The Potting Shed - come on in, the kettle's on!

Dustykitten

Primrose wrote: »

Gosh - that's early. Which part of the country are you in? I don't normally sow mine until May as I can't plant them outside until June because they hate the cold nights.

I always do a few indoors now. I'm in the South East. Once they are a fair size they go in the cold frame which is very sunny with the lid open at day and closed at night and then I plant them out. At that time I plant another lot so if the first survive great and if they don't nothing lost. The seeds are saved from last year so no cost involved. I'm going to start some squash off using the same principle. That will be it for now as we may go away early April and then I can't be looking after stuff.

[Deleted User]

my last frost date is late march but I don`t trust that. It was 17.8 in my back garden today and everything is now sown, except beans. I put squashes in the propagator yesterday as I have facilities to nurture baby plants.

Very cold last night -2.4 and I am glad that I put 2 fleece covers on my patio grow geenhouse. Everything was fine and I am getting most stuff out in the warm breeze to harden off then in and covered about 4ish for the night

I wish it would rain here, it is so dry and my 2 waterbutts are almost empty

onestep

hi everyone, can I join in?

Nothing in the ground yet - we're on clay, so it takes a long while to get to the right temp, and it's still too wet to dig over
In the greenhouse - seeds sown of carrots (in deep pots), broad beans, leeks, and some others I've forgotten. Shallot, onion and garlic sets in modules. Overwintering tiarella trifoliata and tellima grandiflora grown from seed & ready to go out. Am waiting to see if the lilium regale also grown from seed will show it's face again, or if I've lost them.
In the propogators, I've got mainly flower seeds at the moment, Banksia, viola, mesembryanthemum (?sp!), monarda, (all up ) and aquilegia, and hedychium still to show. Got Astrantia major in the fridge. And I've got Foremost and Sante potatoes chitting on the side in the kitchen.

I've got all the seeds from the RHS members list to get started yet, so loads to do. This time of year is so full of potential!! It lifts my spirits just getting out in the garden to see what else has survived the winter. Yesterday I dug over a little bit of (what will eventually be) the woodland garden. The chickens were very nosy, and kept getting in the way, but I managed to plant some daffodils there (in pots ready), and today I'm really pleased with it. Trouble with spring is that the housework gets neglected!! ;)

LilacPixie

I need to join too.. Up in Scotland so last frost is Early May which I can quite believe as we still had snow flurries in April 2010. Anyway I have 2 projects.. number 1 an allotment that I took control of last June and number 2 back/front gardens at our house which we bought in December 2010.

So far the allotment is still frozen, water still off so not much doing there and we can't even get it turned over yet. All thats in the ground is rubarb and last years strawbs.

Project 2 is more difficult.. prev owners were a plant random plants/shrubs/ivy and let it grow with some grass in the middle.. Grass is now mostly moss, ivy is evil and it grows from sie to side a distance of 20+ feet so thats been attacked and ripped out and I have no iddea what to do with the space. There is a lovely flat paved patio area and then a slightly slopping grass area. Young kids so keeping something grassy for them to have the slide etc on but i was hoping for some containers on the patio area and getting my grow house up when reay to sow seeds for ultimatly taking to the allotment. Towards the rear of the grassy section is a raised bed with a huge pampas grass in it.. think we will also have a go at removing that and making a nice bed that the kids can help us tend.. Oh and garden is south facing so really would be a pity to not use it.

Front Garden is smaller, did have a 7ft 'hedge' of connifers that DH attaced and removed last weekend soil left looks poor quality and its mixed with small pink loose stone chips. Small section of grass in middle very mossy.

Basically I have way too much to do all at once so i'm trying to prioritise.. Would appreciate any help or advice if possible.

Primrose

onestep wrote: »

hi everyone, can I join in?

Trouble with spring is that the housework gets neglected!! ;)

Same in this house! However, I'd rather go to me grave having created a garden than spent time removing dust from the sideboard. :rotfl:

Keiss_21

Lovely collection of seeds onestep, I also have all my RHS seeds to sow...as well as most of my veg!! I did get the greenhouse cleared out and washed down at the weekend. It looks really good...and quite empty atm!! I have a few semi-tender plants inside, with the rest having been hardened off.

We too have clay, but being on the Worcs/Glos border, we are much warmer than you. The garden has been a garden for over 300 years, so lovely soi :Dl!! The previous owners did next to nothinng with the garden, so it had a 10 year rest (so loads of weeds ) before we took it over 15 years ago. We had it looking great for quite a few years, but decided to have a major over-haul four years back. Unfortunately, having organised the boys to create the off-road parking space at the front, and removing all the turf from about third of the back garden, I fell ill...and was out of action for quite a few years. DH spent all his time looking after me and the boys, which left very little time for gardening.

