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Post by grindle on May 8, 2024 2:33:59 GMT
moved to another part of the garden, more weeding, emptied some pots from the steps which had bulbs in ready for bedding, cleaned and swept all the steps. Was going to plant out new perennials but as I'm away for a couple of days I thought it best to wait, OH wouldn't be able to water them and it's the very free draining border in full sun and dries out quickly. Will be at Malvern tomorrow for the day then travelling back Friday
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Post by geumgrower on May 8, 2024 7:09:01 GMT
Planted out some Geraniums that we got from Derwen Nursery. As this involves a hammer drill and a big crowbar, it does take a while to do.
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Post by SueA on May 8, 2024 19:30:37 GMT
Planted out the last few Charlotte seed potatoes in a tub & had to water everything in the greenhouse & lots of the pots & baskets as no rain for a few days means everything is now bone dry! 🙄😁 Had a surprise when I was out there as a hedgehog ambled through the border & disappeared behind the shed at around 4pm. I know they say if you see them in daylight they could be in trouble but this one was large & healthy looking so I suspect she might have babies nearby & had just popped out for a break!
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Post by jellibeans on May 9, 2024 6:36:24 GMT
Planted out 4 of the 12 ' spare 'Dahlias. Potted the Cucumbers into their final homes yesterday That was all really as we were out in the morning. Hope to have a whole day out there today.
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Post by seaburn on May 9, 2024 13:32:29 GMT
tied the climbing rose across the gate top as hubby fed up of it hitting him in the face when he walked through. Not sure why I had to tie it back, he can reach and I need a step Suttons plugs turned up so spent a couple of hours potting them up. A bit disappointed with the quality of the plants but I shouldnt really complain as they were very cheap [less than 25p including the P&P costs]
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Post by balc2 on May 10, 2024 16:58:47 GMT
I managed to get out on the balcony for a time yesterday afternoon. I did some watering & deadheading & planted up a few Geraniums. I have lots of cuttings to pot up yet but, in spite of my son bring me some pots, I still need to get some more. It's a shame that, our £land at least, doesn't do them any more. I found that the pots were just the right size for what I want them for. I've used up all the pots I had from the last few years. The 15cm/6inch pots as well as the 9cm/3inch pots were ideal for me. The great majority are now occupied. But by 'Robbing Peter to pay Paul' I managed to get a lot of the plants needing bigger homes a home each. I'll have another look tomorrow but don't hold out much hope.
I spent the time a football match lasts, or the ISS takes in doing an orbit of the earth, doing some work both inside as well as outside the balcony this afternoon. Outside I pruned my Chinese rose back - that is I removed all the dead wood I could find & poked the remaining branches through the chicken wire to help hold them up. If I just let them grow outwards, as they would much prefer, the council gardeners are going to get scratched as they cut the grass outside the balcony or use the strimmer to cut back the grass to the base of the balcony.
At that base, which is a few cm/in above the grass, there is some concrete base that extends outwards for some cm/in but it has a covering of soil as well as grass & field bindweed. As the water that runs out of the pots drips into the space there it obviously encourages weeds & grass to grow & that in turn brings the gardeners closer to the balcony with the strimmer & hence more grass flies into the balcony & I have to go out & sweep it all back out again! That wouldn't be so bad - but I have lots of pots lining the edge of the balcony & the grass cutting fly up into them as well as flying between them. I then have to sweep what I can to one side, move all the pots further inside the balcony to be able to sweep the remaining grass cuttings away as well as those I'd already swept up into a nice pile! This has to be done every time the gardeners come around to cut our "lawn"! This happens about twice a month.
When I had the 3 long troughs there they blocked the majority of the grass cuttings but now that I've got rid of them, (2 years ago now), they fly inside the balcony! To stop that last year between my granddaughter & me we put some clear plastic recycle bags lengthwise along the base of the railings where the troughs had been. This didn't prove nearly as effective as I had hoped as lots of grass cutting still flew over them. So in the autumn last year I took them down as they were unsightly with the dead & dry grass plastered all over them. I thought about doing the same this year but the effort is not worth the while. Beside which they look unsightly with the grass stuck on them!
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Post by grindle on May 11, 2024 3:17:51 GMT
I agree seaburn I don't think I'll bother with them again, I've had better elsewhere but as you say they were cheap potted on some plants in the greenhouse, and watered everything
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Post by grindle on May 12, 2024 3:12:45 GMT
finally got round to using my new power washer on the patio, last year I couldn't use it as we had a hosepipe ban , the paving slabs are very old but it has made them look so much nicer, also just cut the long parts of grass on a high cut as I've got seed growing
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gerry
New Member
Posts: 1
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Post by gerry on May 12, 2024 6:13:57 GMT
Peed on the weeds.
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Post by Andrew on May 12, 2024 10:56:13 GMT
Yesterday I weeded the veg garden and planted a row of pea's out in the morning before it got too hot. Then I retreated into the shade and started painting log roll in the afternoon to replace the edging round one of the raised beds which has gone rotten. Another coat added this morning, so should hopefully be able to replace that soon and tidy up the planting around it.
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Post by SueA on May 12, 2024 20:35:48 GMT
Emptied lots of pots which had various ailing plants, weeds etc.in, sowed dwarf bean, mangetout & more flower seeds, repotted a few plants & moved some plants out of the greenhouse.
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Post by balc2 on May 12, 2024 20:41:20 GMT
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Post by grindle on May 13, 2024 2:20:51 GMT
gave the patio a good tidy now it's looking clean, repainted a wall, sowed beans finally and some salad, took out more duck weed, I'm determined this year it's not going to take hold watered plants that had previously been put in before the hot weather and planted out potatoes in bags (late this year )
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Post by balc2 on May 14, 2024 20:58:00 GMT
The last 2 days I've been able to get out on the balcony for a while - not to do any gardening per se, but to do some watering & put up new strings for my Morning Glory climbers this summer. I need to replace them every year as they get broken during the winter. One year I decided to try something different instead of string. I got some washing line but being bright blue didn't look very nice! I took it down the following year as it had gone an even worse colour of blue/white & was fraying in places. Another year I again tried washing line but this time it was a plastic coated steel line! No fraying, no changing colour, no garishness, it seemed perfect - until I went to put it up! Then I discovered that my cutter couldn't cut through the steel core of the line! At that time we had electricians in installing new, double, sockets in all the flats in our block. I'd seen them cutting wire so I asked them if I could borrow one of their cutters. They lent me a brand new pair but I still couldn't cut through the steel core! As I have a fixed wire that I tie the strings to along the top of the balcony I looped the line over it but being slippery plastic I had a terrible job of try to keep the lines spread out as with a slight curve in the wire they all kept sliding along it! Eventually I tied every length of line onto the wire with some string! They no longer moved around! But looping them over the wire & looping them over the balcony railing looked terrible. I only kept them up for 1 year.
I thought about the danger they could be if we had a fire in our flat & needed to get out quick & we couldn't get out through the flat door! What might happen if I weren't at home & we had a fire while my wife was at home alone? She wouldn't be able to get off the balcony nor would firemen or policemen be able to get her off. Frightened by that thought I took them down & went back to putting up strings in their place! I'd rather have to go through the hassle of putting them back up every spring than face the thought she might be hurt or worse if ever there was a fire & she couldn't get off the balcony!
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Post by jellibeans on May 15, 2024 7:07:01 GMT
Border tidying, weeding, cutting back and pulling up anything green that shouldn't be there. Generally just making space for planting out over the next few weeks.
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