand with enthusiasm. The crab apples are flowering and the photinia hedge has its new red tips. Now to keep up with it all!
We are picking a lot of grapes now, no doubt because of the 'eat. And to my surprise, the old rose bush sprang forth a second flush, I think because of rain. We have lots of tree spinach, becoming very tall, and our little acer is now a gorgeous colour, sort of essence of autumn. All thoughts now turn to the inspection, weeds removed, edges straightened, knackered old plants removed, lavender trimmed, and so on.
Everyone on this road grows apples and at this time of year you are likely to come home to find a bag at your door. We don't have a tree and the only thing I have in abundance are chillies. I'm not sure how keen my neighbours will be on those.
Sounds like everyone is out and about enjoying and working in their gardens. I tried some weed burning at the weekend, but the weeds were quite fleshy, so perhaps it wasn't the best solution for those. This morning I went outside and pulled two ice-cream containers worth, thinking that I'll save the burner for other lighter weeds and there are plenty of those!!
Like you @Sicut Cervus our green bin is full to overflowing (Last weekend, Cheery husband cut the lavender back within an inch of it's life). I think I'll just have to wait for a green bin pick up next week, though. Our photinias are still fairly small after their prune last year, but they are looking nice and healthy.
Our geraniums are still under cover, but I might ask Cheery husband if he can release them at the weekend. I don't know how well they have survived the winter and if we've lost them, then I need to think about something else to plant in that spot.
So lovely to be out in the fresh air and sunshine this morning!
sadly that lavender is unlikely to survive. It deeply resents being pruned into old wood. The only thing which resents it more is Cupressus, which tends to register its feelings on the subject by going uniformly brown. Some of the lavender might survive.
That was my thought too @ThunderBunk and I was not pleased. I hope for some new shoots, but am not overly optimistic. I do have a few back up plants in pots in my back garden, so might end up using those to fill gaps.
I've been thinking about the spot where the geraniums are planted and have been pondering that if the geraniums have not survived there, that it might be a place for a rose bed. It's a very exposed area and I need something tough there.
The prompt for thinking about the bed was rushing out to water the pot plants. It seems as though spring is really here. I was surprised reading that @Sicut Cervus crab apple was flowering, because mine was still dead looking. However, I now see a whole heap of new leaves unfurling, so that is encouraging. Spring star flowers and grape hyacinths are out as well as one regular hyacinth and my white daphne has buds on it as well. The regular daphne have almost all finished flowering, so having the white one to look forward to is lovely.
We are supposed to have more rain tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to that, not just for the garden, but slow I can have an excuse for a lazy day!!
I hope I've understood you correctly @Diomedes, that the sweet flowers lull one into a false sense of security and that their real tendency is to take over? I have some in pots and have not planted them out as I don't want them to take over.
Yes absolutely - they spread rapidly and are really difficult to thin out or remove. I inherited this garden from my mother (who was a trained horticulturalist) and I feel some pressure to keep it looking lovely. I love gardening and enjoy working out there but the extreme dry conditions this year (I'm in SE England) have made everthing a challenge!
I'm very glad @Diomedes that I've kept my villains in their pots! I did divide them last year, and so I now have 2 pots and I love their dainty flowers. Sometimes it feels as though it is feast or famine with water! We've just had a nice deluge yesterday and this morning I've been out weeding, though of course the weeds are outstripping my ability to get them under control. I might go over the spot I've hand weeded with the burner to try to get things that are too small to successfully pull.
At the weekend Cheery husband I visited a cold climate native plant nursery - have you been there @Sicut Cervus or @WormInTheGrass? So many plants!!! Generally, I am not a fan of natives, but I did buy a lovely brown boronia and the lady there gave some great suggestions for suitable positions and planting out. I haven't made a decision yet, whether to pot or put into the garden, I'll have to come up with something before the weekend, so I can get it sorted.
I think I'll be back on the weeds tomorrow, I need patience and perseverance!!
Ah, our grapes have reached perfection, after several weeks of being a bit sour, they now have that honey flavour that is fab. Most other stuff is declining gently, but tomatoes are pretty good. The allotment acquires that mellowness in autumn that Keats talked of, being an ardent allotmenteer .
Given the propensity of the local rat population to munch tulip bulbs, I am going for ornamental alliums which are extremely poisonous to them. Might go and plant them with Captain P sometime in the near future.
