What are we doing in the garden 2025

oh dear..this afternoon checked on my wheeler cabbages in the raised bed. Looks like the garden slugs have finally found my veg plot :( little nibbles on tips on some of the leaves,ones under the 2 cloches plus leaves on the l row uncovered.. Must be because of all the hm compost we have put into that raised bed. We never had trouble with them in our container veg garden on patio. So spent few mins putting some fine gravel around each plant and then a layer of crushed dried out egg shells...hope it works..will be sad if l lose them all after me and husbands efforts. The pointy sticks l put all around the uncovered cabbages that's not under the cloches seems to be keeping the pigeons off.

 

Put some slug pellets around them, you can only get the organic ones these days but worth trying.

 

l am looking for advice again from you lovely people. Tonight l'm writing in my garden planner a list of veg and salads l want to grow nk year that l will be able to save seeds from. l plan on using the 2nd raised be nk yr just for seed saving, so they are all in one place for ease of collecting. l already save my own seeds from my runner beans and potato tubers. Can any one recommend the best ones that are reliable & worth saving. l think l read that some are hard to save seeds from as cross pollinate? So l need to know, could l save seeds from bolted turnips and cabbages and cauli's ect ? And could l save squash seeds (never grown before so want to have a go growing them nk yr up the large arch trellis husband has made.) l know F1 are no good for seed saving but l dont usually buy those seeds as they are mostly expensive seeds. Many thank for any advise on seed saving.

 

Spent 2hrs at the plots this afternoon, half that time was taken up with watering. Considering that I only watered a few selective things and not the whole plot, gives clue as to just how dry it is. The outdoor tomatoes are still producing as are the greenhouse ones. I'm optimistic that I will be able to pick some dwarf French beans at the weekend.
@Peaceful Gardener , all the squash and courgette family cross polinate very readily, so unless you take steps to isolate different cultivars, self saving seed can be a bit of a lottery you may not get what you expect. Fun trying though.

 

That's a nuisance @NigelJ re the chafers. Not something I've experienced on plants. Is that a new problem for you or do you get them anyway?
I also removed all the stems of the tomato plants still remaining in the growhouse, apart from the one that I've put in that had been outside, as it was being affected by the colder weather. I'll see what it looks like today, and maybe just take the toms off it, and do the foliage. I spent a nice half hour chopping all those removed stems for the compost bin while waiting for my daughter to arrive. I took down one ot of sweet peas that were finished, so I might put the wallflowerrs in that container for now. The table took me ages because it was very fiddly - why is there always one bit that doesn't play ball! It just needs some trim round the top, and then I'll see what I have to make a shelf or two underneath. The roofing felt isn't great, and I'll give it another coat of the waterproof paint today while the weather's good.
Grass can get a final cut later. It's been nice and dry, and no frost today, so it should be quite dry by the afternoon. Other than that, I'll just decide what bulbs are going in what pots, and general bits and pieces.

 

busy day for us today. We want to make use of this good weather, so husband is shredding all the over grown musk rose rambler that's blocking my 'roly' composter. That was a new purchase this Spring, so hoping its made good compost. Then the small greenhouse to be deep cleaned. All the empty patio containers will go in there for winter , to be refilled with fresh soil, placed all around 3 sides. Will be for our Winter growing experiment, so hoping can get about 20 containers in there. My 'meteor' dwarf peas arrived yesterday, pk says sow now for early Spring crop. Did price search and found these for £3.69 for 350 seeds. Some were selling for £4.99 for 50 seeds !! l will take rests sitting on garden bench sowing them, with more winter sowing veg to place on trays on top of the greenhouse containers. If any seeds germinate, we can just transplant straight into them and cover with fleece/bubble wrap. Not grown winter veg before, so its all an experiment.

 

@fairygirl

No it's not a new problem, they've been around for a few years now. Normally they're more evenly distributed with a few in each pot, this year they've picked on a couple of plants and had a good go at them. They seem to prefer pots that remain a bit damper. They don't appear to bother the dahlias that also grow in large pots, both outside and in the greenhouse.

 

Hi,

Thanks @Sheal.

Good luck with your felt @fairygirl and be careful. It's amazing how much money is spent at the hairdressers; I've had to start using a barber but it's only a five minute job due to my wide solar panel.

Thanks @Logan; I've worked myself to a standstill over the last two days; keen to finish the wall but I've also added two new steps.

It's turned chilly each morning as I've been on the wall job before 8:30am and not knocking off until after 6:30pm working solid apart from mealtimes; collecting aggregates & shopping. Wednesday it was a full day on the wall and yesterday another heavy day; by teatime I'd worn myself out but after teatime I was fully charged again so cleaned all the tools and scrubbed the workshop floor where I'd been mixing mortar & concrete.

I had extra stones stored under the front decking so used a sack cart to drag these up to the patio then had to carry them up steps to the wall; mortar & concrete were mixed; loaded into a plastic bowl and these carried directly up to the wall; a full bowl sure is heavy in fact the whole job has given me a good workout.

Two days ago.

It's amazing how much soil needs to be removed to clear space for one paving slab; this slab is heavy being 2" thick and I was delighted after a bit of ballet dancing to place it perfectly in position first time only needing a few taps to get it level.
A bit of tidying up; there were just enough stones; the ones seen are the only ones spare.

