Anyone for Gardening?

frogmorton

Pot80

I love the look of the blue grass
Really very effective and winter colour too. I hope it doesn't go mad for you.

Airwave

I hope your bamboo takes for you and does it's job. I see what you mean about grasses popping up all over the place - most annoying.

I have been busy (with help) attacking the pond.

First of all we removed the 'cover'. With the aid of a happy-helper I went in....the roots are a think layer a good 4 inches deep. Using scissors end effort we have begun hauling some out.



Not sure I want to trash it completely because there are some gorgeous flowers


Also have to put tarp on when the cat is out alone as I think she could get stuck under the layer of roots and drown

Look at these lovely flowers on some cacti/succulents I found left by the previous owner of our last house



Happy gardening everyone!

applerose

You have been busy Toni. What lovely flowers.

Airwaves, your yukka sounds like my pampas. I think chopping it down only makes it grow back thicker.

Cleared some of the dead leaves and gunk out of the pond this afternoon. Still more to do. Started to cut back a mahonia which has grown too tall. Still getting lots of strawberries and raspberries and rhubarb. Lots of flowers on my cucumber plant. Wonder if I'll actually get any cucumbers this year. Had 1 yellow tomato so far.

daffy2

Airwave, you might find this RHS/Dorling Kindersley book worth looking at(do you use your public library to save having to buy?)
'Bamboos and Grasses: simple steps to success'
Not the most comprehensive list of varieties but useful care info and some inspirational plant grouping ideas.
I have a 'bosky' area of my garden to plant up and have been looking through books for a couple of grasses that will like a woodland setting.

frogmorton

applerose wrote:

You have been busy Toni. What lovely flowers.

Cleared some of the dead leaves and gunk out of the pond this afternoon. Still more to do......

Lots of flowers on my cucumber plant. Wonder if I'll actually get any cucumbers this year. Had 1 yellow tomato so far.

Well done you tackling the pond - it's hard work!!

I still have hours to do in ours :roll:

This year due to the house move I had no chance to grow my tomatoes or anything (from seed), but was at the local garden centre the other weekend and they were flogging off some poorly specimens for £1 each so I brought a couple home.

They are thriving

applerose

Oh I do like a plant bargain Toni. So you'll have some tomatoes after all.

Airwave!

Thanks I'll keep an eye open for that book. I have seeded one slope with a rye grass, we'll see what happens.

The poppies are amazing, up to half a dozen flowers on one plant, they look like layers of torn tissues, red in colour.

dreamdaisy

I've bought a wheelbarrow (or maybe a better term is a bucket on wheels). I used to collect my deadheadings and other trimmings in plastic bags but that became too tiresome so I've invested a mighty £20 in something made by K*t*r which is proving to be ideal. I can fill it then trundle it down the drive and empty a bit at a time into my brown bin; as this is collected fortnightly it can end up being rather heavy for me to drag up the drive, add to then drag back, this is proving to be a good solution.

My Arabella hydrangea is going over and thus looking rather sad and my long-legged. DD

applerose

I find my wheelbarrow very useful for taking the garden waste out every fortnight. Much easier than carrying it from the back garden to the front of the house.

It was supposed to be good weather today but it was very windy and rained a bit so I only got a bit of tidying up done. It felt as if the garden was getting ready for autumn already. :? Only found 2 strawberries and a dozen raspberries which were very small after having lots over the last few weeks. I cut back some of the buddleia. There are still flowers on it and a few butterflies and bees.

dreamdaisy

Thank you for that reassurance, Sharon, it's appreciated. Right, it's a Keter Easy Go Breeze and I bought it from Homebase. It is light enough to lift (even when full of trimmings) to get it over steps and I find it easier to push rather than pull. Like traditional wheelbarrows it is rather low but unlike them I find the one handle much more user-friendly.

