Gardening - what's going on in your garden

frogmorton

Love it @Mike Vixen is a very lucky girl. Daisy makes do with under my car or inside the shed/green house if they are open!

It's lovely🤗

Agree with Lilymary we need to see her inside if you can catch her!

@crinkly1 nice to see you again. I very much hope you will share us some before, during and after pics of your new garden.

I am in my 24th home so like you have had plenty of gardens. As yet this one is proving the most challenging!

dij1966

Mike - you have a very lucky cat and very good at making things. My poor cat is 19 and doesn't go outside anymore, just hobbles around the house a bit like me! I am still trying to find a tree trunk to copy one of your earlier projects to entice fairies into my garden!

Mike1

I got hold of a local tree surgeon and asked him if I could have a couple of small logs to play around with and he could not be more helpful, I ended up making a fairy house for his small daughter.

dij1966

Ahh thats an idea I will have a look on google. I"ll have a go, but don't think it will be as good as yours! Thank you.

YvonneH

Well I feel truly bad about my garden. Everyone (I am feeling bad so get some licence here) has now got brilliant gardens after corona virus kept us all indoors and mine is a mess.

It's so bad I'm finding it hard to get myself outside, none of it is prepared for winter, I don't have any plants I have to move to the greenhouse so that's good but it's the only bright spot.

I started well and was really pleased with how the patio was doing . . .

I have managed to pick some of the apples and cook them - haven't done the crumble topping yet though

xx

frogmorton

I am getting more ashamed of mine too Yvonne by the day. I need to get my gardening mojo back😳

Lilymary

@YvonneH @frogmorton , Noooo, don't feel bad about your gardens! Nature loves an overgrown garden. If you're on facebook, look up this group (I hope I'm allowed to post this - delete if not) - Gardening for Wildlife https://www.facebook.com/groups/1650690038523483

Gardeners are now being encouraged not to do the big clean up at the end of the year, as bugs and small mammals will live in the dead vegetation, and birds, hedgehogs and small mammals will eat the bugs. and those that survive will repopulate our pollinating insects next year. Also, leave seed heads on, as the birds will eat those too, and natural food is much better for them and a more varied diet than bird food we provide. Even the sweepings on the path, the unkempt pots, and specially the piles of rubbish you never got round to clearing away - Nature will find a use for all of it.

If you have piles of clippings, twigs, off cuts from pruned shrubs etc, put them on the ground as well, The bugs will love them, and it's a larder for hedgehogs.

YvonneH

Thank you @Lilymary, you have made me remember - we do have a hedgehog, possibly more than one. He comes out a bit late for me but he (possibly she, not well up on that subject) snuffles about up the path and is a delight. Maybe more than one because we have seen a smaller hedgehog in the daytime, a bit worried about him needing to feed himself up for winter, I definitely don't want to find a dead hedgehog next year!!

I will try and remember balance, there are some jobs I need to do but carefully check them to make sure I'm not over-tidying

Thanks xx

dij1966

Absolutely agree with lilymary. I have taken a few plants in, but that's because I want to keep them for next year. Other than that I have been busy putting together wire cages and then filled with anything I can find, bits of wood, dead flower, twigs and cuttings until it is full. Oh and I brought some logs to pile up at the bottom of the garden. I have even stopped my hubby from cutting the grass around the edges because I had frogs for the first time this year and I dont want to lose them. I love a wild garden. Sit back YvonneH and enjoy watching the wildlife making a home for the winter.

Lilymary

@YvonneH If you're worried about the little one, you would be doing him or her a huge favour putting out cat food (wet or dry) for it. NOT mealworms, they may like them, but they're really bad for them. Also put out a shallow dish of water (ideally rainwater, but tap will do). We need to feed them up as much as possible at the moment.

I do just a bit of tidying up, specially things you don't want to seed, or things that are too untidy to bear, but if you put some of the clippings etc on the flower bed instead of straight into the compost, that's a good compromise.

CCM

I have the answer - don't have a garden! But then I'm just lazy.

Lilymary

@CCM It's my garden that's kept me sane through Covid, work and ruined hip. I'd have gone stark staring bonkers without it!🙃

frogmorton

Hahaha very good CCM!

@Lilymary thank you so much of course you are right now I think about it!