This year I am determined to get things sorted (I say this every year ). I am not well enough to do much of the heavy work, but DS1 comes home from Uni this weekend...not as strong as DS2, but better work ethic!

DH has already replaced some raised-bed edging (18" high), but will need to have a bonfire before doing the next bit.

Meanwhile I am sowing seeds and cleaning more pots...and drawing up design ideas. Not feeling great this week, but trying to get a bit done every day.

Primrose wrote: »

Same in this house! However, I'd rather go to me grave having created a garden than spent time removing dust from the sideboard. :rotfl:

I have two signs in my kitchen:

Boring women have clean houses!!
and
Gardening forever, housework whenever!!

Love them both!! :rotfl:

little_lil

Everything is starting to come together here. My two new water butts arrived today and hopefully I will be able to connect them tomorrow. My greenhouse is organised - is it sad that when i get home from work i spend five mins in it doing nothing but it makes me smile

My veg beds are being built, we are doing the double height ones along the fence lines at the moment and they are looking fab. My man is very clever :T Must remember to take some photos to have as a record of what we have done.

DP brought home a "gift" of manure yesterday and we will be spending tomorrow digging that into beds. My DS (10yrs) is looking forward to helping digging poo in the garden lol!

I am really amazed at how much pleasure I am getting from this garden in our new house. It is just the perfect stress relief at the moment.:)

Primrose

little_lil wrote: »

DP brought home a "gift" of manure yesterday and we will be spending tomorrow digging that into beds. My DS (10yrs) is looking forward to helping digging poo in the garden lol!

I am really amazed at how much pleasure I am getting from this garden in our new house. It is just the perfect stress relief at the moment.:)

Ah, a gift of manure. My OH once gave me a trailerload of the stuff for a present and I can honestly say it was one of the most appreciated gifts I've ever received. I'm not a "jewellery kind of girl"!

Yes, it's amazing what half an hour in the garden will do as a stress buster. I can look back over some very difficult times in my life and be grateful for the fact that some time spent doing physical work or even just "pottering" probably saved my sanity. I love this time of year. It's so exciting going to check every day what new seeds have germinated or grown a little taller.

hex2

Hi everyone, finally some good weather in the midlands so lots done yesterday. My small helpers and I did some border tidying, and then OH and I relocated the chicken shed and made them a big run - a mammoth task as the shed is very heavy.

We have six hens and they have always been free range but they absolutely destroy the garden. I have a lot less time this year so I have made the decision to pen them in from the first plantings through to early summer. It'll be interesting to see if my slug population increases dramatically again.

No seeds planted yet but I have dusted down the pots, got the seeds I want, bought some new seed compost, and the potatoes are chitting away happily - charlottes, yukon gold and home guard this year. The last of the manure went in back in January - the remains of a vast quantity of cow manure delivered (and shifted by me as OH was ill) on my birthday a couple of years ago.

I need to do a lot of work on the flowering areas of the garden, the neglect they got when I was really ill last year has taken its toll in terms of a major couch grass problem in the front, plus creeping violet and buttercup elsewhere. My mission today is to fill the green waste bin with the hard to compost stuff, and to get the compost bins turned over so I have one empty ready for stuff like the hundreds of hydrangea flower heads that need removing soon.

Hope everyone else had a productive day?

lilacpixie - the soil will be very tired at the front. You need to dig in as much organic material as you can afford whilst it is empty, the gravel should help with the drainage if it isn't enormous. Given that you are pushed for time can you just pile stuff on top and let the worms do the work? I top dress my borders with compost as much as I can and then leave the hens and worms to do the rest of the work. Is the moss from the shade of the conifers (*shudders*) or lack of drainage? We dug a test hole on our right front 'lawn' and found that a foot down it is tarmac, on top of concrete on top of the original cobblestones so the lawn will never grow. I have stripped the turf off mine (stacked for top soil) and need to think what to do next that doesn't involve lots of expense and a mini digger. Is it worth treating/raking yours to get the moss out, and putting some air holes in with a fork to see if it recovers now it has more light?

Getting a mature pampas grass out is a big job! I have vague meories of reading about burning them out but I am not sure why.

Craftyscholar

annie123 wrote: »

Well put Primrose, often a case of lest haste more crops when it comes to gardening.



Tink and anyone else new to gardening, use the first link to get an idea of your local frost start and end dates.

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/main/weather.asp

then this one
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_mini_project_december_1a_sweet_corn.asp

It will give you a guide for your area, but always make a judgment based on the current weather, my last frost date is late April but it has snowed in May before,or the ground is still very wet and cold (rots seeds) so always keep an eye on a long term weather report and save a few seeds to sow in case you get caught out.

HTH

Many thanks for that link, Annie.
My last frost is early May - so no need to start worrying about getting started yet.