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The gardening thread

D'you reckon I'll be able to grow a rose bush on my balcony then? I'll buy it some special feed and give it a fairly deep pot (I don't want it to be very big either, just pretty) but does anyone know if they dislike pots?
They are fine in pots. Avoid wind, sunny spot, water but not excessively, deadhead, mulch. Keep an eye out for aphids. Jobs a good 'un ;)
 
I have round stepping stones, that i lovingly placed in a pleasing curvy pattern down the lawn many years ago. All was well until this rainy season and my house became like the one in the movie poltergeist....everything slowly sunk through the quagmire that was once lawn. I had a galvanized bucket of sharp sand from the Christmas tree, sitting about, waiting for it's day to come - and today was it, I pried up the sunken stones with a fork and considerably less effort than if they'd been sun-baked into the soil....but still a mucky job, shoved a couple of inches of sharp sand under the stone and then replaced them. they are now at least above lawn level....but will they just sink again? Is there something more likely to stop them sinking that i should have shoved under them?

eta - the woodpecker was pecking and the sun was shining and it was a 'good to be alive' day.
 
I have round stepping stones, that i lovingly placed in a pleasing curvy pattern down the lawn many years ago. All was well until this rainy season and my house became like the one in the movie poltergeist....everything slowly sunk through the quagmire that was once lawn. I had a galvanized bucket of sharp sand from the Christmas tree, sitting about, waiting for it's day to come - and today was it, I pried up the sunken stones with a fork and considerably less effort than if they'd been sun-baked into the soil....
I don't know but your opening passage there read like the opening of a story :cool:
 
If I get fresh horse manure now will it have rotted down enough in six weeks to use as a mulch around perrenials is what I am wondering. Put it around the roses last year so they should be ok. It weighs a ton to shift in large amounts but it is pure poo with no straw mixed and I got sandy loam so it would keep the moisture in nicely. The roses need pruning too. Aaargh.
I need to move a rhododendron only got no idea where I want to put it, It is definitly not happy where it has been for the last two years. And I got another one in a pot that needs planting out. Do they like horse manure :confused:
I'm reasonably on top of the weeds though, on one side anyway. I started on the other side but after waking up numerous creepy creatures and some ladybirds I have decided to leave the rest for a few more weeks. Really want to do some sowing.
Next door has decided he will have grass, he doesn't even seem to care that he has no birds left in his garden now he has gotten rid of the majority of trees and bushes. He just watches them in my garden now. Pervert :rolleyes:
The crocusses are up but the grass needs cutting desperately. If I do it on Friday I can take the cuttings to the tip on Saturday. The raised bed need sorting out and the veg box is full of self seeded borage and poppies. Seems a waste of the poppies so it might be a flower bed this year.
Got to sort out the washing line after it snapped under the weight of a carpet today.
Should really post some piccies then you have an idea what I'm blabbing about I suppose :D
 
You must all celebrate with me for now is the Sun come up from the South and my newts are back! Well, one is back. It'll be a boy, scouting out the pond again and with its loins loaded with sperm! Soon the ladies will come, with their bellies fat with eggs

In a couple of weeks, they'll all be at it like little sex-dinosaurs and there will be such larks....! ;)
 
I've got newts in both ponds!

Anyone else got wildlife ponds? Anyone else got newts?
 
This is my blossom, show me yours....

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Am very much looking forward to the weekend and a change to get out in the garden to continue working. :cool:

On my way home the other day I saw one of the neighbours cutting up a tree that came down during the recent high winds...I told him I could help him dispose of the wood so went home changed and collected my wheel barrow. :thumbs:

A few trips later:

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I had to brutalise my climbing rose and honeysuckles yesterday :( The recent winds blew our trellis off the fence and it is so old and crap that it just disintegrates when we try and reattach it. So I've had to chop all the massy growth off in preparation for cutting back to below-trellis level, before nailing up a new trellis that the plants can colonise again.

Will they grow back again? Or will it be too much of a shock? They are very well established and vigorous climbers, but I'll be cutting right down to about a foot above ground.

