The gardening thread

[ringo]

Lots of tidying & weeding today plus planted spring onions , beetroot & artichokes which I have never grown before. Some flowers coming through & garden now tidy.

My partner has been on a quest to have a fire pit area that is smokeless & under cover & finally today he believes he has cracked it.

It was fabulous being outside in shorts & t-shirt.

That looks great. Going to be lovely for BBQs and the sitting around it later.

Just ordered one of those ceramic egg BBQs. Want to spend all summer in the garden so that's good inspiration. Seating next

 

[gentlegreen]

Some people pay to go into rooms to bend and lift stuff.
Apart from missing the psychological boost of going to the park and seeing animals and people, it suits me to have a green gym this spring as my big toe has been giving me grief over something in my diet - quite likely the weekly two bottles of wine .. in 2014 it was gout plus sciatica ...
This year I have the advantage of not having to go to work so I can go full caveman.

 

[mrsfran]

Look at my beautiful asparagus that I grew

 

[Fairweather]

Some people pay to go into rooms to bend and lift stuff.
Apart from missing the psychological boost of going to the park and seeing animals and people, it suits me to have a green gym this spring as my big toe has been giving me grief over something in my diet - quite likely the weekly two bottles of wine .. in 2014 it was gout plus sciatica ...
This year I have the advantage of not having to go to work so I can go full caveman.

View attachment 318790

We refer to our allotment as our outdoor gym, spent three hours up at ours today planting first early potatoes, turning the compost heap and doing some hedge trimming. It’s hard work and I’m having a much needed cold beer which tastes great after a bit of graft.

 

[gentlegreen]

First thing tomorrow I need to extract the piece of heavy-gauge damp proof polythene I buried 20 years ago in the back left corner to try to make my free-draining soil more amenable for gunnera cultivation. Sadly it didn't survive - I would probably have needed loads of watering - but that corner today is surprisingly heavy, moist and loamy compared to the rest of the garden.
It was where I piled all my bamboo prunings and the bamboo actually spread there.

Once I've got the hard landscaping done I will get as much as I can of the bagged material onto the soil as mulch.
I hope I can honestly say that had I actually got around to organising a green bin, I would have known to keep it - but I had no idea at the time that I would be growing veggies and assumed I would be seeding or turfing the soil as it was ... Oh for a shredder .. I wonder if I could make biochar with a galvanised incinerator

I've started to run 6 inch boards across between fence posts as a target for the top section which I will aim to get level with the bottom of the fence - though it's bound to settle. I don't know what the final steps will be made from - I have a choice between 3 inch fence posts and left over postmix -and I have a fair few Victorian patterned pavers .. and I have realised I should use all the bricks I've piled on top of the old wall at the back to fill voids ..

One issue is my neighbour effectively has a raised bed that is now liable to migrate into my garden - so I will pack the void with bricks before fitting a board to the posts and also offer him some DP polythene which I have loads more of - though he will actually need something structural as well - a key reason the old fence died was it was supporting soil ..

 

[mrsfran]

Look at my beautiful asparagus that I grew

I just had some for dinner and it's honestly the best asparagus I've ever had. So fresh and sweet. Worth the 3 year wait.

 

[gentlegreen]

I just had some for dinner and it's honestly the best asparagus I've ever had. So fresh and sweet. Worth the 3 year wait.

Yes. Supermarket asparagus is so consistently disappointing I haven't risked any in years ...
If I get my potager in France it's going to be de rigueur - not least because of the sea air.
I plan to grow artichokes too - though mostly for show ...

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm now going to have to buy a new mini greenhouse - having disposed of all my bits last year - though they were rather rusty.
The ricinus is the biggest issue - I barely have room for one in the front garden - so I'm having to factor in a tropical seating area in my back garden - I already have a tree fern and cordyline with no room out the front ...
Also I had a mishap and snapped off two brugmansia branches so they're in the bubbler with the watercress - so more of the same ...

 

[StoneRoad]

First thing tomorrow I need to extract the piece of heavy-gauge damp proof polythene I buried 20 years ago in the back left corner to try to make my free-draining soil more amenable for gunnera cultivation. Sadly it didn't survive - I would probably have needed loads of watering - but that corner today is surprisingly heavy, moist and loamy compared to the rest of the garden.
It was where I piled all my bamboo prunings and the bamboo actually spread there.

Once I've got the hard landscaping done I will get as much as I can of the bagged material onto the soil as mulch.
I hope I can honestly say that had I actually got around to organising a green bin, I would have known to keep it - but I had no idea at the time that I would be growing veggies and assumed I would be seeding or turfing the soil as it was ... Oh for a shredder .. I wonder if I could make biochar with a galvanised incinerator

I've started to run 6 inch boards across between fence posts as a target for the top section which I will aim to get level with the bottom of the fence - though it's bound to settle. I don't know what the final steps will be made from - I have a choice between 3 inch fence posts and left over postmix -and I have a fair few Victorian patterned pavers .. and I have realised I should use all the bricks I've piled on top of the old wall at the back to fill voids ..

One issue is my neighbour effectively has a raised bed that is now liable to migrate into my garden - so I will pack the void with bricks before fitting a board to the posts and also offer him some DP polythene which I have loads more of - though he will actually need something structural as well - a key reason the old fence died was it was supporting soil ..

