|
|
Post by debbiem on Sept 3, 2008 9:51:15 GMT 1
I'm a bit hasty when it comes to moving plants around, so I've been doing it all Summer with no casualties! But since it does seem so autumnal I decided to move my £50 Photinia to a better place where it wouldn't get so blown about - I thought it would be difficult but it was easy peasy! I hope my buddleia Black Knight isn't the first casualty - I have 2 Buddleias growing in quite a shallow trough that OH cleaved out of the concrete in the courtyard and it's becoming obvious for all sorts of reasons that they're in the wrong place so I decided I'd move the Black Knight as well yesterday After loads of heaving and twisting and cutting roots off with the loppers I realized that the main root had grown into the concrete! By the time I'd got it out I had TWO Black Knights which I've planted and hopefully they'll bounce back! Other plans include moving other things to better places and hopefully getting the paths done. I bought some lovely stepping stones from the 99p shop with lizards on them, really pretty for when OH has prepared the path...it may be a while as he's in the middle of a million unfinished jobs, and we also have the caravan which is the all-consuming thing of the moment.  |
|
|
|
Post by debbiem on Sept 3, 2008 9:57:01 GMT 1
Chickens are good spreader-arounders aren't they?  When I have a bagful of shredded bark, leaves and twigs all I have to do is pour it roghly between the plants and the chickens do the rest. 4P I really hope it's the end of the nettles, well done!  We never got rid of ours....the new people who bought our house, nettles and all were rolling in money and paid to have a whole bank, which bordered the garden on one side, razed of nettles, plants and trees. We drove past and it was like a bad dream for us, seeing what they'd done. But ha nature had the last laugh - during some heavy rain the whole bank collapsed and fell into their conservatory, it was the nettles keeping the whole thing together I suppose. But even so I bet they all grew back! |
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Sept 3, 2008 12:53:06 GMT 1
I'm going to strip out the 2 square beds in front of the greenhouse which have no particular plan to them - various small shrubs, herbs etc. and turn them into rather more formal dahlia beds.
|
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 3, 2008 19:55:00 GMT 1
I'm contemplating planting a couple of shrubs in the flower border...everything is so transient there and I seem to be stuck with a 'summer only' border....maybe a couple of nicely formed shrubs will add structure and continuity, we'll see...I do so love growing my summer flowering annuals...but with the dreadful summers we've been having...so wet and windy, I think I need some plants that are a little more sturdy.
The veg patch is now a nursery bed over-wintering the HPs I grew from seed this year, the campanulas, monardas and lysimachias...once the parsnips and carrots are out of the other end of the veg bed I'm popping in some spring cabbages I think. I've had no time in the garden really lately...always seem to be at work.
|
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Sept 4, 2008 6:46:55 GMT 1
The lower growing Hebes make lovely winter and summer shapes, Cheery.....Prue has some in her garden border which she took as cuttings last year, which this year have already bulked up into attractive mounds. They look very pretty with Lavenders I think, or Heucheras for some contrast, lots of plants actually! Very good at weed suppressing too... I have an idea you already have Hebe but it was just a thought |
|
|
|
Post by bogmyrtle on Sept 4, 2008 9:40:07 GMT 1
Well, we have two fences to replace in the back garden and it really needs to be sorted out. Then we can re-do the two beds which have become straight and overgrown! The back garden needs a sort out. It is looking tired. I have ideas going round in my head, so need to do some planning and more thinking. Dangerous that! I re-shaped the one border this year where the fence has already been replaced and that has looked better - apart from the plants wrecked by the workmen  And that is why I was reluctant to do doo much with the rest of it this year. Having spent this year doing the inside of the house (it will be finished by December - well, that is what we are aiming for) it is time to start the outside but depends on how far the budget will stretch! In the meantime - I dream!!!!! |
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Sept 4, 2008 9:47:48 GMT 1
Myrtle I have something of the reverse.
