What Are You Planting Today, This Week, This Month?

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi karanleaf , :happy_flower

Sorry about the bad weather near you but glad it missed you. You & DH keep safe.

My laptop is playing up so I have had to change some settings etc -- Goodness knows what is up???? It has been an unhappy little laptop for a few days now & some things are not getting through. Did you get my message?

I've been out in the garden yesterday afternoon, it actually rained in the morning. Unfortunately not enough.

I have been sowing various salad greens/mixtures in shallow bowls, Oriental, French & a mixture of lettuce. Peas, Broad & Runner beans are thriving & all my seedlings I had indoors are now in the little greenhouse. I intend to move these outside tomorrow. Things are getting exciting now. I'm making some hills for zucchini, cucumbers etc today.

Happy gardening everyone! :tools
:rose Hattie :rose

 

[digitS']

I'm running late on the cool weather planting. The bigger veggie garden wasn't tilled until this week or things like the peas could have been out at least 2 weeks ago. As it is, I put in 3 beds of peas today and have one more variety to go. The snap peas went in, as did 2 varieties of snow peas. If'n' it doesn't rain, I may have to do 2 beds of shell peas tomorrow, because those beds are shorter.

I asked DW, "Doesn't it make sense to have 2 beds of snap peas rather than the 2 of snow peas, since we make better use of the snaps?" "Yeah," she replies.

Now what have I gotten myself into ? I've got to build trellises for all these beds, if I'm already at 5 and put one more in for extra snaps . . . Then, turn around and plant all these peas again in 2 weeks? . . . . !! :/

No, I can't see all that trellis building - it's goin' kill me! We don't have tornadoes here but this garden is really exposed to the wind. It is the windiest location I've ever gardened. And, the soil is really rocky making it tuff, tuff, tuff to drive supports in the ground.

I think that this year, because it's so late and because I'm older than I've ever been before , The only peas I'm going to plant twice are the snaps.

Steve
snap, shell, crackle, snow, PoP!! Owww! There goes another vertebra !!

 

[karanleaf]

Thank you Hattie and Reinbeau for your concern we are safe and all my family is too I am soo greatful DH got home about 11PM from the tornado damage area said that there were 2 killed and so much distruction There were 4 tornados that went through the area. here is link to the local news report on it. http://www.heartlandconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=299669

I pray for those who had loss and hope their recovery and healing
I am just so Thank full my family is ok Momma has no power , so she stayed with my sister, they are bringing Mom's freezer stuff here to put in our deep freeze.
We were sooo Lucky it missed us :coolsun

Well gang looks as if ya all have been buzy
Yes Hattie I did get your message I hope to be able to check it out very soon, THank you so much

Well I am off for a shower and to get ready for work. Much rather be here and play in the dirt :tools :watering

:happy_flower Karan

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there!

RAIN AT LAST!! It started last night & lasted a few hours. Today we look as if we will get heavy showers but you never know where I live as it can go right past us but bucket-down a couple of miles away!

This should liven up the veggies a bit. I think I has better weed today --they will be easier to pull out. I chuck all of them into my roos run for them to sort through -- keeps them quiet & entertained! I also want to plant out my squash & zucchini; I will still have to cover them at night as it is still chilly most evenings.

Happy Gardening :bee :happy_flower


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Yes, the rain continued on & off all day so I was running in & out of the house trying to get stuff planted. I was very surprised at just how much rain had fallen overnight; everything got thoroughly soaked! Just what we needed.

I took some of my smallish topiary trees into the barn & tackled the job of getting them back into shape again -- they have suffered a lot from die-back in the freezing weather of last winter. It was nice gentle work after all the moving of heavy stuff I've been doing lately --so the rain did me a favour indirectly. At my age I have to take care not to overdo things.

After trimming the little trees I scraped off the top couple of inches of soil & replaced it with fresh soil mixed with lots of rich compost. Unfortunately the terracotta urns they are in have broken round the edges so I think I shall put some fast growing trailing plants in to hide the mess. I have a lot of saxifrages which I will probably use. A few years ago I put that ajuga with plum-coloured leaves in there but it eventually got too vigorous.

