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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 30, 2014 19:22:46 GMT
On October 5th I showed you a picture of a basket of veg that I did for our church harvest.It is the same basket I did for Whitefield show in September. When I took it home after the harvest it fell to pieces because it had woodworm in it.I bought it about 7 or 8 years ago from a shop in Porthmadog. I have been to the same shop this morning hoping to get another one like it but they hadn't got one. I did find one in another shop . It isn't quite as big but it will have to do.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 2, 2014 21:34:46 GMT
Arrived home from our daughter, Heathers in Porthmadog last night so today I am back to normal. Went on the allotment this afternoon to carry on with the weeding. It started raining at 3.00 so I sat in the car for a bit till it stopped. Rest of the afternoon was showery so I just worked between showers . I still filled 3 sacks with weeds.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 2, 2014 22:05:31 GMT
When we go to Heathers in Wales there are several ways we can go but at this time of year we like going through Ruthin and Bala because there are colourful trees along the road particularly a nice beech hedge. I am going to show you a picture or two
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 2, 2014 22:07:37 GMT
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 2, 2014 22:10:39 GMT
 This beech hedge is at the bottom of the lane that leads to Dibleys nursery |
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 2, 2014 22:13:35 GMT
 Hanging baskets I planted for Heather and pots she has done herself |
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 2, 2014 22:17:39 GMT
 Spectacular Acers at Portmeirion (only a mile from Porthmadog) |
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 3, 2014 22:46:38 GMT
Today I have finished emptying the hanging baskets and potted up the plants from them that I want to keep to take cuttings from next spring.
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Post by Cherry on Nov 4, 2014 16:15:39 GMT
Wales looks beautiful in your pics Derek. The hedge is spectacular; also the colours of autumn at Portmeirion.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 5, 2014 22:59:37 GMT
Thanks, Cherry
Not much gardening time yesterday but I went on the allotment for a bit in the afternoon and began removing the annuals and putting them on the compost heap. They had more or less finished and had been battered about by the wind particularly the taller ones like cosmos.
At night I went to the veg meeting . It was an interesting talk called "A year under glass" but it was at a different venue and I had at least twice as far to travel and it took me a long time to find it. Also I got home too late to go on my computer.
I have had a full gardening day today . I have been to my son, Martyns house this afternoon and done some more weeding . I have told you before ,the main problem in his garden is bittercress and if I let it seed it makes the problem worse so I try to get it out while it is small.
I have spent the rest of the day getting my tubs ready for re-planting. The summer plants had all been removed so I forked them over removing any roots. Added some Q4 base and forked it in and some of them needed topping up with more compost. I planted tulips and daffs in some of them and some polyanthus and bellis. I hope to finish them tomorrow
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 6, 2014 21:32:57 GMT
Just this afternoon for gardening. The weather forecast was for rain this afternoon but we only had a shower. I was working under the car port most of the time so it didn't matter anyway. I managed to finish planting all my tubs and other containers . If it is raining I can bring the tubs under the car port. I planted all the bulbs . Apart from putting some in the tubs I planted some in pots which can be taken into the house when they are flowering . Also planted some of the tubs with pansies, polyanthus, primroses and bellis. I still have the hanging baskets to do. A friend has brought me four that she wants planting . I don't do as many for myself at this time of year as I do in summer. Will probably do five for the front of the house.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 7, 2014 20:56:09 GMT
Showery today so I have been working under the car port again . I planted my five hanging baskets and the four that the lady brought me yesterday. I had to go to the local garden centre for a few more plants to finish them off. When I plant baskets for other people like this I just charge them for the cost of the plants I bought and the cost of the compost I have used.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 8, 2014 21:01:47 GMT
It was raining most of the morning while we were at the hut. This afternoon we were going to do our walk round Blackleach as we do every two weeks . It did stop raining but it didn't look very promising so we thought we had better not risk it. There is nowhere to shelter on the other side of the reservoir. So I decided to clear the rest of the plants from round the back lawn except for the dahlias. There are 10 dahlias in these borders, 5 on each side. I don't normally cut dahlias down till they have been blackened by frost but I cut these down because they were falling over and looking untidy and it wasn't worth tying them up again.I filled 4 large sacks with these plants and I took them to the allotment and put them on the compost. While I was there I removed some more of the annuals I grow for cutting.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 9, 2014 22:43:10 GMT
A much nicer day today so we did our walk round Blackleach this afternoon . I'm sure I have told you before but the purpose is to count the number of birds we see of each kind . We get more birds on the reservoir from now on than we get in summer. For instance there are hardly any black headed gulls there is summer but there were about 80 this afternoon and we get over 100 sometimes and we get different kinds of ducks. I will be recording all the figure on a chart in the visitor centre next time I go which will be on Tuesday. Up to the end of October we also write down all the wild flowers that we see but we wont be doing this again till spring.
We got home about 3.00 so I had about 2 hours on the allotment getting rid of more annuals .
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 10, 2014 23:30:20 GMT
It is raining this evening but the rest of the day has been nice. Had the afternoon on the allotment and finished pulling up the annuals and put them on the compost heap. There were five beds containing annuals and three had been cleared before. I didn't know whether to weed the beds that had been cleared before I cleared the other two but decided against it. I chopped up the larger plants such as cosmos, cleome and sunflowers with shears as I put them on the compost. Two of the beds contained some Penstemon "Scarlet queen" which of course are not annuals I don't find them reliably hardy though so I brought them home and will pot them up and try to keep them till next year in the cold greenhouse. So my next three jobs on the allotment will be weeding, more weeding and still more weeding! Some of these annual beds are quite bad mainly with chickweed.
The roses that I ordered from R.V.Rogers arrived today . There are four for me and four for Martyn, my son so these will need planting soon ,weather permitting. If I can't plant them in the next day or two I will heel them in temporarily.
Another job which has been taking much of my time recently is collecting peoples orders to send to Dobies. I have told you about this before. I collect orders from people on our allotments and horticultural society (30 odd altogether)and we get 50% discount on seeds which is very good and 15%on other items. There is a different system this time though. People can if they wish send there own orders in and get the same discount. Most people are still giving their orders to me though. Another difference is that before people didn't need to pay until the seeds arrived but now they have to be paid for with the order. This will save me a lot of work later on because I won't have to sort invoices and statements out which were very time consuming. It has made more work at this time of the year though having to sort the money out . Some people are giving my cash and some paying by cheque which makes it a bit complicated.
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