Gardening - what's going on in your garden
Comments
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Hi Airwave. Weedkiller is a no no for me due to Vixen. I have looked for pet friendly weedkillers but the only ones I can find say that they are pet safe once dry. Will just have to continue to try to get them up in 10 minute spurts with my grabber or just put up with them.
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I don’t do weed killer either, as we’ve got hedgehogs and cats. If you go at weeds with a hoe, particularly if you can do it as soon as they appear, that’s a fairly low effort way of keeping them down. There’s also a tool with twirly prongs on the end of a long handle that’s good for loosening soil if you’re trying to pull them up, a bit like this sort of thing. You can get long handled weed grabbers too, but not sure how effective they’d be. There are also long handled tools for getting moss, weeds etc out of the joints in paving slabs.
(“other similar products are available “!)
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It feels like it has been months since i last had time to sit at the computer.Here is one of the sweetpea rows now in full flower, they have to be picked every few days or they stop flowering. It was the village show last Saturday and I managed to get 3rd with my sweetpeas and 1st with a vase of mixed flowers. I didn't manage to get any dahlias in as I had entered so many baking and preserve classes that I was too tired. I got 9 1sts 4 2nds and 5 3rds and 3 cups. We havwe spent the last 2 days delivering the cakes and food to friends in the area, i just have a fruit cake to deliver to the staff at the local chemists who are great. I made a cake in the shape of a unicorn for the celebration cake class but due to the heat the icing slipped a bit the it resembles Miss Piggy more! it still won.I thought I had entered the potato class and Mr SB dug up a whole row of spuds to get 3 good ones but I hadn't he wasn't amused.
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Wow, they’re beautiful! And what amazing successes at the village show! Well done!
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Ditto!
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Stella bean, take the seed pods off as well when picking the flowers, it’ll push all the new growth into the flowers..
it’s a grin, honest!
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Thanks Airwave we try to do that but because the site is so windy it is hard to do when the plants move too much it seems to make us feel travel sick and can bring on my vertigo. They have been flowering since 3rd july but I don't think they will for much longer they are over 8foot tall. The scent from the old fashioned ones can be smelt from the road,lots of people in the village say how much they look forward to me growing them each year.
Pre covid the little village institute used to have monthly fund raising coffee mornings and in the summer we would make up bunches of sweet peas and flowers which always sold out first. It was a good place for me to get rid of surplus eggs from the girls and I enjoyed baking brown,white and speciality loaves and cakes for sale.They are hoping to start them up soon but on a smaller scale. I hope it is not too long as I have a huge bag of walnuts for coffee walnut cakes and we don't eat it! I might just bake a couple and deliver them to the old folk I know bought them I hate anything going out of date.
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@crinkly I have built raised beds quite cheaply:
Breeze blocks just stacked around to form a box, no cement. I then made a wooden frame for each of the four sides, screwing together mostly scrap timber we had lying around.
Having screwed the frames together, I then hid everything by covering it over with "fence-wood" - shiplap that I managed to get from someone who had loads of spare...
I then bought 200mm wide planks from a wood yard - the most expensive bit - and fixed these as bench tops to each side. Paint the whole in dark-brown wood stain and fill with soil. The thing holds together really well and is quite cheap compared to buying a similar sized (8ft x 3ft) commercial kit.
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Sounds great @crinkly - I am a lover of raised beds, but not the one plank high jobs that I see on TV, I like the knee high, sit in comfort kind with a cuppa.
Ours are made from pallets or sleepers or even old bricks that we found around and they have been left or clad? cladded? with shed/fence type wood. we even have a brand new this year sleeper sided raised pond! (Paid to have this done and a bit of deck nearby, better safe than sorry) I have a few plants in but am very keen to get some fish from mum to go in there. Luckily mum lives close by and has a large pond with many many fish.
I think we have all been busy in the garden or getting outside the garden this summer, it's nice to get back to chatting on here again, I'm pleased with our accomplishments this year, now to see if any of the beds get organised for winter.
Is there a feed I should be giving in Autumn?
xx
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Thanks for raised beds suggestions. My OH is looking forward to making and installing some and yes, they will definitely be more than one sleeper high!