Another dry spell, which seems incredible, but we are watering our tomatoes, of which there are a lot. Still picking big bunches of grapes, fortunately the winter veg, such as kale and leeks, should be OK. Well, I am assuming some rain will happen!
Day 3 of tackling a summer's worth of weeds: 5 sackloads to the brown bin. I could probably lift as much again, but at some point I need to switch to planting next year's Spring bulbs.
At my place, things are blooming and the scent in the air from the bulbs is lovely. I've spent most the of the last few days weeding madly. I've still got heaps to go, but regardless I'm enjoying being outside in the fresh air and getting jobs done before the day begins to heat up.
My sister invited me to go to the local big floral event in our city with her (and the grandchildren + Daughter inlaw). Just the idea of going into the city with heaps of people and fighting for parking has made me enjoy the peace of my own garden even more! I hope they have a lovely outing, but it's not for me.
I feel that I may need to join you in this thread in due course. For the moment, our 'gardening' is cutting back the hedges that have grown through the old fence panels enough to allow us to replace the panels.
I know, in future, I need to dig up/trim the overgrown plants in the raised section and replace the weed control matting. It would be a good time to actually plan what I want in there.
Found some big fruit hanging down from the quince. Now we are faced with the existential question, will anyone make jelly? No thanks. Then the farmer kindly started spraying his field of leeks, and the smell drifts over. Quite a few butterflies around today. We trimmed the hedge and cut the grassy main path, all in an hour! Our strimmer has two wires coming out, neat and efficient. Further down the road, a huge field of carrots, currently being watered. Many local farmers have their own reservoirs.
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Not a lot done today, just watered pots out the front of the house and looked gloomily at weeds in the back lawn. Mr Cheery and I need to have a chat about those tomorrow. I was thinking of poison, but maybe we can use the weed burner instead.
Before Mr Cheery started on that job, I walked one of the cats and gave the pots in the back garden and the garden beds a good drink and also raked some leaves for the green bin. He then got started on treating the grass and as he had also decided to do the front lawn, I raced out there and began raking up all the leaves that have been sitting there for the last week or so.
Mr Cheery finished the back lawn before I completed the raking of the front, he brought our green bin from back to front and cleaned up the pile of leaves I'd created, whilst I kept raking I find it takes several repeated goes to get all the leaves cleaned up. I then went inside for a tea, whilst he gave the front lawn the treatment. With any luck that will give us a good head start on getting the garden looking nice for springtime.
Tomorrow I might start cleaning up some pots of weeds and try to work out how many pots I have that need seedlings planted in the run up to (dare I say Christmas.
The previous owners had an allotment out the back, and the chap grew a lot of good veg.
This has all gone now, replaced by curving flower beds planted up with plants and flowers with a literary theme - so Jane Austen roses, and Lady of Shallot (the chap said: "Roses are easy to find with literary names.") One plant is called Bertrand Russell, and there's a little bush called Tom Thumb.
I ended up sitting on a bench next to their camomile lawn (by Mary Wesley), and realised that some of the wildflower seeds I sowed in my own garden had come up after all, because some of them are camomile!
I had a trip to the garden centre this morning and saw there were some pink lady apple trees reduced to fifty dollars. I was very tempted, but I noticed Cheery husband skirted right by them as we were leaving. Perhaps it was his sore feet, but I suspect he thought they were not for us!
Less delightful, the rain has been markedly less than forecast, so it's not been refilled as I had hoped.
However, I did see something moving in the vegetation - I reckon I have a froggie!
*Matron!
Yesterday I planted a pot with 3 small white daisies with yellow centres and filled the gaps with some violas which are pale purple and yellow. I'm looking forward to them growing and filling the pot.
I was on the look out for some petunias at the local garden centre, and they did have some, but not the plain red ones that I was after. I did buy a small punnet of white ones, which I have planted in a blue pot and I think they should look nice once established.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for the plain red petunias and some additional white ones, to plant out for Christmas.
Petunias at Christmas - very
different from December here! I'm on the look out for helebores, but they are crazy expensive round these parts.
I picked the last of the tomatoes and cleared out then pressure washed the mini greenhouse.
Pots prepared for kale and chard planting. A lady up the road is giving away lots of seedlings - she planted too many. 🙂 🌱
I don't have any hellebores in my garden @Boogie, so I'm always looking at them in catalogues and at garden centres. The seem expensive here too! Washing the mini greenhouse sounds like some planting is about to occur, nice!
