I'm finding it harder to get up and down too Puzzler, so I do sympathise.
When I first started gardening at this current house I'd not done any activity other than walking for quite a few years. I had to keep a garden chair close by as I just had no core strength at all really and needed the chair to help me get up. Since then, I've improved a bit, though the knees still find gardening a bit hard going and I am very grateful for a kneeler pad.
I've given up kneeling this long time. I have one of those rectangular folding stools about 2 ft high. I sit on that and weed or plant where I can reach. It may not be fast, but it's thorough.
Not today however, as it's 6°C and given to sudden sharp showers.
I'd love to have some raised planters @Boogie! I was looking at some at the hardware shop last weekend, but they were all plastic and I couldn't see them faring well in our hot summers. I'll have to start searching out some other options and no doubt start saving up for them!!
So far I have not killed the sweet pea seedlings! The pansies are holding up well in the heat also!
I took a few minutes yesterday evening to rake the thatch out of the jungle that the front drive has become of its own accord. As one does I then spotted other things that needed doing and, while digging and chopping out a sizable blackthorn sucker (taller than me!), I managed to catch the side of my knee a glancing blow with the axe handle. Not as dramatic as it sounds, but I had to take painkillers at about 4am as its the side I lie on, and it was waking me up every time I moved.
Hope that pain resolves soon for you @Sandemaniac, not good, hopefully post tablets you've managed some sleep. Apart from your injury the achievement in the garden is impressive!
We have an ongoing battle with suckers here, those coming from the Manchurian pears and not just our own, but our neighbours' ones as well!! I was watching a sucker growing from our crepe myrtle too, from a nobbly part of the main stem - I don't know - are they grafted?? Anyway, fortunately I have managed to chop it off and hopefully it will not return, but I think I'm just being too optimistic about that!!
A hot couple of days ahead and early next week temps predicted to drop, which I hope will herald the start of autumn proper!
I have noticed for the first time this year large stands of running bamboo that have crept down from the backyards of various houses and are encroaching on the local freeways. We are still in winter, and it's the only green around. I can only think some poor fool wasn't advised well before he planted that stuff.
Hope that pain resolves soon for you @Sandemaniac, not good, hopefully post tablets you've managed some sleep.
Thankfully, I managed an unmedicated good nights sleep. It's still tender, but as long as I don't bash it on anything it's no more than uncomfortable. Tis but a flesh wound, and all that.
I've built my new (kit form) cold frame. It will be for grown seedlings ready for planting. My mini greenhouse is for baby seedlings. Currently peas, broad beans, micro greens and sweet peas. The first batch of peas and broad beans are ready to move on to the cold frame. Plus a mallow seedling and a Canterbury Bell my friend gave me.
I've been taking the opportunity of getting more time to get started early by doing just that. Tomatoes are not just up but pricked out, sharing a tray with the chillis, aubergines are just showing, and I've sown brassicas and beetroot. Also pricked out leeks and banana shallots today - unheated greenhouse will be a shock, but once they get going again they'll be tough as old boots.
Hopefully the allotment will humour me and they won't get blown away, it's very windswept. Normally I start late because of that, but Easter is so late our spring hol is late too, and if I wait until after that stuff will never grow!
Contrary to the forecast, yesterday was dry, even sunny at times, but perishing. I put in another few hours of twig-tidying from the felling of the elder.
The content of the compost bin is looking quite attractive in a composty sort of way - not slimy or mouldy.
So plenty of work in prospect - rake lawn, spread compost, dig in fertiliser, mow, weed, think about planting first annuals. I'm sensing a lot of aching muscles in my future.
Beaky husband is very keen on Spring bulbs. Consequently our little walled garden is now looking beautiful. Snow drops and Crocus now replaced by Daffodils and Narcissus with Tulips also well on the way 😍 I find it fascinating that a few flowers have also appeared in places where bulbs definitely weren't planted!