Now we have the house more or less 'straight' things are starting to happen outside. Composters are in situ, a shed is in process of being painted before being erected and a greenhouse is ordered. Water butts are ready for action too. With an energetic son and grandson living close by the shed and greenhouse will get put together at lightning speed, which is a huge bonus of having moved house!
Most of the potted plants we brought with us (including raspberry canes) are thriving so we'll see how they survive the winter and we have added a new shrub to mark our move here. So not too long before seeds will be germinating in the new greenhouse and a whole new chapter of gardening begins. 🌱
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That all sounds fantastic Crinkly, I have lots of raspberries - Autumn ones are still fruiting - I bought some summer ones last Autumn so hoping for respberries even earlier than usual next year! They are so easy to deal with and so expensive in the shops that I feel quite clever to have my own respberries in winter! They do freeze really well and although they don't hold their shape when thawed they are great on porrage or in a cake
I think next year the strawberries will be back to full strength, it's taken a while after we moved them for them to decide it wasn't so bad after all! They are one of Mum's favourites and her birthday is 9/7 so I'm hoping we will have strawberries for her next year.
Anyone else got a favourite fruit or veg?
xx
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Back again everyone.
Did I tell you we got some goldfish from Mum for our new sleeper pond! We were planning to find 6 varied between orange and orange/white that looked quite young, as in small because ours isn't a big pond - one sleeper long and 1/2 sleeper wide.
As you will have known, life with a net didn't allow for discrimination between big or little fish - it was take what you get or have none. So we went for 4 fish, 2 medium and 2 larger (maybe expecting). In best fish tradition every time we looked the fish weren't there for about 2 weeks, then we were able to spot them in a mini shoal under the stool that we used to put the lily on. Now when we give them a feed they come up to eat straight away - so lovely.
One thing, oh made perfect net covers for the pond, rigid structure, not too heavy for him to lift off. Purpose to keep animals etc safe from swimming and to keep leaves out. Somehow the leaves are still getting in !! Just nipped out to take a photo, very chilly now and only 2 fish came up! And I see a gap between the netting!
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I was going to share this in here too, just in case we can come up with any tips
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I live in the NW and still have roses blooming! Just had our first frost yesterday. All the perenials are dying back, but I mostly leave them in place rather than trimming and tidying. It creates habitat for insects, which feed the birds and small mammals, as well as mulching the ground and protecting roots from hard frosts. When new growth starts in spring to replace the dead leaves, I clear them up and compost them. We raked the lawn and left some leaves in the flower beds enclosed with twigs for insects to use, and the rest will be composted.
I still need to plant my tulips bulbs, but as I've just had more surgery I'm out of action for a while, so they'll have to wait. I've planted them in December before, and they were fine.
Our rowan tree is full of birds binge-eating the berries. We had four bull finches today, and along with the regular robins, blue tits, great tits and chaffinches, sometimes we need to remind ourselves we don't need to go to the zoo to see exotic birds, we have plenty of our own.
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After eight months in our new home near Durham we are appreciating the drier climate and I've enjoyed watching my husband and our younger son steadily transforming a clover-patch into a promising garden. Shed and greenhouse are firmly in situ and there is a raised bed round the perimeter, between the garden fence and a new inner breeze-block wall. The lower fence is lined with protective upright paving slabs and the gap filled with new topsoil and compost - black and inviting!
The first seeds are (hopefully) germinating indoors and cordon fruit trees will be purchased when risk of frost is past. (We were given garden tokens as a leaving gift from our church.) Potted plants brought with us (including strawberries) have survived and will soon find their permanent places so I can envisage the colour that will tumble out of the breeze blocks onto the grass and the delight of home grown soft fruits along with my favourite scented flowers and shrubs.
How I look forward to being able to help with maintaining such a carefully planned outdoor space after a year of looking out on barren earth here and from the house we previously rented - not to mention no Summer jam-making then no February snowdrops!
No longer do I regret the large, productive garden left behind on the edge of the Peak District but look forward to discovering what will grow even better in this much lower and less wet climate. A different way of gardening but more manageable as OA and anno domini make their presence increasingly felt. How lucky am I!! 😀
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Too much is happening in my garden! I badly need to get out and prune the roses, cut back dead growth on perennials (I leave it in over the winter for bugs to inhabit and for birds to forage in), spread compost, and do some general maintenance.... if it ever stops flippin' raining that is! I'll just sink into the mud if I try it now. Still, it's lovely to see the birds getting active and hearing them singing again.
