Tootfinder

My son has put up herb drying hooks for me in the utility room! I'm beyond delighted! He's also put up the plastic greenhouse we got weeks ago so it is now filling with things that need potting on and generally sorting out. I'm also hoping to sort out a small raised veg plot and a pond, so my garden mojo is well and truly back. It's nice to feel enthusiastic again. #gardening

Die Gärten den Insekten, die darin überwintern! #Gardening #Insekten @…
https://www.krautundrueben.de/rueckschnitt-von-stauden-erst-im-spaeten-fruehjahr-3419

My 12 tomato plants are now in. Each gets a deep hole filled with compost, plus a root waterer made from a cut-off wine bottle and some PVC pipe that has holes drilled along one side. Now hoping weather cooperates. Zone 7b. #tomatoes #allotment #garden #gardening #watering

I completed a checklist item for the #pandemicpond this morning. Retrieving some of the rocks that had fallen into the pond over the past couple winters. Since I upgraded to the rain barrel filters I had made a larger waterfall out of a blue water carrier and the original store-bought waterfall. (See historical pics). But I really wanted to embed it into the rocks and have the water flow out onto flat stones like the ones that line the edge.
Mission accomplished. Here’s some of the evolution.
Short video in next reply.
#gardening #home #pondlife

#garden #garten #gardening

I’m going out into the garden to check what seeds I have left over from last year, get some herb seeds into trays, and place them on the kitchen windowsill. I’m going to put the seed potatoes in over the next few days.
#gardening

Strawberry plant blinged out with droplets of xylem sap. I've never seen it, but apparently the minerals in the fluid can leave a white residue when the water evaporates. #guttation #biology #strawberry #fragaria #gardening #plants #xylem

Signs of things to come
#gardening

I noticed an army of ladybugs 🐞 🐞 🐞 🐞 in the yard recently. We had a hard freeze last night, so I covered some young trees with sheets to protect them. When I removed the sheets just now, they had lots of aphids on them. Now I know why the ladybugs are so active! #gardening

I like it. ❤️ 💧 🐠 🌴 🌺
#video #pandemicpond #gardening #home #pondlife

The apricot that I grew from a stone is flowering for the first time. A bit beyond its comfort zone here in Manchester but here's hoping. Not many insects about, but some big bombus. So hand pollinated with a paintbrush.
#ExperimentalGardening #gardening
Edit: Google gboard…

I have sown basil, lemongrass, and coriander seeds in trays on the kitchen windowsill. I’ve also planted some marrow seeds into pots and put them in a warm place to germinate. Finally, I have sown some Welsh onion seeds in a large pot and again put it somewhere warm indoors to germinate.
#gardening

Es wurden Krokusse für mich raus gestellt. 🙃 #Gardening @…

It’s the first long stretch of warm weather of the spring and summer! #pandemicpond #bloomscrolling #gardening #pondlife

Inside view of my fruit cage. The blackberries and raspberries are too new to produce much this year but the strawberries (raised bed and hanging baskets, upper right) have hundreds of developing fruit and I can't wait. When everything is ripe it's very satisfying to watch the birds and squirrels try to break in. #fruit #garden #gardening #blackberries #raspberries #strawberries

Around the #pandemicpond today. The marsh marigolds are flowering in the filter barrels! The rhodo will pop soon. The tinker bell lilac is so pretty and the Japanese maple has finally established itself and gained some height and foliage. Providing good morning shade to the stream and top pond.
#bloomscrolling #gardening #pondlife

Bu fotoğrafı dün çektim. Can eriği. Ve yarın büyük olasılıkla çoğu donacak. Zirai don bekleniyor.
#garden #garten #gardening

Flowers on my 'Belle of Georgia' dwarf peach (Prunus persica). Squirrels ate every single fruit last year so this season I'm going to encase them in stainless steel mesh bags. Might even use a finer mesh plastic bag inside to prevent peach-loving moths from ovipositing. #flowers #blumen #peach #prunus #tree #gardening

Husband has been out in the yard this morning...
#Pumpkins #Tomatoes #Gardening #Canberra

Es ist nicht so, dass ich keinen Respekt vor der Wuchskraft von kanadischer Goldrute (Solidago canadensis) habe.
Andererseits verstehe ich nicht, wieso sich Leute wegen Giersch in ihrem Staudenbeet ins Hemd machen
#Garten #gardens

