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Post by balc2 on Nov 3, 2024 21:24:25 GMT
Well it is looking better, grindle! Just take it one day at a time & before you know it you will have finished! 
Another thing that has been bugging me all of October & at present, nearly a week into November, is I need to plant out the Daffodil bulbs I bought at least 2 months ago to put in the planters around the cash machine! At the rate things are going they will flower indoors! I'm in a quandary to know what to do about the Geraniums & Fuchsias in the planters! I don't like to throw good plants away so I could dig them up & put them in pots on the shelving unit I have on the balcony. I'm not sure how I could protect the Geraniums from frost during the winter, would some fleece be enough? I have some I bought in £land a couple of years ago. While temps don't fall below -2 or -3C I think there is a good chance they may survive. The Fuchsias are 'Beacon' which is a hardy variety - in the ground - but may not survive in pots on the balcony. They were all cutting that I didn't really have room for on the balcony so I put them in the planters.
I don't really have enough plants to put in the planters after planting the Daffodils. I have thought I could use the Primroses I kept from last year. I think about 10 out of 12 have survived, in fact at least 3 plants are throwing up flowers! I don't really expect them to flower much during the winter & that's why I got some Pansies to take their place. I don't fancy looking at rosettes of green leaves all winter when the Pansies will give me lots of colour. I only bought the Primroses in the spring because I had nothing else in flower on the balcony apart from a very few bulbs & because I was feeling depressed by the worst display on the balcony since we moved in over 20 years ago! Ten Primroses won't go very far between 3 planters! 
At least a month ago I bought 3 Cyclamen plants in small pots meaning to transfer them to slightly bigger pots & have them on the balcony railings, just as I did last year. I also have 3 or 4 plants that survived the summer on the balcony & are growing & flowering again now. The trouble is they look terrible alongside the new plants from this year!
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Post by grindle on Nov 4, 2024 3:32:55 GMT
thanks balc2 yesterday I went plant shopping mostly ferns and grasses for the area, although I think I might have got too many  really nothing new there. I still have bulbs to plant too but wanted to get this area sorted while the weather allowed, hopefully by the end of the week. |
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Post by geumgrower on Nov 4, 2024 15:27:39 GMT
Collected more leaves, but the heap is now full so no more collecting until the heap has settled down.
Made a start on removing the old Summer House base. Very thick concrete, but very brittle. Heavy as well.
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Post by balc2 on Nov 4, 2024 19:44:46 GMT
Collected more leaves, but the heap is now full so no more collecting until the heap has settled down. Made a start on removing the old Summer House base. Very thick concrete, but very brittle. Heavy as well. Take care of yourself, geumgrower! Be careful especially of your back while trying to remove the concrete blocks.
I haven't even put afoot on the balcony today! Hopefully that will change during the rest of this week. I have Pansies to pot up & the Geraniums & Fuchsias from the planters around the cash machine will need potting up as well & then a place found for them to spend the winter.
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Post by grindle on Nov 5, 2024 4:24:38 GMT
planted up the new area, mowed the grass and collected leaves
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Post by seaburn on Nov 5, 2024 16:40:26 GMT
Balc the fuchsia should be ok left in the planters over winter. Don't prune them until late spring or when you can see new growth. The old stems will help protect them. The bedding geraniums may well be ok in fleece on your balcony. On milder/warmer days unwrap so they get a good drying.
I have had some success by wrapping 'cuttings' in damp newspaper and kept in a cool shed.
Are you planning to add more soil/compost to the planters?
Your efforts look excellent Grindle.
I have started to 'hack' back the large stand of Doellingeria umbellata. Its a 5ft small flowered white aster, but over 10 yrs it has taken over too much garden. I will add photos later. If any one would like some pieces let me know. I have half filled the garden bin and that is only about a 1oth of it.
I have plenty of plants to replant, A cristophii bulbs and a beautiful pale blue iris [Jane Philips I think] The 'aster' had hidden the iris. So it probably wont flower next year.
