Dereks Diary Part 2

Just this afternoon and evening for gardening today. Finished fixing the wires and canes up for the chrysanths. The canes are 15 inches apart and they are fastened to the wires by jiff clips(used to be called V clips ). There are 153 canes and I planted 80 odd of the plants. I tie the plants to the canes as I go along. Hope to get the rest planted tomorrow but in the morning I have to collect my gladioli from my supplier. He meets me and a few more people at a convenient place to give us the corms to save postage.

Non much gardening today because we had to go out this afternoon. Got home at 6.15 just in time to watch the last half hour of the F.A. cup final plus the extra time. This is only the second time as far as I can remember that I have not watched the whole of the cup final. While was at the hut this morning Rosemary removed the husks of most of the gladioli corms and I finished them off when I came home. She also began tying the chrysanth labels to the top of the canes.
This evening I just had time to sort the spray chrysanths out and deciding which I am growing where. I grow 20 at home in the border round the back lawn and 76 on the allotment. I have more than this but those I don't need will go on a plant stall that I am doing at church in June.

I told you 6 months ago that I had got a new computer. It was windows 8 instead of windows 7 which I had been used to before. It has given me problems because I found it a lot more difficult to use. If you remember it took me a long time to find out how to put pictures on the forum. There are things that I haven't been able to do that I could do before. Anyway I took it to a local computer shop yesterday and told them about the problems and they said that windows 8 was "a pain in the .....". To cut a long story short they offered me a re-conditioned windows 7 model in exchange so I couldn't resist. They transferred all my documents and pictures onto it and I have been back to the shop this afternoon to collect it and Martyn, my son has put the forum on it for me so as you can see I am now playing with my new toy.
So, I couldn't go on the forum yesterday because I had no computer but I managed to finish planting the spray chrysanths. I also emptied all the frames which contained all the dahlias and a lot of bedding plants. I dismantled one frame that I don't need any more and began filling the others up again with more bedding plants.
I have been at Blackleach this morning but the only gardening I did was to plant some Verbena bonariensis that I had got from Dobies and some Lychnis coronaria that I grew from seed. This afternoon after school I put the rest of the bedding plants and the basket plants into frames.
This evening I went to the allotment to plant my Kelsae onions, leeks and celery. It started raining though and was showery all evening. I did carry on planting but kept retreating to the car when it rained hard. Because I kept getting rained off I only had time to plant the onions and leeks. I left the celery there so I hope I can plant it tomorrow.
I am going to Wales next Monday and Tuesday and there are several more things I would like to plant before I go . There are a lot of brassicas, peas, broad beans and the gladioli because when I am back home next Wednesday I will be busy with bedding plants and doing hanging baskets and tubs.

I thought it was supposed to be a wet day today. It is much cooler, it rained a bit overnight and it did a bit this morning but the rest of the day has been dry. Nevertheless I have been in the greenhouses much of the day and got quite a lot done. Potted the sweet corn from drinking cups into 4 inch pots and put them in a frame. Potted several other plants on that needed doing .Pricked out some late sown antirrhinums and stocks. I have had difficulty this year rooting cuttings of basket plants and I don't know why. Only a small proportion have rooted but I potted up those that have. I have been overwintering two large fuchsias for a friend which were in tubs. I potted them into 6 inch pots to overwinter them and today I planted them back into the tubs so my friend can have them back now. I have also planted 4 containers and a trough for my daughter, Heather who lives in Wales and I will take them to her on Monday.
Another job I have done is to clean out and re-fill my two water butts. even though they are covered, leaves from the flowering cherry in an adjoining garden get in in the autumn and pink petals in the spring and also petals from the hawthorn hedge behind my greenhouses.
Went on the allotment this evening and planted my Christmas dinner (Brussels sprouts ).Had to do a bit of weeding first where they were going. Weeded the rest of the bed after where I still have the rest of the brassicas to plant.

Wanted to go to the allotment this afternoon and plant the rest of my brassicas but it started raining and it poured down nearly all afternoon. So I decided to work under the carport and mix the compost for my hanging baskets. Mixed two batches each with a 100 litre bale of peat rubbed between my hands to break it up, a Chempak potting base, 5oz. of limestone and some swellgel.
After such a wet afternoon it was hard to believe that we should get such a lovely evening. I decided that it was too wet to go to the allotment though . I weeded the border round the front lawn. Not many weeds though except some that come through from next door. Put growmore on and Rosemary hoed it so it is now ready for planting.
I also took down my winter hanging baskets and emptied them and potted up some plants from them that I wanted to keep for next time such as ivies.

Good work Derek and thanks for the advice on uploading photos. Here is my favorite Lilly :-)

I use a lot of wooden boxes for growing my plants,mainly for pricking out bedding plants into. Some are deeper than seed trays so I use these for the larger plants. However I find them hard to get at home. When I was working I used to pass a greengrocers shop on the way home and I could get as many boxes as I wanted. They used to pile them up behind the shop and said that I could have them. Anyway that shop isn't there any more and I don't go past where it was either. Well , there is such a shop here in Porthmadog and I have been this evening after the shop closed and brought as many as I could carry and put them in the car. Can't take the car there as it is difficult to park. I do this every time I come. I don't actually need them any more this year so when I get home tomorrow I will put them in the loft ready for next year.