My plot has an enormous rosemary plant on it that was invading everything. I've just spent the afternoon reducing its size by about half. Secateurs? Yeah about that. I ended up lopping whole branches off with a saw. I am expecting to ache tomorrow. I need to do the same with the giant sage but once I was through with the rosemary I was starting to lose the will to live so it will have to wait for another day.
I haven't even started my seedlings yet, but I did at least purchase potting compost today so I shall start on it presently. I think I'm going for leeks, squash, beans and peas. Carrots can be sown straight into the ground when it warms up a bit. That's about all I have space for. Maybe a few flowers in between the veg.
Good to hear of everyone's planting plans! I have a couple of daphne plants that I want to move from pots into the garden, but it's been quite hot and I think I need to wait a couple of weeks for autumn proper to begin and for the daytime temps to be below 25 celsius as they recover from any shock.
I haven't killed the sweet peas yet, but even though they are dwarf ones, I think I might need to give them some tiny supports to lean on as they keep getting blown over a bit and I don't want them to get broken.
I was up a bit later than I wanted to be, but still got all the pots watered before 9.30, I'd really love a drop of rain as we just got our water bill and it's not pretty!! Never mind, I'd rather have a garden than anything else really!!
Having been unable to take advantage of yesterday's sunshine, because too knackered from the previous day, I have been out today, which is of course cool and cloudy.
I did the least favourite/most needed job of raking the lawn.
Then started tidying up into The Wilds along the back fence. I need to find some particularly determined plants, or it'll al revert to wood avens, buttercup and green alkanet.
That's a lovely photo @Climacus - a type of grevilia?? I'm not great with native plants.
Managed to get all pots watered this morning before too warm, I noticed a few buds on the daphne, which I thought were a bit early, but then saw the camellias were doing the same, so perhaps it's those varieties that are early.
If we could get a little bit of rain we could do some weed burning, so I'm crossing my fingers and toes here.
The pansies I planted a couple of weeks ago appear to have settled in nicely and I'm enjoying their flowers.
A couple of years ago our neighbour gave us a yucca she no longer had space for. This summer the person who was watering our plants in our absence almost killed it with kindness by overwatering it so that the stem rotted. Figuring that it was the only way I might save it, I chopped a couple of bits off and attempted to make cuttings of them. One has definitely not worked, but the other one now looks like it's making new leaves. I badly want to go digging about in the pot to check for roots, but I have been disciplining myself so far.
I'm quite proud of this achievement. Now I just need it to grow about two feet and make an extra stem and the neighbour will never know we almost killed it
@Climacus I was reminded on Wednesday of the wonderful almond tree that used to grow in Oxford High Street. It bloomed when nothing else was and the mass of huge pink blooms was spectacular. There were never many tourists in Oxford in February, but you knew where they were!
Sadly the drought summer of 2018 started a rapid decline and by 2020 it was dead. *sniff*
Thought I'd better get the plants that arrived Thursday into the ground. Mostly small pots of snow-in-summer which I'm hoping will combat the Michaelmas daisy, of which I pulled up a lot, all of it trailing roots sometimes several feet long. I also put in a small lamium (dead nettle) in a shady spot by the fence. Mild almost to the point of being warm.
My neighbor is moving and says all of her potted plants must go. They are free to anyone who will take them. I am going for two potted bamboo and a banana for my Asian meditation patio spot. There must be 100 plants, but as tempting as it is, I really must stop with those as my patio area is small.
Grew nothing last year, but am now hoping to get back into the garden after the amazing job physio number 3 did on my lower back.
I have sown tomato seeds saved from the crop of autumn 2023 . Will be interesting to see what transpires as all were F1, or possibly grafted.
I did a test sowing a few weeks ago, and there was good germination from most, so I am hopeful of getting fruit, even of nothing like the parental varieties.
Went out to look at the pond this morning, and we have four adult frogs (leopard frogs, I think) as well as something Mr. Lamb thinks is a snake (!) but I think is an overgrown worm. I mean, do we even HAVE water snakes in suburban Missouri?
Having just googled, I am an idiot. Yes, we have half a dozen. Lovely. Just lovely.