I need to start on the inside again this winter. I moght even make a start if the weather is lousy this weekend.
|
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 4, 2008 17:05:50 GMT 1
Thanks 4P...I was thinking of getting a few of those 'globe' hebes along with an arboreal heather to plant in the pot in the front garden for the winter...then in the spring when I move flowers in there I can transfer them into the back garden border....I have a yearning for one of the scented viburnums as well...Eve Price?....I know that they can get huge, but with careful pruning ( ) that won't be a problem.... |
|
|
|
Post by emseypop on Sept 4, 2008 17:13:10 GMT 1
My trellis fence is up, the hens will be held back, and when Louis is at nursery I can start making the garden presentable! Maybe even post a few pictures!!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by emseypop on Sept 6, 2008 10:36:48 GMT 1
Flossie and Edna, can squeeze through the trellis!  Ducky and Daisy are too fat, off to get some netting today, hopefully I can find some pond netting locally, otherwise it'll have to be the green fruit netting I know they have in the £1 shop up t'road. |
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Sept 11, 2008 21:55:42 GMT 1
There are rumours that smallest is going to stay at the beach with eldest tomorrow night...for the whole weekend! Coo.........if it happens I am determined, crook knee or not, to make a start/finish the mammoth hedge trimming............it's getting tricky to squeeze past the hedge to get to the orchard so if I don't do it now it will be a really soggy trip each time for the next few weeks.....then it will be a massive bonfire to get rid of all the trimmings. Weather permitting....
|
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Sept 13, 2008 22:21:26 GMT 1
I managed a bit of time in the garden today.....I got really fed up so I nipped out to the little nursery near me and bought some Bluebell, Allium and Hyacinth bulbs as therapy.......he is sooo cheap.....and then noticed he was selling pots of huge dark leaved Dahlias in full bloom for a couple of quid each......so I had to get a couple of them.... I started the hedge trimming but it was so soggy I gave up and weeded the little beds near the conservatory instead. I popped the Dahlias in their pots straight into a little space where they look rather nice, and where they've livened up a fairly finished with bit of herbaceous flowers. I may go back to get some more tomorrow....I really like Dahlias at this time of year - so cheerful. |
|
|
|
Post by madonplants on Sept 13, 2008 22:59:42 GMT 1
I managed a bit of time in the garden today.....I got really fed up so I nipped out to the little nursery near me and bought some Bluebell, Allium and Hyacinth bulbs as therapy.......he is sooo cheap.....and then noticed he was selling pots of huge dark leaved Dahlias in full bloom for a couple of quid each......so I had to get a couple of them.... I started the hedge trimming but it was so soggy I gave up and weeded the little beds near the conservatory instead. I popped the Dahlias in their pots straight into a little space where they look rather nice, and where they've livened up a fairly finished with bit of herbaceous flowers. I may go back to get some more tomorrow....I really like Dahlias at this time of year - so cheerful. That was a good deal, wasn't it? Why leave them in their pots or is that not going to be their final resting place? I tried to do a few things in the garden today, but badly twisted my ankle, coming back from looking at the pond and working out what needed to be done elsewhere. Spent the whole of the match, wow we finally beat them in the league under Rafa, with my feet up, nurofen down my throat and Ibugel on my ankle. It still hurts now!  I will just have to do some weeding tomorrow or get the boys to help me. |
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Sept 14, 2008 10:25:25 GMT 1
I know - coo.....wasn't that a nice feeling....and Robbie Keane finally did something right too...  Sorry about your ankle Keith. Hope it's not too bad this morning. I'm leaving the Dahlias in their pots so I can oik them out before the frosts and put some bulb pots in their place. Hopefully they'll overwinter in the GH OK in a sand filled crate. It does get sooo bitterly cold here so I have to look after things like that. I learned my lesson when I lost loads of plants one winter by just leaving them in the ground and hoping for the best. Besides we have such wet winters these days, I think that's a death sentence for tender plants. I've just done a bit more weeding in the flower garden. Where I weed killed seems to have done a good job this time round, so hopefully I'll have time to lay the rest of it out and put the bulbs in there before the weather gets too bad. I was a bit grumpy yesterday cos my sister's horse is round the side of Mum's barn to graze at the moment so my lovely sis has put MILES of electric fencing ALL round my garden (so the horse can get back to his stable)...which means I can't empty any barrows in the ditches or get to anywhere to strim...grr........I wanted to get a good lot of it strimmed while it wasn't raining....they're ALL agin me........(feels like sometimes...) Stilll I just nipped OH round to the garage and we popped into a building job he's been working on and I found two wooden pallets (for school's wildlife tower) and a really beautiful, old chimney pot in the skip there.....they're at home now! It's shocking what people throw away.........so I've cheered up now!  |
