What are we doing in the garden 2025

A beautiful day today but I wasn't in the mood for doing outside - what a waste. However I tackled this Escallonia yesterday that was smothering everything. I still need to take a saw to the deadwood and remove the dead Hebe in front of it. Sandwiched between the back of it and the large Ilex to the left is a very sad looking variegated Weigela that will have to come out.

 

Hi,

Well done @Sheal; lots of debris to now dispose of.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Thank you @Retired. Yes, I've already filled two large garden waste bags with the debris which I've cut up smallish. It's other half's job to do the run to the amenity site tomorrow so I can refill the bags when he returns.

I will also start on the Ilex to its left which needs similar treatment - that will be a prickly job.

 

Stout gloves needed for that holly @Sheal
That's a huge pot @Friendly. Just as well it's sorted out!
I didn't do a lot yesterday, but I got the water butt finished, and I found a webbed belt/strap which I've used to attach the butt to the shed to prevent it getting cowped in the wind. I also got the bigger castors fitted to the potting bench/table, but I was losing the will to live with my drill/driver [it won't hold the screwdriver or drill bits well now ] so I haven't cut the bottom of the front legs to match up. I'll do that today. I tested my new Darlac snips on the dead flower heads and some dying foliage - they're good.
It's another damp, dank misty day here, and the forecast has now changed to being like that all day - same as yesterday. I might get some compost shifted out of the older bin - good for keeping warm. I have a few small plants that need potting on, so I might do that too.

 

Hi,

A few weeks ago my nasty immediate neighbour's son kindly brought me a parcel wrongly delivered; the adult son is very decent but his mother and late father are the nastiest neighbours imaginable. I've tried to be a good neighbour to them and have never gone out of my way to be awkward towards them but they were the street bullies.

Whilst the son was here I asked if he'd considered taking down the tree at the very top corner of his mother's garden it overhanging my garden; this tree is incredibly fast growing; the son is at the top of it every year cutting it back leaving it looking like a totem pole.


This is the tree and how much growth it puts on in a year; ready once again to be trimmed down.

The son has to climb this every year and lots of branches end up in my garden meaning a trip to the tip which I've never complained about.

The son said yes he'd considered removing the tree but access was poor; on a win win basis I generously offered to roll back part of my wire mesh fence and drop the tree into my top meadow whilst the meadow was bare this totally free of charge.

His mother was on holiday but he would ask her when she returns. To date I've received no reply so today I'm rotavating the meadow and my offer is now withdrawn.

What a shame it's not the mother climbing this tree every year but now she's happy to continue her son climbing it. I'm not bothered either way but in spite of 38 years nastiness towards me and my late wife Bron she continues the way she has for all those years; I'm always peaceful and polite; Bron and I were always perfect neighbours but this mother and her late husband were always at world war three over the hedge; violent exchanges between them with the husband at first shouting his head off swearing then shouting having no effect he would be screaming at her. We used to feel sorry for her but which of them was worst.

Anyway enough of this; I've a meadow to rotavate and I'm using my 64 year old restored Howard Bulldog again; the modern 18 month old tinny rotavator which broke down is going for recycling as does most modern things these days which break; saving the planet now means make things to last the warranty out then they are fully replaced; It's madness.

Well done @wiseowl that really has tidied your garden but I don't envy you the ivy problem; I've spent years getting rid of huge amounts of English Ivy and will never allow ivy back into my garden.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Not the foggiest at the moment as Plan A has been scuppered by the start of light rain. Plan B could be possible.

 

Nothing planned today as I have a 5* stinking cold.

 

Hi,

One hour twenty minutes of sheer hard graft leaving me wet with sweat; this morning; here's the result;

Top meadow ready for raking to remove the debris which I'll do this afternoon. I can just manage to operate the rotavator cross ways on this meadow but it's heavy & difficult trying to remain upright.

This is the middle meadow and the first rotavating pass was done whilst heading up to the top meadow. The middle meadow fully rotavated; this one is too dangerous to rotavate cross ways so it's up and down; it's steep and worries me as I freewheel the rotavator back down in case the rotavator gets out of control and runs me over.

My enemy; lots of couch grass but I've decided to tackle this couch grass problem differently this year. Normally I rotavate Autumn and springtime broadcasting new wildflower seeds every springtime then keep repeating the cycle.

