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

redofromstart

I do like seeing your pictures of your new place on Facebook Natty, it looks like it has been such a good move for you. I can only me manage the bud squishing with gloves on. Only grew sprouts once and they were full of crunchy little bugs which my mum said was fairly common. 

Laughed at the cow Cheery. Good luck with the weather

Natty68

redofromstart said:

I do like seeing your pictures of your new place on Facebook Natty, it looks like it has been such a good move for you. I can only me manage the bud squishing with gloves on. Only grew sprouts once and they were full of crunchy little bugs which my mum said was fairly common. 

Laughed at the cow Cheery. Good luck with the weather

Aww bless you,  thank you hon. 

I'm now shuddering at the thought of crunchy little bugs in sprouts...ewww. 

Brie

It was tipping down most of yesterday so my only activity was to remove a very large slug that was sniffing around some sunflowers that might some day soon decide to actually flower.  Probably when we're on holiday.

redofromstart

It was fairly mixed here but Mr Redo required me to act as his assistant inside so not much done outside beyond watering the greenhouse and picking a few weeds out in passing.  

I have taken my tablets and will go and brave some front garden weeds shortly.

greenbee

Didn't get anything other than greenhouse watering and picking a few mangetout and courgettes yesterday (must make courgette curry/soup/fritters to freeze) as the summerhouse was being repaired, and the small shed having a window put in it. The big shed is also having some repairs done, and all three are having the roof stripped, left to dry, overboarded, and refelted. The small one will then have shelves put in it and be used to store plant pots, seed trays, and gravel trays. They'll all have new gutters and as many water butts attached as is possible.

Today I've FINALLY cut the grass I'm going to use as a lawn. It still needs more weedkilling and the edges done, but the space I've made is definitely the right one. I've also mowed the paths to the sheds/greenhouse/summerhouse/compost bins, and started cutting a patch of long grass behind the greenhouse which will be the next area I mulch with cardboard and build beds on. No clue what's going in the beds, so I'll have to see what I can realistically sow in August, even if it's only a green manure. I have plenty of compost (I want to take the stuff out of the bottom of the hotbin and start putting more through it now things are slightly more under control), plenty of bricks/stones, but am running short on wood to edge them with, so these ones may have to be made with loft boards. As no dig only needs the edging for the first year, hopefully they'll survive that long. I do at least have plenty of cardboard!

Cherryfudge

I've only spent about fifteen minutes on the garden today: I emptied the 'house' compost into the big compost bin (memo to self, it needs more water) and cut back a clump of those big daisies that had finished flowering. Ideally I should relocate them as they are hanging over the path to the point where a few inches of path have disappeared under soil.

I should have mentioned a tiny orange tree has sprouted! I brought ten pips back from holiday and it took five or six weeks for just the one to grow but it's looking happy and so am I. I have, however, thrown out apple and fuchsia twigs that I was trying to grow and which weren't going anywhere. 

SandyShores

A couple of apples fell off the tree, so I thought I'd try to make use of them.  One was a bit manky so I left it in situ for the insects but the other looked okay so thought I'd try it.  It was really sour so has gone to the food recycling bin.  I'll need to do some research I think.  So annoying that I lost the label for the apple tree.

Cheery_Daff

I popped out into the garden this evening after work - actually I ate my lunch on the patio too 😊😊 But after work I finally got round to planting the tray of lobelia I bought a while back. We'll see if any of them survive the overnight slug fest 🙄

While I was out I figured I might as well fit the water butt 🙄 Well, of course it was far more complicated than last time I did it, as the drain pipe is attached at both the top and the bottom, so it was very difficult to get the diverter in 🙄 Mr Cheery was enlisted for moral support, but we ended up squabbling (mostly because I was hungry, and he wanted to systematically try all the things I'd already done 🙄) Ended up just lopping more out of the drain pipe, but it's done now. 

Couldn't work out which way the tap opened so will have to keep nipping out when it rains to see if it's spilling all over the ground 😂 Also the stand may need lowering as I think the pipe is pretty much level rather than pointing downwards after all the pipe adjustments, but it's a start! 😂

I probably wouldn't even have gone out this evening if not for this thread, I was just thinking "I only have to do 15 mins and it will add up..." 😊😊

Cherryfudge

Cheery_Daff said:

Couldn't work out which way the tap opened so will have to keep nipping out when it rains to see if it's spilling all over the ground 😂 Also the stand may need lowering as I think the pipe is pretty much level rather than pointing downwards after all the pipe adjustments, but it's a start! 😂

We had all sorts of hassles and mistakes setting ours up - for instance not putting it high enough to get a watering can underneath! We have the downpipe for our short row of terraced houses, though, so it fills easily. We also linked two water butts and had both full for a while till one got damaged. It's worth doing, despite the initial learning curve. Also always make sure there's a cover on it - obviously for safety (having once had a bird drown in an uncovered watering can, I know it's too easy) but also so it doesn't get clogged with decaying leaves or drowned slugs.

The tap on ours is on if it points outwards, away from the barrel, does that help?

I hope the lobelia survived?

Brie

SandyShores said:

A couple of apples fell off the tree, so I thought I'd try to make use of them.  One was a bit manky so I left it in situ for the insects but the other looked okay so thought I'd try it.  It was really sour so has gone to the food recycling bin.  I'll need to do some research I think.  So annoying that I lost the label for the apple tree.

What's the texture like on a good apple?  If it's quite firm I'd suggest it's a cooker of some sort and so apple sauce would be a good place to start to see if a bit of sugar is all that's required.