Wednesday, 5 June 2024
We did our once a week full work day.
J Crew Cottage
We checked on the garden, weeded, and trimmed some diseased branches off the rather sad plum tree. It has an insect problem, which we are not even licensed to deal with. Usually, it only affects the tips of the branches, however today we took off a couple of entire branches, which fortunately were ones that were about to protrude over the sidewalk anyway.
The insects curl up the leaves, and at during least one recent year, aphids or something like that secreted a honey dew that made the leaves below go moldy. Allan will have to use the long handled loppers to snip off the tips of the branches. I get too dizzy looking up. I swear this tree makes me want to retire from ALL the jobs! We legally cannot spray, and don’t want to spray anyway because of the insect apocalypse.
It’s a frustrating situation.
[Allan had a boating plan for Thursday and was going to address the light pruning of branch ends on Friday but had too many local lawns to mow, so we decided to put it off till our next work day on the following Wednesday. Better late than never? We were simply too tired.]
Allan also tidied up a corner that is rarely seen…
The flower garden looks good.
Diane’s garden
The wind and rain had been especially hard on the septic vault garden, making a Geranium ‘Orion’ sprawl out…
…and knocking down part of a blue globe thistle.
We could have skipped this week because of not needing to water at the Red Barn. I had decided to go in order to do a small but strenuous project which I had not been finding the time for: edging behind the driveway garden bed. A lot of rocks got piled there when the new lawn was put in…I can’t even remember where the rocks were before.
A fuzzy back edge:
After…
…and again with Allan pulling a weed.
He had weeded the roadside garden….
…including, coincidentally, thoroughly around the rocks at the far end.
The Stipa gigantea in golden bloom:
Holly came home during the last of our time there and got her biscuit.
I showed Diane the handsome edge I had made.
In checking the containers, I found a beautiful viola…
And I added a pretty new very fragrant dianthus to the septic vault garden.
On the back side of the vault, I trimmed the yellow flowers off of the Jackman’s Blue rue, which I grow for the foliage; the flower doesn’t go with Diane’s pastel theme. There are many other flowers to keep the bees happy.
The Red Barn Arena
We just did a quick weeding. I have no idea why that mat is on the lawn!
Diane’s garden is just across the field and behind that hedge:
The Planter Box
Another reason we had gone to work was that I had run out of potting soil and needed to stock up. I have checked online around the area and found that The Planter Box has the best prices, even better than the big box stores across the river, of quality 2 cubic foot bags of soil. I also got a bag of steer manure and a bag of mushroom compost to mix up with one bag of the potting soil for my own personal potting up. G&B potting soil, the kind I can afford, is getting more sawdusty. I simply cannot afford the top of the line brands like Happy Frog!
The big greenhouse was beautifully colourful today.
Also, I remembered to photograph the flyer for the always excellent north county garden tour, which this year is closer to us than usual (it’s usually up in or near the Aberdeen area).
at home
A rose blooming high over the driveway:
A couple of days ago, after the storm, I found an extraordinarily fragrant flower from it blown onto the wet driveway.
In the driveway garden today, I was pleased to see an Eryngium giganteum is flowering…
…and the sprawling Halmiocistus wintonensis ‘Merrist Wood Cream’ still is in full bloom…
…although I will trim it back to fresh growth when it is done flowering.
Using two wheelbarrows, I mixed up one bag of G&B potting soil, one bag of steer manure and one bag of mushroom compost and some coir and filled up a big garbage can of the resulting good potting mix. This was inspired by the description of doing so in Thomas Hobb’s great book, The Jewel Box Garden.
That was tiring indeed and all I accomplished at home except for another delicious harvest from my arugula, and a frustrating cull of some white radishes that were starting to bolt before they made any decent radishes at all.
At least they gave me a green ingredient for the compost bin.
The composition of soils and bagged top soils here have evolved the past few years. They are now generally very wood based. And yes, some are like sawdust. Seasoil, the premium peat free potting soil, is primarily woodchip. Judging by the staining on my deck around pots, they are also dying the soil black. Have you noticed dye in any of the products you use? Every once in awhile I treat myself to Thomas Hobb’s blend of soil at his garden centre, but he uses peat in the potting soil which makes me feel guilty. Like you, I then make up a blend.
LikeLike
It is very annoying when things bolt before you can eat them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would probably have tried cooking those radish greens, maybe a stir fry with garlic.
LikeLiked by 1 person