Self care by growing a garden

Thanks @Former-Member Love the transparency ... its a theme for me at the moment ...lol

you must be psychic!

@Smc Such a good point about the freshness of the seeds.

I am starting to make a collection to bring to a barter market. I have 2 tiny apple trees and some raspberries plus plus ...

not bad for such a tiny plot!

@eudemonism

@Determined

@Shaz51

@Appleblossom not psychic at all 😀.

@Smc Thanks for the info. I might buy an aquelegia plant in flower and hope it self seeds.

Feeling as stiff as a board after doing a bit of weeding today. The bed is still not ready for the plants we bought. I am determined to prepare the area well which has been lacking in the past. We will probably still have the rustic look but am ok with that.

Has been raining pretty steadily here today, which will do the garden lots of good, but has kept me mostly inside.

I did go out a bit before lunch and potted on a few of my recent purchases into bigger growing-on pots. I was pleased to discover that there were two Oriental Poppies in the pot, and that I could get a division off the Echinops and the Tulbaghia. So that's three bonus plants. 🙂

Also grabbed some greens for dinner. Fennel and rosemary for the poaching stock, and I need to make another run for some greens to put into the mashed spuds "bubble and squeak" style.

Tulips are finished. The rain and wind have knocked off the petals. But the irises aren't far behind. Several of the plants have buds that will open before the week's out.

@Smc

Rain = 😀

Dividable plants = 😀

Home grown produce = 😀

A day of achievement in the garden today. We finished bed preparation and planted the magnolia hedging plants which we were able to get on our trip to town. Also planted were some fill in arctotis daisies, an ornamental cherry tree and a paeony which I planted on our dear boy whippet's grave - I do hope it is a success.

We did need to move a struggling azalea to make way for one of these plants (wrong time of year but it was either move it or toss it).

We still have the hydrangea plants to go in - a little work needs to be done where I would like them to go ... more weeding required.

Marie Lemoine is a lovely one @Former-Member. Hope it grows well. 🙂

I had one peony struggle along for a few years before dying, so that scared me off them for a while. A few years ago, I took the plunge and bought a packet of two unnamed peonies. They're still alive, increasing in size a little each year. Haven't flowered yet- maybe next year. Am looking forward to seeing what I've got.

Today I've been carefully dividing the punnets of tomatoes and capsicums into individually potted plants. I've been soaking them in water and washing them around to loosen up the roots so thatI could pull them apart from each other with minimal damage. I got about a dozen or so plants per punnet, so that's 36+ tomatoes and 11 capsicums. I've also been dividing up some of the basil seedlings and planting them into big pots. The tomatoes and capsicums look like they haven't even "noticed" that they've been transplanted. The basil looks "so far so good" too.

Also did some weeding. Cleavers makes me itch...

I do hope you get a bumper crop @Smc these little seedlings contain such promise 😁.

I usually struggle to get a tomato crop @Former-Member... let alone capsicums. I love homegrown toms, the supermarket ones are completely unappealing. If I get a good enough crop, I'd have the chance to bottle a whole lot of them for wintertime. Tomatoes are dead easy, as long as you don't mind them "skin on". I did some from someone else's garden a few years ago, and I just squashed them down into the Fowlers bottles until the juice ran out then sterilised as per instructions. They were a little short on liquid so I'd add a bit of water next time, but ooh they tasted good!