Dereks Diary Part 2

Finished planting the disbud chrysanths today but there are only 98 and I normally grow about 150 . I told you last week that my gladioli supplier had given me a lot more corms that I had ordered and I had not room to grow them all. I grow most of my spray chrysanths on the allotment but because I am short of disbud chrysanths I planted some at home to fill the beds up. This means that I wont be growing as many sprays on the allotment so I will have room to grow some of these extra gladioli on the spray chrysanth bed. I decided to do it this way because the chrysanth beds at home are covered with polythene covers at flowering time and gladioli are too tall to go under the covers.

Not much gardening time today -just an hour in the afternoon before I had to go out.Just did a bit more work with the pot plants as I was doing last Wednesday. Potted some leeks onto 5 inch pots.There were 3 propagators in use in the greenhouse,apart from the two warming benches. I decided I didn't need two of them any more Some seeds that were on them had germinated and some of the cuttings on them had rooted so these came off and other things were put on the warming benches.

A full day and evening on the allotment today.
I had some weeding to do first.Finished weeding the spray chrysanth bed which I started yesterday then did the runner bean/sweet pea bed.
Then planted the spray chrysanths. 57 which is not as many as usual because I planted some at home as I told you last week .Tied them up and tied the labels on the top of the canes.Rosemary does this for me at home but I did it myself here. Left room at the back of the bed for a row of gladioli.
I then sorted the long canes out and began putting up the structure using 8 foot canes for runner beans and sweet peas.
Put some more weedol on the annual beds.

Went to my son's house this morning to cut his privet hedges then did some weeding on the border round his lawn. I will be planting his garden in the next few weeks so weeding it now will save me time.
This afternoon I planted up 5 tubs and a trough for Heather, my daughter in Wales.I am going to take them to her next Monday and staying till Tuesday.I usually do her hanging baskets and take them but she is coming here the following weekend and she wants to do them with me.
I put most of my basket plants in a frame
Having planted my spray chrysanths on the allotment and kept 20 on one side to plant in my garden there were about 12 more plants that I want to keep so I decided to grow them in pots.I planted 6 9 inch pots with 2 plants in each.
Went on the allotment this evening and started planting the gladioli. The bed had been weeded but I just had to hoe and rake it first. I hope to plant the rest tomorrow
I saw something this afternoon that I didn't want to see.I looked in the nest box to see if the great tit's eggs had hatched . They had but all the young ones were dead. There have been two cats hanging around and I think one must have got one or both of the parents.

Been at Blackleach country park all day and the only gardening I have done was to weed and tidy up the herb wheel.

Been on the allotment afternoon and evening again. Finished putting up the structure of canes for sweet peas and runner beans which I started last Monday (they are both grown on the same structure). There are 70 canes,50 for sweet peas and 20 for runner beans. Planted the sweet peas -10 each of 5 varieties (Sir Cliff, Royal wedding, Vera Lynn, Anniversary and Daphne ). Planted 10 runner beans (the rest are not hardened off yet)
No more gardening for two days because I am going to Wales to our daughter Heather's tomorrow. I am only staying till Tuesday but Rosemary is staying all week so I will be the boss for a few days. I will take the tubs and window box I have planted for her.
I wanted to get this planting done before I go away (peas, Climbing French beans, runner beans and sweet peas )which I have managed except for 10 runner beans. When I come home it will be dahlias, the rest of the tender veg and annuals.