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Post by sweetleaf on Aug 22, 2007 10:50:29 GMT 1
OH and I are getting close to having our first GH - it won't be huge but it'll so be used!!!!Not like our last one where we lived before - that was a big one we inherited with the house but in the end the chickens took it over and that was that.  They enjoyed it more than we did, it was always full of weeds and beasties, pointless!!!!!!  Keep an eye on Freecycle Debbie they often offer GH`s on there! |
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Post by debbiem on Aug 22, 2007 10:55:06 GMT 1
Oh wow, really? Thanks SL!  |
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Aug 27, 2007 18:29:34 GMT 1
I DID SOME GARDENING TODAY! ;D I'd had problems with the box balls in the front garden...the outer leaves looked scorched and I thought this was because the position was too hot (surrounding gravel acting as a heat sink?) Anyway, I moved the gravel into a big heap...and dug up the box (1 large, 2 small) and I discovered why they were doing so badly...the soil is absolutely sodden! very, very wet ! I popped the box balls in a big trug and decided to plant one of the papyrus plants in their place. Dug a MINORMOUS hole...put in some gravel and organic matter, planted the papyrus and backfilled...looks really good...it'll live or it won't..I'll have to give it some winter protection, but we'll just have to wait and see if it likes it.... In the back garden I moved the trachycarpus fortunei to the front, centre of the border...we have an humilis in there as well..towards the front on the left...these two plants will form the backbone of the 'hot' end of the border...with heleniums, gazanias, rudbeckias and other 'hot' coloured flowers...plan to move the musa sikkimensis into that area of the border too... Moved the alchemila mollis as it was crowding out my two purple euphorbias....it's now in the right hand side of the border where it's lovely light green foliage will act as a backdrop to the 'Cool' side of the flower bed...with a geranium (blue, can't remember which one) agistache, hyssop, monarda, primula capita and vialii and astrantia 'roma'.... I put the rescued box balls at either end of the border and in the middle for now...just to se if they recover..the ground's much better drained there. what a lovely afternoon....AND I washed some pots... ;D |
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Post by 4pygmies on Aug 27, 2007 21:08:34 GMT 1
Lovely...I did a bit of weeding yesterday before it got too hot. I pulled a teeteringly full barrow load of nettles out of smallest's little flower bed...I only did 3 weeks ago.........sooo depressing. Do I hate nettles more than rats? Hum...........nah! I retreated to the conservatory today. I like working in there now it's been cleaned up a bit. The floor sweeps up easily too!
Hope your balls get better Cheery ;D
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Post by sweetleaf on Aug 27, 2007 21:13:03 GMT 1
I planted up all my Homebase bargains and again my garden proved its Tardis-like character, it swallowed them up and theres still room for more, I love my garden. |
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Post by 4pygmies on Aug 27, 2007 21:19:42 GMT 1
I don't know how you manage it really! |
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 1, 2007 6:51:38 GMT 1
Smallest and I walked up the garden yesterday to pick apples. One of my unknown apple trees has started to drop fruit so I went to get it before the rodents move in.... we had our first conference pears. I love them crunchy, rock solid and straight off the tree....yum. We filled Cheery's trug (present from Barnsdale  ) with bright red fruit., some for us, some for the goats. OH took down a knackered Elder behind the PT last weekend which has opened up my garden amazingly. As I stood up the top and looked back, sadly all I could see was a forest of nettles ....again......this means my Job Of the Weekend is to get the mighty strimmer out and raze them all....I don't enjoy this as I am slightly too short for the machine and have to stand on tiptoe in my wellies. Gets a bit uncomfortable after a while..... I'm also trying to decide whether to take down the mixed hedge at the end of my veggie garden and extend it another 20'. The hedge is always overgrown but the shrubs are elsewhere in the garden so I'm not taking anything from the wildlife that use it. I really should be able to be nearly self sufficient in vegetables with the amount of space I have - it's just the lack of time and bad back which gives me pause.....do I really want another area to try and keep weed free? I can't cope with the cultivated bits I've got. I feel guilty about not growing enough though....I wish my OH was interested..it must be lovely to share a garden (and the work ;D). If I do enlarge it, I shall have to make another lot of fencing too. Decisions, decisions..... I have a lovely picture in my head of a row of wooden arches along the new boundary - all planted up with Clematis, thornless Blackberries and Tayberries and my Lady Boothby fuchsias (which are still in pots) ....tempting, it is....... |
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Post by emseypop on Sept 1, 2007 6:58:42 GMT 1
I dont know what to say 4p, your idea does sound lovely, but don't put too much pressure on yourself. It sounds like you could do with a pair of stilts for your strimming, not the circus type, that would be silly. The 2 cups on a piece of string type. |
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 1, 2007 7:05:42 GMT 1
Can you imagine the damage I could do strimming on stilts?? I might have to incorporate your brilliant idea for new gardening aids for short people into the FATBAGS catalogue!!
