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The gardening thread

I always check out this thread as motivation (to drag my idle arse off to the allotment). I can dither around in my little garden at home, for hours, but packing my tools and unlocking my bike always seems like more effort than I am willing to devote...and the list of urgent chores is always despairingly long...until I am unlocking the allotment gates, in which case, I find myself bursting with glee and anticipation. No job is too onerous, once it is in front of my eyes. TopCat - I find your efforts especially inspiring (I bloody hate hauling rubble)...while Iona, Stony and Bimble seem to have unlimited energy. What Leafster I achieved, in just a year or so, was also truly impressive. I have been mucking about on my allotment for 20 years or so and it still is nowhere near 'done'. It isn't a sense of competition or anything like that, but for sure, this thread is a helpful goad to get me out there, onwards and upwards.

I find myself missing @Mrs fran and her allotment updates.And rudely tagging some other inspiring garden threaders - littleseb , Callie , Numbers , Idaho, gentlegreen, wayward bob , two sheds...the more, the better.
 
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iona said:
Working in here today :cool:

IMG-20210413-112815.jpg
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Where's that?
 
I have cowslips on my mind this season, andysays. I have been furtively colonising some in my local graveyard and am truly heartened by the results. What was, last year, tenuous clusters of one or 2 small plants has increased to spreads of 40 or 50 minuscule, but perfect frilled rosettes.Next year, I anticipate blankets of nodding golden blooms. I know a couple of cowslip meadows around Norwich...where the transformation,from green to gold is astonishing...and then, within a few weeks, the whole lot flattens out, sending seeds willy-nilly while the foliage vanishes into summer dormancy.
And I intend another seed collection of oxslips - endemic in a couple of Bedfordshire woods and shouting out to be set free across east anglia.
 
Had a proper hard frost up at the allotment some time in the last few days. Peas don't look great but my potatoes are happily potating away under their wool blanket.

Just been up there cutting up wood for edging paths in my mum's flower garden bit, went to pick up some wood chip for that and her local garden centre now has a massive drive-through shop for compost/manure/bark/etc! It was really exciting :oops::oops: Bought a couple different peat-free mixes I'd normally have to pay to get delivered, just to try them out.
 
campanula said:
I have cowslips on my mind this season, andysays. I have been furtively colonising some in my local graveyard and am truly heartened by the results. What was, last year, tenuous clusters of one or 2 small plants has increased to spreads of 40 or 50 minuscule, but perfect frilled rosettes.Next year, I anticipate blankets of nodding golden blooms. I know a couple of cowslip meadows around Norwich...where the transformation,from green to gold is astonishing...and then, within a few weeks, the whole lot flattens out, sending seeds willy-nilly while the foliage vanishes into summer dormancy.
And I intend another seed collection of oxslips - endemic in a couple of Bedfordshire woods and shouting out to be set free across east anglia.
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That sounds great. It always amazes me how quickly wild plants can spread if they're in suitable conditions.

Funnily enough, there's one single cowslip in bloom on another estate (this one I have seen in previous years) so again I made a point of mowing around it.

No idea how it got there, it seems even more incongruous than the primroses.
 
iona said:
Had a proper hard frost up at the allotment some time in the last few days. Peas don't look great but my potatoes are happily potating away under their wool blanket.

Just been up there cutting up wood for edging paths in my mum's flower garden bit, went to pick up some wood chip for that and her local garden centre now has a massive drive-through shop for compost/manure/bark/etc! It was really exciting :oops::oops: Bought a couple different peat-free mixes I'd normally have to pay to get delivered, just to try them out.
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Peas are quite frost hardy so they should hopefully bounce back.

I planted my potatoes over Easter weekend; they hadn't emerged yet when I last looked.
 
andysays said:
Peas are quite frost hardy so they should hopefully bounce back.

I planted my potatoes over Easter weekend; they hadn't emerged yet when I last looked.
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Yeah I stuck the peas in thinking that but reckon some of them might need replacing. Not a huge hassle if they do.

It's a proper headfuck growing on two different sites only 20 miles apart but with completely different climates - don't think my garden in central Brighton's had more than a few nights of frost way back in January. I'll be sticking tomatoes outside this week once I've finished the freecycle bubblewrap greenhouse for them to go in at night!
 
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iona said:
Yeah I stuck the peas in thinking that but reckon some of them might need replacing. Not a huge hassle if they do.

It's a proper headfuck growing on two different sites only 20 miles apart but with completely different climates - don't think my garden in central Brighton's had a few nights of frost way back in January. I'll be sticking tomatoes outside this week once I've finished the freecycle bubblewrap greenhouse for them to go in at night!
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My toms are yearning for bigger pots but I’m holding out for a week or two longer before they go in the cold frame/greenhouse and off the windowsill.

It’s not awful during the days, bit nippy but nights are very chill still.

