What are we doing in the garden 2025

I've been working on enlarging and tidying my raspberry bed. Dug up the rhubarb which was getting swamped in the corner and asked OH to hit in two 5ft high plastic coated steel posts along the edge of the widened path. Then I tied two rows of string between the raspberries, fixing them to the new posts one side and the trellis on the shed the other. Hopefully that will keep the raspberries upright next year and easier to pick. I think it was either @pete or @KT53 who advised me to do that - thanks guys.

They are an autumn variety called Polka, started picking them late July and still picking enough for two of us every other day or so. It's not a large bed either. Really pleased. I've just got to spread the bark chippings over the widened path tomorrow.

 

Seed gathering and hooked up the mains gas to the greenhouse heater. Got the pilot light lit and ready to keep frost out. And added some grow lighting. I only have three plants left in there but want the Red Reaper chilies to ripen. The light will go on for 3 hours at dusk to extend the day length to 15 hours.

 

Are you already getting frost @CanadianLori ?

 

We're expecting it tonight or tomorrow night. I may be wasting my time but I'm impetuously proactive

 

Crikey @CanadianLori. No frosts here for a while and we're barely going below double figures for the next week.

OH has been helping me plant an elm and 3 magnolias. The soil is good, deep, fertile loam but drizabone at the mo so quite hard to clear the grass and weeds (ex meadow) and then dig decent holes. OH does that bit then I improve the soil, plant and water whilst talking to them about enjoying their new home and growing.

Ran out of time to pot on some grass seedlings so will do those on Thursday as OH and I are out all day tomorrow.

Good luck with sorting out the new greenhouse and all it involves @shiney and I hope you get your jobs done before the frosts @fairygirl

 

Hi,

We had our first ice a week ago when I went out early to do the shopping; the car windscreen was iced up. I hope we have another reasonably mild winter. The last time we had lots of snow my neighbour at the head of the cul de sac dug the street out with his JCB only for some neighbours to complain that the road was now slippery; some people just can't be pleased.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Planted some more polyanthus in the borders and a bit of weeding around the existing plants.

 

Hi,

I've had about two weeks of midges in the bungalow tormenting me; not lots of them at once but as I flattened one another quickly replaced it; I kept coming out in itchy bumps. Usually it's just the odd midge so this is different with one after another; one morning I had a midge strolling across the top of my glasses frame as if it was on a cat walk.

Has anyone else suffered this?

Kind regards, Col.

 

We've already had about 5 frosts, and this is the time they usually start, so they were a bit earlier. Very light though. I'm hoping we get a proper winter though - not this milder stuff. It just means more rain here rather than snow.
If you clear snow on hard surfaces @Retired , it has to have salt/grit put down, otherwise, you get some melt, and then freezing/ice, so I'd be annoyed if roads were scraped and just left, especially if large drifts of snow were then left at the edges to thaw, then run/freeze. A neighbour decided to clear people's paths without asking, a few years ago, and then just left them. Of course, it just froze a few hours later, leaving a skating rink for anyone coming to the door -postie etc. It's far easier to walk on snow than ice, so I wasn't amused.
The forecast is very mild for the current week, so if I get a dry enough spell, I'll do the concrete. I no longer buy all the separate ingredients as it's too much for my back to mix them these days. 50 years of back problems finally catching up!
Midges are a common occurrence here, but I'm not bothered by them [which is lucky!] so are you sure that's what they are? Only the females bite...
Shrubs are an easier option for lower maintenance.
I didn't do much yesterday. It finally cleared up early afternoon, but I had daughter coming over so I was cooking/baking etc, so just minor stuff. Today is to be damp again, so I'll see if it's worth doing anything. Nothing important 'actual garden wise' needing doing anyway other than checking on any damage or stems/branches needing removing.

 

Hi,

Thanks @fairygirl I'd much rather my neighbour break me out of prison by clearing the deep snow using his JCB; at least then I can drive and go about my normal business. Compacted snow having been driven over and walked over quickly turns treacherous especially if the sun appears then it freezes at night. It's very steep here on the valley side where I live; two years after buying our new Skoda Yeti "Tyres on the drive" now Halfords visited and replaced the standard tires with Michelin all season tyres; from the lane up to my bungalow isn't cleared of snow or gritted by the council so it's a steep ice road usually with lots of abandoned vehicles. Strangely the complaining neighbours were happy to go out in their car?

They certainly look like midges @fairygirl but I'm no expert; the things bite and bring up itchy bumps but it's unusual this year because I've only seen one at a time in each room; in the garden it's common to see clouds of them; perhaps they hitch a ride when I've been in the garden where I've often been lately.