That's it I can stop now - I am glad you reassured me because we had such a thick frost yesterday that it right put me off going outside - barely managed my walk😳

Only thing is I have to keep an eye on my pusskin not eating all of the small creatures I am making habitats for🤔

dij1966

Hello everyone. Hope you are all ok? I was wondering where all the wood pigeons have gone? Not that I am complaining as it is giving the little birds a chance. Normally when I go out to feed them they are lined up on the fence/shed, but this week, nowhere to be seen. My hubby, on my request did add a branch to our bird table which looks a bit like a set of antlers so we think this may have scared them off!

mig

I got some bee bombs for my birthday a while ago has anyone used them and if so did you have any success with them. Mig

Lilymary

Hi @mig , I think it depends on where you live. I love the idea of these but almost none of the plants included are native to where I am so I haven’t bothered, but you could try sewing them in a tub in a warm corner of your garden, or if you’re in sunnier climes anyway, just sew them on freshly turned over ground. Don’t use fertiliser, maybe just a little bagged compost, they don’t like to be too wet (ie soggy!) or in very rich soil.

stellabean

There will be nothing going on in my garden for now as the nut job who lives next door has put a multi fuel burner into an outbuilding close to our boundary and only put a 2-3 foot chimney on it so all the smoke and fumes drop down into our garden and the area around the back door. I am going to have to contact the council on Monday. So despite all the lovely sunshine I have to stay indoors.

ChampersChris

Hi @stellabean

so sorry you’re having aggravation from your inconsiderate neighbours. I had to fight to stop a property 200 yards away from installing a huge wood chip burner last year. Luckily they failed to get planning permission. If your neighbours didn’t apply for permission you are in a strong position to have the burner removed or modified. Best of luck!

Brynmor

Hi @ChampersChris welcome to the Online Community, great to have you here.

I always find with a neighbour "dispute" it usually helps to start off by talking to them first and to be on reasonable terms with them. Yes, some people are difficult but quite often it's that they don't think about others when it may cause them some nuisance.

Do tell us more about your experience with arthritis and how it affects you.

I look forward to reading more of your posts on the Community.

All best wishes

Brynmor

ChampersChris

Hi @Brynmor

Agreed, I was just thinking that I should have asked @stellabean if she had talked to the folks next door. Sorry, stellabean , for assuming you had. They may be horrified if they realise what the effects are for you.

I have a double scoliosis and arthritis is setting in round my neck and shoulders. Continuing low level pain/ discomfort, and my hands are starting to ache too, so I can only garden in short bursts, but I love my small plot intensely and am looking forward to learning how to garden better with advice from all the pros in the group! Cheers! @ChampersChris

stellabean

Hi ChampersChris and Brynmor the time for talking is long past about 20 years ago. It has been a long history or damage theft and threats along with systematic noise late at night. Last night we were subjected to music so loud my bed felt like it was being pushed across the bedroom and HIM shouting at the top of his voice until after 01.30. We have been here since 1992 and his mother tried to get us out of our home now he has taken up the mantle but after all this time you would think he would have got the hint that we will not leave.

He is very well aware of how his behaviour affects people and plans it that way to impact others as much as possible. I love my garden and any little special plant I manage to grow gives me so much pleasure. Unfortunately we have had things poisoned and burnt with bleach in the past. He has threatened to kill us in some graphic ways, made threats with a firearm and the police feel sorry for him because his mum died in 2006 (so did my father). I will have to contact building regulation department tomorrow and the community police ( as they have said WE can not do anything that may rile up Him unfortunately us breathing does that! ) I,ll let you know how I get on.

Welcome ChampersChris and I find a little and often approach to gardening and know when to stop don't be tempted by that last weed and rest when you need to they are not going to run away. I love making my plans for next year and look forward to the catalogues arriving my hubby calls them my porn cheeky monkey.

Lilymary

Hi Stellabean, I’m so sorry to hear what you’ve been putting up with for so long. One of the reasons I don’t want to move is because our neighbours are so lovely, but I know things can change, and I see the devastating effects bad neighbours can have through my work. I hope these latest developments are resolved soon.

To cheer us up, here’s a sweet little shrew who was unwillingly a guest in our house (thanks to the cat), but was easily persuaded to enter the humane trap with a bit of peanut butter. He actually took some persuasion to leave the trap when I tried to release him back into the garden (where the cats couldn’t get him). I felt a bit mean, but I didn’t reckon his chances if he stayed!

Mike1

A Woodpecker has become a frequent visitor to my old bird feeder outside my lounge window 😊 regrettably the quality of the photo is not brilliant as it was taken from my chair, through the window and then had the cage over the feeder (to keep the rooks off) to take account of. Although there are a few sparse trees around there is no a decent copse for a few miles which makes the visits extra special.

Airwave!

I have a new visitor to the garden, she’s 14 months old and likes to wander round with a feather in her hand, eat any fallen apples and generally do her own thing and it has to be in her new wellies. She discovered the toy house behind the bushes, where we dumped it after interest waned in it by her siblings. She loves apples and brings them back in to us (our freezers full of fruit already), we already store loads and left the rest for the birds and animals.

I’ve just built a shelter out of wood, time to sort all the old toys out, how many scooters do we need? 😊

its a grin, honest!

mig

I was given some bee bombs for my birthday I’m waiting impatiently to see them start to grow,my snowdrops have shoots showing as does my miniature crocuses.