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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 6, 2013 21:24:55 GMT
It was dry again today and I decided to remove the coolglass from the greenhouses, a job that has to be done when it is dry-it just wipes off with a dry cloth.To get it off the roof I tie an old towel onto a brush.
On the allotment bed that I was weeding yesterday there were some Penstemon,scarlet queen It is mostly an annual bed but these are perennials but I had to dig them up to make it easier weeding. I brought them home and this afternoon ,when I had finished the greenhouses I potted them up to over winter them.I also cut down the remaining chrysanths that had finished but there are still a few with decent flowers on,
Tomorrow we are going to Malta till the following Monday so you won't hear from me again for just over a week.Martny,our son is coming with us. We are not going till 4.30 though so I intend going on the allotment in the morning and doing some more tidying up and weeding.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 14, 2013 21:28:53 GMT
We have returned from our holiday in Malta this evening so it is back to normal tomorrow. It will be Wednesday before I can start catching up with my gardening jobs though because tomorrow I have Blackleach in the morning then shopping and school in the afternoon.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 16, 2013 22:08:27 GMT
Today I have boxed up the chrysanth stools of the disbud varieties (not the sprays).Yesterday I cut the remaining flowers that were still nice and put them in a vase in the house. I had cut down some of the plants before but I cut down all the rest today and tied the labels ,which had been on top of the canes,onto the stools . I use mushroom boxes for boxing up (washed them all first in the wheel barrow).Dug up all the stools and planted 2 varieties in each box,about 6 stools of each variety,and trimmed the growth with scissors.It was raining most of the time but the polythene cover is still over the bed which kept me dry.Now that they are boxed up I will remove the covers. I have left the boxes outside but I wll make room for them in the cold greenhouse.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 17, 2013 20:38:47 GMT
Not much gardening time today because we have been on a coach trip.Just had about two hours when we got home.You know that I lead a health walk every other Thursday morning round Blackleach country park. About 3 times a year we hire a coach and go somewhere else,usually another country park ,to do our walk.We take our lunch which means we don't get home till mid afternoon.
When we got home I removed the polythene cover from the chrysanth bed. There were a few weeds on the bed so I thought I may as well get rid of these first while the cover was still on in case it started raining. After this I cut down the remaining spray chrysanths . Most of the sprays are on the allotment but these are some that were on the same bed as the disbuds. They weren't under the cover though and they had been spoiled with the rain.
I have a full day tomorrow so I will be on the allotment,weather permitting.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 18, 2013 19:23:28 GMT
Today I have boxed up the spray chrysanths as I did the disbuds yesterday.Went on the allotment this morning and cut them all down ,tied the labels on , dug them up and brought them home.Also dug those up from the garden ,most of which were different varieties and boxed these up too.It rained a bit this afternoon so I went in the greenhouse and potted up some more rooted geranium and fuchsia cuttings.Glad it stopped raining because I managed to finish the chrysanths after.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 19, 2013 20:28:58 GMT
When I went to the allotment yesterday I saw that the framework of canes up which the sweet peas and runner beans were growing had collapsed. It had been leaning a bit at one end for a few weeks.This afternoon I decided to take it down because both crops were more or less finished.It was taking a while because I had to remove all the twistits that had been supporting the sweet peas , about 10 on each cane and about 70 canes.About 4.45 though, it started pouring down so I dashed to the car and sat listening to the football on the radio.Sat there for about 20 minutes and it was still pouring heavily so I gave it up and came home so I couldn't finish it.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 21, 2013 21:49:51 GMT
The post I typed yesterday hasn't got onto the forum for some unknown reason.It was dry so I finished taking down the frame of canes where the runner beans and sweet peas were growing and also those which supported the show perfection peas and climbing French beans. Kept some of the pods from these and runner beans for seeds for next year.I just put them on top of a cupboard in the kitchen to dry off before taking the beans from the pods.I also planted some more onion sets.
Today I have been at Blackleach country park all day. I intended doing some weeding but it rained hard most of the morning. It dried up in the afternoon so I just went out and did some tidying up on the border outside the visitor centre , Cut down plants that were looking untidy and removed the bedding plants.Also cut down some overgrown herbs in the herb wheel.
This is my last gardening this week because we are going to our daughter (Heather)s at Portmadog tomorrow till Saturday.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 26, 2013 19:21:35 GMT
Arrived home this evening from our few days in Wales.The weather has not been bad -just a bit of rain but mostly it has been nice. I understand it has been very wet here though especially last night.I will have to try and catch up with my gardening jobs next week,having been away twice in the last three weeks.I have plenty of tidying up and weeding on the allotment if the weather will let me and replanting the hanging baskets and tubs .
