2022 - What I did today

I’ve fed the pomegranate, avocados, lemons, yin yang beans and a climbing rose. With the liquid from my weed harvest. It smells quite ripe! Potted on some physocarpus . Mowed the garden.

Did some weeding on the old Bed 10 which needs a makeover since the plum tree has been cut down. Ground too hard to dig out the Stinking Iris and tree seedlings so still some way to go before I can move onto another little project.
Went out and collected some Iris plants and some seedling lavenders and Galtonia (Summer hyacinth). If I can grow these on I'll have plenty of plants to fill the gaps in Bed 10.

Nothing today. Yesterday I forgot to mention. I’m having my second attempt (this year) to get a avocado stone to chit. I’m growing a couple of lovely avocados, never managed to start one myself.

Went back to the Rockery makeover today, cutting back the brambles that are growing through the shrubs that are at the back of GH3. Had to be done today so that I could stuff the brambles into the green waste bins that will be collected tomorrow.
The little dianthus that I planted on the rockery are flowering now.

Deadheaded the dwarf dahlias and sweet peas.
Planted out the tray of Dianthus Superbus grown from seed I'd forgotten about and some dwarf Yellow Pygmy sunflowers.
Planted out some dwarf french beans I'd had idling in the root trainers (Anellino di Trento & Merveille de Piemonte).
Tied in the tomatoes and armpitted.

It has been a cool overcast day so thought I'd get some jobs done before it heats up and all I'll be doing is watering in the early morning/late evening.

Cut back the shrubs behind GH3 so that I can walk around the GH - first time for a while. Its hard to believe that I planted it with fuchsias, daylilies and a few small shrubs, many moons ago. At hat time, I put more rocks in there to extend the rockery!! Not sure I'll ever be able to clear it completely but its looking better.
Did some apple thinning. Bess does a lot of that, jumping up at the trees and grabbing at apples. Problem is, she then eats the unripe apples and has an upset stomach. It was pretty awful a few days ago so I'm trying to swap her apples for balls each time she brings me one.

Thanks for the reminder to thin the apples, it looks like it will a good season. I'm off to google what to thin out.

I've watered a massive multi-level planter that is at the top of the street and pinched off some trailing plant cuttings as a thank you

I've also shifted some stuff into the car that is going to the tip one of these days - leftover broken greenhouse glass, a foot stool and a chair that's well past their best etc.

I've moved the last bits of of glass in the greenhouse, and will lay the path tomorrow if I can. I've moved four big containers with tomatoes in them, as they were so cramped in the other greenhouse that I couldn't see if there were tomatoes or not!

I've given everything a good soak and will be out there in the morning again to water a bit again.

I hadn't looked at the fruit trees for a bit. There were a dozen pears on each of 4 trees but they have all gone (bar 1). I did see a pile of pigeon feather near a hedge and thought serves it right. Whether it was one of next doors cats big game hunting but more likely a wild animal. not sure if sparrowhawks, kestrels or buzzards would go after wood pigeons.
The apple trees are looking very stressed and need a drastic thinning which I've never bothered with before. I gave the worst looking some water and will cull the apples later. The main thing is to make sure they stay alive. A lot of branches on an acer in the garden have died so that got some water to help it survive.

This morning watered and fed the tomatoes, chillies, aubergines, cucumbers, peppers and a couple of courgettes that have been really stressing. I would never normally feed or water them once established. God only knows how many fruit that would result in!
Fed, watered & weeded the potted chillies, dahlias and hanging baskets.
Watered young beetroot and chard plants. Watered the contents of the seedling table; it's a real challenge to keep them damp enough, without getting damping off.
Armpitted and de-leaved a lot of the tomatoes. With these temperatures and really low humidity, the arrival of blight is just taking the pi$$. Hopefully I've removed all the infected leaves in time.
11am and I'm done in the garden, although it is a perfect day for getting the feather pillows washed and dry!