Anyway...
There is something orange at the bottom of the pond. I hope and pray it is a koi that has over-wintered successfully, but Mr. Lamb thinks it's a lost tool. I'm not even going to think about how that could have happened.
I did some weeding, removing the ever invasive alkanet. I then planted a couple of clematis at the back of the bed where it is quite bare. I treated myself to some metal obelisks for them to hang on to.
My echinacea are apparently about to be delivered too so they will be going in pots on the patio. I’ve also got some hellebores arriving - one of the few great successes in my garden!
@Climacus I was reminded on Wednesday of the wonderful almond tree that used to grow in Oxford High Street. It bloomed when nothing else was and the mass of huge pink blooms was spectacular.
Stunning! Thank you. Very sad it has not survived, but through photos we can at least see their glory.
Went out to look at the pond this morning, and we have four adult frogs (leopard frogs, I think) as well as something Mr. Lamb thinks is a snake (!) but I think is an overgrown worm. I mean, do we even HAVE water snakes in suburban Missouri?
Having just googled, I am an idiot. Yes, we have half a dozen. Lovely. Just lovely...
Never heard of them. Thank you. Hope the pond exploration went well.
It's tradescantia, which has the common name of "wandering Jew"--which is where we got our pot of it, from a Jewish friend who thought it was a hilarious housewarming gift for us! Ours is currently in the downstairs bathroom, growing up onto the window sill. It will move back outside in a couple of weeks--it wouldn't appreciate the low temperatures we're still getting at night. If you have a cutting of this, you can start it in water with incredible ease. It turns purple in the sunlight and has lovely flowers, but when you bring it in for winter, the leaves mostly revert to green, with just a tint of purple.
Saw two bees yesterday (or possibly the same bee twice). Unfortunately it wasn't the only insect life stirring - I have several very itchy bites on my leg. I don't normally get chewed on before August. I blame global warming.
Lots of bees here for several weeks, I hear them buzzing in the blossom of next door’s plum tree and had to guide a large bumble bee out of the conservatory last week. We get a wide variety of bees in the garden. We have removed the bird box (apologies to the tit family) temporarily while putting up my new office so this year we won’t have have a tits in the box in March or tree bees in the box over the summer.
Wandering Jew (tradescentia) grew wild in Sydney where I grew up, it would take over your whole yard if left, and while easy to pull out, left remnants which quickly re-grew. Another memory is the choko vine, an edible but somewhat tasteless vegetable, my grandfather liked them, so they May have been popular during the Great Depression.
In my current domicile a bit south of Sydney and up in the mountains I am summoning up my energy to get back into weeding after the hot summer. This is the winter when I will finally plant some hellebores in some shady spots under the hedge. It took me years to get started with irises and now I have some attractive (in my opinion) beds of them.
Some other successes were a succulent, called, I think, eonium, which someone threw a bit of over the front fence. When it was still alive after a few days I planted it and now have lots of as they grow very easily from cuttings, or branches which have broken off in a storm. I would love to have some of the variant which has almost black leaves, but haven’t seen it at the nurseries. Will have to ask friends nicely for a cutting.
I learned to garden here during two long droughts, after struggling for a few years (in Australia droughts can last for many years) I switched off the watering to see what would happened. The plants which went on regardless are now the basis of my garden.
Thanks to the shipmates who contribute to this thread, which I always find interesting.
I love your method of choosing successful plants @Sicut Cervus, that is clever. I was surprised that my camellias withstood a few droughts over the last 30 years. I think their thick leaves and the fact that they were well established before the droughts hit stood them in good stead.
@la vie en rouge, I'm very impressed with your succulent efforts!
Saturday saw us zipping around to a few of our favourite haunts for a browse. I was quite cross that Cheery husband seemed deaf to my suggestion that an additional plant stand should be bought (discounted) at the Swedish shop. I know it would hardly have fitted in the car, but passing up on a bargain, good grief!!!