This gives the couch grass a severe headache but will never eradicate it. I've already bought and had delivered from Meadowmania 20g of Yellow Rattle seeds; what if I don't buy new wildflowers seeds but instead buy lots more Yellow Rattle and convert from wildflowers to soley Yellow Rattle broadcasting the Yellow Rattle in the next week or so. Yellow Rattle needs to be subjected to winter cold in order for it to germinate the following springtime?

This means rotavating now as I've just done and not rotavating again until Autumn 2026 at soonest; I get a rest and the couch grass gets a bashing.

I'll rake up the debris today and bag it then tomorrow morning run it to the tip but also taking along the rubbish broken rotavator having a good clear out all at once. Our tip is closed Wednesday & Thursday every week; Kirklees council can't afford to keep the tips open full time but then complain about the cost involved cleaning up fly tipping; it's a mad world we live in now.

Good luck getting rid of your cold @Allotment Boy; Lemsips work for me helping to put a bung in my runny nose.

Time to get off my bakside again and do a bit more grafting.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Your plot of ground is huge @retired You are doing a sterling job to keep on top of it let alone all the rotavating and sowing seeds, and turning the soil and so on. I’m shattered just looking at that space and doff my hat to you to keep on going with it. I could do with some of your energy too

 

Thanks Col @Retired , I'm sure it will pass but I really am just like the little emoji at the moment.

I do wish you success with your plan but sadly I'm not too sure. As you probably know from your research, yellow rattle is semi-parasitic on grass, but they are usually referring to meadow grass, I really don't know how well it will do on couch grass and in any case it will only weaken grass not kill it. The issue with rotavating is two fold , firstly chopping up any rhizomatous root will act like propagating it as it will regrow from the smallest scrap. The second issue is with the action of rotavating and the effect it can have on soil structure. You can get a hard pan developing just at the depth where the rotor blades reach to, and it can adversely affect the overall structure if you rotavate excessively. In your case you are only doing it twice a year so the second point may not apply but I have seen it as a real issue.
At my Allotments there was an old chap, he was a professional gardener so he knew what he was doing and kept a good generally weed free plot. He was great at sucessional planting , as soon as one crop went over he would remove it and plant something else BUT, he always rotavated in between time plus he rotavated the whole thing in Autumn and again in spring, so most of his plot was rotavated 4-5 times a year, at least. By the end of his time the blades on his machine were quite short. Sadly az so often happens he became ill and stopped coming, there is always a lag phase between someone stopping, them formally giving up, and letting to someone new. In this case it was nearly 2years. During that time, every conceivable weed, annual and perennial, grew but even more, when it rained great pools of water collected and took days to drain away, because of the hard pan.
The first new Tennant didn't last long, he failed to grow much, things would start OK then fail. Another new Tennant (who knows what he is doing) has taken another two years to break up the hard pan manually by double digging, and incorporating manure, finally it's a good plot again. I know all this because the plot is right next to mine.

 

@Retired good work and good luck with the yellow rattle.


It took me 3 days to do these pots, the largest ones took one day to empty the fuchsias, snap dragons, pot marigolds and Erigeron and pot up the fuchsias and Erigeron. Day 2 I half emptied the pots and planted tulips and hyacinths with polyanthus on top with fresh compost.
The smaller pots had gladioli and Erigeron,so i cleaned up the gladioli and potted up the Erigeron, half emptied the pots and planted tulips and polyanthus with fresh compost.
Scrapped up all of the moss on the driveway and swept it.

 

Hi,

Thank you @Songbird for your encouragement and kind words; I could manage my gardens better if they were level and not on this steep valley side; I can't put anything down without it wanting to head to the valley bottom; whilst logging the big trees I've felled over the years I was very careful to ensure the logs were across the slope in fear of them ending up through the kitchen window. I'm struggling wondering what best to do with this garden; it seems everything I try there's a number of obstacles in the way. Leaving school at the age of 15 I had to work if I wanted to eat; in 1962 choice of career was very limited indeed usually between the pit or mills. Coming from a coal mining family I was straight down the pit; it was hard work and the engineers teaching me could be very rough at times if I was cheeky or did something wrong; I learned so much from these top class engineers not only about mechanical work but life in general; in a deep coal mine you trusted everyone with your life; I owe them all a debt of gratitude. I've also worked in huge mills most now converted into small industrial units; our UK heavy industry is recorded in history books. Hard work still doesn't bother me; I like to keep busy especially learning new things/hobbies.