At the plot all the green stuff is starting to sprout, cabbages and broccoli and lettuce. Beetroot’s doing ok as well. I should have put some parsnips in tbh. Spuds are doing ok but I’ve put milk cloches on them.

To do this weekend: dig rest of rows for beets and maybe dig in some manure for where the squash will go.
 
My beetroot isn't up yet but brassicas and lettuce are doing well. Parsnips and leeks are going in a strip along next to the cucurbit bed that's still under cardboard and membrane atm, so need to chuck some compost and manure on there Sunday to get ready for planting. Sowed cucurbits yesterday but some of those are for sale so can always do a second, later sowing for the plot if weather's looking dodge.

I seem to be growing nearly as much garlic for personal use as the farm I was at yesterday are growing for their whole veg box scheme :hmm:
 
Ooh I should raid the forest for some wild garlic. I was annoyed because they trimmed back a load of trees and covered some of the soil it grows in with chippings so I keep quietly booting some of the cover thinner when I go up.

I love the smell and it’ll do a pasta
 
I was dismayed this morning looking at more rubble strewn across the path. I cleared up and smashed up and removed the remaining concrete plinth. I have an impressive rubble pile now. Like a cairn.

Later installed the new picnic bench remains raised bed. Got another 250 litres of compost. Just using it as a compost store for the moment.

The raised beds have stuff growing. Neat rows of spinach and beans and beetroot and some leeks. The garlic is just coming up.

I Pricked out cauliflowers and parsley and dill and cucumbers and er some other stuff.
Stuff so precious it got sown in peat pellets and put in an incubator. It’s doing well. No idea what it is though.

Sowed boxes of meadow seeds. Hoping they will take on a bit of raked soil.

I am due back to work next week. It’s been good this er gardening leave, got a lot done. :)
 
campanula said:
I always check out this thread as motivation (to drag my idle arse off to the allotment). I can dither around in my little garden at home, for hours, but packing my tools and unlocking my bike always seems like more effort than I am willing to devote...and the list of urgent chores is always despairingly long...until I am unlocking the allotment gates, in which case, I find myself bursting with glee and anticipation. No job is too onerous, once it is in front of my eyes. TopCat - I find your efforts especially inspiring (I bloody hate hauling rubble)...while Iona, Stony and Bimble seem to have unlimited energy. What Leafster I achieved, in just a year or so, was also truly impressive. I have been mucking about on my allotment for 20 years or so and it still is nowhere near 'done'. It isn't a sense of competition or anything like that, but for sure, this thread is a helpful goad to get me out there, onwards and upwards.

I find myself missing @Mrs fran and her allotment updates.And rudely tagging some other inspiring garden threaders - littleseb , Callie , Numbers , Idaho, gentlegreen, wayward bob , two sheds...the more, the better.
Click to expand...
I really enjoy reading this thread too. It's great to see how other people have tackled their gardens and allotments. It's interesting to see different approaches and styles and plants I've never even heard of!

It would be good to see some of the posters who don't frequent the thread so much come back to give us updates on their gardens.

What have a learnt about my garden since I created it? It's a living thing that does what it wants a lot of the time. The neat planting plans I formulated at the start have become a lot less rigid. Some things worked, some things didn't. Some things grew out of control (the artichoke!). The garden grows and changes in ways I hadn't envisaged but it's good that it's evolving. I just have to work out how to coax it in a direction that I want.

As the garden had been subjected to major earthworks even before I got here, the resulting beds and borders have very different growing conditions even over a relatively short distance. There's still areas that I planted up which need reconsidering - some plants aren't quite as happy as they should be. Other bits, like my low yew hedging and the big beech hedge have exceeded my expectations.

You're so right when you say it isn't a competition. We all want different things from our gardens and we have to work with what we've got - I so want to grow rhododendrons but the effort to grow them in an overwhelmingly chalky dry site is so time-consuming I wouldn't be able to do so much elsewhere.

Gardens provide us with challenges. Each new season brings something different. I've noticed the spring bulbs in my garden are so much better than last year but the lingering cold weather and recent snow may well have finished off some of my hebes. It's these changes, whether it's down to my garden maturing, the effects of the weather or the amount of hungry wildlife eating my plants that keeps me inspired to go out there and make it better! Knowing there are other posters on this thread facing similar challenges just makes it easier to do.
 
Spent the morning on bonfire duty then dug out a new vegetable bed in the reclaimed field / wildflower meadow at the top of the garden at work today. They've basically given me free reign to stick stuff in there and the other veg bed within a few guidelines ("mostly runner beans and green stuff"). My usual assistant and her little brother helped do a load of watering so all the bulbs we planted last autumn might actually flower now - so far the only thing out is one bright red tulip that must've got mixed in with a bag of white daffs and definitely isn't meant to be there :D

Finally got my compost so loads of potting on to do tonight.
 