Cheery husband's feet were aching so he stayed in the car, while I dashed into the garden centre at the large green hardware store. I was rewarded for my efforts with a mega punnet of johnny jump ups, so Sunday morning was spent getting those into pots.
Having completed the potting up I moved onto pulling a few stray dandelions which had self seeded into other not yet planted pots and one of the garden beds, so they have been cleaned up and I also tidied quite a lot of stray leaves and weed heads into the green bin that seem to accumulate in the area that is most visible from our kitchen/family room. It looks a lot better now!
Having done the weeding, I moved into the front garden to check on Cheery husband who was doing a spot of weed burning on the nature strip. I felt like we were on a bit of a roll, so I swept up the snips of tree left behind by cockatoos eating the seeds which were messing up the front lawn. I then trimmed back tree branches which have been overhanging the footpath, particularly as it rained last week and the weight of the rain made them sink even lower and tall people would definitely be tapped on the head.
So although not perfect, we've cleared upa few weeds, the path is a bit clearer, I also swept up under my plant stand which is a real leaf gathering area and has needed doing for quite some time. During the visit of Aged Aunt, I hid the mess behind some pots I artfully arranged to disguise the mess. I'm glad to have cleaned that out as it was really looking woeful.
Today I've been out early and watered the pot-plants to give the new seedlings a bit of extra TLC and I've moved them away from the concrete edge and back into the shade to try and avoid the radiant heat while they settle in. I don't think I'll be doing much more gardening this week as we are going to get a few hot days. So I think it will just be watering over the next few days!
Mr. Lamb would love that, as I think he is secretly a fire fiend in disguise. The powers-that-be insist on composting, though--either you do it, or they do it for you, via the recycling picker-uppers.
Mr. Lamb once burned a pile of this stuff he ought not to have burned (saying, unconvincingly, that it was a hotdog roast), and the flames went too high and scorched the leaves of the giant elm tree overhead. (Why yes, he does have trouble thinking ahead.)
He also managed to scorch the grass directly under the copper fire pit he was using.
He has improved his technique to the point where he glances around furtively to make sure I'm not around before he starts another hotdog roast. My predictable yelling means it's only about once a year.
@Lamb Chopped the weeds are burnt with a small hand held device like a blowtorch, I have assumed that if these can be bought at hardware shops they must be legal. The only reason we burnt them in situ was that we had had some rain in the last couple of days and figured the fire risk would be low. I went around with a watering can afterwards to douse the areas that had been burnt, just to be sure. We are not allowed incinerators and have a green bin as well that I tend to use when I hand weed and all the chopped off bits from the tree were put there as well to be taken away next week and made into compost.
The pyromaniac gene is strong in this family also and I think Cheery husband enjoys it as it's one thing he can do legitimately in our residential area. When we were much younger his parents would save all big garden branches from pruning and other scrap timber and once a year they would have a massive bonfire night, coinciding with the long weekend for the Queen's birthday. Before they were made illegal we would also have fireworks as well and Cheery husband was in his element. We have a very small fire pit here, that we tend to use to toast marshmallows, but since we've been trying to consume less sugar we might only do that once a year (sadly).
It's tradescantia, which has the common name of "wandering Jew"- If you have a cutting of this, you can start it in water with incredible ease. It turns purple in the sunlight and has lovely flowers, but when you bring it in for winter, the leaves mostly revert to green, with just a tint of purple.
Thanks for the info. I have one that has wandered too far. I shall start some new ones.
Heh. Mine sits outside all summer and trails three/four feet to the ground, and has to have a haircut when it comes inside. I could supply the neighborhood and have leftovers.
I spent an hour weeding some of the border by the greenhouse yesterday. I've just been out there and seen what I've missed. If it dries up I'll go and do a bit more later on today.
Luckily my lawn is very small. The mower was hardly touching the grass, so I had to take the shears over it!
I do have an electric strimmer, but by the time I've worked out how to fit the cord, I could have done it by hand. Nonetheless, it's reminded me that I need to sort that strimmer...
