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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 21, 2014 20:09:18 GMT
A full days gardening today , mostly on the allotment. I have also been to school this afternoon and forked the manure into the 3 veg beds just like I do on the allotment.
When I went to the allotment this morning I went in the polytunnel and re-potted and tidied up the carnations. Discarded some that were no good and took some cuttings off some of them. I have got some in small pots at home that will eventually take the place of the discarded ones when they have been potted up. Carnations are best discarded after a few years and replaced by new plants which is why I keep taking cuttings.
Spent the rest of the day forking over and weeding the annual beds.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 22, 2014 21:13:21 GMT
It was too showery to go on the allotment today. After going to school ,which I have just told you about on the other page, I went in the greenhouse and planted the carnation cuttings that I took yesterday. I had left them in buckets of water overnight.
I have told you before that I make the compost that I remove when re-potting pot plants into compost for growing potatoes in bags and buckets. So I made a start on this today. I just rub the compost between my hands to break it up then mix Q 4 base with it at 12 oz per bushel. I made one mix of 2 bushels this afternoon.
I don't need any more chrysanth cuttings so Rosemary started removing the labels from the stools and taking them out of the boxes.(she always does this job for me )
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 23, 2014 22:00:22 GMT
Didn't know whether to risk going on the allotment this afternoon but I decided to go and it did stay fine. Just carried on weeding the annual beds.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 24, 2014 20:41:26 GMT
Fine today but rather breezy. Been on the allotment this morning and afternoon. Finished weeding the annual beds. Behind these beds is a row of floribunda roses and I started weeding between these. This is more difficult because there is a lot of couch grass and bindweed growing round them. I know I can't get all these roots out but will do the best I can.
I have just come in from the greenhouse where I have been sowing my sweet peas. I have told you before that I sow them this late to try to hold them back for the August and September shows. If I sowed them earlier they would flower in July. There used to be a show in July that I went to but not any more. I have 7 varieties and I sow the seeds individually in drinking cups.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 25, 2014 22:36:18 GMT
Didn't have any gardening time at all today except at school. 16 plants of Verbena bonariensis came from Dobies. I will have to pot these up tomorrow because I haven't got any ground ready to plant them yet.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 26, 2014 23:07:50 GMT
This morning I potted the Verbena bonariensis that came yesterday into small pots . I then took 48 dahlia cuttings. I don't think I will take any more. I have taken 324 altogether and this should be more than enough. Last year I took 351 and there were too many. I gave some to my local garden centre. I then made another 2 bushels of compost for growing potatoes.
I began pricking out my bedding plants and other annuals this evening. 120 mini plugs of petunias arrived from Dobies so I transfered these to boxes. There were more than one plant in some of the plugs and I separated them and finished up with 190 plants !. I then did 5 boxes of African marigolds. Now that I have started pricking out I will be doing some most evenings unless I have to go out somewhere. I do in what I call the utility room next to the kitchen. I used to do them in the living room then I could watch telly at the same time but she won't let me now because we have had the carpet cleaned.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 27, 2014 21:48:12 GMT
I didn't know whether or not to tell you what I have been doing today because I didn't know whether you would be interested as it is not directly connected with gardening ,but I will tell you about it.
You know that we have health walks at Blackleach country park every Thursday morning. There are about 30 to 40 of us but today 15 of us went on an organised outing to the Natural History section of Manchester museum. Those who didn't come still had a walk with one of the other leaders. We went for 11.00 and first we had a 45 minute talk about taxonomy and the classification of plants and animals. After lunch we went into the museum split into two groups. The group I was in ,first had a talk about insects and were shown various specimens and told how they were classified , where they came from, how they were preserved and other interesting things about them. After 45 minutes we had a 15 minute break and then changed over with the other group. We then went into the plant section ,which , of course is where my main interest lies. We were told how the specimens were preserved and classified. As in the insect section there were hundreds of specimens on display. The purpose of all this is that 2 weeks today the person who organised this outing is coming to Blackleach and we are all going for a walk collecting specimens to send to the museum. Not sure how it will work out. I presume we will have to press the flowers we collect but not sure what we will have to do with the bugs and beetles but he will tell us. Anyway it has been an interesting change to what we normally do.
Done some more pricking out this evening. Done the asters but I have not as many as usual because some have damped off . Did a box of Bidens (I have not grown this from seed before),then some lobelia. I prick this out in clumps of 3 or 4 plants.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 28, 2014 23:00:05 GMT
Last time I went on the allotment I brought home the compost in which I had grown potatoes in tubs and buckets. I have been at Blackleach country park today and I took this compost and spread it on the nursery beds where I sow wild flowers. Wild flowers don't want rich soil but there won't be much food in this compost after it has grown potatoes. I don't normally tell you when I have been at Blackleach all day because usually I have nothing to report ,having been just sat behind my desk all the time. I do gardening there sometimes but I have a helper called Billy on a Tuesday and I just tell him what I want him to do. If I do all the gardening myself I won't have anything for him to do, will I?. He is O.K.at weeding and forking over the soil but I do all the sowing and planting myself. I have to show him which are weeds and which are plants I want him to leave. I will be sowing the wild flowers next month and in May and June I will plant the border alongside the visitor centre.
