Anyone for Gardening?

1…3132343637…48

Comments

  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,811
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Toady I love your allium!! I managed to get all 3 of mine up this year after the last 2 years were failures :roll:

    I hade to attack my rocket and spinach last night before the rain as they would have turned to seed :x

    Like you Airwave and Christine I have been eating the fruits of my labours, namely my broad beans and some strawberries spinach and rocket spring onions too. Made a load of curry and froze it with my spinach in it :) V proud I am :wink:

    Toady I have a lot of colour finally. Roses, geraniums (hardy), fuscia and carnations I think are the main hardy ones. I do add some bedding but mostly in pots and baskets.

    I will take some more picccies today as it's dry.

    Airwave I have no Himalayan balsam here, but have made a good note of it's appearance just incase....grrr!!

    Well done with your spuds Roses :) They will be lovely once fully grown. Nothing like potatoes that fresh is there? :)

    Love

    Toni xx
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,811
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    http://s1129.photobucket.com/user/frogmorton1/media/S11backuppiccies620.jpg.html?sort=3&o=8

    alliums :)
  • roses1
    roses1 Member Posts: 1,850
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    WOW!! they are pretty :D
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,811
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Ta Rose

    The bees adored them :)

    http://s1129.photobucket.com/user/frogmorton1/media/S11backuppiccies580.jpg.html?sort=3&o=15

    They loved the chives too

    and in the warm evenings went MAD for these :)

    http://s1129.photobucket.com/user/frogmorton1/media/S11backuppiccies586.jpg.html?sort=3&o=14

    Love

    Tonixx

    (plenty of rain today ;) )
  • roses1
    roses1 Member Posts: 1,850
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Toni........And more lovelyness! :D

    We have had a fair few bees and butterflies this year, have you had a lot too?

    Rose x
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Oooh, I'm sure I posted but it's not there. I remember looking at your aliums Toni and saying how beautiful they look. Can't remember whar else I said though. :roll:

    Don't know what's the matter with me. My raspberry cane is dripping with rasps and there are at least a dozen new straws every day but I haven't been picking them over the last few days. Some beetroots are ready and I have lots of salad leaves. My budleias are looking not too bad and have lots of butterflies and bees on them. When I say lots of butterflies, I mean up to half a dozen at a time. There used to be many more.

    I managed to get out yesterday and cut back one side of the front hedge. My son is meant to be coming to cut the top and, hopefully, cut it lower so I can reach it without the ladder. Hope he fixes my hosepipe too as I am becoming a bit lax with the watering can. Thank goodness we have had rain.
    Christine
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,811
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Can one of you pop round and make sure the kids are watering my garden for me especially the baskets and greenhouse :D

    thanks :wink:

    Christine sounds as though your garden is definitely fruity there :lol: I 'loose' posts all the time myself.

    Yes we have had lots of butterflies Rose and bees, but you might be right less than previous years :(

    Love

    Toni xx
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Oh Toni, I hope they are watering for you. We've had some rain here but still days when things need more, especially the baskets.

    Oops, because it has been raining, I haven't been out to water for a few days. Just been out in the garden and found the lettuce in the greenhouse is no more. Guess the rain didn't get in there. :oops:

    Went out a couple of days ago to cut the other side of the hedge and decided to cut the top while I was there then carried on and finished the front too. Very surprised I managed so much. One of my neighbours came out, took the hedge cutters off me but couldn't get it started so he handed it back and walked off. :lol:

    Just pulled up 2 beetroots. Not sure what to do with them yet. Strawberries are just about finished but got lots of new plants. Rasps still doing well and potatoes nearly ready. And a lovely surprise - a big poppy with 2 flower buds. I've never managed to grow poppies before. It came up in a big tub I'd had onions in.

    Cut back a couple of shrubs and weeded the area but found some things have gone under the fence and are now in between my fence and next door's. Can't do anything about it. They insisted on putting another fence up alongside mine.
    Christine
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,811
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi Christine

    I do hope they have watered (not sporadically too else the toms might be split :) ). we shall see eh? I expect they all need 'feeding' too :roll:

    So long as Daisycat is well eh?

