What's going on in your garden (2023)?

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Propagating still. Basil peas corn lettuces spring onions radishes etc. Peas are about 3 inches ready to transplant out. Wifes job.
First asparagus of the season..3 inches.
1 only but a start.
Doing last year's pumpkin seed later.

Russ
 
Not much happening yet, except for fruit trees flowering

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Damson & quince alongside the red hotpokers that the nectar feeding birds love.

The snowflakes are really tall this year and still flowering. As tall as my daffodils.
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And I spotted this little pink flower poking out from under by 4×4
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I finally finished cleaning up the border of weeds and invasive plants, but I've still got loads to do in the garden. We've got loads and loads of Guinea grass
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Wonderful stuff if you've got 500 head of cattle, but appalling in a garden. It can grow up to 5 mts tall and all the little birdies just love the seeds... which they then spread all over the place. The only ways to get rid of this stuff are a) poison it; in which case you also destroy the lawns or b) dig it out, and you need a pickaxe to do that. THEN you have to fill in the spaces left and plant new, real grass over the top.
 
The lemon tree is very happy at the moment
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It won't grow any higher than the fence because of the winter winds and exposure, so it grows outwards instead. It used to go all the way to the ground, but I cut it back to help is health

And the veg plot is starting to grow...
I've posted the strawberry plans elsewhere, but here's the rhubarb, garlic, raspberry canes, and a few hidden red-currant bushes

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Rhubarb with strawberry in the foreground

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Garlic And some struggling chard to the right. It had been growing in a tiny pot, so I planted it in the ground. It will sort itself out soon.

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The raspberry canes. They are a little cramped but very productive.

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There is a barbery bush (yellow flowers), a blueberry bush (not sure but I think it's hiding behind the cardamom) and a green cardamom plant here. Temporary homes until they adapt to life in the ground.
 
Then there is oregano and thyme in front of the saffron crocuses that are now dying back.
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The Bay tree is in flower and I cod probably supply everyone with a lifetime of bay leaves from it.
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There's a small bush in front of the bay tree, but basically that big tree is the bay tree. At this time of year I don't need to bother picking bay leaves because the sulphur cockatoos do it for us. Usually from the top of the tree, they'll drop bunches of a dozen or more leaves onto the ground. If I didn't have so many bay leaves, I'd get angry about it, but we end up mowing up so many bay leaves with the lawn mower that it isn't a problem, and the grass clipping smell amazing!

Then I've got the mint...
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And the sorrel that looks great but we're not so keen on. It just grows where it wants to and the chooks can eat what they want of it.
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And finally the thyme and winter savoury (fenced off because of the chooks). They eat what sticks through the fence. We refer to their thieving as pre-stuffed chooks! 😆
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Then there is the fennel, rosemary, more thyme (2 varieties), a few more saffron crocuses, and more winter savoury.
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I put these pots of parsley at the bottom of the olive tree during winter as we had cut off all of the shoots. They are supermarket grown stuff. They've started growing again. The roots have grown through the bottom, but they seem happy and I've another crop of cutlery leaf parsley growing.
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One day I might just plant these 2 olive trees!

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The pear tree is just starting to flower, but the japonica (quince) is almost over. Maybe we'll actually get fruit this year?

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I didn't photo the apricot tree, or the nectarine tree. We have only one had a decent crop of apricots from the tree and that coincided with a beekeeper bringing his hives to the area. So I'm not that hopeful even though I did see a reasonable number of bees over it for a few days.
 
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The red hotpokers are a great source of nectar for the nectar feeding birds that visit the garden including a quite large nectar feeder (bigger than a UK thrush but smaller than a pigeon).
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The climbing rose should flower before we leave for the UK. It looks like it may be a good display this year, if they stay closed up for the weekend frost. We must every single bloom last year to a large frost the day before it was about the flower.
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And this is the strawberry patch (hidden under being and high shading material otherwise the local thieves would relieve me of them all if my chooks hadn't beaten them to it!)
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Lawns are looking perfect. Thanks mike the gardener.
Corn seeds ate up, about a dozen. 8 dwarf green beans up.
Radishes are up along with lettuces.
Rather happy with myself atm. Money talks around here :)

Russ
 
That time of year. Ripping up the garden. Here’s a baby tomato vine I had growing in the back row. It turned out to be close to ten feet long.
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