I have acquired a buddleia, just three leggy sprigs (with light mauve flowers) growing out of the wall behind the flower bed: the wall is not in a good shape so the sooner I can get someone to clamber in and pull it out the better! I like them and they are the ideal plant in that they look after themselves so I shall replace it with a white in a better location. We have a lot of cat mint in the borders and clover in the lawn: the bees are very happy. DD

dreamdaisy

Another trip to Homebase today to buy a Fiskars light-weight weed puller and what fun that is! The lawn now looks as though a very amateur golfer has been removing chunks whilst trying to hit the ball but I care not. Apparently it's OK to leave the holes as they help the grass to 'breathe' - I always planned to leave them so I feel somewhat justified. DD

Airwave!

Hhhhmmmmm, oh has made many holes in our lawns with a 'Speedy Weeder' (she thinks its wonderful), probably the same sort of thing, I curse because my heels go into the holes and I hurt my feet and ankles, ggrrrr...... Much better to fill them!

We just had our 40th, she brought me a sign, "marriage is finding that special someone you want to annoy for the rest of your life", how romantic, not!

I dutifully hung it up and poke my tongue out at it every day!

:cheers:

dreamdaisy

Crikey Airwave, that sounds dangerous. Maybe Mrs A is a little more able with her puller than I am with mine - or you have monster weeds.

Today will mostly consist of :deckchair: looking at my decimated lawn and neatly beheaded rose bushes (well it will if the sun does the decent thing, it's currently hiding behind thick cloud; some heatwave :roll: ).

I rather like the sign - when I was working at home I had one on my office door which said 'This is one room where I know what I'm doing.' It's now in my bathroom. DD

pot80

Tomatoes - I had decided earlier in the season not to grow any this year as there are only two of us until I saw an on-line offer for three different varieties of grafted plants (one plant of each variety on offer) I was intrigued and since I enjoy growing plants I bought three.
Grafting offered, apparently, stronger plants producing more fruit.
They certainly grew strongly from the word go and now have alot of ripening fruit on them. I pinched the tops out when they reached the roof of the greenhouse by which time each variety had 7 or 8 trusses.
Normally I would expect 5-6 trusses. Fruit size is also larger than I normally get and many of the trusses have had to be supported before they tear away from the stem. The three varieties are San Marzano (plum shaped) Sweet Million (Round bite size) and Shirley(large round).

frogmorton

Pot80 I got my tomato plants, very poorly and bedraggled, at £1 a pot after I had moved house here.

The have absolutely done me proud

Airwave I have one of those, but always fill the hole back in as it does make very BIG holes. BETTER however than bulb planters for popping in bulbs

Anyone got any ideas I can try for my wee mole invasion??



Toni xxx

applerose

My tomatoes have been terrible this year. I've had 5 from a small compact yellow cherry and 2 more to come. The 5 Gardeners Delight have only developed flowers this last couple of weeks so got a few tiny tomatoes showing now.

My yellow strawberry is fruiting quite well just now but the red ones were a disaster. I've cut the old stems out now. Didn't get many strawberries this year either. I think this is probably due to lack of rain and me not getting round to watering nearly enough. Lots of lovely Cox's apples though and brambles doing very well. Rhubarb going crazy. This is the first time I've managed to keep a rhubarb plant. Digging new potatoes out from their bags and they're a good size.

My climbing rose has finished now but the others in pots are doing better now than earlier in the year. I'm looking forward to seeing the dogwood in the snow. Everything else is green now.

I've no idea what you could do about your moles. Have you tried one of the sonic sound thingies?

dreamdaisy

We've been away for a fortnight and have returned to a refreshed and tidy garden. I found a new gardener who is knowledgeable and local. She's coming back on Friday with her friend who deals with trees (so another big bill on its way). We have a row of six conifers which are very tall, bulky and untidy so they will be dealing with them but I hope they will leave enough for more nesting blackbirds.

