Anyone for Gardening?

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  • pot80
    pot80 Member Posts: 109
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    My joy at the House Martins was short lived as we found one nest destroyed by magpies when we came back yesterday afternoon and the second one was destroyed before breakfast this morning. The poor parents are flying around bewildered.
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 30,032
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    pot80 wrote:
    My joy at the House Martins was short lived as we found one nest destroyed by magpies when we came back yesterday afternoon and the second one was destroyed before breakfast this morning. The poor parents are flying around bewildered.

    Devastating :cry: What can we do to help though nothing I suppose :( Nature is cruel. Good news is the ones at our Church are doing REALLY well :)

    I was going to post and say it is finally raining here - how much did my garden need that!

    Got black fly on my broad beans though....
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I guess we've all been busy out in our gardens or being on holiday or both. Gosh.

    Mr DD is in the process of taking down the greenery that is crawling up the various external walls of the house because we are having the outside painted, starting next Tuesday or Wednesday (we are rendered, or in my case rendered useless when it comes to painting). We have found a number of snail hotels and nurseries which is making me reluctant to replace / plant again.

    We had a huge leafy plant which sprang from nowhere - think rhubarb on steroids. We now have a mass of leaf skeletons as caterpillars have ripped through it - I've been watching them and it's amazing how fast they munch! What's left of the greenery is covered in caterpillar 'leavings' and stinks. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,471
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Its about that time of the year again! Haven't done much in the back garden, I got a friend to pollard next doors yew tree, its branches were tap tapping on our gutters everytime the wind blows. I have cut and tidied the top of the front garden, there was so much dead growth under and inbetween my lavenders, madams double daisies were growing out of the pavement, valerian had gone mad, as usual, so all cut back now. That was three trips to the dump with the big trailer and a very kna%&*@ed grandpa! I stood back and admired my work then went and had a hot bath to relieve arthers curse.

    Gutters next, then pruning and.........

    m0150
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Crikey mate, you've been a very busy boy! We currently have bulbs sprouting and two different roses doing their best to bloom (to match two daffodils which are fully out) despite the cold, murk and general dross of January. The only thing I have done in the garden is take down the outside decorations and hung up a wire moose head, bought today in the sales. He looks lovely! The grass needs a cut but it isn't going to have one for some time yet, everything else is soggy: if a garden can be 'dreich' then ours is. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,471
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    My diy wasn't going well and I wanted to do some exercise so I got the pruning chainsaw out...... the buddleigha x 3, the curly willow, elder tree x 2, next doors Apple tree all got done, it'll take weeks now to clear it into the trailer and get it all to the dump. There's still plenty of pruning to be done, is this winter cutting back or spring pruning?

    I'll start with getting the trailer out and an hour in the garden, its all got to be done.

    m0150
  • lindamay
    lindamay Member Posts: 118
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Good to see bulbs coming up. Garden very messy and soggy but haven't got my mojo working yet to get out there. Later in year I get a lot of weeds someone told me was called mare's tails? Like a fern thing that I can't get the root out and it just keeps on growing. Any advice would be welcome. I am a bit of a novice gardener but enjoy it in fine weather. Thank you. scold
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    lindamay wrote:
    Later in year I get a lot of weeds someone told me was called mare's tails? Like a fern thing that I can't get the root out and it just keeps on growing. Any advice would be welcome. I am a bit of a novice gardener but enjoy it in fine weather. Thank you. scold
    It sounds like mares tail, in which case you have to learn to live with it! The roots go down to Australia and are brittle so trying to dig them out often makes things worse. Weedkiller(or at least the sort you can get legally) doesn't work well as the waxy skin resists it. I had a lot on my allotment and the way I eventually coped was to choose where it was a nuisance - ie interfering with veggies - wait for it to grow a nice tuft I could get my hand round and then pull. Didn't get rid of it but gave the veg a good growing space. Hoeing keeps the growth down but I found that it tended to grow back into wider but lower clumps that didn't pull out so well. Something I noticed on the allotment from seeing what happened on other plots was that it didn't seem to like competition. The best example was when my neighbour used weedkiller several times to try and control the mares tail alongside his polytunnel. Once the couch grass and other weeds had been killed the mares tail grew into a jungle. When he gave up and the weeds grew back it got less jungle like.
  • lindamay
    lindamay Member Posts: 118
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Thank you for advice. Mine grows on the front garden among flowers and is spreading. A nightmare. I tidy it all up and if I am away a week or two it is back in abundance.
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,471
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Valerian is a big nuisance for us, it grows everywhere, asked for or not, trouble is despite us pulling it up, cutting it down, it grows in any part of the garden and paths. We get red, white and pink variants and the stalks seem to take forever to rot away. Its thick waxy leaves shrug off any manmade potion.

    It's quite hard to pull up and does get the better of us.
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,471
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    1st daffodil in our garden, it IS spring!!!



    t69044
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    We've had daffs out since new year, the snowdrops are now coming through along with the mini irises and crocus. We also have a few roses too despite the cold. The seasons appear to be disappearing. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,471
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    More reasons to get on, I've been outside pruning the Wygelia and fruit trees. Getting next doors aerial pole out of our apple tree, at least it stopped someone elses cedar branch going through the greenhouse rather than just a pane.

    The ground has been hard the last couple of days so I haven't been slipping around in the mud, there wasn't anybody up the dump either. Right, onwards and upwards! The laurel looks a likely candidate next? and then......
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    3 inches of snow on Wednesday put paid to volunteer gardening, and hard frost today on top of the remains means that a trip down the garden to collect logs and kindling will be the extent of my garden activity for now.
  • Airwave!
    Airwave! Member Posts: 2,471
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    This cold weather is just what I like for preparing the garden for spring, a couple of more trips up the dump and we'll be up to date. Madam has been putting in some primroses as if we didn't have enough already, they spread like wildfire. I bet I'll be cutting the grass next month?

    I stopped shredding all the waste and putting it on the flower beds about 4/5 years ago, we had far too much, I'm going to have to start shredding again this year, the beds are naked again!

    tcold

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