WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

Discussion in 'General Gardening Discussion' started by ARMANDII, Jan 1, 2021.

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  1. FrancescaH

    FrancescaH Gardener

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    Do you have them outside or indoors? I've got plenty coming up now and am a bit concerned about being overrun!
     
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    • Upsydaisy

      Upsydaisy Total Gardener

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      Housework chores this morning ...but more seed sowing this afternoon. :hapydancsmil:Sowed 2 trays of Zinnias, one mixed and the other purple. Will sow a tray of orange ones tomorrow. Potted up the ( emergency) Dahlias.
      Hubs trimmed some of the variegated shrubs , with me close behind nabbing some for cutting material....why oh why can't I resist. I have pots everywhere with unknown/ forgotten cuttings in them.:whistle:
       
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      • ARMANDII

        ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

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        The Contractor, who reduced the height of my back fence for me last week, is arriving tomorrow to take down the old Arbour for me. The Arbour, despite being built out of 2"X4" timber concreted into the ground has, because of the previous high winds, started to lean slightly to the South and is also showing it's age. When that is taken away I will be able to build a new base, for a new Arbour, on the same site and also paint the fence immediately behind the old Arbour.
        To make it easier to take down the Arbour I've cut the training wire that went across the front of the Arbour roof and then disentangled the Rose "Alchemist" from the Honeysuckle and pulled it safely away from the Arbour while also doing the same for the Rose "Creme-de-la-Creme" on the other side. I've also put canes around both Roses to ensure the Contractor knows where not to tread while, to be honest, I'm not too concerned about any damage to the Honeysuckle as that can be replaced easily.
        I also phoned, this morning, the place in Wales where they're making the Statue I ordered back in November as those places are now able to operate after they lifted the restrictions. Anyway, I got a nice surprise when I was told that the Statue was ready for pickup and I was in the long line of people they were phoning to tell them that orders were ready. Because the Statue is slightly fragile and not to be trusted to any rough handling by a Courier I will have to collect it, which is only an 80 mile or so round trip, so that's something to look forward to, but not until after the 12th April.
        As a last job I've repaired the large pot that had the big chip in the side with Expoxy Putty
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        It will need smoothing down when it has hardened and then painting and then the plan is to fill it with a mixture of Compost, sand and potting grit and planting 12 Dahlia in it. I'm not a great fan of Dahlias, as some of them don't provide useful pollen for the insects, but I'm always open to trying new things so it'll be interesting to see how well they do.
        A quick check on the 15 or so Echinacea in pots in front of the Bearded Iris bench has shown me that, at least, they're all pushing red leaf growth from the soil:hapydancsmil:.
         
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        • Perki

          Perki Total Gardener

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          Blimey @ARMANDII that's some compost where do you put them all ? I can image the house furniture made out of compost bales :heehee: . How long will 25 bales of compost last ? I know you're on sandy soil so the garden must just eat it up .
           
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          • Perki

            Perki Total Gardener

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            Well I've been out in the garden more a less all day :) its probably the longest I'll be in the garden all year .

            I started this morning taking the pots out of the greenhouse and around the GH so I could get the wheelbarrow in and out , I've emptied the tomato - cucumber bed of the old compost . Next job was to fill it back up, I use home made compost for that bed . I've had a rat in my compost bin by the looks of it but no sign of it so I did eventually fill the bed back up with 3 wheelbarrow loads, I did have a brew break in between barrow loads because the robbin was in the GH mostly likely rummaging through the compost. Also mulched my veg box - veg border out side the GH and partially mulched the two borders in the front garden with my compost , its a bit tricky mulching now with all the alliums growing everywhere . While I was in the front garden I decided to move clematis Miss Bateman to the other fence .

            Also dug a big hole for a rose I were expecting today, I was replanting near a old rose I removed earlier this year. I didn't want to risk rose replant disease so I excavated two big buckets of soil from there and replaced with soil out of the veg bed, I did have too scrap the mulch off back off to get at the soil.

            Then I set into the big job of the day the lawn, I started to spike the lawn with a fork and I hit something hard only a few inch's down so investigated and pulled out 2 stones and 2 lumps of concrete , how on earth the rotavator missed these two year ago I don't know . So I carried on spiking and hit something else and couldn't resist a look wish I didn't , pulled out a 2x2 stone slab :scratch: along with another stone block :gaah: I am plagued with stone and concrete , I had to raid the veg bed again to fill the holes back in . I did eventually get the lawn spiked. I then overseeded the lawn and mixed up some sharp sand and top soil and top dressed the lawn . I then did the same to the little front lawn.

            By the time I'd finished with the lawn the rose which turned up around 1pm had seen sat in a bucket of water for a couple of hours and was ready to plant out which was duly done.

            Thought I'd finished then remember I dug up the wallflowers from the veg bed so had to rush back out and plant them out.

            It been a long productive day in the garden and I am looking forward to the rest of Spring
             
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            • Logan

              Logan Total Gardener

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              QUOTE="FrancescaH, post: 1309090, member: 29421"]Do you have them outside or indoors? I've got plenty coming up now and am a bit concerned about being overrun![/QUOTE]
              They're indoors at the moment in the concervatory, sometime next month I'll put them outside with a couple of layers of fleece to harden them off. I've got a small lean to grow house but i over winter things in there and I'll put the cosmos in there when ready but got to cover them with fleece so that the snails don't get them.
               
