Re: What have you done in the garden today?

by Dandelion 20th June 2012, 8:09 pm

I haven't tried drying weeds - we never seem to get enough dry weather! The only weeds I drown are creeping buttercup, enchanter's nightshade and the occasional dandelion root - by 'drowning' I really mean 'Forgetting' as they stay in their bin for most of the summer, and really honk by the time I get round to draining and composting them. I've never had problems with them growing from the compost (but am probably not too popular with the neighbours!) I use an old plastic bin (it may have been an Ikea rubbish bin in a previous life) with a large plastic flowerpot saucer on top, and it seems to do the job.

by Kristy lee 22nd June 2012, 1:36 am

our garden is doing some odd things atm. We have our citrus, oranges, madarines, lemon, limes. Pumpkins are taking over the yard. lettuce, sweet potato, leeks etc. The odd thing is we are still getting passionfruit, which has not stopped producing fruit allll year. Strawberries aren't due till about August and they are giving us some delicious fruit. Feels strange too eat them cos it is so cold here

by Dandelion 23rd June 2012, 8:21 pm

Talking of fruit, the tayberries are reddening up, so I thought I had better net the berries. Probably because of the dry spring, the plant hasn't grown as much as normal, so the berries are quite low down - just at chicken height in fact. I spent some time arranging some mesh shelves Mr D had scavenged around the plant, fixing them in place with canes. It looked quite chicken proof - until the black hen suddenly appeared on the other side of the mesh! She had found a way of getting round. I think they deserve a few of the berries: I just want to have some myself!!

by freebird 24th June 2012, 9:49 am

I picked my 12th strawberry yesterday - a beautiful big red job, that the snails couldn't reach and the birds couldn't either (that is, 12th berry off of twice as many plants!). Popped it into the container that had the picked raspberries in and put it on the path behind me. Stepped out of the strawberry patch, got my foot caught in the netting, knocked over the container and was oh, so careful not to tread on the berries. But the perfect strawberry was crushed underfoot.

Some things just aren't meant to be, are they.

by Dandelion 24th June 2012, 4:53 pm

by Dandelion 25th June 2012, 10:09 pm

I looked sadly at my broad beans today, which are beginning to resemble one of those 'how not to do it' photographs you see. Not only are they smothered in blackfly (despite several sprayings of derris and then soap) but they also have chocolate spot virus. I think it's the alternate hot /cold and wet weather. I think I'll have to dry the plants when the beans have been harvested, and burn them rather than composting.

by freebird 25th June 2012, 11:22 pm

Dandelion wrote:I looked sadly at my broad beans today, which are beginning to resemble one of those 'how not to do it' photographs you see.

Oh what a shame. I can sympathise as last year I lost my entire crop to blackfly - actually killed the plants the infestation was so bad. I watched Friday's Gardener's World on the iplayer tonight, and had a bit of a shout at Monty Don. He said if you've got blackfly on your broad beans, not to worry they won't do any harm and just pinch out the tips. Hmm. He's obviously been very lucky.

Hate to rub it in, D, but I picked my first few broad beans this morning.

by Chilli-head 15th July 2012, 8:22 pm

Sawed down my apricot tree this morning Sad

. It was obviously looking ill, and on sawing it down it became obvious that it had a lot of rot running through it. Waste not want not though, it is now reduced to a log pile and a sack of woodchip for the allotment paths.

In its place I plan to plant another vine, probably seyval blanc, for winemaking. Looking forward to making Chateaux Chilli-Head !

by Chilli-head 22nd July 2012, 9:15 pm

Tidied up a bit. Took out the things that were finished (peas, salads) and weeded to reduce competition and let in as much light as possible to what is left. Went to the allotment and picked the last of the strawberries. Noticed that the potatoes have blight - sadly inevitable with the weather. Didn't have time to do anything with them, but hoping that it might just be early blight. with its less catastrophic consequences. It will be obvious in a day or two.

At least my carrots are better than Monty Don's ...

by Dandelion 23rd July 2012, 3:11 pm

Am off outside to pick all the rotten plums off the tree to try to stop it spreading. It's going to be a sparse year for tree fruit.

by Jaded Green 23rd July 2012, 7:30 pm

I have strimmed our long grass. Not all of it, but the garden is looking better.

And I have discovered that we have some raspberries! :-)

by Chilli-head 2nd August 2012, 10:27 am

Picked my blackcurrants yesterday evening. Time to make blackcurrant sorbet again.

