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The gardening thread

Talking of wisterias, would this be a good time of year to plant one?
We got some garden centre vouchers for xmas and we've decided that we'd like a white wisteria
 
I finally get around to growing paper white narcissi in my bathroom (I find the fragrance of hyacinths far too pungent), and I find that they smell a bit like farts. :p
 
Broke up my tub-bound miscanthus sacchariflorus and planted two healthy chunks straight in the ground.
I never could keep the thing sufficiently watered in the tub - and it was very wasteful.
I may even drain the greenhouse onto it.

I think the hop is going the same way tomorrow since it's already starting to stir.
It'll be good to have a decent display this year.
Last year I thought about running strings across the garden near the house to make a hop tunnel ...
I already have a passionflower sitting area.
 
I went into my garden yesterday and it looks like it's been hit by a tornado.

It may just need watering. I've not watered it this year :D
 
Everything's raring to go this year.
I will be pacing myself.
I have next week off on the "use it or lose it" principle.
 
Manter said:
quite difficult to find IME. I bought one from crocus online in the end
Click to expand...

Found one in the first garden centre we tried today, although it was the only white one amongst a dozen blues and pinks.
It's a Japanese variety called Shiro Noda and one thing I've learnt today is that Japanese wisteria twine in a clockwise direction, and Chinese ones twine in an anti-clockwise direction :cool:

I've also cleared out the greenhouse, washed all the glass down and given the wooden bench in there a coat of woodstain, most satisfying.
 
Ive been out hacking at stuff in the garden! Im not sure if what I have hacked will like it but I dont really care :D it seems a lot brighter out there which is good :)

I have also been planting various bulbs that should have gone in ages ago :oops: oops

Manter how much of a faff was it to sand and paint those containers? was it extra special painty stuff?
 
Callie said:
Ive been out hacking at stuff in the garden! Im not sure if what I have hacked will like it but I dont really care :D it seems a lot brighter out there which is good :)

I have also been planting various bulbs that should have gone in ages ago :oops: oops

Manter how much of a faff was it to sand and paint those containers? was it extra special painty stuff?
Click to expand...
Incredibly easy. I used ronseal garden shades- it's thick but liquids and goes on incredibly quickly. I didn't bother to sand as the finish was really rough, and 2 coats covered all the orange. Brilliant stuff
 
Met office warning of dipping temperatures tonight into Monday morning - so I'll be lagging my greenhouse tropicals again tonight.
 
I got my hop out of its tub and into the ground next to next door's kitchen extension.
I had to break up some concrete to expose the soil and because I had to dig down till I hit some clay, I used some of the concrete broken up for drainage before chucking in some of the better soil I excavated yesterday.
A right messy job and the hop had been in the tub for over 10 years so had yards of rhizome.
I planted the two biggest bits in the hole and back-filled with the compost from the tub and chucked in a few handfuls of fertiliser.
I've potted up two smaller pieces just in case.
It's clearly a powerful plant - some of it had grown into the rotting stump of a self-sown buddleia and might produce a third spare plant.

I now have a large tub full of crappy subsoil to dump at the end of the garden.
 
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Finally got around to sowing some tomato seeds. Didn't stay out long, it's taters out there.

My strawberry plants are looking happy though :) Herbs have all come back too, and the fuschia has suddenly appeared again. My camellia is in bloom and the garden looks quite spring-like.
 
It certainly was a bit nippy - I got an hour or two on my sheltered bench but only by wearing a quilted jacket and wrapped in the old curtains I was going to lag my brugmansias with.
 
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Well that wasn't very scary in the end - all wind chill and no bite.
My ancient greenhouse thermometer registered a low of 6 degrees overnight under the curtains protecting my brugs.
 
Looks like I've been getting my brugs through the winter by pure luck ...
When I first started growing them in 2003, we didn't have winters to speak of - so dragging it into the unheated greenhouse was sufficient. As it was this winter.


The key thing I've failed to do this winter is root-pruning so it'll be a bit pot-bound... I may yet stick my best one in the ground this year and dig it up and hack the roots for next winter - but it's simply too big to take in the house now. Apparently some people use soil-warming cables...

I've watched several videos like this and most of these people need to learn about manual handling.
 
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I've done loads today.... Marked out the next walls and hard landscaping that need to go in, planted up a bunch of cuttings and (drumroll please) built a step!
azage7ug.jpg

It's the first bricklaying I've done on my own- the wall I did with my dad who actually knows what he's doing. It's not perfect, the pointing is a bit scruffy, but I'm v pleased with myself :). I dug out a proper foundation and filled it with rubble and rough mix too. Fucking hell, every bit of me aches.....
 
Manter said:
And everything is sprouting and blossoming and flowering- it's lovely
Click to expand...

I've been down my allotment today and everything is sprouting and blossoming and flowering down there too.

As always at this time of year, it feels like there's so much to do and not enough time to do it, but it'll all get done somehow.

Also, I saw a Peacock butterfly so they're obviously waking from hibernation

60d6f5432e3d8380e02745b9150f0393.jpg


(not my photo)
 
Nice step Manter :cool:

Just a bit of general tidying today - weeding and edging some of the beds.

Moved a Japanese quince from the east facing fence to the west facing fence.
We've had it a couple of years and it's done nothing, hardly grown and looks barely alive.
It's supposed to do OK when east facing :confused:
Hoping the move will either kill or cure it.
 
I decided to buy ornamental bark for the first time to get at least part of the garden shipshape.
But on the way back from Aldi, I realised it really honks - do I'll have to wait until the next big batch of rain.
I may tentatively put a bag of it down away from where I sit to see how intrusive it is.

The olfactory aspect of gardening is crucial to me - so annoying that at least one neighbour has to smoke commercial cigarettes in the garden - so perhaps I'll end up preferring the smell of the bark...
 
gentlegreen said:
I decided to buy ornamental bark for the first time to get at least part of the garden shipshape.
But on the way back from Aldi, I realised it really honks - do I'll have to wait until the next big batch of rain.
I may tentatively put a bag of it down away from where I sit to see how intrusive it is.

The olfactory aspect of gardening is crucial to me - so annoying that at least one neighbour has to smoke commercial cigarettes in the garden - so perhaps I'll end up preferring the smell of the bark...
Click to expand...
The smell goes really quickly when it's out of the plastic. Maybe 24 hours?
 
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