Please do Boatie - I love your garden and never see enough of it. I am also going to have to mention Calamity1971 - she has a thing for giganto-plants (as do I) and seems to coax amazing performances from her plants (unlike me), so yep, words and pics, please. I will,eventually work out how to use my phone (cheers, calamity) and try to put some pics up.

Grief yes, TopCat. My whole (ahem) garden sits on a gigantic rubble pit. I put paviours on most of it although I built 2 (odd shaped) raised beds and had a shitload of containers. Even rubble provides drainage and over the years, Most of the raised bed plants have grown into large plants (trees and immense roses) which have grown deep roots. into the rubble..and anything which sits in a pot for long enough will also root through the bottom of the pot, through the block paving and into the dire rubble and couple of inches of remaining topsoil., relieving me of some of the intense watering stress in a container garden. I have an immovable lilac, acer, lemon verbena, and a couple of salvias. I always feel a bit guilty at the rooty contortions (and tenacity) but the evident thriving vigour (compared to their previous perilous life in pots) has confirmed my belief that roots must be free. In short, I wouldn't worry about removing too much rubble - build on top of it. Doing so meant lots of wall coping at a convenient height for sitting, or more pots. Using concrete blocks was cheapish (and fun). You can hire a cement mixer. I think you would enjoy it.
 
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when I got to my place there was a large pile of rubble which I and a mate sorted out by throwing rocks into one pile and concrete blocks into another.

Being Cornwall all the while I was sorting them out I was thinking "mineshaft, mineshaft" and I spoke to my mate afterwards and he was all the while thinking "snakes, snakes".

The area's sorted now and I'm trying to establish wildflowers and things but I think the oxeye daisies are going to take over :cool:
 
campanula said:
Please do Boatie - I love your garden and never see enough of it. I am also going to have to mention Calamity1971 - she has a thing for giganto-plants (as do I) and seems to coax amazing performances from her plants (unlike me), so yep, words and pics, please. I will,eventually work out how to use my phone (cheers, calamity) and try to put some pics up.

Grief yes, TopCat. My whole (ahem) garden sits on a gigantic rubble pit. I put paviours on most of it although I built 2 (odd shaped) raised beds and had a shitload of containers. Even rubble provides drainage and over the years, Most of the raised bed plants have grown into large plants (trees and immense roses) which have grown deep roots. into the rubble..and anything which sits in a pot for long enough will also root through the bottom of the pot, through the block paving and into the dire rubble and couple of inches of remaining topsoil., relieving me of some of the intense watering stress in a container garden. I have an immovable lilac, acer, lemon verbena, and a couple of salvias. I always feel a bit guilty at the rooty contortions (and tenacity) but the evident thriving vigour (compared to their previous perilous life in pots) has confirmed my belief that roots must be free. In short, I wouldn't worry about removing too much rubble - build on top of it. Doing so meant lots of wall coping at a convenient height for sitting, or more pots. Using concrete blocks was cheapish (and fun). You can hire a cement mixer. I think you would enjoy it.
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I am about done with rubble. I need to get a skip but need to be very thoughtful as I could book it and then be anxious and not make use of it and then feel shit.
I have sown boxes of bees and butterflies flower seeds all over the beds I should really attack with a pick axe. A holding plan.
 
TopCat said:
I am about done with rubble. I need to get a skip but need to be very thoughtful as I could book it and then be anxious and not make use of it and then feel shit.
I have sown boxes of bees and butterflies flower seeds all over the beds I should really attack with a pick axe. A holding plan.
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Me too but there's been no rain for a week and none forecast for next two weeks :eek:

Six water butts and half are empty by now :(
 
two sheds said:
Me too but there's been no rain for a week and none forecast for next two weeks :eek:

Six water butts and half are empty by now :(
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We've had a bit of rain here yesterday but before that the soil was so dry it didn't look healthy.

Had such a wet winter as well, but these long dry patches followed by lethal amounts of downpour in a small timeframe in the spring and summer are getting more frequent as time goes on.
 
Artaxerxes said:
We've had a bit of rain here yesterday but before that the soil was so dry it didn't look healthy.

Had such a wet winter as well, but these long dry patches followed by lethal amounts of downpour in a small timeframe in the spring and summer are getting more frequent as time goes on.
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Yep incredibly wet winter here too - water was dripping down indoors chimney so I bitchumined outside the chimney but it's not rained enough to tell me whether I've stopped water coming in from when it rains stupid amounts.
 
We're working on the new greenhouse build this weekend, base has been dug and the membrane is down. Gravel next, then that interlocking plastic stuff filled with pea shingle.
20210417_100438.jpg

And looking down the garden the other way. The boy's workshop. The current gate/arch is being relocated to the left, the posts need staining and cutting to size.

20210417_100507.jpg
 
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