I have kept all the trimmings from the trees (lonerica nitida) to strike more cuttings as I have plans for more topiary. I already have a few pots of cuttings I took a couple of years ago which I am going to combine to make a rooster. I really enjoy these projects -- Britain has a long history of topiary gardens & there are amazing examples of them; some going back to the 17th century.

If the rain stops I will go out & pot up my Cerinthe seedlings into separate pots. If I put them straight out into the soil the snails will have them. They are one of my favourite plants with their strange colouring. Everyone who sees them wants a plant (or a dozen). They are so easy to grow from seed & they often self-seed. You should try some, they are a great feature plant.

Happy Gardening this coming weekend! :coolsun :happy_flower :tools

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[karanleaf]

Yeah Hattie I am soo Happy you have finally gotten some of the rain you badly needed.
Now if it would just pause raining on my part of the globe for a week or so. We have flooding on some of our roads. Dh said we would have to start putting floaties on the tomato plants I got my flower boxes planted yesterday for the base of the arch we plan to put at the beginning of our old brick path. Well I didn't need to water it as it is well watered now. I am in hopes the forecast stays as they are talking clear skies and sunshine most of next week :coolsun

Well Back to work. Check in later

:happy_flower Karan

 

[vfem]

Oh wow Hattie....topiary? Really?!

I always thought they were too pretty for me to even think about touching. (Can't wait until you get a camera and share some of these pictures.) I see them around 'estate' type homes and scares me to add to my little plot.

I already had a neighbor come over and say the HOA has voted we're not allowed to do anything else to our house or yard for the rest of the year. We haven't allowed anyone else to catch up and we're making the neighbors look bad to forget to mow occassionally!

LMAO... it was a joke of course, we have no HOA and the neighbors wife was all pouty because her husband wouldn't help her plant anything last year or this year for that matter. He stuck a tree in the ground and called it done!

I can just picture how overgrown with gorgeous color and shapes your yard is... like a jungle of yummy scents... jealous just thinking about it. :happy_flower

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi vfem

Topiary is dead easy -- the only problem is remembering to water all the pots -- they dry out so fast. Not a problem today though! LOTS OF RAIN!

I HAVE the camera; what I lack is the will-power or time to learn to use it & the knowledge to connect it to the laptop etc. I'm always worried that I will mess something up so I bury my head in the sand instead. BUT now I am determined to take myself in hand & DO IT. If I mess up I'm sure one of you will tell me where I've gone wrong & what to do to put it right. I have also got two books on the subject. One for children & the other for Dummies.........!!! At least I know I need something clear & simple -- They both look well over my head.

So wish me LUCK


You are right ; my garden is very full, overgrown, like a secret garden. Actually it isn't hugely colourful as I designed it to be predominantly green, like a tapestry of differently shaped & textured leaves. Of course it does become colourful at certain times ; when the old climbing & rambling roses are in bloom it is awash with perfume & colour.


Have a great weekend everybody (while I struggle & curse with my camera -- HUH!)


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[vfem]

You will get it Hattie... you just mess up once or twice... and then you say WOW now I have it, it was sooooooooo easy. There ya go! SO simple! HAHAHAHA

Anyways.... I'm going to take a nap ... I was going to do some gardening stuff... but don't really want to deal with the heat at this hour. We already went swimming at the pool this morning... so I'm done with outside stuff at least until after 6pm.

Oh I did forget to post I planted Watermelon and ice plants the other day in my 3-tiered raised bed. AND put a fence around it.

Here's my bed with a visitor, good thing he eats fish and frogs and nice plants... that fence wasn't big enough for him.

 

[karanleaf]

Vfem I love your Visitor I have one as well that has been going to our north pond for about 8 - 10 years I finally got close enough to it last spring to get some photos . I never knew until I got a picture of it that they have a beard much like the wild turkey. Glen my adopted Uncle that we rent pasture from said that there is a family of bout 6 of them that have been around for all that time I love seeing the wild life coming back into the area. We are finally seeing quail and phesants. We have had some Bluebirds but the cat population has encreased and so they have decreased. But I love seeing my feathered vistors too.

:happy_flower Karan