It's forecast dry here so I'll make the most of it and rake over where I rotavated yesterday; yes I agree; shrubs will be better for less maintenance and I'm considering turning the meadows over to shrubs; rotavating twice a year on the steep garden isn't getting any easier and it's disappointing when the weather destroys the wildflowers; at the end of the growing season I go over with the strimmer then the mower and rotavate the lot in; wildflowers prefer poor soil but amazingly they grow very well here in rich soil. If I don't rotavate then the meadows just return to tall grass and I've even tried Yellow Rattle; by the time the yellow rattle grows enough to do any good it all starts over again. This year due to prolonged rare drought the wildflowers were very poor indeed but the grass was waist high and seeding again; it's lovely to see the meadows in full bloom but cost is high when the meadows get destroyed. I believe we still have an hosepipe ban in place.

It's very dull this morning with 15C forecast; time now to get off my backside and do something useful; daylight hours are quickly shortening.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Do you not have salt/grit bins at the side of road @Retired ? They're common here. It just requires people to take couple of shovelfulls - a small bucket will suffice, and spread it at the front of their house. Job done - the whole road would soon be sorted out well enough to keep traffic moving. Doesn't take a lot of salt either, if you know how to do it properly. I've done it many times if the gritters are too busy on the main roads to get to the side roads.
I had a conversation with someone I used to work with about it. She complained about the hill from their properties leading to the main road, and how the council never salted it. I said to her - 'Why aren't residents going out and just spreading a shovel full or two, especially at the foot of the slope?' She looked baffled. It's not as if there was only a few folk living there, and they certainly weren't all old or disabled, so there was no excuse. I said 'That's what the grit bins are for'. Another blank look. Always someone else's job.

 

Hi,

Salt/grit bins are few and far between here @fairygirl. I can't expect my neighbours to do something manual; they have gardeners; window cleaners and house cleaners etc; manul work is beneath them; a number do lots of their own work but a lot don't. I look after my own paths and steps and the car has the all season tyres fitted.

We had expensive CCTV installed and upgraded to highest spec two years ago; it's the only CCTV on the street but neighbours are more than happy to take full advange of it; police have been here twice obtaining footage due to personal things with neighbours so it's to their advantage and nothing related to us. Quite a while ago whilst I was washing the car a police officer came to me asking if I'd seen anything regarding a problem with a neighbour; these neighbours had solar panels installed and later experienced water ingress; they contacted a roofer who arrived in a big white van; this roofer quoted a price for repair but three quotes were required for the insurance company so he dropped his price by £200 but still three quotes were needed; he became agitated and said he wanted £200 for his visit; they refused to pay so he departed in an angry manner; a minute later they had a phone call from the roofer saying if they didn't pay he would send someone round so he was threatening physical violence.

The white van had stopped directly across from our bungalow and on camera the driver could be seen on his mobile phone; the officer took mobile phone images; we ran the footage a few times but couldn't recognize the van reg number but the officer said he had enough and thanked us. I then had an idea; I phoned the CCTV company who installed the cameras explaining what had occurred; very quickly they phoned back with the reg number which I passed on to the grateful officer.

I then visited the neighbours explaining the police now had evidence; these ungrateful miserable neighbours struggled to say thank you and to this day I've not heard anything else. This round here is modern society; selfish in the extreme.

Moving here 38 years ago we quickly had next door neighbour trouble; their two lads were round climbing our trees so I politely asked them to stop and to leave our property; the father and mother were the nastiest pair imaginable; the husband yelled at me saying the kids come round anytime they liked and he told them to remain on our property; once again I told them to leave and they did; then it got an whole lot worse this nasty pair spent the next 30 years trying to drive us out until I called in the police; it's a long story but involved them harrassing us; the police officer told us they can't do anything regarding domestic problems but this is regarded as harrassment and it was the nasty wife involved; he told her if the problem persisted she would be arrested. The nasty husband passed away about 18 months ago but after the police visit things improved although the nasty wife still isn't allowed on our property.

A month ago the son living with her now grown into a decent guy brought me a parcel wrongly delivered and I thanked him.



I said to him whilst you're here have you considered removing the overhanging tree at the top of your mothers garden; he said yes but access is too bad; he's at the top of this tree every year cutting off the new growth and every year I'm visiting the tip to dispose of branches on my side. I offered to pull back a section of my fence and fell the tree logging it as long as he got rid of it; he welcomed the idea but said his mother's on holiday; I've not heard anything since. We suffered years of abuse regarding our own trees and it's well documented on this forum the number of huge trees I've removed together with an 88' conifer hedge.

