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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 12, 2014 23:24:58 GMT
Wanted to plant the roses today but it rained for an hour this morning so I thought the ground may be too wet. I had some errands to do this morning and I went to the Post Office and posted about 14 orders to Dobies, Everybody has not given me their orders yet. This is only about half of them but I decided to post what I have got including my own.
The weather brightened up this afternoon and a I took a chance and went to my son, Martyns and planted his four roses. The ground wasn't too bad and I did some more weeding for him as well.
On the terrace at home in the back garden we have a table and two chairs with a parasol over them. We won't be sitting out again this tear so when I got home from Martyns I dismantled them and put them away in the shed. I then went in the greenhouse and potted up the Penstemons that I brought home from the allotment.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 13, 2014 23:23:46 GMT
Rosemary needed the car this afternoon so I decided to go on the allotment this morning and carry on with the weeding and stay at home this afternoon and plant the roses. It was very windy but it stayed dry so I managed to get them done.
The annual beds on the allotment are rather bad so I concentrated on getting the larger weeds and clumps of chickweed out and leave the smaller weeds till later. I still filled 4 sacks with weeds.The four roses I planted at home were to replace some in the rose bed that were no longer performing. Many of my roses have been in over 30 years and some may be over 40 so I am replacing the older ones and under performing ones a few at a time when I can afford them . Martyn paid for these for my birthday. Because they are replacing other roses I put "rootgrow" on the roots when planting. Those that I planted for Martyn yesterday were going in soil that has not grown roses so I didn't need to use rootgrow.
I also fixed up the bird table in position. It goes on one of the borders alongside the back lawn so I can't put it there till I have removed the plants. When I had done this I went in the greenhouse and potted some rooted geranium cuttings.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 14, 2014 22:34:44 GMT
Been at Blackleach all day today. It rained hard all morning but when it brightened up later in the afternoon I planted some Snakes head fritillaries that I bought from Wilkinsons when I was in Porthmadog .
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 15, 2014 21:43:37 GMT
It stayed fine today and I went on the allotment and carried on with the weeding this afternoon. It was a bit wet after yesterday's rain but I worked from paths as much as possible to avoid walking on the soil. I have always said that if I waited till conditions were ideal the job would never get finished. From now on and through the winter it is nearly always wet or frozen and I have so many weeds that I need to get on with it when I can.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 16, 2014 21:52:07 GMT
Another fine day so I went on the allotment this afternoon and carried on with the weeding. The dahlias are still not blackened by frost but most of the flowers have been spoiled by the rain we had on Friday but I did manage to cut a decent bunch to put in a vase at home.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 17, 2014 23:04:13 GMT
A bit of rain overnight but dry rest of the day. Had to go an errand this morning and by the time I got home it wasn't worth going to the allotment. I started pruning my H.T. roses and did about half of them. I have said before that the traditional time for pruning roses is March but I do them any time between November and March provided the weather is not frosty.
I did go on the allotment this afternoon and carried on forking over and weeding the veg beds.
This evening we have been to the annual social evening of Salford and Bolton fuchsia society. We had a nice buffet then a bingo session and several quizzes. Not the type of quizzes that I am any good at though. In one of them we had to name things beginning with the letter "A" such as country, town, vegetable , animal etc. When it came to "car part" I shouted "and brake" but they wouldn't have it. Anyway it was a very enjoyable evening.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 19, 2014 19:12:08 GMT
Didn't have any time for gardening at all yesterday apart from school but I have had a full day today. Went to Martyns this morning and planted two roses that I brought from my own garden. These two were taken out to make room for my new ones that I planted last week. I decided that I didn't want them because they are not exhibition roses but they will be alright for his garden. I then finished his weeding and forked over his garden.
Went on the allotment this afternoon and carried on with the weeding..
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 20, 2014 23:09:16 GMT
Another nice dry day. It was nice for our health walk this morning. Rosemary needed the car for shopping this afternoon . I had therefore thought of staying at home to finish pruning my roses. However , the weather is so dry and settled that I changed my mind . I decided it was more important to carry on with forking over and weeding the veg beds on the allotment. So Rosemary dropped me off there and I walked home. Because I had to walk home I couldn't take all my tools but just for forking over the beds and weeding I only needed my fork ,and of course my flask of coffee. Where I have been working the last few days is where the potatoes had been growing and I dug several up that I had missed when digging them up earlier. I always go over the ground twice but I still miss some. They weren't all usable though.
My seeds arrived from Dobies this morning. I had included seeds for the school , for the allotments and my friend Alan across the road along with my order to save carriage. They were all in a big box so I have had to sort them all out this evening.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 21, 2014 22:52:56 GMT
The weather was still dry this morning but I couldn't go to the allotment because she persuaded me to go Christmas shopping with her (I've got to keep her happy , haven't I? ). We got home about 2.00 but it has rained the rest of the day. We normally go to the supermarket on Friday nights but because it was raining and I couldn't do any gardening we went this afternoon so that we could have a night in this evening. We have been out three nights this week (as we do most weeks)and it's nice to have a night in sometimes.
