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

What do we mean by GreenFly? Over on old style there is a long running and supportive community who focus on getting the house clean and tidy in smaller steps.  A group of us thought that something similar for taming the garden would be very useful so here it is.

The idea is that by doing little and often we can get on top of the outside tasks and make our garden spaces a source of joy.  The plan is to add a weekly suggested list of tasks, and people can then post their progress.

Everyone welcome - regardless of size of plot and knowledge of gardening.
Before and after photos are always a joy to see.

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Comments

  • KajiKita
    KajiKita Posts: 6,249 Forumite
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    Awesome! 🤩 
    Subscribed 😊❤️

    KK
    As at 15.01.25:
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  • Merlin's_Beard
    Merlin's_Beard Posts: 1,451 Forumite
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    Thank you so much for setting this up!
    Start mortgage date: August 2022; Start mortgage amount: £240,999; Original mortgage free date: August 2056
    Current mortgage amount: £233.529.75
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  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,072 Forumite
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    Thanks @redofromstart. I'm in. When it stops raining, obviously.
  • KajiKita
    KajiKita Posts: 6,249 Forumite
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    @Brie, with reference to any dead trees or stumps, yes you will have to wait until all the birdlings have fledged 😊 so you won’t be able to do anything with that area this season (except possible pots on the surface? 🤔) but you don’t have to use chemicals. When I had some big fir trees taken down here, the tree surgeon put me onto a separate contractor who had a stump grinder - a ferocious but effective piece of kit. Might be worth asking your gardener if they know of anyone with one? 

    KK
    As at 15.01.25:
    - When bought house £315,995 mortgage debt and end date at start = October 2039 - now £244,153
    - OPs to mortgage = £9,694 Interest saved £4,182 to date
    Fixed rate 3.85% ends November 2029

    Read 4 books of target 52 in 2025, as @ 7th February
    Produce tracker: £11 of £300 in 2025

    Watch your thoughts, they become your words.
    Watch your words, they become your actions. 
    Watch your actions, they become your reality. 
  • Brie
    Brie Posts: 13,480 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    For those with excess plants - I've seen numerous ads locally about plant sales for charity or plant exchanges where you can hand in all those tomato seedlings and get peppers and squash instead.  Also lots of people on freegle asking for excess plants - saves you the hassle of trying to pot them up.

    Or even just put them out front of your house - someone is bound to help themselves.  
    I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Debt Free Wannabe and Old Style Money Saving boards.  If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.

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  • I'm not sure if 'greenfly' has quite the right associations for this thread :D 

    But today I've had a walk through the garden - I'm trying to get out every day at some point - because the garden has been badly infested with bind weed and I've just had raised beds built, so my mission this summer is to prevent the bind weed from growing up through the beds. I keep finding the odd shoot just breaching the surface every three or four days and dig down as far as I can (the beds are 60cm so I can't get right down to the old ground level without falling in!) to pull out as much as I can. The roots are getting thinner I think, so hopefully I'm wearing it down by forcing it to keep regrowing while denying it the chance to open any leaves. 

    I'm not sure how to tackle the rest of the garden right now. It's kind of on hold until I have a patio built next year. Little old man local gardener/handyman is booked in for the next time we have a couple of dry days forecast to come and cut/tidy. I probably need him to visit once a month for the next 3/4 months as the grass is growing just that quickly.  I'm hoping my new compost bin will have been delivered by then so I can get it set up. It's a 'hot composter' so I'm hoping I can use the bindweed cuttings (if not the roots). Alternatively I've a spare wheely bin that I can use to smother/drown the weeds from the back and use the cuttings from the front (no bindweed) to compost. 

    No watering needed at the moment due to the weather kindly providing at least once a day. I'm getting into my feeding schedule tho with the toms and pots. I think that's going to be a sunday or monday (whichever day it's not raining). 
    I'm not an early bird or a night owl; I’m some form of permanently exhausted pigeon.
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,072 Forumite
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    Arb - I can recommend at least keeping the rest of the garden from getting worse. Focus on the bit you've got under control and just keeping the rest at bay. If you have time, then do a bit more. 

    All I've managed today is watering (and harvesting some salad leaves and radishes at lunchtime). 

    Electricians start tomorrow, so even if it isn't raining I probably won't get into the garden (I also have a massive amount of work that I could do with shifting in the morning). 

    Looking in the greenhouse I really do need to get on with potting up/on the numerous seedlings and planting out the squash and climbing courgettes before they all give up. Which means I also need to message my neighbour to let her know I can't see the village gardening whatsapp group she says she added me to (just done) in the hope that I can shift some tomatoes rather than composting them. 
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