what are you doing ?

[Ant]

We managed to grow a couple of echiums a few years ago which got to about 15 feet tall, didn't get as big for the last two years but they self seed. I've found a load of seedlings in the last few days.
They need fairly specific soil conditions, they are from the canary Islands iirc. Doesn't need to be in particularly good soil, but it does like alkaline soil.
The flower bed we grew the first one in had had loads of fire Ash buried in it by the old guy who had this house before us which is probably why it liked it in there
We had a blue one and a pink one, the bees loved them

[Ray P]

You did well to keep that alive outside for 5 years Ray. Must be mild your way. The raised bed no doubt helped.

It is pretty mild down this way and I think it helps that the raised bed abuts the side of the semi-buried garage, which probably kept the soil a little bit warmer. It looks like I should have pot grown it but then I'm not sure it would have flowered? Hmm.

[simon]

Don't know. Root restriction often encourages fruiting/flowering, but I've no idea with a Jacaranda. Having it in a pot might have made it more vulnerable to cold around it's roots though. The only time I can recall losing anything to the cold was that really bad winter about 10 years ago. The passion flower bit the dust, -20 odd was obviously just too much for it, and a standard brown turkey fig that was in a pot. Things do get frosted, like the magnolias and camellias that had just come out this year when a frost caught them all, but at least it's only superficial.

[simon]

Well done growing the echiums ant. I've only tried once and failed, though I wonder if they weren't great stock - they felt a bit dried out when I got them to plant in autumn. Can you remember where you got them from? They need it mildish I think.

[Ant]

Grew them from seed, literally just chucked on the soil in April and covered over. Abit of water whenever the rest of the garden got watered. The 2 we ended up with took about 2 years to get big and had to be covered with fleece over winter, they really don't like frost. It was frost that did for the rest of the seedlings that hadn't gotten as big
Apart from the fleece over winter they took very little looking after, a lot less than I thought they would

[simon]

Good stuff ant. Mine were bare root, will have to look out for seed.

[izzy wizzy]

Cleared up the man cave today and found the worktops. Realised in the process, hadn't unpacked some stuff from last Owston and there was a ton of stuff clogging things up from way earlier than that.

Discovered a Moth RCM kit in the process. Must do something with that one day.

Also forgotten was the 401 and SME3009 buried under another lot of stuff. Will in time hopefully try and get it going to see what's up with it.

[Ant]

They're rubbish them moth rcm's, I think you ought to send it my way for a safe and orderly disposal.

Did a load of router work hacking a large hole in the plinth for the modified 75 wot I made, made a rather large amount of noise, and dust.

I'm debating wether to screw the deck down into the plinth a'la g88/99, or to use the 2 remaining bosses for the mounting studs, as I discovered some capped screws. There are only 2 bosses remaining so i need to fabricate another boss anyway by welding a nut onto the underside of the chassis.
Or I could just drill through the original bosses and screw it down through the holes....

Also moved the quails into the shed, they seem quite happy in one of the built in hutches that had the missus' Guinea pigs in

[IslandPink]

Also forgotten was the 401 and SME3009 buried under another lot of stuff. Will in time hopefully try and get it going to see what's up with it.

That's working out well - keep going and you might find a Rembrandt !

[pre65]

Just got back from my walk, only did approx 1 mile down a country lane and back.

It's so still outside, all I could hear was wildlife scurrying about (pheasants mainly I think) and the distant roar of a weir on the River Stour. Strangely (or not) I could not hear much in the way of traffic noise on the two nearest bigish roads.

Now off to bed to read a bit, I'm half way through a book on the history of the Colne valley and Halstead railway.

[pre65]

I was cutting my conifer hedge, but I've just severed the extension lead.

There was a small bang and a puff of smoke but it didn't trip the mains.

Time to pack up now as the cutting has made my arms ache.

[izzy wizzy]

I've lost count of how many times me and SWMBO has severed the hedge cutter cable. We must have poor technique.

After yet more days of digging, the skip is full. Another empty one arrives tomorrow; hopefully the last one for dirt.

Today got three 1.7m yews moved to block the greenhouse a bit. Hopefully they won't mind the move. A bit of structure is starting to happen which is a reward for all the digging.

[Ant]

Yet more cutting back of stuff, the enormous white hydrangea has had a trim, so has the huge cotoneaster in the front garden, I found another small hydrangea under it which I forgot was there.
I have no problem cutting the cable of the trimmer any more, the petrol one stopped all that lark.
Planted a load of geraniums in the front after splitting some of the clumps in the back garden.

Took almost 2 hours to shred all the clippings, I now have an even bigger pile of sticks that couldn't be put through the shredder.

We also have a bamboo that is about 4 foot round by about 8 foot tall, so that's been cut back around the base.
I've ended up with God knows how many canes, gave the Guinea pigs all the leaves off them so we now have plenty we can use as garden canes.

Also planed up a load of Ash and walnut timber into decent boards with the planer/thicknesser, found it at the back of the shed. Handy, as I have picked up a few orders in the last week or so and I actually needed some Ash and some walnut. So that saved me a few quid, and it's got some really nice figuring in it.
Bought it a couple of years ago along with some oak, iroko, and beech from a supplier where I used to work. It was in great big rough sawn planks about the size of scaffolding boards. The oak iroko and beech are long gone, I thought I'd used it all.
I also found a great big chunk of tulip wood about 75x280x550. I'll lop that up into boards on the bandsaw then plane that up too when I get round to it.

[jack]

Put two new wheels on the trailer for the tractor - old ones should have been replaced years ago.

Dug up a bucket full of bind weed (nasty evil stuff). Swept and cleared the main lawn with son (who, honestly, did most of the work). Massive pile of grass, all moved to composting area in another bit of the garden (took hours). Checked that the orchard was OK.

Got Raspberry Pi booting of an SSD and installing docker etc. on it.

Fixed greenhouse staging. Watered my bees (they were thirsty). Had a cup of tea. Created a new VLAN and wireless network for the workshop...

[simon]

Where did you get the wood from ant?

I've spent the 4 day BH digging out the area we're going to make in to a Japanese garden. Very satisfying to see the area almost bare and a blank canvas. Lots of plants moved to other parts of the garden. Had lots of robins, blackbirds and sparrows rooting around in my diggings for company.
Fabulous weather for it.

Back to work today. I'm not complaining, honest.