    You can't do much about the weeds you know unless you can throw some membrane over them to starve them of light?? Try not to worry about them - it's not your fault - they were silly not you :roll:

    Lovey you have two beets - will you cook them??

    and the poppies too :) Only one of mine came up (ladybird poppies), because the pot got knocked over and I was only able to 'save' the one :(

    Keep up the good work

    Love

    Toni xx
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,468
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I sat in the garden the other day and the thought struck me, 'its getting away from me'! that is its getting overgrown and I hadn't seen it or hadn't wanted to more like. I have brought an electric pruner on a pole and started a campaign for more light, our fruit trees are struggling and are all one sided. After yesterdays cutting I have enough work for a few weeks of shredding and trailer work to the dump, one hour of cutting equals ten of tiding up.

    I reckon this work will last into the winter, everything must come down by 50%. I also cut eighteen inches off the top of our forsythia arch which is one trailer load in itself, I obviously need more tools!
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,468
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Just a note of caution about yesterdays gardening, don't try this at home kids, I was up half the night and am well and truly knackered and sore, I always overdo things. I now remember why I ignored the garden.
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Oh yes, your tomatoes Toni. Hope they are ok. Will anyone feed them for you? My tomatoes are about a foot tall and have about half a dozen tomatoes on each. Ah well, better than nothing. Hope Daisycat isn't missing you too much. I'm not worrying about the weeds. The wildlife will love them. :lol: Not sure what to do with the beets. Might roast them as I have a courgette too. A few tomatoes and peppers. Mmmm. I was round at someone's house yesterday and they had poppies all theC way round the edge of the garden, some of them were ladybird poppies. I love them. Can't wait to see what my poppy looks like when the buds open.

    Airwave, that sounds just like my garden. I love it that way but sometimes it is a bit much now so I am busy cutting back quite hard and even getting rid of some things to make it easier. I know what you mean about the tidying up. I use the hedgecutters on my lleylandii hedge which is about 7 foot high. Takes more time to gather it all up and bag it. Luckily my recycle men are very good and take anything I put out for them.

    Rescued a blue geranium today from the middle of a huge patch of loosetrife which has finished flowering. I pulled up a lot of the stalks as it expands to about double every year. :shock:
    Christine
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Think we must have been posting at the same time Airwave. Wouldn't let me post. :lol: Hope you recover very soon. I usually ache after gardening but I love gardening so I'm prepared to suffer. :? :D
    Christine
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Forgot to say. I was standing in the garden today, cutting back one of the shrubs when I thought the bottom of my leg felt a little bit cold. Not too much so I just carried on. A couple of minutes later, it started to feel quite a bit colder so I looked down and almost passed out and screamed and jumped about. There was a great fat slug making it's way up my leg. It was about 6 inches long. Yuk yuk yuk. After I'd stopped leaping about and flicking it off, I went straight in the shower. Still shivering thinking about it.
    Christine
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,468
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I attacked the wygelia (can't remember how to spell it!) this morning at 9am on a Sunday, 10 mins work was enough, I'm still sore, I bet my neighbours wondered what had hit the crescent. Yes I love it but it is a bit of a love/hate relationship at times this gardening, any work I do now is less work over the next few years.

    Had to laugh at Christine and her slug, I'm still smiling at that one!
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Ah well Airwave. 10 minutes at a time and you'll still get there. Sorry it's made you sore though.

