|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 18, 2024 21:03:10 GMT
Garden club at school started again today. There were only two children but they are trying to get more. They had not done gardening before so Gina, who does the garden club with me,had to show them the tools we use and tell them the aspects of safety when using them. It was raining so we couldn't do anything outside .I took some onion sets that I got from the hut and we planted about 20 in drinking cups.They each took one of the planted ones home to grow at home. They also took some rhubarb home.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 18, 2024 20:50:53 GMT
Nice this morning but it started raining mid afternoon and carried on most of the day. Went on the allotment this morning and carried on weeding a strip on the root crop bed and nearly finished it. This afternoon I went to Blackleach for the art club the to school for the garden club for the first time this year.I will be going every week now on my way home from Blackleach. I will tell you about it on the garden club page.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 17, 2024 19:59:08 GMT
Not a bad day.It just did a few spots of rain this afternoon .Ha an hour on the allotment this morning and carried on with the weeding .Got rid of the remaining sprout plants. We went a walk this afternoon then I filled some trays with compost ready for pricking out .This evening I have been pricking out lobelia.I normally prick out lobelia in clumps of three or four plants but germination has not been as good as usual so if the plants were large enough I have pricked them out singly.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 16, 2024 20:22:00 GMT
Showery today. Went in the greenhouse this morning and sowed my sweet peas.I sow them in drinking cups.A standard seed tray holds 15 of these cups.I have 6 varieties of cordon sweet peas and I sowed 15 cups of each.There are more than 20 seeds in most of the packets so I put 2 seeds in some of the cups. Apart from the 6 varieties of cordon sweet peas I have a dwarf variety called "Jet set" and I sowed 12 cups of this.Put all the trays under the greenhouse staging where they can stay till the seeds germinate.Went in the greenhouseagain for a bit this afternoon and potted about 60 rooted cuttings of diascias into cell trays.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 15, 2024 20:28:34 GMT
It rained this morning and evening but was dry this afternoon. Didn't have time for much gardening except watering which I do every morning. I went to the garden centre because I need some more basket plants,particularly surfinias and calibracoas because I find these hard to keep through the winter but they had not got any in yet. I then rubbed a lot more labels.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 14, 2024 19:32:01 GMT
It has been dry today,for a change so I had the afternoon on the allotment ,the first time for over a week.I carried on weeding what will be the root crop bed. This was the brassica bed last year and there were still some sprouts on it.I picked the rest of them but they were very small and dug half of the plants up.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 13, 2024 20:14:36 GMT
Because Heather is here I went to the hut at normal time,10.00 till 12.00. Garden cjub at school is starting mext Thursday .Why so late I don't know because we normally start in March. I needed to get some compost to take to school so I got a bag of multipurpose and one of potting compost.It rained a bit while I was at the hut and I was hoping it would dry up this afternoon for me to take the bags to school.The bags are heavy to lift in and out of the car so I wanted to take them without me having to lift them out and back in again. Also, it is a long walk from the car park to the polytunnel where the bags needed to go so that was another reason I wanted the rain to stop. Thankfully, it did stop and I was able to go.I put my wheelbarrow in the car to wheel the bags down to the polytunnel. It stayed fine all afternoon so I went to Blackleach with Janet after to record the birds and wild flowers. When I got home and again this evening for a bit I went in the greenhouse and took another 44 dahlia cuttings
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 12, 2024 21:33:12 GMT
A decent day today with no rain,for a change.I took Rosemary a walk this afternoon but this morning and the rest of the afternoon I have been weeding in my own garden.I finished the dahlia bed ,then did the chrysanth bed which is next to it and also the path between the beds.I then did the path between the chrysanths bed and the rose beds and started doing the first rose bed.I went out again this evening and carried on because it was light enough till nearly 8.00PM so I just came in in time to watch Gardeners World. Heather arrived at 5.15 for the weekend.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 11, 2024 20:00:30 GMT
It is raining this evening but the rest of the day has been dry. There was no walk at Blackleach this morning but I went from 1.00 till 3.00 for the art club. This morning and when I got home this afternoon I have been weeding my dahlia bed.It is not long since it was done before but they are coming up again.On the path between this bed and the greenhouse there are some tubs containing compost in which I grow carrots.With all the rain,a lot of soil had been washed off the dahlia bed onto the path. I had to move these tubs in order to clear the soil off the path. One of the tubs was badly split and not usable any more so I had to empty it. Put the compost on one of the borders and broke up the tub and put it in the bin.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 10, 2024 21:49:05 GMT
I haven't had much gardening time today apart from watering. When I sorted my canes a few weeks ago I didn't do those that were 2 feet and under so I did those today. It rained from mid morning till mid afternoon ,hard at times. This evening I have been pricking out penstemons.Did a box of 48 and two cell trays of 20 each.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 9, 2024 20:08:00 GMT
It started raining mid morning and rained very heavy about 11.30. It dried up in the afternoon but it was VERY windy. I started pricking out my flower seedlings this morning. Did 3 trays of 54 trailing lobelia"cascade". I do most of the pricking out in what I call my utility room next to the kitchen.This is also where I have a propagator and a warming mat with dahlia tubers on. I sometimes do pricking out on a table under the car port but I thought it was too windy today. The trays that I have pricket out I put under the greenhouse staging for a few days so I had to make some space. All my seed trays were under there so I put them behind the greenhouse in neat piles. I then sowed another packet each of stocks"early bird" and marigold "naughty marietta", also some rudbeckias from my own saved seeds "Indian summer" and "Toto".
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 8, 2024 20:26:41 GMT
Not much time this morning as I had an errand to do so I just did the watering.It is rather late for taking chrysanth cuttings and there aren't many cuttings on the plants so this afternoon I decided to remove the stools from the boxes and get rid of them.I had to untie all the labels from the top of the stools then put them in the re-cycling bin and empty all the compost into sacks . Not many of the sprouts I sowed have germinated so I sowed some more seeds into the pots where non were growing.I also sowed some romanesco seeds in pots that were given free with the veg magazine.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 7, 2024 18:33:46 GMT
I was thinking of going to the allotment this afternoon when it started raining so I went in the greenhouse and took about 54 dahlia cuttings.It did stop raining after a while but it is pouring down at present.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 6, 2024 20:10:03 GMT
Because Heather is not here this weekend I didn't go to the hut till 10.30 this morning. This afternoon I mowed my lawns for the first time since my next door neighbour did them two weeks ago.I must try to do them every week.I put the mowings in a sack because when I plant my potatoes I put mowings in the trenches because it helps to prevent scab.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Apr 5, 2024 20:29:11 GMT
Had another hour on the allotment this morning carrying on with the weeding. In the greenhouse this afternoon I took some cuttings from orange diascias and white bacopa.
|
|