When I pricked out the bidens last night there were 15 plants left so this evening I have potted them up into small yoghurt pots. Spent the rest of the evening pricking out lobelia. I just had a break to watch Gardeners World. Monty Don was planting dahlia tubers in pots to start them into growth to take cuttings . In contrast I have finished with my tubers for this year, having finished taking my cuttings.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 29, 2014 22:16:27 GMT
Not much gardening time today, just part of the afternoon. Mowed the lawns then put 3 of my frames in place ready for use when needed.Been pricking out again this evening. Done some trailing lobelia, bedding antirrhinums, salvias and some more African marigolds.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 30, 2014 21:00:32 GMT
Mothering Sunday! How many plants do you know with the word "mother" in their name?. I'll give you 10 seconds. At church this morning ,to illustrate his talk the preacher set a quiz. The questions and relevant pictures came up on a screen and the answers all had the word "mother" in them. After several questions we were asked the name of an unusual plant .Can't remember exactly how it was worded and there wasn't a picture of it. The preacher immediately shouted Derek expecting me to know the answer. We had had "mother in laws tongue" for one of the other answers and I couldn't think of another at such short notice (how many of you could?) so I said "can I phone a friend?". Anyway, the answer he was wanting was "mother of thousands".
I have been on the allotment this afternoon carrying on with the weeding. I want to get this finished as soon as I can because there is a lot of work to do in the greenhouses.
Been pricking out lobelia again this evening. I have to go out the next three evenings so I won't be able to do any more pricking out till Thursday.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 31, 2014 22:02:26 GMT
No gardening today so nothing to report but two things I forgot to mention yesterday. Last year a lady gave me a nice plant of Streptocarpus saxorum. I took several cuttings from it and left both the plant and the cuttings in the greenhouse over winter with all my other Streptocarpus of which I have quite a lot. However neither the plant nor the cuttings survived the winter so this species must be more tender than all the others that I grow. The lady brought me another plant yesterday so I have learned my lesson. I will have to keep it in the house next winter.
The other thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that I picked the first rhubarb.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 1, 2014 22:19:24 GMT
It did nearly half an inch of rain overnight so I thought it would be too wet to carry on with the weeding on the allotment. Made two more batches of compost for growing potatoes by adding Q4 fertiliser to some old compost. Used the compost that had the chrysanth stools in for some of it. The buckets and tubs that I grow potatoes in on the allotment were empty because I had taken the compost to Blackleach so I filled them up and took them to the allotment before going to school.
I have told you before about my home made propagator in the greenhouse. It is stood on sheets of asbestos with sheets of glass on the top. I don't need it as a propagator any more . The few things that were in it were ready for coming out so I removed the glass and put the asbestos on the top. This gives me more room because I can stand pots and boxes of plants on top.
This evening I have been to the veg meeting. The speaker was David Metcalfe, the breeder of the Pendle leeks. Guess what he was talking about! Yes, Leeks.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 1, 2014 22:36:41 GMT
Last year ,up to the end of March we had seen 6 different wild flowers at Blackleach Country Park. This year we have seen 16 which shows what an early season it is.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 2, 2014 22:13:02 GMT
Rain had been forecast for this afternoon so I thought I had better go on the allotment this morning and carry on with the weeding. The rain didn't come after all except for a few spots but Rosemary wanted the car this afternoon so I had an afternoon in the greenhouse.
150 mini plugs of Begonia "ambassador" and 50 of Gazania "daybreak" came from Dobies so this was my first job , transferring these to cell trays. I think I said last week that I had enough dahlia cuttings but I decided to take a few more , of varieties that I have not as many of. Spent the rest of the time potting chrysanths and I managed to finish them all. Also reduced the brassica seedlings that I had sown 3 or 4 per pot to one in each pot.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 3, 2014 21:58:27 GMT
Another afternoon in the greenhouse. I sorted out all the chrysanths into varieties. They had just been all together in boxes as I showed in this weeks Garden News. I then counted how many I had got of each variety. I then did the first stopping, just the varieties that need an early stop and the plants that were tall enough. They need to be at least 6 inches tall before they are stopped.
The begonias and gloxinias had been started into growth in trays in the propagator. They didn't all grow but those that were growing I potted into individual pots, the size of pot depending on the size of the corms.
Spent the rest of the time potting rooted dahlia cuttings. This evening I have pricked out some more lobelia.
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