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The gardening thread

I fitted the weatherboards to the fence in the lower section and rough dug it to reveal an impressive amount of buried stuff - including the concrete anchors from my greenhouse and a gnome I forgot I owned ...
I am officially knackered ... I now realise that once fully cleaned-up it wouldn't be that difficult to make a slope or split the difference and raise the lower bed by 3 inches and drop the upper bed by the same amount ...
I will doubtless revisit when I get to creating a patio / deck and evaluate the garden as a whole ...

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Well Done gentlegreen - that's an impressive effort.

I've an allotment area to dig over, but concentrating on getting on top of the rest of the garden first.
This past winter left a considerable amount of damage to deal with.
Mostly all small stuff individually, but taken as a whole, it takes a surprising amount of time to do all of the work.
 
StoneRoad said:
Well Done gentlegreen - that's an impressive effort.

I've an allotment area to dig over, but concentrating on getting on top of the rest of the garden first.
This past winter left a considerable amount of damage to deal with.
Mostly all small stuff individually, but taken as a whole, it takes a surprising amount of time to do all of the work.
Click to expand...
I'm aiming to get it pretty well sorted, tilth and level-wise, but I'm relieved I don't need to get it ready for a lawn just yet - hopefully a year or two of veggies and mulching will see it nicely settled and ready for that.
And I'm SOOOO glad I don't have to live with just a lawn for all that time for all sorts of reasons.
I would have struggled to find the motivation...
My lower limit for the size of garden in a prospective French home is 1,000 sqm - twenty times that !
(and two recent ones I saw were 6,000 sqm !)
 
Been out pulling spanish bluebells today. I came in and idly checked for the best way to control them and ....

www.theguardian.com

How to rid your garden of Spanish bluebells

Last month I answered a question on how to get rid of Spanish bluebells, counselling that digging them up when they are in leaf
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

How to get rid of Spanish Bluebells

Last month I answered a question on how to get rid of Spanish bluebells, counselling that digging them up when they are in leaf. Marion Bolton has sent in this handy little tip:
The way to get rid of Spanish bluebells is to trample the leaves. I remember a 'Children's Hour' broadcast in which I first heard of the scientific method. The question was, does pulling up bluebell flowers with the white end of stalk intact, harm the plant? Four bluebell patches were marked out. From one, the flowers were picked without the white end of stalk, in another the white end was pulled out, a third was trampled all over, the fourth was the control. Result - all fine except the trampled patch. >I have since used this method to remove Spanish bluebells in undesirable places in my garden.
Click to expand...

Off out to do a bit of trampling tomorrow then :thumbs:
 
My mind is lightly boggled.

I have a 2 litre bubbler in the bathroom with hydroponic veg nutes I added with no PH or TDS measurement.. - the watercress seems to be enjoying it :)
I thought it a long shot but when, as usual I accidentally snapped off a shoot of my golden hop only a couple of days ago, I thought I would pop it in there ...

I predict that in the process of sorting out my hop wall, there will be more of these - and I wanted to plant some hops elsewhere ...
It bodes well for the couple of snapped-off brugmansia branches and anything else that takes my fancy :)

I'll still see if there's any wayward rhizome to use for quicker establishment ... super-annoyingly I failed to dig up the two plants elsewhere in the garden when I was clearing up and allowed the potted cuttings from 2020 to fester ...

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I have a stash of 3 inch posts and metposts ... I'm wondering if I couldn't come up with something interesting for my sitting area for the year - especially if I end up having to net the broccoli later ... it's all a bit practical and flat ...

I repeatedly experimented in the past with acknowledging the urban setting using linear framing ...

With luck I will have spare fragrant lobelias and two corner baskets that need walls or posts to attach to ...

I am determined not to plant any miscanthus (in the ground) it's proving a basterward to reclaim precious compost from growing it in containers last year ... that said, that next area of ground has to be dug up and sieved due to the gravel you can see there - what was I thinking ?