Just planted out a honeysuckle and some new hellebores. I’d like to do some more work in the garden but, alas, the paying work is calling.
The large bumble bee is loving my established hellebores.
Tottering in from another heavy garden (by my standards). Yesterday I mowed the grass moss and lifted 3 hopperfuls of glurp. Today I did more weeding, planted the remaining snow in-summer, and devised two bird feeders from the broken halves of a ceramic planter.
I do have an electric strimmer, but by the time I've worked out how to fit the cord, I could have done it by hand. Nonetheless, it's reminded me that I need to sort that strimmer...
I guessed what you meant; we call it a whipper snipper here -- at least in New South Wales, perhaps it has a different name elsewhere.
Whipper snipper where I live too @Climacus. It's a piece of garden equipment that I've never mastered (and it's not the only one!!). Just does not compute in my brain for whatever reason.
Lovely to read about all the seedlings which are almost ready to go in various gardens. Spring is such a lot of fun in the garden.
I've just been out to do a quick water of the pot-plants while there is cloud cover reducing the temperature a bit. Pansy seedlings all looking good and it appears that the decision to move them away from the radiant heat of the concrete slab was a good one as they look very happy in their pot.
Cockatoos have been in the tree out the front this morning and so I'm expecting that by the weekend there will be plenty of snipped off bits (again) that will need to be swept up. They are too too cheeky!!
Woman vs pyracantha: it was getting to about 20 ft and straggly with it, so at it with my little Japanese saw, then a couple of hours snipping it into baggable fragments. Some scratches.
Today I tackled the heavy weed growth in 3 large plant pots. I have not been able to get down to them for several years, and was expecting it to be a difficult job. Happily the compost in the pots was very friable - it seems that the lack of rain this month has not dried them out completely thanks to the vast quantities of rain we had in the preceding months.
The weeds didn't give in without a struggle, having had several seasons of undisturbed growth, but eventually they submitted, and underneath them I discovered the clematis originally planted in the pots was putting out new growth. I am delighted, as I thought they were either smothered by the weeds or eaten by the snails & slugs.
I managed to top-dress the pots before my backs cried "No More!", although I didn't have the energy to net them against the foxes that dig in the pots (they hide eggs in any areas of loose soil).
This was the longest time I have spent bending over since Physio number 3 fixed a specific muscle pain in my back. I am very chuffed, but I think I might pay the price tomorrow.
Comments
When I first started gardening at this current house I'd not done any activity other than walking for quite a few years. I had to keep a garden chair close by as I just had no core strength at all really and needed the chair to help me get up. Since then, I've improved a bit, though the knees still find gardening a bit hard going and I am very grateful for a kneeler pad.
Not today however, as it's 6°C and given to sudden sharp showers.
So all my plants are in raised beds and planters.
So far I have not killed the sweet pea seedlings! The pansies are holding up well in the heat also!
Ho hum.
We have an ongoing battle with suckers here, those coming from the Manchurian pears and not just our own, but our neighbours' ones as well!! I was watching a sucker growing from our crepe myrtle too, from a nobbly part of the main stem - I don't know - are they grafted?? Anyway, fortunately I have managed to chop it off and hopefully it will not return, but I think I'm just being too optimistic about that!!
A hot couple of days ahead and early next week temps predicted to drop, which I hope will herald the start of autumn proper!
Thankfully, I managed an unmedicated good nights sleep. It's still tender, but as long as I don't bash it on anything it's no more than uncomfortable. Tis but a flesh wound, and all that.
Exciting!
Hopefully the allotment will humour me and they won't get blown away, it's very windswept. Normally I start late because of that, but Easter is so late our spring hol is late too, and if I wait until after that stuff will never grow!
The content of the compost bin is looking quite attractive in a composty sort of way - not slimy or mouldy.
So plenty of work in prospect - rake lawn, spread compost, dig in fertiliser, mow, weed, think about planting first annuals. I'm sensing a lot of aching muscles in my future.