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 27, 2013 20:55:55 GMT
Dry this afternoon so I went on the allotment and continued the tidy up.Removed the rest of the crops from the bed that contains French and broad beans,sweet corn and courgettes because they had mostly finished. There were just a few broad beans and courgettes left which I picked first.Brought all the canes home that had been supporting these crops.
I have a large clump of golden rod on the allotment . The flowers are all seeding and I dont want them to spread about so I cut the tops off the plants and put them in sacks and brought them home and put them in the bin.
There are so many beds want weeding but I decided to start the chrysanth bed because this is the worst.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 28, 2013 22:43:05 GMT
It was raining this morning so I worked under the car port. I emptied all my hanging baskets and next doors which I planted for them because they were all well past their best (15 altogether).Potted up plants from them that I want to keep over winter to take cuttings off in spring(Surfinias, calibracoas,diascias,verbenas,bacopas and trailing geraniums).I am going to re-plant some of them,probably tomorrow. I don't do as many at this time of year as I do in summer because I haven't as many plants .I will have to go to the garden centre for some.Heather (our daughter from Wales)is here till Wednesday and I am hoping to plant two for her to take home.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 29, 2013 22:15:39 GMT
Went to the garden centre and got £20odd's worth of basket plants.There is of course not as much choice at this time of year as there is in the summer. There is not much in trailing plants apart from ivy but I bought 4 large ones for £2 something each and split them up and finished up with 28 plants.When I got home I planted 2 baskets for Heather and 4 for ourselves.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 30, 2013 23:05:36 GMT
In spite of a wet weather forecast it was dry today .Went on the allotment this morning to carry on with the tidy up.I have three compost bays. Two of them were half full of partly decomposed material from last year and the other one was full of recent green material.I first had to make room for more new material by shovelling one of the half full bays on top of the other leaving one empty bay.
I then carried on clearing the annual beds and putting the plants in the empty bay.Chopped up the larger ones such as cosmos to help them to rot down quicker.
Whole I was on the allotment Rosemary removed the bedding plants from the front garden.She filled 3 sacks so these will have to go to allotment next time I go.I took 3 sacks this morning containing the plants from the hanging baskets.Rosemary needed the car this afternoon so I stayed at home and removed the plants from all my tubs and got them ready for re-planting.Forked over the compost and mixed in a bit of Q4 base but didn't get time to do much re-planting.Just planted one with daffs.Also planted a trough with bellis for Heather.She went home this afternoon. When it was too dark to do any more planting outside I went in the greenhouse and planted 18 hyacinth bulbs into 4 inch square pots.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 31, 2013 21:47:26 GMT
Dry again today so I went to the allotment to carry on with the tidy up.I thought I would do some weeding on some of the beds that I had cleared of plants.After a few minutes,though I decided it was still too wet so I carried on removing annuals from the other beds.Before I went out Rosemary asked me if I had anything for the front window.She was meaning a pot plant but instead I decided I would bring some flowers home so I cut a bucket full before I started pulling out the plants.Some are still flowering well so it seems a shame to pull them out so I pulled out those that had finished.There is a row of "love lies bleeding "that is still lovely and rudbeckias are still flowering well.I also cut some perennials-schizostylis,Verbena bonariensis,Japanese anemones and penstemons.In one of the beds I was clearing was a row of Delphinium"dwarf pacific". I find this very useful for the mixed vases of flowers I do at shows particularly a vase of mixed perennials that is asked for at one show that I go to."Pacific giant"delphiniums are too tall for this purpose.However I noticed that it is no longer in Dobies catalogue so I phoned them a few weeks ago and was told that it had been discontinued because it wasn't selling well enough.I therefore took some seed off these plants a few weeks ago and today I dug them up and took them home.
This afternoon I potted up these delphiniums and hope they will survive for me to plant again next year.I then carried on with planting my tubs with bulbs,polyanthus,pansies and bellis.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 3, 2013 20:27:53 GMT
Didn't have much time for gardening yesterday or today but I managed to finish planting my tubs.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 4, 2013 22:35:24 GMT
We had a bit of frost overnight for the first time but not enough to blacken the dahlias.
Been at Blackleach country park all day today.Just did an hours weeding this afternoon on the border alongside the visitor centre.I have mentioned Blackleach several times on this forum because I spend a lot of my time there.I just want to tell you now that on Wednesday the B.B.C.television programme "The one show" are filming there.I am not involved with it but it is about dog grooming for "Children in need". We don't know when it will be broadcast,whether it will be on "The one show" this week or whether we will have to wait till the "Children in need"programme.
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