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Just been out and scuffed up my first spanish bluebells :) Feels good. I can even take Frankie with me for a walk round the garden.

I got two of these (70 litres each) gentlegreen , £6 delivery which I felt is humane. I've had them before and they're good consistency. I never know how they tell when people say that bought compost is rubbish though. By the time the plants come up or don't come up I've forgotten which compost I used.
 
two sheds said:
I got two of these (70 litres each) gentlegreen , £6 delivery which I felt is humane. I've had them before and they're good consistency. I never know how they tell when people say that bought compost is rubbish though. By the time the plants come up or don't come up I've forgotten which compost I used.
Click to expand...
Thanks - I'll consider that :)

In the first instance I'm off to Wilko tomorrow anyway and risking the bus for the return journey - or both ways - depending on my gouty toe ... as I need a mini greenhouse - and I should be able to carry 40 or even 60 litres of Westlands as far as the bus stop in my Ikea totes, but I'll bear that in mind.
I hope Aldi get something in that is at least fit to be blended with old stuff in planters - I have in the past routinely hauled a surprisingly large amount home on my trolley ...

Things will get decidedly better once the forgetmenots in my small planters are finished flowering ...
 
This is why I like Spanish bluebells - and forgetmenots - the last two plants remaining from when I moved in 38 years ago.
I've always been terrible at getting bulbs and wallflowers organised in autumn, but I scatter forgetmenot seeds everywhere and the bluebells return without me even trying ... and there's a blow-in buddleia that I'll be glad of later ... I'm similarly glad for the foxgloves self-seeding ..

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My security camera crashed at this opportune moment today.
It all started out so well but ended up as Paddington bear and Mr. Curry's kitchen table ...
Unbelievably even after screwing a sliver back on the end of the pole it was still wrong and then I had to pack it out with bricks.
It's still slightly off, but the neighbour will have to live with that. The feather edge won't be going up until I've made a jig ... call it Chippendale's deliberate imperfection ... :hmm:
My neighbour had external insulation to contend with and I had the neighbour's concrete path, so we've used weird screws that screw directly into concrete blocks with no plugs.


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two sheds said:
I got two of these (70 litres each) gentlegreen , £6 delivery which I felt is humane. I've had them before and they're good consistency. I never know how they tell when people say that bought compost is rubbish though. By the time the plants come up or don't come up I've forgotten which compost I used.
Click to expand...
Actually you're right.
I'll definitely order a decent amount of that - maybe the naughty peat stuff ...
I still need to go to Wilko for the mini greenhouse, pots etc, but that compost works out much cheaper ...
 
After a heavy week "back to nature", I finally had a bath so I could be seen in public ....
It's a shame I don't have crops to water and a syphon set up ...
Perhaps a side benefit of organising the back garden is I won't feel so wasteful bathing more often.

bathwater.jpg

I'm taking it slightly easier today - who knew that being 62 and slobbing around all winter would take its toll ...
My lower back has been complaining and I've put my knee out several times recently so I'm risking the bus into town and back to hopefully get a mini greenhouse among other things ...

After finishing the 6 foot feather-edge fence section on the right, and clearing the next bit comes the new idea of building a pergola to house some spare ornamentals and give me a nice place to sit ...I think I've decided to use beans as a screen - and doubtless a few giant sunflowers, a couple of baskets of begonias etc and of course as many nasturtiums as I can encourage to clamber over it ...


pergola.png
 
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gentlegreen said:
This is why I like Spanish bluebells - and forgetmenots - the last two plants remaining from when I moved in 38 years ago.
I've always been terrible at getting bulbs and wallflowers organised in autumn, but I scatter forgetmenot seeds everywhere and the bluebells return without me even trying ... and there's a blow-in buddleia that I'll be glad of later ... I'm similarly glad for the foxgloves self-seeding ..