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Post by geumgrower on Nov 5, 2024 17:28:38 GMT
Summer house base broken up and moved. Still got to take it to the tip, probably on Thursday. Underneath it, I had hoped it would be soil, but it is degraded tarmac, so a bit of a job now to make it usable. We plan to move a raised bed from next to the garden shed up to the space. Where it is, it does not do that well and it does not really add anything to the garden.
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Post by grindle on Nov 6, 2024 4:14:25 GMT
thank you seaburnwell finished the area for now, I've not wired the feature in yet, will leave that until spring, by then hopefully the plants will have established. The Fatsia Spiders Web is looking sad at the back, I've moved it there in the hope it will recover, wasn't liking where it was planted, the root system wasn't too good either, will see how it fares but if it doesn't recover, I'll replace it with a Sarcococca which is a bit tougher  need to find a home for the gnome, my son bought it years ago for me so it has to stay  did re adjust the water butt as it was a bit too high, cleared the remains of broken fence panels and odd bits of wood all bagged up now ready for a tip run. |
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Post by balc2 on Nov 6, 2024 6:33:14 GMT
Thanks seaburn but I dug up the Fuchsias and now they are in pots on the balcony. The few geraniums couldn't be saved but the green & white variegated one I used for cuttings the yellow leaf ones couldn't be saved 😔. The petunia was looking really good and it was a shame to dig it out 😕. I've now put the few Primroses in the planter over the top of some Daffodils. |
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Post by jellibeans on Nov 6, 2024 7:46:33 GMT
 I've done it!!  All bulbs are now snuggled down under soil. |
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Post by geumgrower on Nov 6, 2024 16:41:26 GMT
Made a start on removing the slate mulch from the raised bed. Knee collapsed so had to stop. Have booked a slot at the tip tomorrow to get rid of some of the old concrete, probably need 3 trips though to get rid of it all.
Under where the concrete was it seems to be a 6 inch layer of sand on top of rubble. Not sure what to do about that. May just add compost to it so that anything planted in the new raised bed can get down to it.
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Post by balc2 on Nov 6, 2024 20:48:25 GMT
At least the plants will have sharp drainage, geumgrower! |
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Post by balc2 on Nov 6, 2024 20:52:19 GMT
I've done it!! All bulbs are now snuggled down under soil. Most of the Daffodils I bought a couple of months ago to put in the planters around the cash machine have now been planted as well! Now I've half a bag for the last of the 3 planters. (I robbed the other half to put under the rose a brother of mine gave us for our Golden Wedding anniversary!)
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Post by SueA on Nov 6, 2024 20:57:15 GMT
I'm working my way through the box of bulbs from under the stairs, planted some in the borders & some in pots so far..
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Post by balc2 on Nov 6, 2024 21:12:28 GMT
This morning I did a makeover on the 2nd of the 3 planters around the cash machine. I removed all the variegated Geraniums I put in during July & then dug the soil over a bit before planting 30 Daffodil bulbs. I added a layer of used compost from the growbags I had used on the balcony to grow tomatoes in during the summer. Then I put in the Cyclamen plants that had survived the summer on the balcony. They look a bit ragged but they will pick up & will flower in the spring. Though as there were a few flowers on several of them they may give a few more before the spring if we don't have a particularly hard winter. 
After I had finished planting the Cyclamen I thought the planter looked rather bare so I put in a dozen Pansies & did the same with the first one I planted up yesterday. My son got me 2 trays of Pansies more than a week ago but I hadn't got around to planting them up on the balcony. I divided the tray of Pansies between the 2 planters & now they should look a lot better once they start to flower!
The Geraniums I took home & put in pots on the balcony. As all the variegated green & white ones had lost almost all their roots when lifting I cut all the stems back by at least a half & removed some of the biggest leaves. When I finished I put them in the mini-greenhouse on the balcony table where they will now stay all winter (& survive I hope!). The stems I cut back I later turned into cuttings & now I have about 40 cuttings of this Geranium!
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really nothing new there.