I haven't even started my seedlings yet, but I did at least purchase potting compost today so I shall start on it presently. I think I'm going for leeks, squash, beans and peas. Carrots can be sown straight into the ground when it warms up a bit. That's about all I have space for. Maybe a few flowers in between the veg.
I haven't killed the sweet peas yet, but even though they are dwarf ones, I think I might need to give them some tiny supports to lean on as they keep getting blown over a bit and I don't want them to get broken.
I was up a bit later than I wanted to be, but still got all the pots watered before 9.30, I'd really love a drop of rain as we just got our water bill and it's not pretty!! Never mind, I'd rather have a garden than anything else really!!
I did the least favourite/most needed job of raking the lawn.
Then started tidying up into The Wilds along the back fence. I need to find some particularly determined plants, or it'll al revert to wood avens, buttercup and green alkanet.
Managed to get all pots watered this morning before too warm, I noticed a few buds on the daphne, which I thought were a bit early, but then saw the camellias were doing the same, so perhaps it's those varieties that are early.
If we could get a little bit of rain we could do some weed burning, so I'm crossing my fingers and toes here.
The pansies I planted a couple of weeks ago appear to have settled in nicely and I'm enjoying their flowers.
I'm quite proud of this achievement. Now I just need it to grow about two feet and make an extra stem and the neighbour will never know we almost killed it
I was thinking a type of banksia, but my knowledge is similarly limited.
Well done to you and la vie en rouge on your successes!
Almond blossoms.
Sadly the drought summer of 2018 started a rapid decline and by 2020 it was dead. *sniff*
I have sown tomato seeds saved from the crop of autumn 2023 . Will be interesting to see what transpires as all were F1, or possibly grafted.
I did a test sowing a few weeks ago, and there was good germination from most, so I am hopeful of getting fruit, even of nothing like the parental varieties.
Having just googled, I am an idiot. Yes, we have half a dozen. Lovely. Just lovely.
Anyway...
There is something orange at the bottom of the pond. I hope and pray it is a koi that has over-wintered successfully, but Mr. Lamb thinks it's a lost tool. I'm not even going to think about how that could have happened.
I did some weeding, removing the ever invasive alkanet. I then planted a couple of clematis at the back of the bed where it is quite bare. I treated myself to some metal obelisks for them to hang on to.
My echinacea are apparently about to be delivered too so they will be going in pots on the patio. I’ve also got some hellebores arriving - one of the few great successes in my garden!
Never heard of them. Thank you. Hope the pond exploration went well.
And well done to all for your work!
Anyone know this beautiful flower?
Your friend sounds like a riot!
In my current domicile a bit south of Sydney and up in the mountains I am summoning up my energy to get back into weeding after the hot summer. This is the winter when I will finally plant some hellebores in some shady spots under the hedge. It took me years to get started with irises and now I have some attractive (in my opinion) beds of them.
Some other successes were a succulent, called, I think, eonium, which someone threw a bit of over the front fence. When it was still alive after a few days I planted it and now have lots of as they grow very easily from cuttings, or branches which have broken off in a storm. I would love to have some of the variant which has almost black leaves, but haven’t seen it at the nurseries. Will have to ask friends nicely for a cutting.
I learned to garden here during two long droughts, after struggling for a few years (in Australia droughts can last for many years) I switched off the watering to see what would happened. The plants which went on regardless are now the basis of my garden.
Thanks to the shipmates who contribute to this thread, which I always find interesting.
Sicut Cervus
@la vie en rouge, I'm very impressed with your succulent efforts!
Saturday saw us zipping around to a few of our favourite haunts for a browse. I was quite cross that Cheery husband seemed deaf to my suggestion that an additional plant stand should be bought (discounted) at the Swedish shop. I know it would hardly have fitted in the car, but passing up on a bargain, good grief!!!
Cheery husband's feet were aching so he stayed in the car, while I dashed into the garden centre at the large green hardware store. I was rewarded for my efforts with a mega punnet of johnny jump ups, so Sunday morning was spent getting those into pots.