This nasty neighbour in her head believes it's all our fault even though we've tried to be good neighbours. I'm not bothered either way about the tree

This isn't a cheap location @fairygirl but we have a very mixed selection of neighbours; I keep saying we when now it should be me/I due to Bron passing away.

Got to go.

Kind regards, Col.

 

@Retired I think part of your problem with the wildflower meadows is rotovating them a couple of times a year. If you look at wildflower meadows elsewhere they are either grazed or cut for hay in summer and otherwise left alone. Rather than rotovating I would simply mow the grass once or twice a year leave to dry and then rake the mowings off and either compost and use elsewhere or dump them out of the way.

 

Planted some more polyanthus in the borders, when i dug the holes i filled the holes with compost and weeded the rest of the existing polyanthus. Much the same as yesterday but got a lot to plant, it's surprising how long it takes.

 

Hi,

Many thanks @NigelJ for your useful suggestion; it's appreciated.

My meadows are in my large rear garden where they aren't grazed or cut for hay making. I worked incredibly hard to clear huge hedges; very tall trees; over 30 of them together with digging out stumps and many roots. There was a lot of grass and I bought an Hyundai petrol rotavator hoping to make light work of the grass; the rotavator which wasn't the cheapest simply bounced off the grass. I spent many hours turning the grass over using a garden spade.

The next sprigtime I tried using the rotavator again only for the same result; I had to dig over again breaking up the grass sods; a job I never want to do again hence I won't allow the grass to take over or I'll be back to the starting point.

Here's the middle of the garden with over 30 trees up to 80' tall. The top of the garden can be seen on the right being grass in front of a huge double hedge.

Here's the huge double hedge with couch grass to the front. Removing the trees and this double hedge plus an 8' tall 88' long conifer hedge down the side of the garden using basic hand tools was incredibly hard work done entirely on my own.

Rotavating each springtime then raking and broadcasting new wildflower seeds makes everything start from scratch but by the end of the season the grass is already taking over.

One benefit of rotavating twice is when I start the meadows off in springtime I can ignore them whilst they grow for months then in Autumn I rotavate again and forget them until springtime. I only have to work hard twice yearly instead of having to cut the grass when growing on a regular basis; whatever I do it's hard work due to the steepness of the garden.

I wanted to create something special for my wonderful wife Bron creating the top meadow about 8 years ago but sadly Bron passed away in March this year; I don't want to let the garden revert to being neglected so in her memory I'll carry on as long as I can but admit with each passing year it's becoming harder.

The story behind creating the meadows is one day we drove as usual through Parson's Cross council estate to access Meadowhall Shopping Center it being a short cut; a number of the council houses had been demolished but to our amazement we saw the most beautiful display of wildflowers in full bloom where two houses had been removed; it was like an oasis in a very rough area and we wanted to copy the wildflowers.

I don't mind the hard work involved; I'm used to doing it but I definitely don't want the grass to become established again.

Today I thought I'll try a different approach; I can rotavate once again but instead of leaving the soil bare I've spent £16.58 at Meadowmania and bought 10g of Yellow Rattle; I'll broadcast these seeds so they'll get a good start for next springtime? This means I won't be able to rotavate next springtime but I'll see what happens.

This morning I raked and tidied the section of garden I rotavated yesterday; it now looks very neat ready for planting shrubs.


Rotavated yesterday and raked this morning; the rake did a first class job of weeding where the rotavator couldn't be used.

This afternoon I set about the side garden which was untidy with unwanted growth;


The side garden looking untidy.


Almost finished rotavating when my lightweight rotavator died; it died suddenly indicating an electrical fault but I think it's more serious; it's lost compression so it means an engine strip down to find the fault; being a mechanical engineer I can sort it out but it's another job I didn't want. My big heavy Howard rotavator is up the garden in the hut and much too heavy to get down to the side garden; these lightweight rotavators are not up to decent work and this one's had very little use.


Side garden now also rotavated and raked looking much neater; I need to sort out what to do with this before the weeds take over again. It's a constant fight as all gardeners know keeping nature at bay.

It's been a cold day here in the breeze; we'll soon be in winter again but I think I'm on top of all the heavy work at last. Planting is easy and enjoyable once the ground is prepared.

I'm not a gardening expert just making it up as I go along hoping I select suitable plants and shrubs; I'm learning all the time.

Kind regards, Col.