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

annie123

*drops in to get out of the wind*
Gosh it's windy today, even here in London.

Looked round the garden this morning to find that the foxes had gone rummaging around all my lettuces looking for slugs I guess:mad:
Everything from newly sown seeds to the little gems that were next to be eaten all ruined.
So I will now have a gap of several weeks where I'm going to have to buy lettuce:eek:

Decided to console myself and go shopping...........to homebase dead plant section and I got

3 large bedding geraniums @ 50p each.....3 for 2 total £1
full pack of jamie oliver herbs in fair condition @50p
a geum @50p
a large flat leaf parsley @50p
large oregarno @50p
a large sage @50p
a pulsatilla @50p
pk of 10 bizzie lizzies @50p
pk of 10 mimulus @50p
pk of 6 verbena @50p
pk 6 marigolds@50p
pk 10 petunias @50p
pk 10 lobelia @50p
a 3 year old almond tree @£1.50

and they gave me 3 for 2 on the geraniums:T
Full price would have been £62...........I paid £8

would have been cheaper to pop to tesco and bought some lettuce but not as satisfying;)
They aren't in bad condition either, not half as dead as I usually get.
My bath is now full of soaking plants and the car has mud all over the back seat from getting the almond tree out:o I'll get the hoover out when the winds died down

Primrose

goodness annie - what a bargain day you had! Haven't been to Homebase for ages and didn't realise they had a 'dead plants' section. Going round one of our local garden cenres, I can only comment that some of their ordinary plants look as if they should have been in the compost section. Staff don't seem to be very thorough about watering them properly so some of their losses must be quite huge. Looks like you're going to be pretty busy planting out soon but possibly best to hang on for a couple of days until this wind dies down. I made the mistake of planting some climbing beans out a few days ago and the wind has absolutely devastated them.

annie123

Primrose I agree re the wind.
If I go to homebase it's always late morning on a monday.
My son worked there many moons ago and one of his jobs was to mark down the reductions which he started at 8.30 and had to be finished by 10am.
So the biggest selection is Monday morning 10 onwards.
I've never seen so many plants reduced to clear. They put them on mental racks with 3 shelves around 6' tall and 3' wide and they had 5 of them all full with reduced items. I could have cleared them out if I had a larger garden and a job still but I'm really pleased with what I got. So pleased that I forgot the lettuce seed I went for!

[Deleted User]

:doh:doh even a windbreak wasn`t enough and my biggest courgette plant was torn in half. Now I`m sort of regretting giving the others away, oh well so be it. Patty pan is in its place. Its gales up on the allotment

diddly74

I am very pleased with myself today. Got 4 raised beds made up and positioned this morning. A fair bit of dust blew in my eyes doing it as we have quite a sandy soil up the lottie, but I soldiered on with the Hubby making up the 8 x 4 beds. Got one dug over and almost ready to plant before the heavens opened and I had to leave looking like a drowned rat. lol.

Been in the garden this avo, sorting out the greenhouse and deciding what is ready to go up the lottie.

We haven't got a shed up there yet (its only 2/3 weeks old) so everything has to be lugged up and back home each visit. I have just been watching videos and reading websites about making your own polytunnels. Oh the aspirations lol.

Dustykitten

Regretting planting my dahlias out at the weekend now as 2 have already had shoots snap off at he base due to the wind.

Wind is really drying the already dry ground here.

Finally removed some invasive asters from a bit of the front border and planted the bowl of beauty peony I was moving from the back garden. I'm trying to find half an hour a day to get things done.

Off to see if I can find Chelsea Flower show on tv now.

Keiss_21

Wow, hasn't everyone been busy...yes this wind has been a demon to all plants

I decided not to plant the french beans out yet, as they would have been ripped to shreds. They are hardened off now, but still in a sheltered position..looks like the wind has dropped tonight, so perhaps I might get them in tomorrow after work.

katholics - bought bark should be better than home grown freshly chipped bark. But as with all mulches, you should keep it away from touching the stems of your plants. When freshly chipped wood, or fresh farmyard manure is laid on soil, it starts to break down and robs the soil of nitrogen...exactly what you don't want to happen, as all plants need nitrogen to grow healthily. Shop-bought bark will have been chipped at least a few months ago, so that should have been fine.

The seaweed solution I use is SM3. You can get it in 125ml' 500ml and 1 litre bottles. As you use only 10ml with 4.5 litres, it goes a long way!! I am toying with the idea of an end-hose spray bottle so I can feed all my garden plants much easier. I have a bad back, so carting lots of watering cans is not really an option for me. It makes a great foliar feed for everything in the garden.

As for uses for comfrey...you can cut it back two or three times in the growing season, and let it rot down in a tub/old water butt. Be warned.....it stinks, but it makes a fantastic high-potash plant food!!