|
|
|
Post by madonplants on Sept 14, 2008 15:26:52 GMT 1
I know - coo.....wasn't that a nice feeling....and Robbie Keane finally did something right too... Sorry about your ankle Keith. Hope it's not too bad this morning. I'm leaving the Dahlias in their pots so I can oik them out before the frosts and put some bulb pots in their place. Hopefully they'll overwinter in the GH OK in a sand filled crate. It does get sooo bitterly cold here so I have to look after things like that. I learned my lesson when I lost loads of plants one winter by just leaving them in the ground and hoping for the best. Besides we have such wet winters these days, I think that's a death sentence for tender plants. I've just done a bit more weeding in the flower garden. Where I weed killed seems to have done a good job this time round, so hopefully I'll have time to lay the rest of it out and put the bulbs in there before the weather gets too bad. I was a bit grumpy yesterday cos my sister's horse is round the side of Mum's barn to graze at the moment so my lovely sis has put MILES of electric fencing ALL round my garden (so the horse can get back to his stable)...which means I can't empty any barrows in the ditches or get to anywhere to strim...grr........I wanted to get a good lot of it strimmed while it wasn't raining....they're ALL agin me........(feels like sometimes...) Stilll I just nipped OH round to the garage and we popped into a building job he's been working on and I found two wooden pallets (for school's wildlife tower) and a really beautiful, old chimney pot in the skip there.....they're at home now! It's shocking what people throw away.........so I've cheered up now! That was a good find, I wish I could find a chimney pot in a skip, would do my Banana this winter. They are ever so expensive, new or secondhand, aren't they. After some housework and Jennifer cutting my hair, I'm just having a quick snack, while doing my light, before going outside and to try and do some weeding. I also need to reduce the amount of oxygenating weed in the pond. My ankle isn't toooo bad this morning and the boys are feeling a bit bored, so they can help me as well. |
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Sept 15, 2008 7:23:57 GMT 1
It was such a nice day yesterday and I got a fair bit done in the flower garden - cleared around the Ceanothos and Roses where the archway rotted away and put up some temporary tripods with some hazels I coppiced last Autumn. I pulled three vast piles of nettles out which are sitting on plastic sheets since I can't dump them in the ditches atm. The nettles roots are nasty little blighters - really tenacious but I think I've got the main thick ones out now so hopefully if I double dig that area it will slow them down a bit.....
|
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Sept 19, 2008 16:01:27 GMT 1
Good grief! While I was at work this morning my OH cut and laid a big piece of slate as a path into the flower garden and made a nice brick edging to it as well.......now I can get on with digging the rest of it and maybe even get it finished in time to plant it up with bulbs and all the bits and pieces I've had in crates for years waiting for a space......I'm gobsmacked (but in a grateful sort of way...) My sister's horse is out of the garden again for a while, and the electric fencing has gone so I can get rid of all the piles of rubbish everywhere and get the huge pile of bark chippings moved from Mum's garden into the flower garden, clear the borders and PLANT! Pleeeease let the weather be good...it would be so nice to get ONE bit of my garden done. Oh. I forgot..I have to cut down all the hedge around the flower bit too.......... |
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Nov 22, 2008 8:42:51 GMT 1
I was laying awake in the dark first thing this morning thinking about my garden plans (again). I really am going to try and get the new bit of the vegetable garden with all the nettle roots cleared and dug before Christmas but I have been slightly bothered about the area directly behind the polytunnel as it is really riddles with massive nettle roots and , I feel, a bit beyond me and my trusty fork..... So this morning I decided to plead with my BiL for a few of the many slabs (he hasn't bought them, they come out of houses he's cleared for doing up) he has stacked about the place so I can lay a small path along the back and have a gated access for the wheelbarrow there instead. I still have to erect the trellis panels all along the top edge too. I would love to lay a slab path behind that too, to try and keep the grass from encroaching too much. Ho hum........what are the chances of me achieving this do you think? Is anyone about to even read this........?
