In my garden in April............

joannasmum

Evening

Well it took me abit longer than anticipated to clear the boarder as there was lots of bindweed in it. Tomorrow I'm going to do the fence.

I also went to Lidl today and bought some flower seeds and 2 big pots on the way back I went in B&Q and got some Strawberry plants and compost. Planted them with DD this afternoon, realised that I'll have to invest in a watercan.

Also I'm going to go to Poundland and see if they have any seed potatos left as I have 2 bins that I could use. Gosh this gardening thing could become addicitive.

nodwah

Pndora and pen - 48 tomato plants is what you get when the kids help with sowing seeds! I wouldn't honestly have done that many. Some will go to my Dad's GH some will go to other gardeners that I know and I'll probably only grow on about 6 at the most. I have a very small garden, which is bursting at teh seams since both of us are addicted to buying plants.
I grew the tumbling toms from seed but there were only 6 in the packet and I#ve lost it now so can't remember the seed company - Shambles in here.

The sweetcorn is still on the windowsill actually, I didn't plant it early as up here in Scotland we're guarunteed a cold snap I reckon, just when you think it's getting warm.

Re the concrete jungle! People think me and DH are mad for all the work we do in the garden (not that you'd know), but i just feel sorry for them at the same time as not understanding them. I feel most people these days are totally divorced from nature and the countryside etc, it's sad. In fact don't get me started... it seem like a lot of people's idea of a good family day out is to go to the latest new shopping centre(my personal hell), it's all about comsumption I hate it!!

CazW_2

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Hi, Caz! I've also planted 16 sweetcorn (they're in pots atm, and will be planted into the polytunnel soon). They're best planted in a block rather than a row, as they're wind-pollenated, so 16 gives a 4 x 4 square I'll probably put some more in as 16 plants will give about 20 cobs. I eat a couple straight from the plant, barbeque some, cook some, and freeze the rest.

HTH, Penny. x

Hi Penny, how far apart would they need to be planted as i am quite limited by space but am planting them in pots so even with 9 (3x3) they would take up alot of space... but DH's parents have a bigger garden and I might try and get a patch there..lol

and I found the cable for my camera.. so here is my shambles of a veggie garden.lol... I need to sort it out a bit it don't look pretty but the palnts seem happy enough..lol



these are two types of carrots (not many i know but this year is a trial..lol) andd the pot on the right is spring onions.



These are my peas.. which seem to be doing prather well..lol



And here are my broad beans.. which have just started to flower and the black bin is the potatoes.. oh...and the 2 small tubs too.. the yare my daughters ones we did a while ago.

as i said... its messy ect but the plants all seem ok..lol

Caz

Penelope_Penguin

catowen wrote: »

Penpen - the dandilions are everywhere!!! Put down some weed and feed a couple of years ago on my lawn, and it killed everything!!! Finally have some more grass, loads of dandilions, but i think ive too many to get rid of (end up with no grass again) but would like to get rid of the ones around the edges, ive tried pulling them up, but they always break off leaving thoise horrible roots!!!
The shoots where my carrots should be dont look like your picture - think they may be weeds, and the carrots havnt happened - do you think it would be worth planting some more, or am i too late?

For the dandelions in your lawn, you can use salt. A small pile in the middle of the rosette will be enough. You'll probably need to repeat every 2 weeks or so. Alternatively, if you don't mind using chemicals, Tumbleweed gel is great :j Put on rubber gloves and paint top and bottom surface of all the leaves. It may need further treatment. This will work its way into the root and kill it that way.

As for carrots, you still have plenty of time Make sure they're not planted too deeply - about 3mm should be enough.

I'm off to London for the weekend, so will be back next week!

Missing you already Penny. x

Penelope_Penguin

CazW wrote: »

Hi Penny, how far apart would they need to be planted as i am quite limited by space but am planting them in pots so even with 9 (3x3) they would take up alot of space... but DH's parents have a bigger garden and I might try and get a patch there..lol

and I found the cable for my camera.. so here is my shambles of a veggie garden.lol... I need to sort it out a bit it don't look pretty but the palnts seem happy enough..lol

Love the pics :beer: (deleted them here, to save space, only ). Your basil looks especially fine!

Sweetcorn needs to be about 18" apart, so a square of 9 will need a 3 foot / 1 metre square.

Penny. x

comping_cat

Thanks pen - will try the salt first!!!!

madhouseof4

I am having a bad day! I went outside earlier to discover that one of my rabbits (the naughty boy!) has somehow got over or went through the bit of fencing I had up and ate my plants. I have lost 4 of 6 pepper plants, 3 of 4 sweetcorn (so will have to start again from scratch), 3 of 4 cucumber plants, 1 calabrese plant, 1 young sprout plant and just over half of my perpetual spinach Devestated barely discribes how I am feeling apart from wanting to eat the little sh*t.

I will not let him beat me, so I have been out this afternoon and rigged double fence that is higher than the last one (pretty certain he went through it rather than over it) , just means that i have used up the mesh I was going to use to fully encose the run for when we go on holiday and also for the peas to climb up.

I have no planted out the perpertual spinach that I managed to save in the same large pot that one of my boys pear trees is in. I will aslo sow/plant something in the other pear plant pot too to use up the space.

I want to plant out my young sprout plants, but I think it may still be too early. What do you think? The soil we have in are garden is perfect for them, quite firm, mainly stoney clay.

All in all, feeling a little dejected today. To make matters worse, there appears to be a pigeon making a nest in a leylandii (sp?) that backs onto my garden. The boys are obsessed and and keep throwing things at the tree and standing ontop of the slide and trying to poke stcks into the tree. I am getting fed up of telling them to leave the poor bird alone, I should imagine it wants to have it's babies in peace :rolleyes:

catznine

It is only this week that I have started to work on the garden!:o to take my mind off other problems but I have achieved quite a bit. The beds are taking shape and I have a water feature (less than half price from ebay!:money: ) but I am most proud of the fact that I have planted some seed potatoes (from poundland) some in pots and some the Charlie Dimmock way in inside out compost bags! I have also moved some strawberry plants from a neglected bed to a well composted pot so hopefully they will fare better there! I now need to pot up some herbs into a large planter.

ShirleyPark_2

I was hoping to get some more stuff done in the garden today, but it didn't happen. The only things I managed to do were to water the plants and trim the hedge back as it was getting a little manic. I'm out for most of the day tomorrow so nothing will get done tomorrow.

joannasmum

Not done as much as I'd hoped today. Went to Poundland this morning and got a hanging basket, some seed potatoes and a little gardening set for dd which is made up a trowel, rake and hand shovel and a pair of child size gloves. Turns out they are perfect for making up seed trays very good for a pound. Went to Inshops and got a large watering can and a child size one. Came home and planted some seeds with DD which was good fun.

Tomorrow I will paint the fence and also work out were the compost bin that we have had for ages is going to sit. Also need to plant the potatoes but I've only got one bin at the moment, the other is full of broken glass from a greenhouse that fell down last year I need to work out a way to get that to the tip.