The garden looks naked and vulnerable without them.
 
I had to brutalise my climbing rose and honeysuckles yesterday :( The recent winds blew our trellis off the fence and it is so old and crap that it just disintegrates when we try and reattach it. So I've had to chop all the massy growth off in preparation for cutting back to below-trellis level, before nailing up a new trellis that the plants can colonise again.

Will they grow back again? Or will it be too much of a shock? They are very well established and vigorous climbers, but I'll be cutting right down to about a foot above ground.

The garden looks naked and vulnerable without them.
You try and stop them! I bet they're both the same size as they are now by the end of the year.
 
I'm gonna plant some tomatoes today I think. Need to go and get some seeds. What do people recommend as yummiest and most reliable to grow? I'm off out in 30 minutes so appreciate I might not get a reply to this.
 
I'm gonna plant some tomatoes today I think. Need to go and get some seeds. What do people recommend as yummiest and most reliable to grow? I'm off out in 30 minutes so appreciate I might not get a reply to this.
I would buy tomato pot plants. You would only need 3 or 4 to get a good crop and it saves the bother of growing from seed.

The trouble with me and tomatoes is I grow them carefully for months and then I go on holiday and, when I come back two weeks later, they're all dried out and dead.
 
Absoultely wonderful spring weather!! :cool: Still hard to get out there and work as I just want to go walking for hours with The Lucy!
Daffodils, bluebells, crocuses (pink and blue), tulips, violets and other so far unknown plants are coming up everywhere. So very lovely, I feel very lucky! :)
 
I would buy tomato pot plants. You would only need 3 or 4 to get a good crop and it saves the bother of growing from seed.

The trouble with me and tomatoes is I grow them carefully for months and then I go on holiday and, when I come back two weeks later, they're all dried out and dead.

yes.. something simialar happened to me last year too. I ended up buying plants and swore that's what I'd do from the start this year. I just like planting seeds. But maybe I will do that.

gaijinboy has just suggested that I just buy the tomatoes and cut out all the bother. :mad:

I wonder when plants will become available. I have itchy fingers.
 
yes.. something simialar happened to me last year too. I ended up buying plants and swore that's what I'd do from the start this year. I just like planting seeds. But maybe I will do that.

gaijinboy has just suggested that I just buy the tomatoes and cut out all the bother. :mad:

I wonder when plants will become available. I have itchy fingers.
OK, you go out and get those seeds, then you can pass on a couple of plants to me and Sirena when they've grown a bit.;)
 
I could simply just go out and lie in the sun in the garden whilst ewaiting for the washing to finish...I could contemplate what else I'd like to do to it... :hmm:
 
I am now sweeping up the garden path etc. It's covered in gunky stuff... I suspect this is what pressure hoses are for isn't it?

And also - why is there not a garden hoover eh?
 
I have dug a sump to deal with the torrential rain and the fact our patio was flooding (anyone mention horses and stable doors?) and rehung the gate so it opens and closes. Now about to tidy the shed and undercoat the gate ready for its repaint :)
 
Afraid we had to bury our old collie, Lila, in the woods today....a sadness slightly mitigated by the exuberant quickthorn, wild cherries and wood anemones. A dozen fat crown imperials are poking up on one of the ditch sides - a major bulb investment last year, along with 2000 narcissi - around half of which are in flower. We will plant a wild rose (R.canina, what else) near her grave and think about a special tree for bare root planting time. My eldest read a poem and everyone under the age of 40 hurled themselves about in a giant cargo net and drank a lot of cider. She (Lila) never put a foot wrong in almost 17 years - even stealing the Christmas beef (twice) was an amusing episode (since I dunked it under a tap and cut off the chewed bits so no-one noticed.....and we had pizza the second time).
 
Whispering Aspen Tree

Please can I have some thoughts about this tree?
I shall read wiki, but before I was wondering if anybody had been "hands on".
My dead beloved's partner has planted one for her in Co.Cork where she passed.
Maybe I'll do the same in my Sussex garden.
Thanks
 
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