Last October when I pruned my fig tree I threw the clippings into a moist bin in my basement in case some of them rooted. Which they did. Now I have to unload them on neighbors and passersby. "Hey, pssst: want a fig tree?" #figs #ficus #gardening

My fruit enclosure. On the left side along the back is a raised bed with strawberries, plus aerial baskets with even more varieties. Four blueberry bushes are on the back right but still too small to really provide much this year. In the front are blackberries, raspberries (normal and black), tayberries, and boysenberries that I put in last year (and also a bit small). In the corners are grapes that are being trellised to grow along the back in a single vine. Spanning the width (27 feet) are several galvanized wires onto which the berries and grapes will be attached when they get bigger. #berries #strawberries #garden #gardening #fruit

I'm getting hyped up to shovel rocks into our new garden cart tomorrow.
No really, i think it’ll be kinda therapeutic, even if it hurts a lot afterward. lol
It's been hard to even think about the #poolpond and the next steps for it, let alone do anything. So I really want to try to get some stuff done on Saturday.
#gardening #shovelTheStressAway #backpain

Finally managed to weed eat and cut the lawn today and got the last of the gravel moved so that we can get a bobcat in here to level the yard!! Yaaayy!!
Also did some cleaning out on the pond. Turns out the moss is great… until it REALLY latches in and makes space for grass. There was so much into the stream that it was backing up into the top pond, causing it to overflow, and the whole system lose water!
When I pulled up the moss, it pulled much of the gravel with it! So lesson learned. Very light on the moss, no more gravel in the stream, keep things neat and tidy!
In all though, the pond cleared up fast thanks to the barrel filters and all is good!
#pandemicpond #gardening #pondlife #spring #portalberni #backyardPond #PoolPond

Anyone have a recommendation on elbow-length gloves for harvesting berries from thorned plants? There are lots of leather ones but I'm worried it would be hard to pick off individual fruit. #blackberries #raspberries #garden #gardening #thorns #gloves

Just a reminder that gardening centers will happily sell you plants such as Pelargonium citrosum that are supposedly able to repel mosquitoes. But don't be suckered. No plant has that ability even if thousands of Pinterest pages insist it's true. #mosquitoes #gardening #gardens #plants

Every spring I reread this article on how tomatoes respond physiologically to even a single night below 50 °F (season-long reduction in yield). I'm always left wondering whether planting them out now (lows in upper 40s) might allow an earlier harvest, albeit at the expense of total productivity. Because I'd be OK with that. Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. USDA 7b. #tomato #tomatoes #garden #biology #circadian #gardening #temperature #weather #allotment #philadelphia https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/1996/oct/tomato/

Last photos! The arbutus is doing great!!
I am a little worries that the damage it suffered from rutting deer last year will lead to disease. 🤞
But the hazelnut tree is budding!
#poolPond #Gardening #Spring #PortAlberni #Home #Pond #PandemicPond

Things are growing in the backyard despite the continued #poolPond chaos.
Rhubarb is sprouting fast. A daffodil held on near the hazelnut tree even with all the disturbances.
And the young plum tree is budding!
#Gardening #Spring #PortAlberni #Home #Pond #PandemicPond

The strawberry section inside my bird- and squirrel-proof garden cage. No fruit yet but hundreds of flowers. #strawberries #fragaria #garden #gardening #raisedbed #fruit #erdbeeren

rocks moved!
Managed to move the last of the larger rock off the blue tarp and spread it around the top of the pond. A tiny hope of mine is that this could be enough to stabilize the liner so that when I empty it of its (quickly algae-ifying) rain water, it doesn't bulge out from the sides. I doubt I will be that lucky so I will have to fill it with city water (chlorinated) to keep the algae and mosquitoes at bay while preserving the shape of the liner until the ground around it hardens up.
The rainy season is winding down!
thankfully i didnt have to use any city water to clean the rocks as I moved them. Just used the hose emptying water from the other ponds.

