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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 22, 2022 20:28:18 GMT
this morning I potted another 55 rooted dahlia cuttings. These cuttings were taken on March 28th .There are just some taken on April 5th to do now. Went to hospital for 12.00 and when I got home I forked over and weeded the border round the front lawn. This evening I have pricked out a box of Tithonia and a few marigolds "naughty Marietta" and "honeycombe".
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 23, 2022 21:58:37 GMT
It is 60 years ago, today, when I joined Worsley horticultural society. I had been looking forward to telling them at the hut for a few weeks so I told them this morning. Heather is here for the weekend again and she went to hospital to see her mother and dinner time and I went this afternoon. When I got home I forked over and weeded the rose bed in the front garden.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 24, 2022 19:52:44 GMT
Forgot to mention yesterday that me and Heather went to Martyn's for tea but before we went he phoned to say that his apple tree had been blown over. So I took the best stake that I had and after tea I tried to knock it in while Martyn and Heather supported the tree. I couldn't make it firm enough though. All three of us went to hospital to see Rosemary this afternoon and on the way home we called at the garden centre at R.H.S.Bridgewater hoping to get a better stake but they hadn't any at all. So I will have to go to our local garden centre for one.I have had them from there before.
This evening I have pricked out two trays of nemesia and two boxes of stocks. When I say trays , they are the normal plastic seed trays and when I say boxes, I mean the blue plastic boxes from the green grocer. I use these for taller plants because they are deeper.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 25, 2022 20:49:56 GMT
This morning I went to Blackleach to record the birds and wild flowers as I do every two weeks. Went to our local garden centre after for a stake for Martyn's apple tree .After my visit to hospital this afternoon I went to his house and did the job. At the garden centre I also bought 10 basket plants (surfinias and calibracoas). This evening I took a lot of cuttings from them and also from some surfinias that were delivered by post earlier. There were 115 cuttings altogether.When buying plants like this I always look for those with plenty of cuttings on. Heather went home this evening.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 26, 2022 20:33:24 GMT
24 plugs of petunias came from Parkers so I transferred them to cell trays .Apart from going to hospital I spent the rest of the time fixing up my remaining four aluminium frames. I am getting short of room in the greenhouses again so I nee to put some plants in the frames. The sweet peas can go in and other more hardy bedding plants. I also have a home made wooden frame which I use but when I got it out from behind the shed and tried to fix it up , some of the wood is rotting and beyond repair so I will have to manage without it. I have seven aluminium frames , one of which someone gave me and the others are from Elite Greenhouses. The reason I have so many is that when our society used to have flower shows, Elite Greenhouse used to donate a frame to the person who won most points in the show and I nearly always won that.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 27, 2022 20:49:46 GMT
Got a lot of jobs done as well as going to hospital. I filled the 4 frames I told you about yesterday. I put in the peas, sweet peas and the hardy bedding plants (calendulas, lavatera, pansies and alyssum). Potted 24 sunflowers from a cell tray into 4 inch square pots and put those in a frame. There were 12 tomato plants (Roma) still in small yoghurt pots so I potted these into 4 inch square pots .Put a cane and a twistit on them and all my other tomato plants. Potted the remaining rooted dahlia into three and a half inch pots (22).This evening I pricked out another 2 boxes of stocks and one of statice.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 28, 2022 21:33:36 GMT
As usual on Thursdays I was at Blackleach till 3.00 then I went straight to hospital.At Blackleach I did some more weeding on the border alongside the visitor centre. I forgot to mention yesterday that I took down the winter hanging baskets because they were no longer looking nice. This evening I have potted up three plants from them that were worth keeping for next year, two conifers and a euonymus.I also pricked out some rudbeckia "Indian summer" and chrysanth "Sunset" into cell trays.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 29, 2022 20:50:20 GMT
Went to hospital at 12.00 and been in the garden the rest of the day. At the hospital, Rosemary asked me what I will be doing when I got home. I told her that I will be doing what Moses does and she knew what I meant (Moses lawn).We have had no rain for a while and all my water butts are nearly empty. I have two at the bottom of the garden, near the greenhouse and shed so I got the hosepipe out of the shed and fixed it up and swilled these two out and filled them up. I have also weeded the borders round the back lawn and the first rose bed.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 30, 2022 20:49:24 GMT
When I got home from hospital this afternoon I weeded the other rose bed and the chrysanth beds. Not many weeds on these beds though, mainly seedlings from the ash tree at the bottom of the garden.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 1, 2022 20:15:27 GMT
Forgot to mention yesterday that Heather has come again. She went to hospital to see her mum at lunch time and Martyn and me went this afternoon. When we got home I weeded the dahlia beds but there weren't many weeds then I potted my Kelsae onions from cell trays into 4 inch square pots.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 2, 2022 19:38:21 GMT
With it being bank holiday I took the opportunity to go to school because I had potatoes and onion sets that needed planting .On school days there is no room for my car on the car park .If I have anything to take I normally go at weekends but I can't at present because I am out Saturday and Sunday mornings and in the afternoons I go to hospital to see Rosemary which is why I went today. Garden club is supposed to be starting again but I don't know when and I couldn't wait indefinitely to do this planting.
After my hospital visit this afternoon I went to the greenhouse and sowed some more veg seeds. Sowed some more sweet corn and some Romanesco and Kohl Rabi in 3 inch pots, more runner beansand courgettes in 4 inch square pots and 4 varieties of lettuce and corn salad in cell trays.
This evening I have pricked out a box each of Ageratum "timeless" and love lies bleeding.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 3, 2022 21:28:48 GMT
Forgot to tell you yesterday that on a shelf in the shed at school I found a robin's nest with six eggs.
This morning I repaired one of the T posts on the chrysanth bed. It needed a new horizontal piece of wood on the top. After that, I put the first blanching collars on the leeks before I went to hospital. This afternoon I took the leeks to the allotment hoping to plant them but the bed was too weedy so I spent the afternoon weeding. This evening I have pricked out a tray of mimulus and some rudbeckia "Indian Summer" and "Toto" into cell trays because there wasn't enough for full trays.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 4, 2022 21:07:44 GMT
It was raining this morning, the first rain for several weeks. So I worked under the car port potting brassicas from 3 inch pots into bigger ones, 62 plants altogether. I pot them into bigger pots to help prevent club root. When planted out they are bigger plants and the roots have a larger volume of compost to fill before they reach the soil. While I was potting the brassicas, six coleus plants came from Dibley's. I potted them into the three inch pots in which the brassicas had been. I then mixed another 16 gallons of potato compost. I had one empty bag and one half full so I filled them and planted them. The rest of the compost will do for topping up when the potatoes are growing.
I finished my pricking out this evening. I did some more antirrhinum "Mme Butterfly",some Salvia (Victoria", rudbeckia "Toto" and mimulus.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 5, 2022 20:27:28 GMT
At Blackleach this afternoon I did some more weeding on the border alongside the visitor centre. I had to go for my fourth covid vaccination at 4.00 then straight to hospital. Just had an hour or so in the garden this evening and I raked fish, blood and bone into the chrysanth and dahlia beds and fixed up the straining wires to which the canes are attached for the chrysanths.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 6, 2022 20:36:51 GMT
I don't usually plant my chrysanths till the middle of the month but this morning I put all the canes in and fixed them to the wires. They fix to the wires with V clips. Three aubergines came from Suttons and I planted them in 4 inch pots. I told you on Wednesday that I had finished pricking out but there were some calendulas that I had forgotten about so I did these. I did my Blackleach walk this afternoon and just got it finished when it started raining.
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