View attachment 318847

Narrow strip of gravel against the gravel boards will reduce the risk of the bottom of the fence panel rotting, as I'm sure you are aware.

Some very good progress there ...
Hope your back can take the spadework !

 

[Calamity1971]

Just been going through a box of collected/nabbed seed heads. Can't for the life of me remember picking this and what's it's off. Any ideas?

 

[gentlegreen]

Just been going through a box of collected/nabbed seed heads. Can't for the life of me remember picking this and what's it's off. Any ideas?
View attachment 318893View attachment 318894

tulip ?

 

[Calamity1971]

tulip ?

I don't think so, it was Late summer ish. I remember picking loads of different things and forgetting to write what they were. Think it was pre covid! going to sow them in my propagator tomorrow and see what comes up. The box is full of stuff I haven't a scooby what it is. Might scatter the rest and hopefully it takes.

 

[gentlegreen]

paeony ?

 

[Calamity1971]

paeony ?

No. Love peony, but they're a bit too top heavy. I'm thinking some sort of fancy iris, not Asiatic. Remember liking something in the public gardens near me? I do this all the bloody time. # disorganized gardener .

 

[StoneRoad]

Calamity1971 might be Aquilegia ?

 

[Saunders]

Agapanthus?

 

[gentlegreen]

Calamity1971 might be Aquilegia ?

I think she's closer with the iris - though the ranunculales do have that "look" about them ...

 

[gentlegreen]

It was surprisingly easy to remove the body I buried in 2002
I hope kale does OK in the shadiest part of the garden - I can't think of anything else. and there's masses of topsoil.
The bamboo of course thrived - once it got to 20 feet ...

 

[gentlegreen]

I am about to remove the last bit of path - complete with line post - or rather three paths one on top of the other with scrap metal - presumably kitchen range in the hardcore ...


The top section of fence here has a semi-consolidated bank on the other side - so bricks will be sufficient for the first panel. I'm not so sure about the next section because the bricks will be visible.
I'm wondering if I should cut up some DPC membrane to stop the soil drying out ..unfortunately it's blue ....annoyingly I think I threw out the roll of black brick wall DPC - along with the NFT hydro spreader tape which I will actually need to replace now ...

 

[Calamity1971]

Calamity1971 might be Aquilegia ?

No. I've got a rash of them in my garden. I'll have gone ' oooo' when I picked it.

 

[Calamity1971]

Agapanthus?

Not that either. I think the head gardener is working on Thursday where I picked it. I'll pick his brains. I need to started labelling my finds!

 

[Calamity1971]

I am about to remove the last bit of path - complete with line post - or rather three paths one on top of the other with scrap metal - presumably kitchen range in the hardcore ...
View attachment 318959

The top section of fence here has a semi-consolidated bank on the other side - so bricks will be sufficient for the first panel. I'm not so sure about the next section because the bricks will be visible.
I'm wondering if I should cut up some DPC membrane to stop the soil drying out ..unfortunately it's blue ....annoyingly I think I threw out the roll of black brick wall DPC - along with the NFT hydro spreader tape which I will actually need to replace now ...

View attachment 318960

That's some graft you've put in. Good job

 

[campanula]

You can narrow it down to a monocot, Calamity1971 ...and fwiw, I am also thinking iris or lily

 

[Calamity1971]

You can narrow it down to a monocot, Calamity1971 ...and fwiw, I am also thinking iris or lily

What's that one that the flowers curl into like a bell ? Googled it but can't find anything. There's definitely one in the gardens. Quite an early flowerer I think.

 

[gentlegreen]

That's some graft you've put in. Good job

I've now pretty well sorted out the boundary of the top section - bricks up to the fence rather than gravel boards and I've extracted most of the stones I needed to remove. It remains to be seen how it will settle. If I was staying here I would bu- in mulch, but I have a fair bit saved up in my green waste pile at least enough to keep a few worms happy ...
I'm now too disgustingly grubby to go to the shops. Luckily I have plenty of supplies and it looks like I have warm dry weather for the rest of the week ...

Next door's purple sprouting made it through the winter of 2020/2021, but Charles Dowding says I should net it - which will spoil the decorative effect if nothing else ... and to cover 4x 4 metres is going to cost me...

I will probably plant the whole area with peas - hoping mostly for shoots - and see if the resident wood pigeons give me grief ... he also uses bacillus thuringensis ...

 

[Callie]

Can you do a before (full throttle pampas n foxes) Vs after gentlegreen ??

 

[Calamity1971]

My landlord cut down these trees as they looked dangerously close to coming down after the last storms.

I'm going to make a large bird table to make up for loss trees with salvaged posts.
Been clearing area to sow wild flower seeds ( I think) . Was going to use stumps as seats and put in a fire pit, but they were pine so well sticky.
Area was full of brambles and alkanet.



My poor blackbirds are homeless. Every year Mr Blackbird would sing his heart out all day for a mate.

 

[The39thStep]

It was surprisingly easy to remove the body I buried in 2002
I hope kale does OK in the shadiest part of the garden - I can't think of anything else. and there's masses of topsoil.
The bamboo of course thrived - once it got to 20 feet ...

View attachment 318933

spinach is good in shade

 

[Calamity1971]

Found this whilst digging. Weighs a ton. Think it's one of those devices for getting ya wellies off?

 

[two sheds]

I've got one of those

No idea what it's for though.