When we got home from shopping this afternoon I had an hour in the greenhouse. I potted all the remaining fuchsia cuttings into yoghurt pots (there were 30)and geranium cuttings, about 20 of these and they go into three and a half inch pots.
Unwins catalogue came this morning. It is always the last to arrive. I have already got my seeds from all the other firms. I get my sweet peas from Unwins so I made my order out this evening and will post it tomorrow.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 22, 2014 22:06:55 GMT
This morning was our last Saturday at the hut till next February.
It was nice this afternoon after yesterdays rain but I thought it would be too wet to carry on with the weeding. We did our walk round Blackleach first then I carried on pruning the roses but didn't get time to finish them before it went dark. I went in the greenhouse after and finished potting all the rooted cuttings. There were some trailing geraniums and some streptocarpus .
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 23, 2014 22:54:13 GMT
This afternoon it was a toss up between going on the allotment and staying at home and finish pruning the roses. Decided to finish the roses. I have about 40 H.Ts in the back garden and I had almost finished these. There are about 20 floribundas in the front garden so I did these . I still have roses on the allotment to do. I just have 10 dahlias in my garden at home (most are on the allotment). When I had finished the roses I dug these up and labelled them and put them in the greenhouse. I will put them in boxes when I have brought the allotment ones home. Half of these I have dug up today were Taratahi Ruby and I have packed some in a box to post to Scrumpy. I showed some of this variety at Southport and I was Scrumpy and his wife there and she said she would like some of them.
I told you yesterday that I had potted up all my rooted cuttings. They had all been on one of the warming benches The coleus cuttings that I potted a few weeks ago were also on this bench because they need more warmth than other plants in the greenhouse. Because I don't need this bench for cuttings any more I switched it off and took the coleus plants into the house.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 24, 2014 23:11:18 GMT
A full day on the allotment today. It was a toss up between pruning the roses and digging up the dahlias. It is colder today and there may be a frost tonight according to the forecast so I thought I had better leave the roses. I got rid of the tomato plants from the polytunnel first. There were only a few small tomatoes on. It only took 20 minutes to cut them down and put them on the compost. Spent the rest of the morning cutting down the dahlias even though they still hadn't been blackened by frost. Couldn't finish them this morning so had to do a few this afternoon. There is not room on the compost for them all so I just left them in a heap. Many of them will go into the runner bean/sweet pea trenches when I have dug them out . This bed needs weeding first though before I can dig these trenches. I then began digging up the dahlias and did about half of them. I scrape off the loose soil then knock a screwdriver down the hollow stem to help the water to drain away then tie on the label by tying the string right round the tuber and not just round the stem. This is because the stems shrink as they dry and the label would come off. I then stand them upside down in the large plastic trays that they use in supermarkets. Filled three of these trays today and brought them home and put them under the staging in the propagating greenhouse. This greenhouse has tubular heaters that come on when the temperature is low enough. The heater in the other greenhouse has to be switched on when I think it is needed and I switched it on tonight for the first time this winter.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 26, 2014 23:01:24 GMT
Had to go an errand first thing this morning but I went on the allotment after. Carried on digging up the dahlias but didn't have time to finish them.
Rosemary needed the car this afternoon and the weather didn't look promising enough for me to walk down so I stayed at home. I have told you before about two large flowering cherry trees in a neighbouring garden that overhang one of my greenhouses. The leaves fall all over my greenhouse and between the greenhouse and the fence. Now that all the leaves have come off I got them all from between the greenhouse and the fence and on the greenhouse and in the gutters and washed the glass. I keep things like planks of wood and some rolls of wire netting behind the greenhouse so all these had to be moved first.It is a very difficult job because there is not much room for me to get behind . The fence, which belongs to the other house and which is as high as the greenhouse leans towards the greenhouse which makes it worse so I'm glad this job is done. Didn't get time to bag the leaves up though, or to put the things back behind the greenhouse. I have a full day tomorrow so hopefully I will be able to finish this and also the dahlias.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 27, 2014 22:21:24 GMT
This morning I finished digging up and labelling the dahlia tubers. They are now stood upside down in 6 of those large supermarket trays under the greenhouse staging. I didn't keep them all though. For example I already had 6 tubers of Don Hill from my own garden and there were 8 on the allotment. These from the allotment were a lot bigger and far too big really so I just kept those from my garden which were just a nice size. I have only one Kenora Challenger though and I wish I had more. I will have to hope this one tuber gives me enough cuttings.
This afternoon I have continued to collect the leaves from behind the greenhouse. The fence I told you about yesterday is along the side of the greenhouse but along the back is a high hawthorn hedge and the leaves from this also needed clearing . I keep some 9 inch pots and some wooden boxes behind here and these had to be moved first and then put back after.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 28, 2014 21:50:06 GMT
No gardening today but Scrumpy has sent me a tuber of the dahlia Rycroft Zoe because I had lost that variety. I have a full gardening day tomorrow , weather permitting.
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