I do what I can (and enjoy it) but I am looking forward to the quieter months ahead. I suspect you die-hard gardeners are not. DD

frogmorton

What you do in the colder months is look through seed catalogues DD

That keeps you going. I am also having a 'man' early next month to lop a load off of some conifers we have massive with thick, thick trunks.

I am pleased to hear you have some 'help' now.

Christine what a disappointing show with your tomatoes I bet you're rather miffed.

Our rhubarb has been lush too here. you enjoy your new spuds I have some in, which should be ready for Christmas

Everything else sounds to be doing fabulously - no fruit here yet, but that is on my list of things to plant.

I have 4 sonic repellers out there so far making a racket and not much else. So I have bought some sork bulbs to try. I hope it helps because the lawn is getting a bit wobbly :?

Happy pottering everyone



Toni xxx

daffy2

but I am looking forward to the quieter months ahead. I suspect you die-hard gardeners are not.

I also enjoy the quieter months ahead even though I lean towards the aforementioned category of gardener, because it's nice not to have the kind of time pressure that can occur during the growing season, where one is often only too mindful of 'windows of opportunity' - and the propensity of same to slam in your face....
It's a time for dreaming and planning, and also relearning if necessary the art of appreciating small pleasures - a single late or early bloom, evergreens coming into their own when the other shrubs are no longer obscuring them, the wisdom of having planted scented winter-flowering shrubs by a washing-line or near the back door....

Airwave!

I left the garden to itself for two weeks and its like I have never been there, grass, weeds, ivy, bindweed all gone mad. I overdid it again trimming and mowing, even did all the lavender and trimmed it back to the edge of the path, no harvesting thus year, I still have the last three years to use, can't move now.

Those little cherry tomatos are very good and do last when picked, I'll grow some more next year, I even fed them all with some wonder food. Sweet peas went mad and smelt wonderful. Purple sprouting brocali is still growing although the beasts have been at the cabbages. We planted black runner beans which have been good growers, they go green when you cook them and taste nice. I'd like to know which badger has been and eaten all my goosgogs, com'on, show yourself, we know you're there.............


:cheers:

frogmorton

Well put Daffy 2

A lovely time of the year. Barbara12 said the other day in the café that there is something special about the light at this time of year.

As for you Airwave - rest up for now when you feel ok start (steadily!) repossessing your garden!!!

I bet that badger of yours is acquainted with my mole(s)

Airwave!

My gp asked what exercise I took, I replied that I have 242feet of garden and four grandchildren.......

I always do more work in the garden than I would in a gym but always overdo things, by the time I got back up the top I was bent double and progressing very slowly!

We are going to give up on the cleared area down the bottom, we think that being under the fir trees for forty years has made the soil too acidic? We are proposing to use some matting and put some shingle or similar down. At least it will mean less work and oh can plant some tubs, the fruit trees seem to survive there but not thrive every year?

Right, school time.

frogmorton

I agree with you the garden is excellent exercise and your GP should be more than happy with that

I am all for making life easier and think you are likely right about the soil where the conifers have been.

Pots and tubs are the way forward

dreamdaisy

Our conifers are being sorted out today, they have shot up over the summer and are very straggly up-top in addition to being too bushy in the middle and having lots of 'dead' branches near the bottom and inside. They are going to take at least four feet off the top so that end of the garden should be lighter, there is another tree behind them belonging to the neighbours but it's nowhere near as dense as the six conifers. DD

Airwave!

I did take the tops out of some large fir trees at our last house but then the existing branches grew quickly and we ended up cutting the whole thing down to save our driveway and sanity!

I have a friend that grows them in pots to abour four feet and then disposes of them.

dreamdaisy

They are looking hugely better, they are around seven feet tall now, thinned and trimmed. A beautiful blackbird's nest was discovered deep inside, what a little miracle of construction. DD

PS Airwave? I haven't heard the word 'goosgogs' for many years, my late Pa loved the little devils and that was his term too. Thank you for the reminder, it's a lovely one.