I tend to use them to feed my beans, or other hungry veg.....I cut down some plants, chop/cut the leaves and stems into small pieces, then put them in a hole about a spit (spade's depth) deep and the width of the wigwam of cane I will be putting up (about 3 feet across). I then cover with soil, put in the canes, then plant the beans/sqash or whatever, trying not to have the plants' roots in direct contact with the comfrey leaves. Comfrey breaks down quickly and doesn't rob the soil like I described above with bark.

If you don't want to do either of this, you can just cut down the comfrey and add to your compost heap, which will be greatly improved as a result. Comfrey is rich in elements and minerals, especially potash, which promotes the formation of flowers (and therefore fruit).

I only have one courgette left, as a nasty little rodent (mouse, vole,shrew??) had a marvelous time digging up all my seeds in the greenhouse, as well as grazing the tops of all my broccoli, many of my french beans and a large chunk of my first lettuces...:mad::mad::mad:

At least I have more seeds...plenty of time to get more on the go though!

Off to bed now...kn*****ed tonight as I had a body massage at 5pm today...I left all relaxed and fragrant! I should sleep well tonight!

Working for the next three days, but may get some things done in the evenings.

Have a great gardening week everyone....calmer and wetter hopefully!!

katholicos

Keiss_21 wrote: »

Wow, hasn't everyone been busy...yes this wind has been a demon to all plants

I decided not to plant the french beans out yet, as they would have been ripped to shreds. They are hardened off now, but still in a sheltered position..looks like the wind has dropped tonight, so perhaps I might get them in tomorrow after work.

katholics - bought bark should be better than home grown freshly chipped bark. But as with all mulches, you should keep it away from touching the stems of your plants. When freshly chipped wood, or fresh farmyard manure is laid on soil, it starts to break down and robs the soil of nitrogen...exactly what you don't want to happen, as all plants need nitrogen to grow healthily. Shop-bought bark will have been chipped at least a few months ago, so that should have been fine.

The seaweed solution I use is SM3. You can get it in 125ml' 500ml and 1 litre bottles. As you use only 10ml with 4.5 litres, it goes a long way!! I am toying with the idea of an end-hose spray bottle so I can feed all my garden plants much easier. I have a bad back, so carting lots of watering cans is not really an option for me. It makes a great foliar feed for everything in the garden.

As for uses for comfrey...you can cut it back two or three times in the growing season, and let it rot down in a tub/old water butt. Be warned.....it stinks, but it makes a fantastic high-potash plant food!!

I tend to use them to feed my beans, or other hungry veg.....I cut down some plants, chop/cut the leaves and stems into small pieces, then put them in a hole about a spit (spade's depth) deep and the width of the wigwam of cane I will be putting up (about 3 feet across). I then cover with soil, put in the canes, then plant the beans/sqash or whatever, trying not to have the plants' roots in direct contact with the comfrey leaves. Comfrey breaks down quickly and doesn't rob the soil like I described above with bark.

If you don't want to do either of this, you can just cut down the comfrey and add to your compost heap, which will be greatly improved as a result. Comfrey is rich in elements and minerals, especially potash, which promotes the formation of flowers (and therefore fruit).

I only have one courgette left, as a nasty little rodent (mouse, vole,shrew??) had a marvelous time digging up all my seeds in the greenhouse, as well as grazing the tops of all my broccoli, many of my french beans and a large chunk of my first lettuces...:mad::mad::mad:

At least I have more seeds...plenty of time to get more on the go though!

Off to bed now...kn*****ed tonight as I had a body massage at 5pm today...I left all relaxed and fragrant! I should sleep well tonight!

Working for the next three days, but may get some things done in the evenings.

Have a great gardening week everyone....calmer and wetter hopefully!!

Keiss,

Thanks for taking the time to explain the things I had enquired about. I appreciate it very much and will definately be purchasing the seaweed extract you linked to.

I've heard/read (on here) that a good way to use the comfrey leaves is to suspend them in a net bag (or something similar) in the water butt, so all being well, that is what i will have a go at maybe....for now, they aint really taking off...still just look like bits of root, though one of the roots has two leaves on it, so i guess that is progress :j

Dustykitten

Frost predicted tonight in the parts of the south

Keiss_21

Thanks for that Dusty...still haven't much outside as the wind has been causing havoc!!!

Katholics - glad the info has been useful to you. I miss working in a garden centre (back too painful), where I loved helping people every day with their problems....so ask away whenever you feel the need.

Been at work all day, but will get things watered again tonight (or even better, get DS2 to do it!) ...wind and sun really dries everything out.

Won't get out into the garden proper until Friday...just catching up with odd'n'sods before then.

Have a great week everyone.