|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Jan 27, 2014 23:09:01 GMT
It hasn't rained today but the ground is still far too wet to do anything on the allotment. It is pouring down now though as I write this. I have spent most of the day in the greenhouse sowing my first seeds of the year. Sowed 6 different varieties of tomatoes , just a few of each in margarine tubs. Then sowed the first flower seeds , just those that need starting early.--4 varieties of bedding lobelia , 2 of trailing lobelia, 2 penstemon , 4 asters,2 salvias, petunias and dwarf delphiniums. All these have gone in my home made propagator which has a small tubular heater and sheets of glass on top Each tray has a piece of glass on it and the trays are stood on top of each other and covered with newspaper. They are O.K. like this until they start to germinate. After about 4 days I will have to check them every day and when each tray starts to germinate it will have to be given full daylight. I may leave them in the propagator for a while if there is room but soon they will have to come out and go on a greenhouse shelf.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Jan 28, 2014 21:35:12 GMT
Not much gardening time today . I was at Blackleach this morning and it has rained most of the afternoon. It did stop about 3.30 and I then put limestone on the chrysanth beds at 12 oz, per square yard which I told you about before.
6 gloxinias and 6 begonias arrived that I had ordered from Blackmore and Langdon.
I made out an order of 6 coleus and a collection of 6 gesneriads from Dibleys which I will post tomorrow. There are now 10 dahlia tubers growing.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Jan 29, 2014 21:56:05 GMT
Some of my dahlia tubers are on two propagators in the house and the rest are on warming benches in the greenhouse. All the tubers that are growing are on the propagators in the house which must be a higher temperature. I therefore swapped the boxes over so that some of the others will start to grow. I will have to keep doing this till they all start.
Just did some more tidying up in the garden this afternoon . There were a lot of pots lying about with dead plants in which needed emptying . I then had another pot washing session.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Jan 30, 2014 22:15:26 GMT
It didn't rain today till evening but it was cold. Had a full day in the garden.
Put limestone on the border round the back lawn at 6 oz. per square yard. The p H here wasn't as low as the chrysanth bed. Forked over my small herbaceous border and planted a helenium that I grew from seed last year . It has overwintered well and made a nice plant. Behind the rockery there is a trellis full of ivy but it was spreading too much so I cut it back. Some of the stems were trailing over the rockery and rooting. We like the ivy because it provides good shelter for birds and we get nests in it in spring but I don't want it all over the rockery.
Went over the front rose bed with the claw and weeded it but there weren't many weeds. I also had a cementing job to do in the front garden. Between the main path and the border there is a row of edging flags . There is a gap between the flags and the path which had been filled in with cement, but it was breaking up so I removed it all and did it afresh.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 1, 2014 19:41:45 GMT
Not done much gardening the last two days. Yesterday I was sat behind my desk at Blackleach all day watching it pouring down outside. It hasn't rained today but has been a very cold wind. This afternoon I just went to the local garden centre for £12 worth of bird food for a prize for the lady who has won the birds pathfinder quiz.(this is the quiz I put on the forum ,with Sue's help ,a few weeks ago).
You know that I save my own runner bean seeds. This year I have saved the climbing French bean "Rob Roy" as well. The pods have been drying on top of a cupboard in the kitchen. This evening I have removed all the beans from the pods.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 2, 2014 20:29:19 GMT
Not a bad day today and this afternoon I have weeded and tidied up the rockery. Using the definition of a weed as "any plant growing in the wrong place" ,the main weeds here , if you call them weeds ,are bluebells. There is a wood alongside the drive where I live that we call "bluebell wood" which is lovely in May. There are also plenty of bluebells among the trees at Blackleach . Yes, I love bluebells in the right place but not in my rockery. I wouldn't mind a few but they spread too much . They are difficult to dig out though because of the rocks.