View attachment 319274

View attachment 319275
Click to expand...
Yep do love forgetmenots. This was covered in brambles last year, cleared them out and the forgetmenot seeds that were lying dormant have gone rampant.


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I don't really like killing the Spanish bluebells, first few years I did pick them for the flowers indoors but they've spread hugely. No choice but to cull them round here really. I'm reasonably close to a bluebell wood and you can see Spanish ones in the footpaths approaching it. Given enough time they'd take over and we'll lose native bluebell woods. :(
 
Well that's the first run completed.
So I know I can carry about 70 litres of compost and a mini greenhouse to the bus stop on a warmish day to get home.
They'd run out of the usual mini greenhouses and I'm sort of glad - I got a mini mini one that can hold 2 or 3 times the capacity of my seedling facility.

And I had to "walk" my own rope for my hop wall as all I could get was skimpy jute or garish polypropylene ... handy to actually have 24 feet of garden to walk along ...
I always leave it too late, so tomorrow morning I will no doubt lose a few shoots introducing the bines to the string...

I bought a variety of bean and pea seeds today, summer and winter squashes and sweet peppers -got to be worth a try - plus snapdragons because the shot of colour can be welcome.

I still need to source some alternative annual climbers - I resisted a pack of mixed ones today.
I might have bought a dahlia, but I only really like Bishop of Llandaff ... they had nice pink ones, but I'm not keen on the pompoms and cactus forms ..

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Saunders said:
I love pompom dahlias, in fact all dahlias. There was a place near where I used to live that sold huge bunches of mixed shapes and colours, they were soul lifting delights.
Click to expand...
A colleague gave me a dahlia some years back and I didn't want to hurt their feelings and I confess it was a welcome shot of colour. Sadly I allowed the tubers to dry out or I would probably still be growing it ... I see that it is at least "double", but fairly laid-back ...
I must have been doing serious war on the slugs in 2017 to have French marigolds that late ...

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FWIW I bought 25 more litres of the Westland with JI today because it seemed to do a decent job so far - though to use it for seeds involves a bit of handling to get the twigs and shit out of it - and I use sieved compost to cover the seeds ...
I grabbed a bag of Wilko peat free MP to balance the load because they had only one bag of the Westland - and it was cheap - but it smells a tad "fresh" - but should be OK for hanging baskets .. still better than the last two lots I got from Aldi that were really only fit for soil improving ...
 
As I am planning to have a major go at hanging baskets this year ...
I'm probably going to have to invest in some more JI3/MP and the water retaining gunk, and buy quite a few "kits" and extra trailing plants.
Might try rigging up a water supply for "drip watering" - if I can get the right plumbing gear.
[I have operated such the system before, and sort of helped fit an uprated version]

Reason :
I want some colour & flowers, but recent evidence / sightings of rabbits mean that I'm going to forgo the usual bedding / low level containers - I'm still trying to find nice plants the rabbits don't try and eat ... but will attract bees and butterflies.

The rabbits stayed off the snowdrops & daffillips this year, and I know they avoid Lady's Mantle, Foxgloves, Poached Egg plant and my "London/Bristol Pride" - Plus a variegated ground cover plant that might be related to Lungwort / dead nettles [has nice yellow flowers].
Anything else is at least tasted, and stems / leaves severed - but not always eaten ...
 
I grabbed three 20 ltr bags of Westland today from the corner shop. Walked them home balanced on my e-scooter. Only five mins walk.

Smelt OK and no twigs at all so maybe you had an off batch
 
steveseagull said:
I grabbed three 20 ltr bags of Westland today from the corner shop. Walked them home balanced on my e-scooter. Only five mins walk.

Smelt OK and no twigs at all so maybe you had an off batch
Click to expand...
Both my bags had twigs and lumps.
It's the Wilko own brand that stinks - vaguely lactic - damp and visible mycelium - I certainly wouldn't sow seeds in it.
In another place I frequent they rate "Clover" ...
 
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