What's happening in your garden today?

[Anniekay]

Your Bok Choi is doing better than my Wong Bok Annie

The Bok Choy grew the best of all my brassicas. I think, this spring I am going to grow Baby Bok Choy. They are more sweet and tender picked when younger and they grow really quickly.

That teassel is a trip !! Reminds of tomato seed sprouting in ripe tomatoes.

 

[Zigs]

The Bok Choy grew the best of all my brassicas. I think, this spring I am going to grow Baby Bok Choy. They are more sweet and tender picked when younger and they grow really quickly.

That teassel is a trip !! Reminds of tomato seed sprouting in ripe tomatoes.

Unless mine do something good like heart up in the next few weeks they're going on the compost. Far too hairy to eat as they are

 

[Sean Regan]

It was a golf day today, so I didn't get into the garden until after 2.00pm. This only gave me a couple of hours to get things done.

But I got into the acer palmatums. This the larger of the two needed a lot of "fettling."

As usual each year there was this much dead wood to come off. But there's plenty of young branches with buds growing from the top.

Then I had to work on getting it back in shape. I like it to be contained as far as possible, within the brick edging, this reduces the amount of moss I get in the lawn in its shadow.

I run garden wire connected to stakes in a circle around it. I can then attach more wires to individual branches and pull them down. You have to be careful as it's hard wood, bend it too much and it will break. But I can shorten the wires a bit in a month or so's time.

Of course, the branches above the lower ones also need training. But they are more pliable.
I can do this by chucking a net over the whole plant and tying it down.

I need to get some more garden wire to finish this off tomorrow.

The lot can come off in April, by which time the branches will have "set."
I have to do this every few years.

The smaller acer had just as much dead wood.

But this won't need much attention. Just a couple of branches wired so that they close a small gap. I might get some pavers to replace the grass that refuses to grow under it.

This acer in the end bed will get a trim tomorrow.

 

[Anniekay]

I picked a big 'ol lemon from my Meyer Lemon tree. It needs pruning this spring. I have way too many crossing branches !!

 

[Zigs]

Cor, lovely Lemon Annie

 

[Zigs]

Winner of Garden Chat Forum's "Word of the Week" is...

"fettling."

 

[Anniekay]

Winner of Garden Chat Forum's "Word of the Week" is...

What does fettling mean ?

 

[Sean Regan]

What does fettling mean ?

It's not the dictionary definition, but one sometimes used here in the UK. Meaning, "a bit of tidying up, or remedying something that has gone a bit wrong."

 

[Anniekay]

It's not the dictionary definition, but one sometimes used here in the UK. Meaning, "a bit of tidying up, or remedying something that has gone a bit wrong."

Thank you Sean !!

 

[Sean Regan]

Very frosty out, temperature at -1c.

So probably no work in the garden, but I've chores to do. First load of washing is on.

 

[Anniekay]

The morning started with yellow- grey skies . I've know this to portend a bad weather day. Now we have rain and distant thunder. High 79f low 39. And, you would know that I went ahead and watered the veg garden yesterday, wouldn't you .

 

[Sean Regan]

It's dry with clear skies here in "the Tropic of Trafford." It was only -1c this morning, but now mid-afternoon it's a balmy +6c.
We're promised sunshine tomorrow, so I'll be able to get some garden jobs done.

 

[Sean Regan]

It's quite mild today, 13c. but damp. If the rain holds off, I'll collect leaves in the front garden this afternoon.
If it stays dry for a couple of days, I'll get into all the leaves around the roots of our "bamboo forest" at the bottom of the garden. The only way to tackle this as the canes grow so close together is to try to blow them out with my garden vac. But they'll go everywhere making more work.

As I had to get the Sunday joint out of one of our back-up freezers in the room in the back of the garage, (it was formally the "filter room" for the koi pool) .I checked on the acer palmatum Taylor and the lilac which will be wintering in there. The lilac, had lots of nice buds on it, as did the acer, although these are so tiny at the moment, they are hard to see.

There's quite a bit of stuff in here I want kept out of the damp as far as possible, it includes our garden furniture, the two hedgehog houses which were unoccupied and a spare set of golf clubs, two golf bags and a "pull" golf trolley, in case my leccy one has to be repaired at any time.

The windows behind are in the garage back wall, which serves as the back wall of the shed. So some light comes through there.
It also gets quite a bit of light, through the skylight in the false ceiling and the clear corrugated section of the garage roof above it.

 

[Anniekay]

My Butter Crunch lettuce is getting on so I thinned it a bit, enough for a lunch time salad.


Chinese celery is on it's way up. This is all that germinated but, that's ok, that's how it goes sometimes.


In this bed we have spinach, radish, and, if you zoom in, some stray carrots that god knows why they came up now since there were carrot seed planted here last spring and only a few germinated !! Go figure !!


Lastly two beds of snow pes, but I ran out of bamboo stakes so, only this one has stakes in.

 

[Anniekay]

Frost !! That's what happening in my garden today




But, the peas are still loving it !!

 

[Logan]

Nothing today it's raining

 

[Zigs]

Orrible outside so been plastering in the Bothy

 

[Zigs]

On the 14th dumpy bag of leaves, should just make 15 time the last few come down

 

[Anniekay]

On the 14th dumpy bag of leaves, should just make 15 time the last few come down

View attachment 1985

I wish I had that much leaves..., oh wait, maybe I don't !!

 

[Sean Regan]

I got quite a bit done this afternoon. I pruned more off next door's silver birches where they overhang our garden. What I wanted to prune was easier to see now the leaves have all fallen.

But I can't reach the very top ones with my Fiskar's telescopic pruner, even when standing on the roof of the shed.

There's no way I'd stand on the roof if this were a "store bought shed." It's the one I built out of 1" thick old fashioned roofing ply, for our eight-year old daughter's every expanding menagerie of rabbits and guinea pigs, nearly fifty years ago. It's still as solid as it ever was. I've no problems standing on this roof. I feel quite safe. The golden rule is when reaching up with the pruner, "don't move your feet!"

I took quite a bit off.

Although it doesn't look like it.

I also re-wired these tree azaleas.

I do it every year, to stop them spreading out too far.
This is a small garden, so I don't like plants to become too dominant (other than the big acer palmatum).

The black areas on the lawn is dead moss the result of a dose of iron sulphate.

I also gave the acer in the bottom bed a prune.

I put some more retaining wire around this acer. Lots of little buds on it already.

As always, the rhodos have lots of buds. Here's a few.

I collected the last of the leaves in the front garden. There's a couple of viburnums in there in flower, not many, as I prune them to stop them growing too tall.