Whilst I was at the lotty I cut out all the fruited wood from the blackcurrant bushes, lopped back the leaves of the strawberries, chopped down the grass and comfrey on the "not quite under control yet" bit, did some weeding, and mixed the whole lot together with some wood shavings to get a new compost heap underway.

by polgara 4th August 2012, 4:15 pm

I have been digging some potatoes. Not a lot but they are nice.
Due to circumstances most of my plans for the garden etc went by the board, but I have pulled a hugh crop of bind weed up & disposed of it.
Managed 4 cucumbers & the toms are doing really well. Shalotts not too bad, I have them drying off, and some some lettuce.
I am also replantimg some veg which went away somewhere with the weather.

by Dandelion 4th August 2012, 5:05 pm

Like Pol I have been digging potatoes - i emptied one of the potato bags which were supposed to have early 'new' potatoes. Look at the size of the biggest - it would feed about three of us!! (That's a 50p piece by the side!) What have you done in the garden today? - Page 29 Dsc04110

What have you done in the garden today? - Page 29 Dsc04110

by polgara 10th August 2012, 6:18 pm

Still trying to clear up the weeds etc & the empty pots that got left behind when I was ill. Still plenty of bindweed to go

by Dandelion 20th August 2012, 10:06 pm

Not very nice, I know, but I despatched some cabbage white caterpillars. It was early afternoon, and they were all lying there on nasturtium leaves (strangely all pointing in the same direction...) I tried feeding a couple to the chickens, who weren't interested, although I saw a robin busy around the flowerbed later, so maybe chickens are fussy. I did a kind of nasturtium leaf and caterpillar sandwich, then squished it all under my flip flop. Hopefully it was a quick end. Maybe there'll be a shortage of cabbage white next year??

by Dandelion 22nd August 2012, 11:02 am

Two days later, and I've just been out to look at the nasturtiums again. They are literally crawling with caterpillars of all different sizes. Having despatched a lot more, I'm realising that I won't make a scrap of difference to the Cabbage White population. I have made my flip flops very gungy though...

by polgara 22nd August 2012, 4:00 pm

More clearing up today. How I hate bind weed Evil or Very Mad

by Dandelion 24th August 2012, 3:05 pm

I was hoping that I would get a few tomatoes which had survived blight, but today I have admitted defeat and dug the plants up. I have also pulled up a lot of the nasturtiums which are writhing with caterpillars - if I had called it a 'Pestilence Garden' I could have charged holidaymakers to look round it, a bit like the Poison Garden at Alnwick (but smaller, untidier and not so exciting!!!)
On the positive side, I have picked some autumn fruiting raspberries which are the largest I've ever seen, so it's not all bad.

by Chilli-head 9th September 2012, 8:01 pm

Lots of hard work. Cut back lots of shrubs, cut down an unwanted conifer that was blocking too much light. All the wood of any size is sawn up for logs, some thinner stuff cleaned up to make bean poles, and the rest went through the shredder. My compost heap runneth over, and has already hit 40 degrees !

by Dandelion 23rd September 2012, 4:08 pm

Yesterday I decided that I would empty a compost container and move it (we had to move all the compost bins when we had the fence repaired, and are beginning to put them back as they need emptying.) This brought me into close contact with one of our apple trees (i.e. the branched were in my eyes and up my nose, as it had grown a bit since I put the compost container next to it!) This was when I realised that it had blossom on it...in late September. Presumably it thinks that the season we called 'summer' was actually winter, and now spring is on the way!

by polgara 23rd September 2012, 4:18 pm

Nothing, it is cold & wet LOL

by Justicar 24th September 2012, 4:31 pm

Today I am reinforcing my 25' by 15' greenhouse with emt conduit. Originally I had built it out of 3/4" pvc which worked fine, but due to straight line winds ripping off most of my top bows and the plastic sheeting, all damaged parts are now replaced but now I am adding the conduit to make it more resistant to flexing. originally the spacing between the bows was 5' now conduit will be added every other 2.5' just hope it is worth it. Greenhouse tomatoes are getting huge but slow to ripen.

by Dandelion 24th September 2012, 4:39 pm

Hello Justicar - are you in the UK or elsewhere? I only ask because I'm very admiring of you battling with the weather to sort out your greenhouse if you're in the UK. A month's rain in 24 hours in some areas!

by polgara 24th September 2012, 11:37 pm

Wet again, but counting the cats poo in my newly dug very small front garden. Twisted Evil

by Dandelion 25th September 2012, 7:14 pm

That's really annoying Pol.

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