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Post by geumgrower on Nov 18, 2024 20:47:12 GMT
Did manage to collect some more leaves before the rain and pain. Noticed that there are Snowdrops just showing above soil level in a couple of places. It seems very early for them to be up. (Not Autumn flowering ones either!).
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Post by balc2 on Nov 18, 2024 22:03:51 GMT
I spent about an hour outside on the balcony moving the 5 hanging baskets from the front of the balcony to the back. I cleaned up each basket as I did so but I've left the plants in them. There is a Geranium in the centre of each one as well as some trailing Begonias & even a few Lobelia plants that haven't quite died just yet! I've done this other years & had few casualties. All the trailing Begonias in the baskets this year were from tubers that survived the winter in their original baskets! I emptied out the baskets in May & replanted them all with new compost & replanted the Begonias in them. Only 1 Geranium I think was from last year but I think most of them survived. It just depends on what sort of weather we have during the winter this year.
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Post by balc2 on Nov 19, 2024 6:32:42 GMT
Yesterday I spent an hour or so on the balcony trying to get things ready for the week long spell of very cold weather that has been forecast for this week.
After doing the baskets I moved some pots underneath the balcony table where they will at least be dry and get some protection from frost.
I have some pots of Amaryills and some of Clivias, both of them are frost tender and will have to be brought inside whenever frost is forecast. I simply don't have room for them indoors at the moment. 😕
I brought in a Busy Lizzy and 2 pots of Dragon Wings Begonias. The flowers and leaves are so vibrant it seems a shame to put them with the other 4 in the kitchen, they make them look terrible! If I'd left them outside they would have died.
I put a few more pots in the mini greenhouse and took out the 3 pots of Cyclamen and put them on top of a pot were the Morning Glory had been growing all summer so that they are visible from the balcony door. I would love to put them altogether in one half pot but the 2 I have I filled last week with Pansies. I have another bowl shaped one of plastic I could use but I think it will be too small for the 3 plants. 🙁
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Post by balc2 on Nov 20, 2024 6:23:03 GMT
I did nothing on the balcony yesterday but in the kitchen I threw away the 5 or 6 pots of Tradescantia zebrina that had grown so wonderfully this year on top of the fridge. I replaced them with a couple of pots of rooted cuttings and one with cuttings taken from the plants I threw away. I also put the Bacopa from the balcony on top of the fridge with them. This is the first time ever I have had a flowering plant up there! I don't know how long it will last but it will be longer than outside on the balcony! In fact it has already lasted longer than it would have done outside as we have frost this morning!
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Post by balc2 on Nov 20, 2024 21:28:21 GMT
Cherry, with all those Oak leaves you should be able to make lots of excellent leaf mould!  Though I understand you can have too much of a good thing! geumgrower, I see you do make leaf mould from the leaves on your property! I tried one year on the allotment. I put lots of leaves in a compost bin (custom made, though not for me) but I don't remember what happened to them! 
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Post by balc2 on Nov 20, 2024 21:31:05 GMT
I haven't been out on the balcony today, not even to check on anything! I've done what I can for the present but anything that can't resist a couple of degrees of frost would probably be dead by now.  |
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Though I understand you can have too much of a good thing! 