Having completed the potting up I moved onto pulling a few stray dandelions which had self seeded into other not yet planted pots and one of the garden beds, so they have been cleaned up and I also tidied quite a lot of stray leaves and weed heads into the green bin that seem to accumulate in the area that is most visible from our kitchen/family room. It looks a lot better now!
Having done the weeding, I moved into the front garden to check on Cheery husband who was doing a spot of weed burning on the nature strip. I felt like we were on a bit of a roll, so I swept up the snips of tree left behind by cockatoos eating the seeds which were messing up the front lawn. I then trimmed back tree branches which have been overhanging the footpath, particularly as it rained last week and the weight of the rain made them sink even lower and tall people would definitely be tapped on the head.
So although not perfect, we've cleared upa few weeds, the path is a bit clearer, I also swept up under my plant stand which is a real leaf gathering area and has needed doing for quite some time. During the visit of Aged Aunt, I hid the mess behind some pots I artfully arranged to disguise the mess. I'm glad to have cleaned that out as it was really looking woeful.
Today I've been out early and watered the pot-plants to give the new seedlings a bit of extra TLC and I've moved them away from the concrete edge and back into the shade to try and avoid the radiant heat while they settle in. I don't think I'll be doing much more gardening this week as we are going to get a few hot days. So I think it will just be watering over the next few days!
Mr. Lamb would love that, as I think he is secretly a fire fiend in disguise. The powers-that-be insist on composting, though--either you do it, or they do it for you, via the recycling picker-uppers.
Mr. Lamb once burned a pile of this stuff he ought not to have burned (saying, unconvincingly, that it was a hotdog roast), and the flames went too high and scorched the leaves of the giant elm tree overhead. (Why yes, he does have trouble thinking ahead.)
He also managed to scorch the grass directly under the copper fire pit he was using.
He has improved his technique to the point where he glances around furtively to make sure I'm not around before he starts another hotdog roast. My predictable yelling means it's only about once a year.
The pyromaniac gene is strong in this family also and I think Cheery husband enjoys it as it's one thing he can do legitimately in our residential area. When we were much younger his parents would save all big garden branches from pruning and other scrap timber and once a year they would have a massive bonfire night, coinciding with the long weekend for the Queen's birthday. Before they were made illegal we would also have fireworks as well and Cheery husband was in his element. We have a very small fire pit here, that we tend to use to toast marshmallows, but since we've been trying to consume less sugar we might only do that once a year (sadly).
I wonder if that was the thing I saw (absolutely I'm telling the truth) a neighbor using to remove snow from his driveway...
Sometimes you wonder if they got dropped on their heads. It was about six inches of snow that day, too.
Thanks for the info. I have one that has wandered too far. I shall start some new ones.
I do have an electric strimmer, but by the time I've worked out how to fit the cord, I could have done it by hand. Nonetheless, it's reminded me that I need to sort that strimmer...
The large bumble bee is loving my established hellebores.
Lovely to read about all the seedlings which are almost ready to go in various gardens. Spring is such a lot of fun in the garden.
I've just been out to do a quick water of the pot-plants while there is cloud cover reducing the temperature a bit. Pansy seedlings all looking good and it appears that the decision to move them away from the radiant heat of the concrete slab was a good one as they look very happy in their pot.
Cockatoos have been in the tree out the front this morning and so I'm expecting that by the weekend there will be plenty of snipped off bits (again) that will need to be swept up. They are too too cheeky!!
The weeds didn't give in without a struggle, having had several seasons of undisturbed growth, but eventually they submitted, and underneath them I discovered the clematis originally planted in the pots was putting out new growth. I am delighted, as I thought they were either smothered by the weeds or eaten by the snails & slugs.
I managed to top-dress the pots before my backs cried "No More!", although I didn't have the energy to net them against the foxes that dig in the pots (they hide eggs in any areas of loose soil).
This was the longest time I have spent bending over since Physio number 3 fixed a specific muscle pain in my back. I am very chuffed, but I think I might pay the price tomorrow.