    Please don't read any further if you are eating. :shock: :shock:






    I'm not smiling at all about the slug. Urgh, hate them. To make it lots lots worse, I had a nightmare of an experience later that night. Finished my cuppa before going to bed, took the cup in to the kitchen where, I must admit, I hadn't washed up my dinner plate etc. I picked the plate up to move it and underneath was another huge slug surrounded by a few tiny tiny little ones. That had me hopping round the kitchen. I had to gather them up with kitchen roll and run outside to drop them in the bin. Came back in, locked and bolted the door then went to switch the kettle off at the wall. Bork, another 2 huge ones making their way over to the kettle and one on the floor. Oh my goodness, I'm feeling sick again thinking about them. After clearing those ones away, I had to clean the whole kitchen before bed and didn't want to go back in there the next morning. I have now sprinkled slug pellets at the back door and under the sink because I did have a leak under there for quite some time before I found where it was coming from and wondered if they had set up home.
    Christine
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,468
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Y e u c kkkkkkkk

    I shall have nightmares of snails and slugs now.

    Back to my clearance program, down came the laurel today, wife filled the trailer up, four trips to the dump and two cups of tea to bring me round, phew!
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Sorry but I feel better for having shared. :lol:

    Well done on the clearing up. 4 trips and only 2 cups of tea? I think you should have another.
    Christine
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,468
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Dear Agony Aunt, Please help, this summer weather is causing much suffering, I decided to have a lazy 'me' day and just wandered down the garden, five mins later I'm pulling up weeds, I stopped straight away. I bimbled past the rubbish pile and headed for the shredder, help this is almost an addiction! I look at the trees and only see a pile of wood waiting to be cut! Can't stop gardening...... helpppppp...... :lol::lol::lol:
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Dear Airwave, it sounds as if you have caught the gardening bug. I'm afraid there is no cure. To help ease the symptoms, you must do at least half an hour of gardening every day - pulling up weeds, sewing new seeds, potting new plants in the garden. It might help if you have a greenhouse to work in when the weather is bad. Keep up the good work. :lol:

    P.s. No more slugs. Think I've got rid of them. :D
    Christine
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,468
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Rain stopped play yesterday and grandchildren today. I don't have the gardening bug, just a big garden! I can ignore it during bad weather and when I have important things to do (spending my beer vouchers etc etc), sooner or later it creeps up on me and tells me how BAD I've been, then my conscience drags me outside and I have to labour (in the garden) to get rid of it.
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,811
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Airwave

    I think maybe you ought to spend more beer vouchers. In my case wine vouchers (similar), tend to help dull the edges of consciences I find :?

    Slugs and snails are one thing Christine, but in ma greenhoos On ma tomatoes......scary, brownish caterpillars :shock:

    So far I have removed 4 but feel safe to assume there will be many more :roll:

    I dunnae like 'em :shock:

    Toni xx
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Bad bad Airwave. :lol:

    Toni, last night I went in the kitchen before bed and found another slug on the rim of the sink and it had it's head turned and was looking at me. Aaarrgh! Had to pick it up with a paper towel and after hopping round the kitchen trying not to scream, I deposited it in the outside bin. Scared stiff to go in the kitchen after dark now. :shock:

    I've got a poppy. Yaaay. :D I've been trying to grow them for years then one suddenly appears in a pot of onions. It's big and had 3 buds. Still got 2 but one flowered yesterday. Lovely big pink flower. Came home at teatime and the petals had dropped. Hoped to get a picture with all 3 flowers. :(
    Christine
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,811
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Oh Christine :shock:

    I know what my Dad would have done, but I don't think I could do it and that is to put salt along all the edges in the entire room.

    Well done for getting the poppies up even if they didn't all flower at once for you. Maybe you should save some of their seeds??

    Love

    Toni xx
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Toni, I thought about salt but decided to go in all guns blazing and sprinkled slug pellets at the back door, under the sink and along the edge of the under sink cupboard. Not seen any sign for a couple of nights.

    Picked 3 big courgettes, 2 beetroots and a bowl full of rasps, strabs and wild brambles yesterday. Yummy.

    Pulled up a huge amount of loosetrife but still got loads left. Crikey, it doesn't half spread. If I leave it, it'll probably cover half the garden next year. I've planted a few up as my son is hoping to take over a park a couple of towns away and he wants it growing there. All depends on whether the council want a park or houses.

    Yes, Toni, I will be keeping the seeds. Just hope I can get a good few to grow.
    Christine

Categories