Dereks Diary Part 2

Vase of 4 chrysanths, 4 varieties. Only me in this class. They were Lynn Johnson, Venice, Cherry Venice and Max Riley

First with a vase of mixed flowers for effect

This is the last picture and the last show (well I think so ). Whitefield have a late chrysanth show in November with a few veg classes. I don't grow late chrysanths any more and I won't have much veg by then so I don't know if it will be worth going but I will decide nearer the time.

My eldest grandson,Alex . had given me a Wilkinsons vouchure for my birthday and I have been this morning to spend it on bulbs. Got some daffs and some tulips.

I have told you before that the chrysanths I grow at home are covered with a sheet of polythene fastened to a wooden framework .One problem is that when it rains water collects on it. I have to keep lifting the polythene to run off the water. I have also told you before that I have a friend called Alan across the road and we do each others watering when one of us is away. I asked him to lift the polythene while I was away last week if needed but he must have forgot. When I went out this afternoon there was a huge pool of water on the top and some of the wood was broken. It was so heavy that I had a job to lift it. If I am here I don't let it build up like that. They must have had a lot more rain here than we had in Wales. So I have a big job now repairing this wood when I have time.
Martyn, my son, wants his apple tree digging out because it is leaning very badly over a border. I have tried to prop it up but I can't and digging it out is too big a job for me. I mentioned it to a man called David who has a business near our allotments called "Walker Landscapes" and he went to look at it and gave Martyn an estimate . Martyn accepted his estimate and he is going this week to do the job. There is also a Hebe in front of it that will have to be moved as well. There are also some bedding plants in front of it and Martyn asked me to go and remove these then they won't be in Davids way so I went down this afternoon. I had told David that he wouldn't want it doing yet so I asked Martyn why he couldn't wait till the bedding plants had finished. I will be removing them all in a few weeks anyway and also it is too early to be moving the Hebe. I told him he should have waited till at least November for that.
Went to the allotment after mainly because Rosemary wanted some lettuce , radish ant tomatoes for tea. While I was there I did some more dead heading and disbudding of the dahlias. There are no more shows but I want some for the harvest at church next weekend. Also removed the ties from the peas because they have finished cropping .
Been in the greenhouse a bit this evening and gave a lot of fuchsias a "short back and sides". First I made a list of those I had taken cuttings of and there were two varieties which I hadn't taken any from so I took some before I cut them down. I also potted 15 streptocrpus from 4 inch pots to 5 inch. These were grown from leaf cuttings taken in 2013.

This morning I removed the polythene cover from over the chrysanth bed. This afternoon I just went on the allotment after school for some sprouts and climbing French beans.

Just this afternoon for gardening today. It is our harvest at church on Sunday and I am going to do a basket of veg for display as well as taking a lot of flowers. I cut 20odd chrysanths then went to the allotment for some veg for the basket.
While on the allotment I planted 17 cabbages (3 varieties ) and 5 purple sprouting broccoli which were in 5 inch pots. Also planted the winter onion sets.