|
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Nov 22, 2008 8:49:32 GMT 1
I think it's a good idea...however...BEWARE OF SLABMANIA! it's a kind of dementia people get where they become severely addicted to vast areas of slabbage....I think you'll be immune as you're a girl. ooh I hope none of the chaps reads this..... |
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Nov 22, 2008 9:01:01 GMT 1
I think it's a good idea...however...BEWARE OF SLABMANIA! it's a kind of dementia people get where they become severely addicted to vast areas of slabbage....I think you'll be immune as you're a girl. ooh I hope none of the chaps reads this..... I hope they do! I'm still allegedly a girl (type) but I would love a nice lorry load of slabs to appear in the yard..........I have lots of places I want to put them....paths and paved areas would improve my garden no end..although not my back! :  It grieves me terrible to see this huge stack of slabs just sitting there...and I can't even 'borrow' any cos I bet my BiL knows exactly how many there are! ;D |
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Nov 22, 2008 16:30:14 GMT 1
My knee and back hurt just looking at the nettle ridden ground I wanted to tackle so I decided to clear the raised bed between the GH and PT instead and try and get rid of the nettles that have grown all over the path.....by heck it was hard work but I've pulled up yards of root and weeded and dug over the raised bed - Hilda loved it too At least that bit is looking reasonably tidy now (for me). And, as mentioned on the BB, I picked up all the mouldy apples laying about under the trees. There were hundreds of them and they are just feeding the rats really.......I had to dump them all in the ditch up the top of the garden though but there are always rats in there anyway...there is a much better view out of the window now. It always winds me up all winter if I can't get that bit of the garden tidyish.... I feel bad about wasting so many apples but I just couldn't eat any more! I've been giving them away by the bagful for weeks....maybe if I get time to prune those two trees really hard this winter we will have a more managable crop next summer....they are both far too tall now..ho hum. just another thing on my never ending list.... |
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Nov 30, 2008 11:33:41 GMT 1
It's barely light, it's raining and it's far too cold and wet to dig so I am going to gather up all my unplanted bulbs, a load of clay pots and a bag of compost and get them all sorted this morning. I shall be at the potting table by the back door in the dry so after I've done that I shall try and sort all the clutter I've accumulated there too...it's a shocking mess!
|
|
|
|
Post by 4pygmies on Nov 30, 2008 14:08:32 GMT 1
It's barely light, it's raining and it's far too cold and wet to dig so I am going to gather up all my unplanted bulbs, a load of clay pots and a bag of compost and get them all sorted this morning. I shall be at the potting table by the back door in the dry so after I've done that I shall try and sort all the clutter I've accumulated there too...it's a shocking mess! Gosh...where are you all? I wonder how many of you are gardening? I have been really diligent this morning - I potted up 12 big pots with red Tulips, 2 different lots of dark purple Tulips, some lovely Daffodils I haven't grown before called Sun Disc and some Freesias, the same type in each pot, not all jumbled up. Then I went out and cleared some areas of the flower garden and sank the pots into the ground in the bits I've managed to get looking reasonable (for me). Hopefully I will have a bit of brightness in the general mess next Spring..... I had a go at laying a bit more path but it was far too wet. OH seems to have lost interest in laying the rest...typical! Now I am off to work for a couple of hours......... |
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Dec 1, 2008 14:41:00 GMT 1
I managed 5 minutes in the greenhouse just to check it all out. I will give it a more thorough check next week.
I might have planted my tuips too soon. Hope they'll be OK. Apparently they can suffer Tulip fire if planted too early. Did mine in mid October.
|
|
|
|
Post by bogmyrtle on Dec 8, 2008 13:58:22 GMT 1
It's barely light, it's raining and it's far too cold and wet to dig so I am going to gather up all my unplanted bulbs, a load of clay pots and a bag of compost and get them all sorted this morning. I shall be at the potting table by the back door in the dry so after I've done that I shall try and sort all the clutter I've accumulated there too...it's a shocking mess! Gosh...where are you all? I wonder how many of you are gardening? I have been really diligent this morning - I potted up 12 big pots with red Tulips, 2 different lots of dark purple Tulips, some lovely Daffodils I haven't grown before called Sun Disc and some Freesias, the same type in each pot, not all jumbled up. Then I went out and cleared some areas of the flower garden and sank the pots into the ground in the bits I've managed to get looking reasonable (for me). Hopefully I will have a bit of brightness in the general mess next Spring..... I had a go at laying a bit more path but it was far too wet. OH seems to have lost interest in laying the rest...typical! Now I am off to work for a couple of hours......... I took a leaf out of your book 4pygmies and planted my tulips in tubs and dotted them around the garden yesterday! Not sunken more heavily resting! Ran out of compost for the last variety, will sort them the weekend. |
|
And that is why I was reluctant to do doo much with the rest of it this year. 
I will just have to do some weeding tomorrow or get the boys to help me.
Sorry about your ankle Keith. Hope it's not too bad this morning. I'm leaving the Dahlias in their pots so I can oik them out before the frosts and put some bulb pots in their place. Hopefully they'll overwinter in the GH OK in a sand filled crate. It does get sooo bitterly cold here so I have to look after things like that. I learned my lesson when I lost loads of plants one winter by just leaving them in the ground and hoping for the best. Besides we have such wet winters these days, I think that's a death sentence for tender plants.