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Post by Cherry on Aug 20, 2024 9:10:43 GMT
I removed a beautiful Tayberry which was so happy it turned into a thug. I will take the root to White House Farm where it will have lots of room as it did attract a lot of wildlife. It was too prickly for me as I take blood thinners for my heart, and it was covering shrubs in front of it. The fruits were beautiful and it was disease free. Hard to find in shops too. Oh well! The birds at the farm will love it.
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Post by balc2 on Aug 20, 2024 17:12:20 GMT
Having blackberry in its genes it's no wonder you found it turned into a "thug" when it found a site it liked!!
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Post by balc2 on Aug 20, 2024 17:15:00 GMT
I helped cut back lots of brambles in a garden a few weeks ago! Shame because they were full of green fruit! But the owners of the garden have to leave the house & it had become very overgrown over the last year or two.
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Post by balc2 on Aug 20, 2024 17:39:37 GMT
Today I spent about 30 mins or so watering & deadheading plants on the balcony as well as another 30 minutes outside deadheading the Morning Glory climbers. In spite of the shortage of bees to pollinate them they still manage to set hundreds of seed capsules! The wind today made many of the flowers fold together the petals (funnel) so I removed them as well.
There are some "wild" Morning Glory plants growing up the chicken wire from outside the balcony this year for the first time ever! I have made a narrow strip of ground between the balcony floor & the "lawn" outside, (the patch of grass the council gardeners mow for us about every 2 to 3 weeks! ), to stop the grass from getting into the balcony but especially to stop the Field Bindweed from climbing up the chicken wire!
This strip in very shallow, no more than 1/2 inch of soil over a concrete surround. Yet somehow seeds from my Morning Glory climbers fell into this strip & germinated! Perhaps due to the wetter than usual periods we have had this year they survived. I cleaned the "competition" from around them & now some of them are climbing up the chicken wire around the balcony! I have removed a dead flower or two but I haven't actually seen any flowers open at present.
The council gardener came round this afternoon & just using the strimmer "mowed" the "lawn"! At first I thought he must have cut down the Morning Glory in that narrow strip but he hadn't! I don't water them but some water from when I water the pots must fall into the strip outside, as well as the rain of course, but I haven't deliberately watered them.
Our "lawn" in front of the balcony as seen from the street:
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Post by grindle on Aug 21, 2024 2:39:04 GMT
indoor jobs needed to be caught up on so only did a bit of watering in the greenhouse and potted up 3 new Japanese anemones which arrived from Hayloft
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Post by Cherry on Aug 21, 2024 7:09:43 GMT
Ooh I saw that lovely Jap Anemone advertised by Hayloft grindle.
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Post by SueA on Aug 21, 2024 18:00:39 GMT
Received a pack of 36 little plug plants of violas 'Berries & Cream' in the post so I planted them up in cell trays for now.
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Post by balc2 on Aug 21, 2024 19:00:33 GMT
Haven't done anything on the balcony today except sweep it. Lots of dead flowers & leaves as well as dried pigeon droppings needed to be swept away. No doubt I will have to repeat the process tomorrow again after such a windy day today. Around 7pm I stepped out onto the balcony to pick up a branch that had been torn off a trailing Begonia. I really should know better than to plant such relatively "fragile" plants in the hanging baskets as this street is very windy & I have casualties every year from the wind.
I didn't feed my plants this morning but will do so tomorrow.
I have lots of mini tomatoes starting to ripen on the balcony but nothing I can pick just yet.If we had a couple of warmish weeks then they would ripen pretty quickly but given the weather we have at present they will need a few more weeks.
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Post by grindle on Aug 22, 2024 2:47:48 GMT
cut a lot of leaves off the outside tomatoes to help them ripen, did plenty of deadheading this is the one I got Cherry Anemone Royal Candy
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Post by geumgrower on Aug 22, 2024 15:39:57 GMT
Tried to plant some Daffs, but the ground is so hard I could not make a hole so I gave up.
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Post by balc2 on Aug 22, 2024 20:22:09 GMT
Tried to plant some Daffs, but the ground is so hard I could not make a hole so I gave up. You'll have to water it first before you can do anything with it! Haven't you had a lot of rain recently? I would have thought the ground would have been very soft! If you live in NW England then the next day or 2 you should get plenty of rain!
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Post by balc2 on Aug 22, 2024 20:48:59 GMT
I fed my plants this midday & that was all I had time for today.
Yesterday evening I brought one of my 'Dragon Wings' Begonias in & put it in the kitchen where it will be seen a lot more than out on the balcony!
Although I was very disappointed with the plants when they arrived I'm glad to say they have grown very well & are flowering like mad!
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Post by SueA on Aug 22, 2024 21:37:39 GMT
24 little viola Sorbet Honeybee arrived today so I popped outside in a dry spell & planted those up in cell trays. I watered the hanging baskets as well because despite having a little rain the wind is drying them out.
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Post by Eli on Aug 23, 2024 15:03:49 GMT
I started getting my cold frames ready to move out of the way, ready for the man to put decking down for me, at the bottom of the garden. I know where I'm going to put one of them but I haven't got a clue where to put the other two. And I don't know what Bella's going to do because they are up on bricks and she likes sleeping under one of them (and it's always the same one )
I tidied my cherry tomato plants on the patio and picked a few. The 'greenhouse' ones are hopeless and I'm thinking of throwing them in the garden bin for next collection.
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Post by Andrew on Aug 23, 2024 20:38:28 GMT
My greenhouse tomato's are hopeless this year too Eli. A few people have said the same to me about theirs, so must be one of those years. I'm not having a great year for beans either, and had to sow my rows of carrots 3 times before they finally started growing in any quantity. By contrast the beetroot and onions seems to be having a good year in my garden. I had to tie up the beans again at lunchtime today after the wind snapped the string holding the sticks together this morning, and then did a bit of weeding/deadheading this evening.
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