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I have just cleaned my daughters small greenhouse and half of my larger one only half left but it has a grape vine in it so I have to be careful. I have to move the 60 strawberry plants I have potted up for friends into the cold frame before I can start to sow seeds to go into the heated bench, I need to get a head start so there are going to be 4 of us using it this year ( it is 3 foot by 4 foot has a cable running through sand). We think the robin is going to try to nest in the barn/workshop behind the house as he has been spotted inside a few times. A few years ago they nested upstairs on some shelving among the tools and taught their young to fly indoors which was great for them but meant the area was out of bounds for several weeks as my hubby hated disturbing them.
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Gardening with Osteoarthritis
Ideas please. I have a third floor walk on Balcony about 10ft longby 4.5 ft wide. Pre arthritis i built a raised bed compost heap substantial eg 3' w 4H 3 deep organic. I grew healthy selection herbs even French beans on a sill up the UPVC window. Strawbs Toms a waist of time. Gadjets to garden? this year i intend to grow healthy veg growable eg good for Arthritis sufferer eg Courgettes (? space) spinage but space may mean just herbs Fennel. I hav e a dwarf Apple Tree Chines Palm and Clematis growing along railing for fun all previously planted in Pots. This is a quarter mile away South facing seaside W Scotland climate. Since my Osteoarthritis i have no transport and a wheely bin full of ex garden non organic materials which the Council would want £90 to remove no chance of that money! On a lighter note i built a mini Greenhouse pre illness from free palettes and plastic tesco box lids i made an opening roof cost a couple of hinges £3.50 total o and free polytunnel plastic as glazing The Full Eco hah!
Thanks members ideas Trains mini gardens and photos/wildlife great cheerfull!
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Well that was a surprise! Just answered the door to the postie and there were two boxes of plants I ordered online last year that I’d totally forgotten about!! Guess I’ll be planting up containers tomorrow then!! Just glad it’s stopped snowing raining and blowing a hoolie here in the East! xx
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It was a gorgeous spring day here this morning until we went out to attack our hedge, when it suddenly started rain, hail and sleet simultaneously. We stuck it out and got the job done anyway.
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@GalaxyA12 I just love the sound of your balcony up in Scotland notorious down here for being chilly you have achieved so much👍️photos please if you can manage.... especially your 'greenhouse' the green greenhouse at that.
It's been chilly and the weather unpredictable this week @Lilymary , but it will improve it has to. I am all excited as my garlic are coming up all my salad leaves are planted.....the plants I purloined from teh neighbours seem to have survived. Ooooh! I just love this time of year!
@luella what a fabulous surprise! Go you doing your post already! Have fun.
Photos anyone?
Toni xx
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Toni thanks just seen your Gardening post to me. Once shown how to will send a photo of Balcony garden in infancy but i have 50 seeds started vegetables and Sweet Pea flowers on Dining room table by window overlooking balcony now seedlings 70% success seeds so far! my first ever attempts. Total recycle gardening inc homemade Cloche for Strawberry last years resusitated full flowering and Apple Tree in Tub should fruit as year 2 growth only about 11 ft by 4 ft wide Balcony but all planned out much in an organic way though hah. Andrew
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Good afternoon everyone,
@GalaxyA12 such a success rate so soon, that's fantastic news, and all planned out, you will get such pleasure out of it I'm sure.
I was planning to share a photo or two of the patio, the bit of the garden I've been working on! I am really pleased with how it has gone, and really pleased that the new hosepipe has been so good I've been watering much more often, and it shows! It one of the crinkly ones and it stretches or contracts. I find it easy to lift and plink it in a plastic bin where I store it right beside the tap. I'm really pleased with my hosta's, I god those nematodes and so very few holes, don't know how long they last though.
It's so cold and windy today I'm only looking outside.
xx
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Yes I try and spend as much time in my garden. I love growing Lillies at present I have around 150...at the moment have also planted some Dahlia's this year used to do the Dahlia's a few years back ..also looking forward to my fruit this year love making jam ..I have lots of fruit flowing every year ..also my 14xfruit trees are comming on really good ..lots to do but struggling now osteoarthritis in my lower spine makes it very difficult to carryon ..maybe time to sell up ..its a large garden just getting a bit too much ..
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