#poolPond #Gardening #Spring #PortAlberni #Home #Pond #PandemicPond

From the archives, here's a drip-irrigation device I made for spot watering at the allotment. Because watering is just a drip or a trickle (you choose), it goes fully into the soil rather than running off to the side. As a bonus, fewer weeds around the plant because they never get water. #garden #gardening #water #artichoke #allotment #wine #bottle #diy

#poolpond progress today as we approach spring. Need to clear out the backyard enough so I can get a local guy with a mini bulldozer to soread out and flatten out the dirt mountain.
I came to a realization over the winter that leaving the lining as is in the pool with just a bottom of gravel and nothing on the sides is definitely not an option.
Turns out if the hole is emptied in the rainy season, then water will drain into the gap between the lining and earth... bulging the lining out into the cavity. Nope. Not good. keeping water in it keeps things in place, but realstically winter and spring will be when I want to do cleaning and stuff.
So that means I must do my best rock wall building up the sides this spring once the surrounding ground dries. This was my original plan, but I had hoped to do it without grouting or cement. That was a mistake on my part that I learned in earnest in August.
So now, all the various rock sizes piled around the yard is not going anywhere.... BUT at least with the leftovers from the fence i have material to build some forms to help with the wall building....
So that's why my attention for preparing for spring will turn to reactivating the surrounding yard.
So I need to find a place closer to the house to move what rock is left. Ugh. heavy work. And I realized today that someone has taken our garden cart 😢 boo.
oh well, onward we go! There is light at the end of the project!
#diy #backyardPond #Gardening #portalberni #landscaping

Here's my tomato waterer in action. The screening attached to the wine-bottle funnel prevents insects and garden debris from getting trapped inside the PVC tube. #tomatoes #water #gardening #allotment

Made labels for the raspberry, boysenberry, tayberry, black raspberry, and blackberry I planted last year. Quickly realized that the some of the temporary markers had disappeared during the winter and that I'll need to guess which is which. Oops. Hoping they'll be useful differences in stems, leaves, and fruit. #garden #gardening #rubus #raspberry #boysenberry #tayberry #blackberry #plants #berries

4 inch rock moved to new spot. And new gravel spot ready,#poolpond #backyard #home #gardening #BackyardProject #pandemicpond

two loads in the cart. One load left on the ground of the 1 inch rocks then it's into the gravel
don't be fooled by what you can see. The black fabric is actually concealing, almost half of the pile of gravel lol
#poolpond #backyard #home #gardening #BackyardProject #pandemicpond

Hornfaced bee (Osmia cornifrons) using mud to cap a nest at one of my insect hotels. Called the bean-flower bee (mame-ko bachi) in Japan because the balls of pollen and nectar they pack inside stems for their larvae to eat are as tasty as a dessert made from honey and soybean flour. The species was introduced to North America in the 1970s as a way to increase productivity of apple orchards. #InsectHotel #BeeHotel #pollination #bees #osmia #insects #orchard #gardening

it's time to move the last of this rock out of this back part of the yard to somewhere else so that the mountain of dirt can be flattened and spread out and ready for planting and other things.
The clay is already hardening up!
#poolpond #backyard #home #gardening #BackyardProject #pandemicpond

The tulip display at Longwood Gardens was incredible this year. #LongwoodGardens #tulip #tulips #tulipa #tulpen #flowers #bulbs #garden #gardening #pennsylvania

back and muscles say i am done for now but I made a good dent in the gravel. Managed to get all the gravel off the black fabric so that can be stored away. Just a two or three cart loads left but I don't want any nasty back surprises!
Maybe I can look up some folks with a bobcat and book a date for levelling! 🙌 🚜
emptying the poolpond of icky water.
and rhubarb!!
time for tylenol and a snack
/end
#poolpond #backyard #home #gardening #BackyardProject #pandemicpond

Dug a new weed pit at my allotment this morning. The victims spend a week or so drying out, then get buried. I've been doing this for years and the soil is slowly getting better. #allotment #gardening #weeds #weeding #composting #soil

This morning I prepped the spots at my allotment where the tomatoes will go. The soil becomes rock-hard clay at approximately 6", so I use a posthole digger to make an 18" hole that gets filled with compost. And to make watering easier and more effective, I have PVC pipes, capped at the bottoms, that have 1/8" holes along their lengths so that I can quickly slosh in a bunch of water and let it slowly percolate to the roots. A bit of work to make these watering funnels but the tomatoes develop very deep roots and are fine if ignored on a hot day. #tomatoes #gardening #allotment #soil #vegetables #wine #roots

From the archives but resharing because it's that time of year: my blog post on protecting pea plants from birds. And soon I'll post pics of my new and improved pea cage. #peas #gardening #garden #pisum #birds #allotment #blog #VegetableGardening https://colinpurrington.com/2024/05/birds-are-eating-my-pea-plants/