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What's happening in your garden today?

Planted a row of 'America' Spinach, good to be putting seeds in the ground. It is so cold I was doubtful, but the packet says from Feb.
Planted my first tray of Alicia Craig tomatoes and put three of my earliest 'moneymaker' tomatoes in the warmer greenhouse, I have kept the three best ones indoors on the windowsill for a bit.
 
Anniekay said:
I weeded my hot dry bed. Planted out 2 Moneymaker tomato plants that I grew from seed. I put them behind a Julia Child rose in my South facing bed by the house. I put one to the left, one to the right of it. Gave them lots of goodness, watered and mulched them.

Then I weeded my rose that is not thriving. I was going to remove it to see what was going on but when I tried digging it out, it was so firmly and deeply rooted that I decided to give it another chance !!😃 There's a clematis that's behind it on a trellis. So, I added lime and compost to the clemattis, rose food and compost to the rose, watered and mulched them heavily. I bought a rose to replace this one. Now I have to figure out where to plant that one !! 🤔
Click to expand...
It's still winter here, nothing is showing signs of growth yet.😞
 
No gardening today as it was a golf day. Mild for the time of year +6c and dry.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm going to put a hedgehog doorway in a fence concrete base panel on the other side of the garden near the tea-house.

Since the garden on the other side of the existing doorway has been completely cleared and half of it paved, there's little cover for hedgehogs and no places where they can rummage around for creepy "crawlies." The opportunity for them to come in and out of the other garden, might suit them better, as it's generally uncared for and will present them with a better foraging choices.

It'll be a pain to cut a hole in this panel (as was the other one), as I'll have to stitch drill a lot of holes through the panel with a masonry bit in my drill. Then knock it out with a lump hammer.
But it'll just be a 5" rectangular hole. No fancy doorway like the other one.

To be honest, I did that more of a joke, so I could tell my wife I'd found a fairy door at the bottom of the garden.

It was originally to keep 'arry in, as when we found him he wasn't well and we don't think he was "a full shilling."


Hedgehog Door.webp


But after 'arry disappeared, I took the door off to allow any old hedgehog in or out.

IMAG0003.webp




I'm going to put it at the end of the border under the side fence.

P1020219.webp



There's power points in the tea-house, so it shouldn't be a problem.
I can't put a doorway in the back fence as there's nearly a two-foot drop, on the other side.

P1020605.webp
 
So far this imorning I got two clumps of ditch lillies in the ditch, one each side of the culvert. I got most of the acid loving plants weeded and fertilized before running out of Holly Tone fertilizer. I only have twoGardenias left to give the acid fertilizer to.

In case anyone in US is going to buy acid fertilizer, the Tractor Supply has it for $3 cheaper than the big Home Improvement stores. Same for 10-10-10, $3 cheaper.

Then I took a break because it's getting windy, quite blustery outside.
 
Went and picked up 9 more buckets of horse manure. I picked up a little 'festival trolley' a while ago, it was only £4 and it looked really handy. I can get 3 buckets one on top of the other on it and pull them the 60 yards or so to the car, then I get 3 rows of three across the lowered back seat and boot of my little seat 500. I got the first lot in sacks, you have to hold them open to fill them, awkward, and then there is nothing to lift them by, I got completely and totally filthy. The buckets are much better, dump shovels full straight in and have a handle to lift it. I won't say I don't get dirty, I am the sort who gets dirty doing anything, but it is an awful lot better.
 
olly-buckle said: I got the first lot in sacks, you have to hold them open to fill them, awkward,

When I have to put things in sacks I take a cardboard box, open both ends and make a tunnel out of it, put that in the sack then I use a few clips to clip the bag to the top of the cardboard box. Voila' it stands open.
 
I got the second hedgehog doorway done today. But as often happens, it wasn't without incident. After drilling a dozen or more holes in the concrete base panel, my forty-year-old electric drill gave up the ghost, (I've ordered a replacement). So I had to finish the job with a hammer and chisel. I found some scrap wood and plywood in the garage and made the correct size aperture and painted it. I used a bit of sand and cement mortar, to make a smoother entrance. The wood could do with another coat of paint, but that can wait until the week-end.

P1020606.webp

P1020608.webp

I put out one of the feeders this afternoon, in case the hedgehog in the house under the azaleas to the side of the patio decides it's time to wake up. I've set one of the trail/cams to cover it.
P1020612.webp

I looked at a few on YouTube, but I wasn't that impressed, a lot of sticky tape in evidence, some were made using the box up the right way up, which would make it difficult to clean


So I've put my own on my YouTube Channel.


 
Anniekay said:
olly-buckle said: I got the first lot in sacks, you have to hold them open to fill them, awkward,

When I have to put things in sacks I take a cardboard box, open both ends and make a tunnel out of it, put that in the sack then I use a few clips to clip the bag to the top of the cardboard box. Voila' it stands open.
Click to expand...
I'll bear that in mind for the future, with the present job buckets are actually made to hold stuff and move it and work great.

Not a lot in the garden today, we visited a new Sri Lanka restaurant in Hastings, The missus had a masala dosa and I had a thali, very nice, but it took up a big chunk of the day, chopped some wood when we got back.
 
Anniekay said:
So, what do you plan to use all that new space for? Veggies or more flowers ?
Click to expand...
That job has been overdue for a long time. It looks drastic, but was really needed. Hard pruning like this can seem almost cruel, but the Cotinus trees had grown horizontally over the past few years, layering themselves as they grew, and I haven't been able to keep up with any of the hedging due to illness etc.
This will give it a new start, and provide an opportunity to find the offending bramble roots and wild clematis, which overpowers the shrubs. Good job done boys (y)(y)
I grew all of the hedges here from cuttings.
We'll just mow it back to good grass as it is part of the camping area, and that higher part of the ground is fairly poor soil - only a small amount of soil over total chalk. I shall investigate the runners tomorrow, to see if I can find any useful cutting bits to sever, to use elsewhere.
 
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It's +4c, but feels colder. No jobs scheduled for today, but there's tree lopping in next door's garden, with another neighbour tomorrow.
No hedgehog activity on the patio overnight and no little footprints in the cement render below the new hedgehog door.
 

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