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Post by emseypop on Sept 1, 2007 7:11:51 GMT 1
good idea! Did you see 'we love rouge traders' this week. OH loves that programe so I watched it with him. You should have seen the landscape gardeners on there! One was cutting grass with a hedge trimmer and one had his kids helping him and a 'mate' who kept stopping to swig larger, one of the kids was swinging a pickaxe about wildly while 'shemus' was useing a chainsaw on a fruit tree and larger man was rotavating the grass all in a 4ft area! Crazy |
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 1, 2007 7:16:10 GMT 1
Crunchies! I'm glad I didn't watch it! I would have been shouting at the telly My OH likes that programme too. |
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 2, 2007 18:56:58 GMT 1
Today we harvested the last cabbage, using nemaslug and the netting was a roaring success. No slug, snail OR caterpillar damage....  This was the first time I'd grown cabbages successfully so I'm reet proud. We only have carrots and a few herbs in the veg patch now...we plan to add lots of compost & manure in the autumn, we'll dig it all over again in the spring before planting. Fantastic. |
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Post by plocket on Sept 4, 2007 14:39:08 GMT 1
I think I'm going to give up on vegetables. Mine have been so awful this year. I might stick with tomatoes because they've been reasonable but everything else has been a disaster. The mini leeks look like chives; the carrots were munched by something but a few have hung on in there and might be harvestable soon; the courgettes were pretty good I guess so I might do them again; the lettuce were basically slug fodder - and I can't even remember what other disasters we've had!
Still the garden's looking nice ;D
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 5, 2007 13:45:46 GMT 1
Don't give up Plocket! I've been growing veggies most of my life and I've had the worst year I can remember too - pathetic carrots, hardly any peas, small garlic, broad beans going old and tough as soon as they got big enough to eat, everything going mouldy....the only good thing really is that we haven't had blight! The onions were ok too...but everything that normally grows well for me here has been a struggle......there's always next year!
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Post by debbiem on Sept 5, 2007 14:33:52 GMT 1
My daughter brought home two tomato plants from school at the end of term. The tomatoes grew, and we all got excited, then they went mottled and ended up brown, crustyish and wasted. Is this a weather thing?  |
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Post by plocket on Sept 5, 2007 14:37:16 GMT 1
I'm not giving up really, it's just a bit depressing when you can only grow a limited amount of stuff (a very limited amount!!!) and then it collapses in a heap. I sure will try again next year - I'm not a quitter! ;D
I don't know whether it's the weather or what. All I know is it's been a crap year. We've got a pumpkin though, which is a first for us - ours rotted on the plant last year.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 6, 2007 19:08:54 GMT 1
I went into the GH today...fighting my way past tomato, pepper and cucumber plants....to see what's happening with my sweet william, wallflower and bellis seedlings....the bellis were COVERED in greenfly YUK! I had to take everything out of the GH...pot up the healthy (un-infested) plants spray the ones I could rescue with organic anti-bug stuff....ended up chucking quite a lot away...less to pass on to friends, still got lots left tho. |
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Post by emseypop on Sept 6, 2007 19:19:11 GMT 1
What a shame cheery, the seelings you gave me are doing well, can't wait to get them into planters. Glad you managed to save some tho  |
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Post by debbiem on Sept 7, 2007 18:44:25 GMT 1
I managed to plant out ten tiny beech trees yesterday - my garden's hardly Kew Gardens in size but I think they'll all do well! |
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Post by alicat on Sept 7, 2007 22:40:04 GMT 1
I think I'm going to give up on vegetables. Mine have been so awful this year. I might stick with tomatoes because they've been reasonable but everything else has been a disaster. The mini leeks look like chives; the carrots were munched by something but a few have hung on in there and might be harvestable soon; the courgettes were pretty good I guess so I might do them again; the lettuce were basically slug fodder - and I can't even remember what other disasters we've had! Still the garden's looking nice ;D Hi Plocket It's been our first proper year this year growing Veg. - We have dabbled in the past with beans and so on but not been too worried if we had a crop or not. For us it has also been a bit of a failure.  Personally I think this is due to the weather along with other things. I'm not giving up though. And I can't wait for next year to try again ;D. ( not wishing my life away - honest.) Saying that there are veg that we can plant now to carry us through, I'm looking into this now. I'm not sure if I will grow anything edible or grow green manure.  As 4P says there is always next year. |
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Post by emseypop on Sept 8, 2007 13:58:44 GMT 1
even Monty Don was banging on about the poor veg crop this year, on GW last night, he commiserated with people who were growing veg for the first time this year (thats me and Debi too) Don't give up!
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Post by plocket on Sept 8, 2007 18:18:06 GMT 1
Well I'm glad I'm not the only one ;D Even our apple tree (which is tiny!) has only produced two apples (we had 16 last year I think!) - but they do look gorgeous. Which reminds me, does anyone know how I'm supposed to tell when to harvest the apples? Which of course is going to take me ages and I might have to arrange for some poor Serbian to come and assist with bringing in the crop. Do you think I've enough to make calvados? ;D ;D ;D Anyway more news is that I've started our first batch of Damson gin. Ok so the damsons weren't from my garden but it's gardening related-ish!!! We mowed the grass today and I saw two little frogs, but it's all looking a bit rampant at the moment. I love this time of year - when most of the plants have reached or past their best, the garden is at it's fullest, and soon the plants will start to die back ready for the winter. Nature's grand |
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 9, 2007 19:08:16 GMT 1
Well this morning OH sieved one side of the colpo bin...got 4 big bin bags full and it all went on the vegetable patch...it looks fantastic!
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 9, 2007 19:15:01 GMT 1
Plocket, if you hold one of your apples in your hand and slightly twist it, and it comes off easily - it's ready to eat!
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Post by plocket on Sept 10, 2007 11:40:56 GMT 1
Cheers 4P!!! ;D
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) with bright red fruit., some for us, some for the goats. 
Personally I think this is due to the weather along with other things. I'm not giving up though. 