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Post by balc2 on Sept 10, 2024 20:58:45 GMT
I've continued bringing in pots from the balcony & putting them in the kitchen! Almost reached capacity point now! I did a little deadheading of the Morning Glories & geraniums. I also put the the surviving Primroses in the rings on the balcony railings from which I removed the Petunias a couple of weeks ago. They were replaced with Geraniums which I moved indoors today. I also put a couple of the surviving Cyclamen from last winter in the rings as well. In a few weeks time I shall probably take all these plants out of the rings & replace them with something that has flowers instead of just leaves! I may get some Pansies or Violas as I've hardly grown them any more since they kept dying off before they reached their peak flowering in the spring. Some virus apparently that causes them to just collapse, go brown & die.
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Post by geumgrower on Sept 12, 2024 10:04:37 GMT
Planted some Crocus which involves digging out a huge amount of what looks like lime mortar from just under the surface. Two big compost bags and a bucket of it. Good job we have enough compost to fill up the holes with.
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Post by SueA on Sept 12, 2024 22:18:33 GMT
Picked a mini cucumber & a few tomatoes in the greenhouse & pulled out some of the plants. Still 2 mini cucumber plants & 5 tomato plants in there with a few fruits on so left them for now.
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Post by geumgrower on Sept 13, 2024 15:15:29 GMT
Neighbour went up the ladder (never asked him to, but he loves it) and we cut down some of the dead branches which were hanging over the compost heap. Sadly the one branch which I really would like to have removed is well out of either of our reaches. Now shredded and binned.
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Post by balc2 on Sept 13, 2024 17:26:32 GMT
Now that there is no room in the kitchen for my pots of plants I've resorted to using our bedroom windowsill! It too is now full with pots stacked on top of each other! Any plants I have left outside will have to face the cold winter inside the mini-greenhouse that I will erect again in a few weeks time. I'll try & add a picture of the bedroom window from outside tomorrow. I deadheaded a few Morning Glory flowers but most of them were from yesterday or the day before as most of today's flowers haven't even opened because it has been too cold.
Since I've been bringing in the Geraniums, Pelargoniums & Begonias I've been taking some cutting of the variegated Geraniums. I haven't taken any of the Pelargoniums as there aren't any shoots I could use, (Nor on the 'Dragon Wings' Begonias), there are lots of flowers on the Begonias. I've taken a few pictures of them. I brought 1 pot in a few weeks ago & the flowers have lost most of their colour & are almost white now. In one of the photos I focused on the flowers of the plants I brought in alongside the one that has been in the kitchen for about 3 weeks. The difference is very noticeable.
A couple of years ago I put 3 Spider Plants on our bedroom windowsill together with 3 variegated Geraniums. I hadn't moved them in all this time but the Spider Plants had outgrown their pots & the "spiders" had overgrown the Geraniums & the compost was being pushed out of the pots. So this morning I threw them away. I have the mother plant in the kitchen which is at least 15+ years old, (though I have divided it up & repotted it at least once in all this time). Then I cleaned up the spilt compost & cleaned the window, inside & out, before putting 2 of the 3 Geraniums back again, I threw one away as it was in poor condition & as I have many more of the same plant it wasn't worth keeping.
I then proceeded to fill the windowsill with pots of Geraniums & Pelargoniums from the balcony - I had to stand a second row of pots on top of the bottom row & still I don't have enough room! I think a third row would be overdoing it! Though years ago I had up to 4 tiers of Amaryllis pots on our bedroom windowsill!
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Post by Andrew on Sept 15, 2024 10:32:48 GMT
A busy morning in the garden. I've picked some carrots and beetroot, then emptied my first pot of potatoes. After that I took the beans down and tidied the sticks away, then did a bit of deadheading and weeding.
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Post by geumgrower on Sept 15, 2024 13:32:47 GMT
Too wet and cold to bother. Did manage to take some Salvia cuttings yesterday.
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Post by seaburn on Sept 15, 2024 14:44:54 GMT
re-potted last years bulbs yesterday and split some Iris siberica too. Picked some tomatoes and peppers.
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Post by geumgrower on Sept 16, 2024 11:45:42 GMT
Made a start on shovelling sh....er compost. The heap needs turning.
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Post by balc2 on Sept 16, 2024 18:23:02 GMT
Other than doing some watering & deadheading of the Morning Glories, (the Petunias have now been cut back, practically to compost level, but not thrown away yet. They are making new growth & new flower buds!), which continue flowering in spite of the lower temps. Though they struggle to open the flowers! Perhaps during this week of higher daytime temps again & lots of sunshine the flowers will be able to open again.
I have brought all the pots of plants I can into the flat but those that remain on the balcony will have to spend the winter outside. In about a month's time I will reassemble the big round table I keep on the balcony & then do the same for the mini-greenhouse. I will put it on the table like other years & put as many plants as possible inside. It comes with a plastic outer cover but I also stand it inside an old mattress bag from some years ago. I cut an opening in it for a door to coincide with the door in the greenhouse cover.
Today I planted the 'Triplet Lily' corms I have had for some months in a pot on the balcony that a lady on another gardening forum sent me some months ago:
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Post by balc2 on Sept 16, 2024 18:43:59 GMT
On Saturday, I think it was, I picked my first tomatoes of the year from the balcony. Rather late I know but I wasn't planning on growing any this year & then with such a cold "spring" they were very slow growing. Today I picked a handful more. The ones from the other day were from one of the 3 unknown self-sown seedlings that appeared in my pots during the late spring. The ones I picked today came from one of the 9 dwarf tomato plants on the balcony.
The seeds of the dwarf tomatoes were sent to me by another lady on a different gardening forum I no longer post on. I had sent her some seeds of an unidentified cherry tomato she requested after seeing some photos I had posted on the forum. In return she send me a few seeds each of 6 different dwarf varieties of tomatoes. Only one of them is a very tall "dwarf" - 2 plants are now as tall as I am (5ft 6in)! They have very dark green foliage which is all crinkled up! I must take a photo just of these 2 plants as I've never seen anything like them before. They have lots of small tomatoes that are a very dark green. They show no sign of changing colour at present so they may be similar tomatoes to "Green Zebra" my son gave me a few years ago. Though its fruits eventually take of a yellowish hue indicating they are ready to harvest. When this week or so of sunshine & higher daytime temps comes to an end I will pick a tomato or two to see what they are like.
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Post by geumgrower on Sept 17, 2024 11:43:28 GMT
More shovelling. Compost is dry in places so will need to empty the water butts on to it when I have finished.
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Post by SueA on Sept 17, 2024 15:31:58 GMT
Cut back more plants by the pond , bit of deadheading & potted up two little acers & a prunus kojo-no-mai which I got for £5 each a few weeks ago.
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Post by geumgrower on Sept 17, 2024 19:25:22 GMT
Bottom layer of the compost heap turns out to be dry, unwhatevered grass. Having to mix it up with other material before transferring it to the new pile. Slows the job right down.
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Post by balc2 on Sept 17, 2024 19:26:01 GMT
Here's some photos of the tomatoes I was talking about yesterday:
I tried to get a "selfie" with me alongside the "dwarf" tomato with the green fruits & dark green, almost black, foliage but it wasn't possible - I could get only a picture of me without hardly any of the tomato plant or almost only the tomato plant & not of myself so as to compare heights!
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