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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 21, 2019 19:52:14 GMT
Stayed at Blackleach till 4.00 so no chance of doing any gardening.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 22, 2019 19:25:53 GMT
I told you last Saturday that this was our last day at the hut till next February but at 9.00 this morning I had to go to help unload a wagon with about 8 pallets of potting compost and growbags. There is a builders merchants opposite the hut and the fork lift driver from there helps us by lifting the pallets off the wagon and putting them just inside the door of the hut and we have to drag them in using another truck. We had run short of Sinclairs potting compost a few weeks ago and I have been waiting for it to come to plant my hanging baskets and I also have some tubs to plant for a friend. I already had some multipurpose compost which I always use for seeds and cuttings and plants in small pots but I always use Sinclairs for baskets, tubs and plants in larger pots because it contains more food so I brought two bags home. When I got home , about 10.00 , we went to Bolton to do some Christmas shopping. I was hoping to be home from there in time to finish digging up the dahlias from the garden but we were too late. I will try to do them and also those from the allotment this weekend.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 23, 2019 19:03:48 GMT
We went to Blackleach this afternoon to count the birds on the reservoir. As I said before, we are not writing flowers down any more so we didn't walk all round so we were home by 3.00. Apart from that I had a full day in the garden. The weather forecast was for a showery day but we hardly had any rain. First , I finished digging up the dahlias in the garden (I still have those on the allotment to do).Forgot to mention yesterday that I bought some dwarf Narcissi and crocuses from Bolton. I planted the two pots for a friend so I used some for these and planted the rest in pots and bowls for ourselves and some of the crocuses in the front garden. I also planted three hanging baskets for the front of the house.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 24, 2019 22:28:44 GMT
Went to the allotment this afternoon and took all the dahlia stems and foliage from my garden. I then cut down the dahlias on the allotment and put them all on the compost. I am at Blackleach all day tomorrow so I am hoping to dig them up on Tuesday. I then started pruning the roses on the allotment.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 25, 2019 20:35:16 GMT
It has rained nearly all day today, not hard, just drizzle. My seeds from Dobies arrived today.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 26, 2019 18:47:08 GMT
A bit drizzly again this morning . I wanted to go to the allotment to dig up my dahlias but I didn't know whether to chance it or not. I decided to go and I'm glad I did because it didn't do much rain and I got them all done and brought them home. Something funny now but we didn't think it funny at the time as we were worried about it. We were half an hour late going shopping this afternoon because I couldn't find my car key. I looked in my trouser and coat pockets where I always put it.I looked in the car, upstairs, in the greenhouse, in the shed , all over the house and couldn't understand where it could be. I knew it must be at home somewhere because I had driven home from the allotment this morning. Then I remembered that, because of the weather this morning , I put my waterproof pants on over my other pants and as soon as I got home I took these off so I looked in these pockets and there was the key ! Because we were half an hour late getting home there wasn't time to go to the allotment again.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 27, 2019 21:38:06 GMT
Raining a bit first thing and I wanted to finish pruning my roses. So I worked under the carport. I still had some winter plug plants left and I made up another hanging basket with violas. Planted the window box at the back with pansies and put some of the other plants (polyanthus, forget me nots and bellis )in a trough on the terrace. There were still a few plants left but weren't much good because I had picked out the best ones when planting, so I got rid of them. It did stop raining so I did manage to finish pruning my roses. Last time I went to the hut(a week last Saturday)I brought home 6 bags of rubbish to take to the tip. I told you last week that Rosemary goes to Martyn's on Wednesdays so this afternoon I took her there. Martyn had a broken bird bath that needed taking to the tip so I took it along with the rubbish from the hut. When I got back to his house it was raining a bit again but I pruned his roses -he only has five. I still have some weeding to do there and fork over the border where the conifers had been removed but it was too wet so we came home. Had an hour in the greenhouse after and potted up some more geraniums and fuchsias that had been in tubs in the garden.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 28, 2019 21:21:59 GMT
We had a very wet health walk at Blackleach this morning. Only 28 people came instead of the usual 50 or so when it is decent weather. With being a leader I have to go whatever the weather. It rained all afternoon as well but not as heavy as this morning. So I have done no gardening at all today.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 29, 2019 20:24:14 GMT
A dry day but much colder. Spent most of the day shifting leaves from the top of and behind my larger greenhouse. There is a large ash tree in the corner of the garden, a hawthorn hedge along the back and two flowering cherries in the neighbouring garden. All the leaves go behind my greenhouses and on the top and clog the gutters. I store things behind my greenhouses and they all have to be moved out so that I can get behind to get at the leaves. Behind the larger greenhouse were all my cell trays .I just throw them behind here when I have finished with them. When putting them back after shifting the leaves I sorted them out ,putting each type in piles .
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 30, 2019 21:26:34 GMT
Frosty today but I had a full day in the garden mainly shifting leaves as I did yesterday. Yesterday I did between the larger greenhouse and next doors fence. Today I did at the back of both greenhouses , between the greenhouses and the hawthorn hedge at the back , and at the front of the smaller greenhouse so they are all done now. Those I collected yesterday were mainly ash and flowering cherry leaves and I put them in bin bags to make leaf mould. Those I got today from along the hawthorn hedge were full of hawthorn berries and I didn't fancy making leaf mould from those.I don't want hawthorn trees coming up all over the allotment so I will put them in the re-cycling bin.
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 1, 2019 20:32:10 GMT
Forgot to mention yesterday that after I had shifted all the leaves I cleaned the glass at the back of the smaller greenhouse as far as I could reach (I couldn't reach the top panes ) This afternoon I have been to school to empty the pots that had grown tomatoes. I filled seven sacks (compost bags)with the compost which were all I took but there are still a few that I couldn't do. The pots were all stood on trays and I brushed these clean after and stood them up and stacked the empty pots up in a corner. I then took four bags of the compost round to the allotment.
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 2, 2019 21:06:48 GMT
The ground has been frozen for a few days so it wasn't any use going on the allotment and not much I could do at home either apart from working in the greenhouse. I decided to start sorting my canes of which I have hundreds. I do this in the larger greenhouse but it means clearing the plants from half of it .I had been going through the plants in this greenhouse a few weeks ago , tidying them up, removing dead leaves and cutting them back if they needed it. Because I had to move plants to make room for the canes I decided to finish tidying them all up first then I won't forget which I had done and which I hadn't. A few plants were discarded that I no longer wanted and all the rest were temporarily crammed into one side of the greenhouse.I also had to remove some of the shelves So I the took most of the canes in and began sorting them out. I examine each one to make sure they are all sound by putting some pressure on the bottom to see if any breaks off and then I sort them into their sizes. This is how I sort canes in the greenhouse
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 3, 2019 22:39:51 GMT
Not much time today after shopping this afternoon but I sorted some more canes.
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 4, 2019 21:33:53 GMT
The ground was still frozen this morning . If the ground had been workable I would have gone to Martyn's with Rosemary because I still have some digging and weeding there and three roses to transplant. So I stayed at home and went in the greenhouse and finished sorting all my canes. It took nearly all day. I also potted five rooted cuttings of Salvia "hot lips" into small pots. I also had to fix a new shelf bracket in the greenhouse because one was badly corroded.
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 5, 2019 21:45:08 GMT
49 on the health walk this morning which is back to normal after only 28 on a wet day last Thursday. When I got home at 3.30 it was drizzling again so I stayed in.I am going to start washing all my pots soon which is another big job.
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