I was going to water my pots today, but it's a bit breezy. I think I might leave it until tomorrow.
Bill has been digging holes- initially probably after our bulbs, which isn't great, but has now progressed on to having a good rummage anywhere the ground has been disturbed. Which means anywhere I've cleared something out or planted something, a number of things have had to be put back and laced with extra hot chilli powder.
I can't see any obvious damage this morning so hopefully he's moved on. I suspect it was he who pushed the parapet of the pond over as the plastic ball that lives in there is currently in a far corner of the garden.
Cheery husband did a bit more vege patch weeding and planted some seeds at the weekend. He discovered that he had several packets of bean seeds, so planted them all as well as some dwarf virginia stock. A bit of a cottage garden going on there!! I didn't dare say that though, as he's not a fan of cottage gardens, but I love them!!
I'm just debating whether to water my potplants, rain is due, so perhaps I'll just do those under the eaves today and if the rain doesn't eventuate, or is very light I'll do the rest tomorrow.
Things are looking pretty good though, the grape hyacinths and spring star flowers are all out, camellias are finishing, but looking nice. The star jasmine has been cut back (yes, we are way late with that) and looks very tidy rather than something trying to grab you with it's tentacles. The daphne are finishing and I'm looking forward to tidying those up with a good trim.
Now I just want it to rain!!
We've had a shower of rain this morning, and it's just begun again, but a bit heavier. Hopefully that's going to be good for my new petunias!!
I have a wildflower area where I deliberately keep the soil poor. We had lots of pink, white and yellow - and one black!
I've saved 100s of their seeds. 🙂
Good to know Boogie, I will feed my hollyhocks less. Thanks
We had great rain this week, really steady and most of the day and overnight, everything is lovely and fresh and so green! I was really surprised to find that my lorapetalum, which had been doing absolutely nothing all winter is now covered in hot pink flowers. I think I'll look for more of these at the garden centre.
Hoping to get a Cecile Brunner rose into the garden, but Cheery husband thinks we don't have the right spot. So I'll be examining garden spots and plants at the garden centre. I did see one rose last weekend, but that doesn't mean it will still be available. I am hoping though!
Like you @Sicut Cervus our green bin is full to overflowing (Last weekend, Cheery husband cut the lavender back within an inch of it's life). I think I'll just have to wait for a green bin pick up next week, though. Our photinias are still fairly small after their prune last year, but they are looking nice and healthy.
Our geraniums are still under cover, but I might ask Cheery husband if he can release them at the weekend. I don't know how well they have survived the winter and if we've lost them, then I need to think about something else to plant in that spot.
So lovely to be out in the fresh air and sunshine this morning!
I've been thinking about the spot where the geraniums are planted and have been pondering that if the geraniums have not survived there, that it might be a place for a rose bed. It's a very exposed area and I need something tough there.
The prompt for thinking about the bed was rushing out to water the pot plants. It seems as though spring is really here. I was surprised reading that @Sicut Cervus crab apple was flowering, because mine was still dead looking. However, I now see a whole heap of new leaves unfurling, so that is encouraging. Spring star flowers and grape hyacinths are out as well as one regular hyacinth and my white daphne has buds on it as well. The regular daphne have almost all finished flowering, so having the white one to look forward to is lovely.
We are supposed to have more rain tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to that, not just for the garden, but slow I can have an excuse for a lazy day!!
At the weekend Cheery husband I visited a cold climate native plant nursery - have you been there @Sicut Cervus or @WormInTheGrass? So many plants!!! Generally, I am not a fan of natives, but I did buy a lovely brown boronia and the lady there gave some great suggestions for suitable positions and planting out. I haven't made a decision yet, whether to pot or put into the garden, I'll have to come up with something before the weekend, so I can get it sorted.
I think I'll be back on the weeds tomorrow, I need patience and perseverance!!
My sister invited me to go to the local big floral event in our city with her (and the grandchildren + Daughter inlaw). Just the idea of going into the city with heaps of people and fighting for parking has made me enjoy the peace of my own garden even more! I hope they have a lovely outing, but it's not for me.
I know, in future, I need to dig up/trim the overgrown plants in the raised section and replace the weed control matting. It would be a good time to actually plan what I want in there.
I am not greennfingered, but sometimes I try.
My fingers are becoming greener.
Good advice from a friend of mine - plants are not puppies. If you don't like them or they're not thriving you can ditch them. 🙂