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The gardening thread

Yes, that will be fine, iona. The main reason for autumn planting relates to the need for fresh viable seed, I think. If you have got germinated plugs, a spring sowing will be more or less the same as all the other transplants - maybe a spot of extra irrigation to get them through the establishment period. Don't think ground frosts will be detrimental, so yep, plant away.
Did you sow the seed yourself or are you buying plugs? I completely forgot to order seed in time but would be very interested in plug plants if you have a source (my meadow had it's first path cut, this week- slightly worried at the lush grass growth).
 
campanula said:
Yes, that will be fine, iona. The main reason for autumn planting relates to the need for fresh viable seed, I think. If you have got germinated plugs, a spring sowing will be more or less the same as all the other transplants - maybe a spot of extra irrigation to get them through the establishment period. Don't think ground frosts will be detrimental, so yep, plant away.
Did you sow the seed yourself or are you buying plugs? I completely forgot to order seed in time but would be very interested in plug plants if you have a source (my meadow had it's first path cut, this week- slightly worried at the lush grass growth).
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Buying plugs assuming I can find some. One place I'm trying is local collection only but will let you know if I end up buying online... How many plugs do you reckon for about 100 sq m? (Though I've just managed to convince them to turn a bit of that area into a veg garden :D)

I thought autumn sowing was more about needing fresh seed - and they need the cold hours to break dormancy I think? - but the other gardener I work with there told me the other, other gardener(!) who did the initial garden design and just turns up a few times a year to tell us what to do had told him they needed to be planted in autumn. Think that was just some confusion between them about plugs vs seed.
 
miss direct said:
Is this the sort of thing I could order, along with big bags of compost? If so, where from?
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Err :D Google is your friend! :oldthumbsup: I googled 'large wooden trough planter' to get that image to show you from ebay

Or see if there are any places/tradesmen making them near you. Some garden centres may have them also but they might be more pricey.

Make sure you line them to avoid the wood rotting from the inside but also make sure there are drainage holes to avoid them getting water logged.
 
miss direct said:
Not sure...looks like really hard work. Outside of the fenced area is quite a large area of open grass/shrubs (not "mine" but not sure anyone would care if I planted a few things there!)
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It can be really hard work, but it's so worth it in the long term.

I was helping out over the last couple of weeks at an ex's garden of the new house she bought, which had been laid totally to slabs :(. We only cleared about a third of the slabs, but under them was about three inches of concrete (cracked out the kango for that) then another three inches of scalpings. When we finally found earth, it was really heavy compacted clay, so had to dig at it relly hard with a mattock and get loads of organic matter into it. Three full days work and we've filled a skip, and managed to source and collect enough topsoil and compost to back fill around 2/3s of our digging.

Now planting has started it's looking like a totally different space and it will only get better now the growing season has kicked in.
 
two sheds said:
I've in the past actually been quite good at labeling as I plant the seeds. The labels have either been washed clean by the watering or rain though, or mushed in the case of paper ones.

A couple of years ago I bought some proper plant labels and a sharpie which has helped enormously. :)
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Use pencil on labels. I have ones from 15 years back and the writing looks like new.
 
I can't agree enough with Rutita1. This sort of thing is exactly what we are going to make for our daughter, who has a fairly unforgiving concrete yard. I also have a LOT of pots. My greatest garden tip, after many years of continual watering is get the largest planters you can manage. With a large enough pot, you can have trees...and with lots of small pots, you will be a watering slave.

I suspect daughter will be going down the skip and kango route but not this year. She has spent all her money on frivolities such as expensive sheepdogs and sailboats (then said pup wrecked the new carpets). Plants are incredibly resilient and tenacious in even the most unpromising soils - roots must be free, ultimately.
 
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Um,this sounds very worrying, bimble. I would be inclined to blame the cold. I have them on the allotment, but there is rarely a sniff of them until much later - mid May or thereabouts...and they are always my 'canary' plant - totally limp overnight at a whiff of the first frost. Plenty of time to sow more. I have to do another tomato sowing after germination fails (although not, for once, blaming myself).
 
wayward bob said:
i still need to dig my compost :oops: :D
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I still need to build a proper bin for mine. DIY dalek (plastic dustbin I found in the street, drilled holes in and sawed the bottom off of) is totally full so I'm back to just chucking any compostable waste under the nearest shrub :oops:

I've totally emptied a work compost heap and one of the community compost bins in the park in the last couple weeks though. So satisfying when you get right to the bottom and there's all that space to turn another heap into then get started again :cool:
 
Came in for a break - partly because we have just had another snow shower (and not very light) which has dropped the air temperature right down. In between times, when the sun is shining the pests de jour are clouds of midges, despite the -4 overnight last night.

First job today was to put some first earlies out to chit [Epicure & Sharpe's Express] and then look at my seed supplies ...
However, I have managed to wrangle the loganberries back into some sort of order - note to self : tie the new canes in as they grow this year !
The pruning's have gone directly into the incinerator bin (revenge for all the tiny thorns).

Next job will be the early stages of re-vamping my pots and containers - a bit of multiple shuffling around to allow fresh compost supplies and replacement pots or troughs as appropriate.
The first beneficiaries of the process will be my gooseberries, followed by planting some broad bean seeds (pot grown to keep them out of reach of the local rabbits).
At some point during that stage, for a change of pace, I'll attend to the mess that should be the temporary compost heap.

A "couple of weeks" ago, we replaced the short fence which is on top of our front wall, to do so, I had to thin / prune the rugosa that grows next to the wall. Took out loads of deadwood and reduced the height by 25 - 30%, apart from one end that I kept tall. At the same time, we cleaned out the pampas grass clump which was rebuilt this time last year. I'm still burning up the results of that exercise, a bit at a time ...
 
I have beans and peas and radishes and er something else poking up now. All neat rows!
Flower bulbs are coming up. Dry stock fruit bushes have sprouted.

I tidied up the street tree outside a while back. Removed all the ivy, dog shit and dog ends and dug down a bit, topped off with compost and planted stuff. Summer flower mix seeds I germinated indoors and some climbing flowers of some description.

I go out every day in my slippers and water it. Part of my plan to seem more normal to neighbours. It’s going well, they stop to chat.
 
Gardening group went ok for the first session. Only one person turned up - two including staff, three if you count the guy who just came down to chat while openreach were trying to fix his landline - but we sowed a load of seeds and I found a bit of veg for people to take away with them. Finally gave me the kick up the arse I needed to dig all my pots and cell trays out of the grim shed and give them a scrub, so that's something anyway. More seed sowing next week, and maybe some pricking out (if anything's ready) and/or planting potatoes (if housing association ever order the fucking compost we asked for a month ago).

IMG-20210412-151008.jpg
 
I was in b and q yesterday. Good priced compost but fuck all else. Easter must have been busy as simple stuff like decking screws were all sold out.

I am looking at the old pub table, well it’s dismantled so a pile of planks. I want to build a planter out of it. Put a trellis at the back of it and grow sweet peas.

We have two iron monger type places in Lewisham so I’m off to try there for screws.

This is my last week of er gardening leave so need to be busy.
 
I made my planter today. Then cracked on smashing a big concrete plinth from a long ago shed. I will soon have a massive L shaped bed with not much in it. See pics. I have planted some seed tapes on the left and some bulbs but need suggestions please. I love shades of green as much if not more than flowers. image.jpg
 
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