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

greenbee

Brie said:

Lots of slug sympathy - they have been invading my garden too.  And on a local media site someone was coo-ing over the lovely ones she's finding in her garden and explaining how she's feeding them to keep them healthy.  The response was surprisingly well mannered.

would she like some more? I'm sure we could arrange a few deliveries!

Brie

greenbee said:

Brie said:

Lots of slug sympathy - they have been invading my garden too.  And on a local media site someone was coo-ing over the lovely ones she's finding in her garden and explaining how she's feeding them to keep them healthy.  The response was surprisingly well mannered.

would she like some more? I'm sure we could arrange a few deliveries!

I think she's had more than enough offers locally!!!

greenbee

Brie said:

greenbee said:

Brie said:

Lots of slug sympathy - they have been invading my garden too.  And on a local media site someone was coo-ing over the lovely ones she's finding in her garden and explaining how she's feeding them to keep them healthy.  The response was surprisingly well mannered.

would she like some more? I'm sure we could arrange a few deliveries!

I think she's had more than enough offers locally!!!

🤣

I did actually get some stuff done yesterday in the end - broad beans cut down and the last of them harvested; soaker hose measured, cut, ends put on, and put in place for 5 veg beds (only one in use as I need connectors which are due to arrive today; water butts and watering cans filled from the hose; tomatoes fed; pots on patio watered; runner beans, peas, french beans, and courgettes picked. 

Not as much as I'd hoped, but still some progress. I think the strawberry runners I potted up are mostly giving up. Luckily there are billions, so I'll try again sometime. I need to top up the broad bean bed and sow something else in there before re-netting. Which means looking at my seeds. 

EssexHebridean

Well I guess at least if they are being fed in her garden they will stay there...hopefully! 

We're pottering on - tommies still aren't ripening much, but the cucumbers are going great-guns - we've had 3 or 4 already and I know there are two more ready to pick this evening. I nabbed a dinky courgette last night but really want them to start growing to a better size now to be honest. Beans have got flowers on - both the little bush beans and the runners, and all the second batch of pak choi got slugged. The original batch of that which just bolted has had the seed salvaged and the plants have now been pulled up and composted. 

We're hose-watering at the moment just due to the quantity being needed, and also a suspicion that we may get a hosepipe ban at some stage and so we'd sooner preserve what is in the butt. 

Must strim the lawn at the weekend, and also sort out the stuff that is in troughs on the table as some of that will need thinning out. Another pot of basil is also needed - in fact if I can clear a trough I will go for a proper bulk sowing of it to see if I can get enough decent sized plants from that to let me make a proper big batch of pesto later in the year. Of course that relies on me stopping the squirrels or pigeons - still not sure which - from rooting around in it! 

In flower news, the front needs a really good weeding - job for tomorrow there - and the cornflowers are desperate to be deadheaded. I'm keen that some of them do seed though so I need to strike a balance there. I meant to salvage the seed from the pretty mixed-colour aquilegia but forgot, so had best hope it self-seeds! 

Brie

tomatoes not even considering ripening, just falling off the plants while green.  courgette refuses to flower so that looks a dead loss.  OR it will all happen in a week from now when I'm on holiday.

SuzeQStan

Another here with reluctant green tomato’s. And we’ve done multiple varieties and they are all doing pants.  Got some good eating off one plant a couple weeks ago but none ripening since. And they’re in a greenhouse so the situation ain’t good.  

Like above our cucumbers are having a bumper year as are cabbages, beetroot and shell
peas.  

Cant believe I’m buying tomato’s in August. 😤😤

Floss

My tomatoes are miniscule and very sparse too.

Cherryfudge

Oh dear, and there I was being happy that I have tomatoes! However, they're all green and not getting much bigger so perhaps I'd better start looking out the green tomato chutney recipe...

I've been watering some pots too, despite rain the other night. I'm also on a slow mission to salvage the million or so empty plant pots stacked in corners of the garden or sometimes wandering round on their own due to the wind. The garden centre near us has a help-yourself bin of pots so I can send some there. I really will never need as many as I have!

greenbee

I've watered mostly using saved washing up water (although I had the hose on with soaker hose for the beds). Other than that, not much gardening done. My gardener came today, so he finished the paving round the greenhouse, weedkilled the drive and the lawn, and sharpened the mower blades and all the garden tools. 

Most excitingly, a neighbour posted 4 IBCs on the village FB group and offered delivery. So I've now got them sitting in my drive. They need cleaning up, and I need to work out how we'll connect them, but if they work out I can use them to water the veg plot and minimise use of mains water. The water butts can then go elsewhere. 

More work being done on the shed and summerhouse tomorrow. It's dragging on somewhat. I kind of wish I'd just asked him to do one job - he's doing it on top of his day job, but it's every weekend and none of the after work (which would be within my working day) that he'd said it would be. I think I'll have to find someone else for the inside work. 

Cheery_Daff

I've just had the mower out - took 35 mins (including stopping to top up with petrol) - strimming the same amount used to take well over an hour. Pleased with that - and it might even spur me on to strim some of the longer bits as we head into autumn (not yet though!) 

Definitely need to level out the lawn in the autumn though 😮 A combination of moles, cows, and the whole place basically trying to revert back to being a field means that the mower gets stranded in the peaks and troughs and my core muscles have to take over from the self-drive function 🙄😂

No more gardening for me tonight. Need to get back on the case with scything tomorrow before we go away for a few days 😊