GreenFly - A 'flylady style' gardening thread with weekly tasks to tame your garden

greenbee

Accidentally ordered a whole lot of bulbs when buying a clematis. Clematis is now in the ground (must water it) as are 85 muscari. Daffodil bulbs aren't due for a month. But I also have some alliums to find homes for. 

I did get one whole row of scything done last weekend, but nothing since, so that needs dealing with... but first I need to plant at least some of the onions, shallots, and garlic. 

Cherryfudge

I forgot to update that we spent about an hour and a half on the garden during the week. This was all about reducing the height of the famous greengage that bore such an incredible amount of fruit. There were still a few on the branches!

My rule of thumb is that if I can cut a twig using secateurs, it goes in the green wheelie bin. If it needs loppers, it goes to be dried for kindling. If it needs a chain saw, it's been left at the side of the lawn awaiting that day then gets added to the wood-for-2027 collection.

We had the first frost the other morning, so tonight I brought in the hanging basket that has tomatoes in! I'll have a proper look and harvest what I can tomorrow.

The big news is that I've finally (after around two and a half years) had a reply to my email about wanting an allotment. I've no idea how long the queue ahead is, but it seems they finally have permission to release a new group of allotments across town so there is movement. I'm getting all excited and making plans for apple trees, rhubarb, onions, garlic and raspberries. Even if I'm 80 when it finally comes to fruition...

greenbee

One bed planted with two rows of onions (one red, one white), another with two rows of shallots (one round, one long). This also used up some sacks of mulch and compost (which then made it very easy to plant them!). Cat proofing also applied (chicken wire).

I'm planning on putting garlic in the bed that the chard is in - I just need to pull out the last of the beetroot and top up with compost.

I also want to make sure there's not too much bare soil, so am going to take a chance that even though it's very late in the year, I can stick some cavolo nero and broccoli in with the onions and shallots. I'll clear some more space next week for another sowing of beans/peas/alliums and then hopefully I can get on with clearing the paths to cardboard/woodchip them. 

Greenhouse needs clearing, and orchard needs scything, and I've also been given some comfrey to plant. 

Cherryfudge

I probably got my fifteen minutes in today, though it was dusk and it wasn't all gardening. I've planted a plant and tried to do another but found a tree root in the way so I'll have to rethink that. Then I started to stack this year's cut of wood in a bin to dry. I need to find a way to waterproof the top while letting air circulate... perhaps I can find space at the back of the garage.

EssexHebridean

Oh Cherryfudge how exciting about your allotment thing - we have literally just made an application too but rumour has it there is about a 4 year wait in our town. Rumour also has it however that one of the local councillors is very keen to get some of the old abandoned plots back in use, so if we're feeling brave once we had the wait length for a regular plot confirmed we might actually push in that direction... it could be doable if we take an approach of minimal dig/clear back weeds/plant lots of potatoes to deal with compacted soil. 

- Tomato plants all stripped of fruit (fruit now on a bright windowsill in the living room to ripen) and plants bundled into a bag ready for the tip
- Tomato pots & grow-bags need emptying - I think we'll opt to empty them into an old compost sack and leave the contents sitting for a while "just in case" - I'm always a bit wary of re-using spent tommy compost!
- Last of the runner beans harvested and the beans all cut down 
- Compost bin dug out at the bottom and two bags of the most gorgeous crumbly compost ready to use - that will get thrown onto the veg bed once it's cleared, over a layer of commercial compost. 
- Compost bin promptly re-filled with bean plants, courgette plants etc. There is still another pile of stuff waiting to go into it too! 
- mini greenhouse has had its cover removed but sadly it had gone brittle and split badly as we were doing it - thankfully we already have its replacement stashed away - hurrah for Wilko closing down sale bargains! 

We are starting to formulate plants for some re-arrangement of the garden in the spring - involving a move of location for the mini greenhouse AND the compost bin - it should mean that the tomatoes, peppers etc can all be located in a far warmer, sunnier spot - we need to do some measuring and see what will work. Winter tasks! 

greenbee

I use tomato compost as mulch on the flowerbeds. 

EssexHebridean

Some of ours might end up there too - the problem is we have very few areas with just flowers, and most of what we do have are fairly densely planted so don't tend to get mulched. I'm very aware of the risk of using them on begs where we might end up with either tomatoes or potatoes in the near future though! 

Cherryfudge

EssexHebridean said: we might end up with either tomatoes or potatoes in the near future though! 

This is probably why there are tomatoes in my front flower border and both tomatoes and potatoes in with some leeks! However, I can't think how the tomato seeds got in to compost as we have grown very few tomatoes and I can't think of a scenario where they would have got in to compost in anything like the numbers that are sprouting!

@EssexHebridean, I'm so excited! That's despite having on idea how long the queue is ahead of me. I've filled in the form today to select the nearest two areas: one is some lovely, well established plots round the corner and the other I had to search satellite imagery but I think I found it. If I'm right, there are about seven or eight plots just outside the edge of town a little further away than the first lot. Those are so tucked away that I've never seen them. Good luck with your application and I hope the queue obligingly shuffles along quickly for you.

Today's 'gardening' has consisted solely of repotting a moth orchid which I realised was drowning. I've no idea why I didn't give it good drainage but now it has a proper orchid pot with proper orchid compost and I'm hoping the new roots are an indication it's a survivor. 

Cherryfudge

Happy first snowdrops of spring, everyone! Well, that was two days ago for me but since then it's been too dark and soggy to venture anywhere that's not hard standing.

Today is still grey but the rain has stopped and I've spent about 45 minutes draining pots that hadn't drained, putting a mesh cover over pots that the birds keep digging up, moving a couple more bricks onto the makeshift wall round a new flower bed, adding old logs from under the trees to the log store, finally getting round to putting mesh over our back gate to stop other people's cats and dogs getting in (I hope) and admiring that one snowdrop.

Has anyone else ventured out? What's going on in your garden or nearby?

redofromstart

I've not been and looked at my snowdrops but the cyclamen in my roadside bed are flowering plus the daphnes, witch hazel and winter honeysuckles are all doing very nicely.