I have also re-potted some lilies.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 5, 2014 22:49:24 GMT
Yesterday morning I had to go to the hut to help unload a wagon with potting compost and several other things. We are also supposed to be having another delivery this week with potatoes, onion sets and a lot of plant pots but we don't know which day. So I will probably have to go again. In the greenhouse the rest of the day. Planted all my gloxinia and begonia corms in trays and put them in my propagator to start them growing. I have some of each I got from Blackmore and Langdon and some I have kept from last year . These had been under the staging all winter. There were also some achimenes but when I emptied the pots there were hardly any tubercles which was disappointing but I planted what there were. I also took about 50 chrysanth cuttings
In the evening I went to the veg meeting. The speaker was David Thornton, the general secretary of the N.V.S. talking about potatoes. He also sells potatoes and we had previously given him our orders and he brought them all to the meeting. I got some Maxine, Blue Belle and Purple eyed seedling off him. I have not grown this one before. It is always late when I get home from the veg meeting but I typed all this out to put on the forum but I must have pressed a wrong button and I lost it all and didn't know how to get it back and I was rather annoyed with myself. So I have just had to type it all again.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 5, 2014 23:08:55 GMT
I have not been able to do anything on the allotment for over a week mainly due to the wet weather. Today though it hasn't rained much for a few days but more was forecast later. So I thought I had better go and do some more weeding while it was fine. The rain finally started about 11.00 so I came home and went in the greenhouse. I stood the potatoes I got last night in trays and put them on a greenhouse shelf to chit.
I then started re-potting all my pot plants that are in 5 inch pots and over. This is a job I do every year at this time. I have a lot of these plants, geraniums, fuchsias, streptocarpus , foliage begonias and several more. I knock each plant out of its pot , scrape away some of the old compost and re-pot them with new compost. Most plants go back into the same pots but , depending on the size of the root ball I may pot down into a smaller pot which of course takes up less valuable greenhouse space. It will take me a week or two to get them all done.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 6, 2014 20:32:45 GMT
The delivery of potatoes ,onion sets etc. came this morning. We didn't know which day it was coming but I had told our secretary who sees to these deliveries that I could go any day except today because it was my turn to do the health walk. There are 6 of us who help unloading these wagons but he doesn't need us all every time so he had to manage without me today. On our way home from Blackleach where we do the walk we pass the hut and we saw that the wagon had arrived and was being unloaded.
This afternoon I have been carrying on with re-potting my pot plants. Found quite a few vine weevil grubs in the fuchsias.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 6, 2014 20:36:35 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 6, 2014 20:43:57 GMT
I have FINALLY found out how to put pictures on the forum with my new computer. I have just put this one on to see if I could do it. The box that I used to click on to type in tinypic on my old computer which I thought wasn't there any more is at the bottom of the screen instead of the top.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 7, 2014 23:06:06 GMT
Not much gardening time today but I have sown some more tomato seeds ,just a few of each variety because some of those sown earlier were a bit drawn because I left them in the propagator too long.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 8, 2014 21:43:27 GMT
Got some more potatoes from the hut this morning, Winston and Kestrel that I always grow. I always get some to take to school for the children to grow and I usually get Arran Pilot. Somebody at the hut said he had grown Casablanca and it gave a good crop so I decided to take some to school this time instead of Arran Pilot . Also got some onion sets to take to school. This afternoon I have been carrying on re-potting pot plants. Ordered a load of manure which is coming a on Monday so I hope its a fine day.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 10, 2014 20:43:03 GMT
Dry today. Went on the allotment this morning . I had some bags of old compost to get rid of because I needed the bags to pot more in so I put the compost on the dahlia bed and raked it . One of the annual beds I was weeding last week I didn't have time to finish . It was a bit frosty but I managed to get it done. I wanted to finish it because it is one of the beds that needs lime on.
My load of manure was supposed to be coming at 1.00 pm so I went back and sat in the car waiting. I was still sat there at 2.30 . I tried ringing but he wasn't in. Couldn't take my car down to my allotment because it would be in the way if he came. I finally gave him up and took my car in and carried on doing some tidying up jobs. I began weeding and tidying up one of the herbaceous borders.
I phoned him this evening and he said he thought we had arranged it for Wednesday , so we had got our lines crossed. So I will go on Wednesday and just hope he comes.
|
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Feb 11, 2014 22:33:54 GMT
Rained this morning but dry later but we had a bit of snow this evening. Not much gardening time today but I went in greenhouse this afternoon and took the first 31 dahlia cuttings. Most of the early chrysanth cuttings were rooted so I took these off the rooting bench to make room for the dahlias.
|
|