Thanks so much @Allotment Boy for your very useful information which has put me off my Yellow Rattle plan; I'd plant 6" thick concrete to kill the couch grass but even this wouldn't work; the wet concrete would end up down the valley; perhaps an RAF strike with napalm might help?

I did clear a decent sized section of the garden from couch grass; I tried hand weeding pulling piles of the stuff out but the rhizomes always broke and just regrew again; I then bought a rotavator and went over shredding the lot; yes I agree this can make the couch grass worse but my thinking was rotavating would break up the compacted soil chopping up the rhizomes; it took three or four years but each year I found the couch grass easier to remove now the rhizomes were much shorter also with the soil a lot softer; it did work but it took a lot of time; I still pull out bits of couch grass in the section but can now control it.

I've more recently tried using weedkiller and although it knocks the surface grass over I think it does little to kill the roots. I'd like to work as @NigelJ kindly suggested working with nature not fighting it but I want my gardens as I want them hence all the hard work I put in.

The middle meadow was very dry and powdery as I rotavated it this morning but the top meadow has proved a great deal more difficult; I've been up with the rake but had to give up; the grass has come out as tufts complete with wet soil so trying to bag this up is a waste of time; I'll let it dry out then see if raking will shake the soil clear; usually both medows are very dry so this is new and tormenting me because we still are in a drought with hosepipe ban; I've no intention of giving up though; with Bron passing away the gardens are more important than ever keeping me occupied and fit; out of interest I've mentioned it a number of times I'm built like a stick insect at 6' tall and way only 130lbs; I don't have habits like smoking or alcohol and I don't do drugs; my diet is very basic but good without recourse to ever ordering fast foods; my Prestige pressure cooker has been a friend for decades. Years ago the surgery nurse suggested I put some weight on but I can eat good sized meals and my weight never changes; I just burn energy off; every morning I do 150 personal exercises including touching my toes 30 times; I can stand on one foot at a time for 40 seconds; I don't want to end up a cabbage watching wall to wall sport on TV every day; I can't stand sport at all. I want to see something useful come out of my efforts.

Enough of this rambling; I've been to the tip this afternoon and had a good clear out; I salvaged useful bits from the broken rotavator the rest is now in the recycling skip.

I'm now wandering having considered your information @Allotment Boy whether it's time to let nature take over and simply strim a number of times each year to keep the garden tidy; I'm sure when I die the new owner will immediately turn a lot of the rear garden into a building plot; the garden next door has a four bedroomed house built on it but I'd rather have the garden; there's more in life than money; Bron and I have always been givers and not takers; we've let the neighbours fight it out with showing off. Now I'm on my own I still won't sell the rear garden and I've received letters and offers for it all just with greed in mind.

Thanks @Logan. You're doing a top job with your pots; they'll look wonderful when in full bloom.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Busy afternoon in garden for us. Emptied our roly composter we bought this Spring. Rotted down but contents very wet. Filled a few more large containers in greenhouse ready for planting up. The germinated old seeds so far thats come up are beetroot , kale, loads of green and red cabb plus lettuce feuille de chene..got about 10 of those and loads of artic king lettuce. We planted up just a few of each seedlings in greenhouse containers to see if take and put slug pellets down. Hopeful as they say these lettuce s etc are autumn/winter hardy. As we have only 18 containers in that small greenhouse for our winter experiment , we want to plant each one with a diff winter hardy veg/salad and to keep notes on what works or not. The temp in there was 60f and great not having to keep watering the seedlings . The kitchen back door' stir fry' experiment containers are doing really well, l think because its sheltered. So plan this week is to make up 2 more large containers so we can just go out there and pick baby leaves when making a stir fry. l will have to keep notes to see how well they do in colder months.

 

Brightened up a bit this afternoon so off to the greenhouse, watered as required, noted that Amorphophallus leaves are going yellow and the Polygonatum vietnamicum has also lost its foliage, dahlias still flowering though.
Having cleared the tomatoes out the other week I could get the step ladder in and sort out a few things in the roof area. Step ladder access will be nigh on impossible again when I get everything back in for the winter.