A close up of the new steps; the mortar joints are "brushed" making them look more natual.

The wall and steps are backfilled with concrete. (6 ballast 1 cement).


Carrying anything up to the garden is hard work; I built the patio; dry stone walls and steps about 37 years ago. The fence and handrail were added for safety. It was wet even then.

All I needed was a couple of days dry weather and this was provided Wednesday & Thursday so I made the most of it. I had a full bag of cement and a couple of bags of sand to hand as I had with the stone; the extra bags of sand & 20mm ballast (from Wickes collected) only cost around £60 so this wall and steps were very cheap indeed to install. I'm pleased the job is completed and can be ticked off.

I'm fully recovered again but today I'm having a rest; I'll play my violins but I've also got toys to play with; Please ignore if not interested; I have many assorted hobbies; I'm looking forward to winter when I can get into my small recording studio.



And;



Kind regards, Col.

 

@Retired your wall and steps look great and they'll last for a long time.

Haven't done any planting today, had to take River for his booster.

 

Your building work is so good.. l love the wall and patio you built many yrs ago, and the digital violins is something iv not heard before..lovely sound. l love how people on here share things as l love learning about new things. lm trying to learn classical guitar..iv been trying to learn for a few yrs..but only during the winter months as l have, like you such a lot of hobbies. Im not doing at all well thou as learning quitar gets hard at my age but its always been my dream and my grandson urges me on..he has 3 quitars, a bass, accoustic and a classical

 

I've been blitzing part of our rockery which has been overgrown with both teucrium and ivy, the roots of which have embedded themselves under very large rocks which are impossible to lift. An old privet bush is also trying to take over again so I cut that down to the ground. I'm thinking I will have to remove a small conifer and the heather and then use a strong weedkiller on the rest when it tries to grow again.

Long term, I'm a bit at a loss as to how to keep it as low maintenance as possible as I need to cut down on the harder jobs in the garden. I had thought of filling the gaps between the large rocks with a large size gravel and/or small pebbles but the rockery is under a large evergreen viburnum tree which drops leaves sometimes, like it did earlier in this year's very hot weather.

 

This morning I picked Apples, our old Bramley (inherited with the house) always produces lots. A lot have fallen but there's plenty more. I picked everything i could reach off the ladder, the only way to get the rest is to climb into the centre.
Had to go out for an appointment so after late lunch, went to the Allotments, and cut the grass paths round my plot plus a bit more on the grass "road" at the top of the plots. Hopefully the cuttings will activate the compost heap which was cold and dry when I last checked.

 

@Retired and @Peaceful Gardener. There's a video you may be interested in that I will put in the music thread so it doesn't interfere with the thread here.

 

Shrub pruning continued today for a couple of hours, then strimmed the lawn edges before mowing.

 

Hi,

Thanks so much @Peaceful Gardener.

I too love learning new things; for my 74th birthday Bron (Bronwyn) my wonderful wife generously bought me my first violin and went on to really spoil me buying me lots of music studio recording gear including my favourite violin a Yamaha YEV104 brand new with Yamaha THR10 amplifier; I've got a very short memory and struggled to remember just three notes from a music score so I'm also learning sight reading making steady progress.

Sadly Bron passed away in March this year leaving me heartbroken and totally devastated after 48 years being married; Bron was my life and I'm only just able to mention Bron's name in public without bursting into tears; this is why I've not been on the forum.

More garden work; I'm creating a memorial garden for Bron and it's now ready to receive shrubs I've bought from J Parkers; today I received an email to say my order is being prepared and it will be delivered shortly.



Here's a few stones I dug out now part of the new wall just built.

Nothing is easy here; it's all hard work; I'm fed up of digging in a quarry so here I'm going down 12" removing all the stones; I want the new shrubs to have a nice home.


Finally dug over; stones removed and raked then weed membrane laid.

Followed by blue slate chippings; 17 bags with one spare bag; once the shrubs arrive I can clear the chippings as needed and cut holes in the membrane; planters will be refilled next springtime; the two empty planters next to the white planter will have Freesias; these are Bron's favourite flowers which she had in her wedding bouquet also I've planted lots of Potentillas more of Bron's favourites. I chose this style of garden for low maintenance allowing me to keep the shrubs and plants watered; there's currently an hosepipe ban in force due to drought which is rare for Yorkshire which is usually under water.

Stick with your guitar learning @Peaceful Gardener but please don't do as I did; I tried for a couple of years to get every note correct on my violin which made practicing a bit of a chore until I started playing for my own pleasure; now with sight reading I can get pretty near with the notes; i'm also a member of two stringed instrument forums. I'm now 78 and it's never too late to learn any new skill; the alternative is to settle down in front of the TV all day waiting to die; I like heavy work it keeps me physically fit and my hobbies keep my head busy; I miss Bron and yearn for her but I've no intention of sinking into a deep depression for the rest of my life; Bron will always be with me and I love her to bits.

Thanks @Sheal sorry for wandering off topic; I hadn't realized there was a music thread so I'll have a look; I hope I can be excused for mentioning Bron but it explains my prolonged absence from the forum; I'll catch up with @Peaceful Gardener on the music thread.

Kind regards, Col.