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              • ARMANDII

                ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

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                It's about the average amount that I use, Perki, during the year but @shiney, he uses more than me.:dunno::love30: When you think about it I probably increase the amount used, by about a third overall, by adding sand and potting grit to make my favourite mixture of good draining compost,
                I store about 20 bales in the Garage, (which has never had a car in it:heehee:), and the rest is stacked in the side passage for easy access.
                Most of it goes in growing on plants, potting plants, renewing compost in plant planting and also for plants that I give away to local Gardening Clubs so that they can raise money in their annual sales. What compost goes into the borders of the garden is mostly used compost from previous use, compost from the Garden Compost heap, and emptied pots, so it's very rare for new compost to be used for the borders.
                Actually, the garden, after decades of adding trailer loads of Horse/Cow Manure, and used compost so it doesn't need, apart from the used compost/Garden made compost; any new compost added to it. Digging down around 18" will bring you to the 350'-450' of pure sand that I garden on so it does retain the fast drainage and is still a hungry garden and needs dress feeding with Blood, Fish and Bonemeal in Spring and then weekly/fortnightly feeding of High Potash liquid feed for the Roses and borders. The borders are, as you know, over planted so that leads to the necessity of regular feeding and, of course, Roses are hungry plants in their own right so they get the normal feed that they love.
                Some of the large pots I have go from about 50litre to 100litre capacity so I can use a bale just on one pot.:doh::heehee:
                 
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                • Michael Hewett

                  Michael Hewett Total Gardener

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                  I got rid of a lot of Ivy which had decided to overtake a small border, cut back some more roses and Clematises and a Cotoneaster. I got two sackfulls for the recycling bin :smile:
                   
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                  • ARMANDII

                    ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

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                    I'm on a "reduce Ivy to a minimum, Mike, so I now finding time, every now and then, to deal with a section of a fence or the garden to cut the stems of the Ivy at the base and then hastening it's demise with a spray of Weed Killer. Ivy's fine in the right place but it can get out of hand so quickly if an eye is not kept on it.
                     
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                    • Jasmine star

                      Jasmine star Super Gardener

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                      I have been at the allotment for most of the day however once home I managed to get some weeding done in the borders. The seeds I had ordered had arrived. I'm trying new plants this year, so inspired by Nick Bailey on TV recently I've decided to try some evening/night scented plants to attract moths and such and for us to enjoy in the evenings when sat out. Sown Nicotana alata "lime green". Oenothera biensis and Zaluziana Cavendish "midnight candy" :phew: I'm looking forward to seeing them in the garden eventually. The greenhouse is slowly filling up now too. :yes:
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                      Also it's the first time seeing my Peach melred in bud as I only bought it a few weeks ago but it is stunning. The buds look like they are wrapped in cotton wool :love30:
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                      • noisette47

                        noisette47 Total Gardener

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                        Given the weather this week, it's all systems 'go' for summer. Pressure-washed the terrace ready for the dismantling of the temporary conservatory and the release on parole of the citrus trees :biggrin:
                        Courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes planted in the polytunnel. A few gaps in the borders filled with evergreen shrubs and ground cover. Endless weeding of annual grass and hairy bittercress, before it seeds! Checked over the loquat and despite the frosts this winter, it's set fruit :hapfeet: I ran out of steam long before finishing everything I'd got planned, but hey-ho...tomorrow's another day....
                         
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                        • Michael Hewett

                          Michael Hewett Total Gardener

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                          @ARMANDII this ivy had gone out of hand because with my late partner being so disabled for several years I could not devote as much time as I would have liked to the garden. It has rooted many times into the soil and between the bricks in a wall but I have removed most of it and will do the rest soon. I don't want to use a weed killer spray because it has grown between so many other plants and I don't want to kill them. I did damage a Clematis with my shears which I could not see but it will grow back, it's an autumn flowering one.
                          Good luck with getting it off your fences :smile:
                           
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                          • shiney

                            shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                            You talking about me??? :old: :hate-shocked: :roflol:
                             
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                            • ARMANDII

                              ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

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                              Well, if you lean to the right and I lean to the left:old::old:, we might look straighter.:dunno::heehee:
                               
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                              • shiney

                                shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                                I think that's now in the past tense :sad:

                                We used to get through up to 6,000 litres a year but none of it went on the garden. As we used to open our garden for charity at the end of May Bank Holiday we had around 500 people turn up and could sell 1,000 plants in a day. :yikes: Mrs Shiney propagated all the plants, mainly from the plants in the garden, and the compost all went for potting.

                                We had to cancel both last year and this year and don't think we shall be doing it any more. There's too much organisation and effort to take the chance on arranging it and we're not getting any younger. :old:

                                I used a fair amount of the compost for potting the edibles - mainly runner beans and chillies. I grow 200 bean plants in the garden (all grown in pots to start with) and sell the produce for the charity. I also sell about 500 bean plants (buy the seeds trade). Although we're not opening the garden I have orders for just over 400 so far.

                                I normally sell about 50-60 chilli plants and only grow two varieties. My main seller is my own hybrid which tends to not take up too much space, has virtually no problems and pretty hot. I always get virtually 100% germination from them and they germinate in about four days. :blue thumb: They tend to be well into fruiting by the end of May. They even do well for @CanadianLori in her more hostile climate. I think she also has excellent germination.

                                The other variety I grow is one of the Naga family (extremely hot) and they are ordered by the Bangladeshi community and restaurants and for the Asian wholesalers in the nearest town. The wholesaler is very good as he gives all the sale proceeds to the charity. :) They take a bit more effort to grow and nurture and don't fruit until July.
                                 
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