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

Working_Mum

Cherryfudge said:

A few more terracotta pots have emerged, not always in one piece. Question: if I can get the pieces clean enough, would a glued-together pot work, or would it just come to bits again? Most are in too many pieces but one or two are simple breaks.

The small broken bits are saved for crocks in future pots of course. 

Have you thought about using them as planters for succulents?? If you look in the bottom corner of this pic you'll see I've used a broken pot for succulents - they seem to be happy enough 



There is a lot more inspiration here:-

https://www.google.com/search?q=layering+broken++terracto+pots+for+succulents&sca_esv=af10a1c73c08f357&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB974GB974&udm=2&biw=1920&bih=953&sxsrf=ADLYWIL1n6VfwOsmNo7AfYFgwHVt8p1JRA:1724926799284&ei=T0vQZvSLEZO7hbIPprKY4Aw&ved=0ahUKEwi074mJ_ZmIAxWTXUEAHSYZBswQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=layering+broken++terracto+pots+for+succulents&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiLWxheWVyaW5nIGJyb2tlbiAgdGVycmFjdG8gcG90cyBmb3Igc3VjY3VsZW50c0i4YVCNE1jQX3ABeACQAQCYAbIBoAHbDaoBBDI0LjK4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgCgAgCYAwCIBgGSBwCgB5IJ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

SuzeQStan

great idea love it 

KajiKita

Woke with a head cold this morning but did manage to do a bit in the garden 😊

- trimmed all the edges of the ornamental beds - first time in aaages …
- cut down at the base all the dill where they have stopped flowering and are about to throw seed EVERYWHERE! 😉
- found three, long, lethal, spiky brambles running across the patio - chopped off at the base and into small pieces for the black bin (I don’t put anything thorny in my compost) 
- started clearing gone over stuff from under the contorted Hazel - it’s already looking better 😊
- helped Mr KK empty two water butts into the pond

Am enjoying looking out of the French doors at the chrysanthemums and Japanese anemones further behind in the evening light 😊

KK

Floss

I cut back my lavender today, a small patch of geranium and a clump of a grass with hooked seeds (the cat often comes in covered in them). The geranium is now about 2" tall and the grass is a very neat 3" high mound. All the cuttings got rolled into a dustsheets & taken to the tip, and then I attacked the grass with the mower 😁

So the top half of the garden now looks neat. I'm waiting for the mint to finish flowering & will then cut that back and tidy that bed up. I have some leeks to plant out with some garlic, and some tulip bulbs to go in too.

KK, I have a contorted hazel in the , I put bark underneath to show it off without the hassle of weeding or underplanting.

greenbee

I planted lavender today Floss! There are still about 20 to go in, but they're in position on the beds. I do need to weed at the same time though, so it takes a bit of time.

I also did some weeding, fed the greenhouse and outside tomatoes, stirred the compost, collected some wood from my neighbours, Watered the pots on the patio. I need to fill all the watering cans tomorrow just in case we get some rain soon (water butts on the greenhouse are almost empty, patio ones are still fairly full. 

Nicotiana are smelling fabulous, and for a garden that was looking pretty bleak at the start of the year - empty beds where the shrubs had been grubbed out, huge pile of stuff to be shredded in the middle of the lawn, greenhouse standing on it's own in in the middle of a huge 'lawn', trees growing over the fence from the wood next door, and a huge conifer the other side blocking evening sun most of the year - it's looking pretty good. And is pretty productive - I've had blackcurrants, strawberries, beans, courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers, salad, and herbs. There are sweet peas and cosmos on the patio as well as herbs and salad in planters. The magnolia, camellias and hydrangeas have been liberated and are growing well (some will need moving), and gaps have been filled with either donated plants of stuff I've grown from seed. Fourteen beds have been made for fruit and veg, paving has been put round the greenhouse (all slabs from elsewhere in the garden), and down the centre of the greenhouse. Waterbutts have been put on the greenhouse and now on the garage, and a composting system has been set up. The hedge at the back has been cut, and the one at the front had a lot of unsuitable stuff removed. The sheds and summerhouse have had their roofs overboarded and refelted, and various repairs done. 

There's still masses to do (including getting to grips with the weeds in the grass, and starting to create divisions in the garden), which means the tree surgeons will be back (two big hollies, a VAST crab apple and a hornbeam to go, and a couple of other things having a haircut). The decimated hedge needs pruning and replanting, shrubs need renovating, trees need crown lifting, and the sheds and summerhouse need painting. So plenty to keep me occupied... 

Cherryfudge

@Working_Mum, I love your garden! And thank you so much for the link, wouldn't those fairy garden pots be a nice project! It might be a freebie too, seeing how much moss there is in the grass that could be relocated as fairy lawns.  

Your succulents go beautifully in the broken pot. I do have some getting overgrown in a shallow container but they might be happier looking as if they were knocked over, between bigger planters! It would go well with the cottage garden effect.

Not much done in the garden this busy weekend, but I should get back to it tomorrow. I did have a further sort out of pots but I probably need to pot on a few things before I get rid of any more.

Does anyone collect celery seed? I have two gone to seed but I'm not sure when they are ripe.

RosaBernicia

Finally a dry free evening yesterday so I got the two shrub container roses into pots and over by the swing seat.  Really impressed with Peter Beales - they are massive compared to most garden centre container roses and still flowering and smell wonderful.  Am realising that allowing myself to enjoy the garden even while its messy helps as there's no point having it if I am too guilt stricken about the state of the place to get started. 

Also think I finally made a decision about where to put the enormous possibly-originally-a-bath tub, and that the climbing roses are both going in it, so will need to sort out a compost delivery.  I really want two more of the very scented (actually that's a fib, I would cheerfully fill the entire garden with old scented roses) but they were out of stock and I may want to change the set up next spring and create a bed where they could go directly in the ground, so maybe I'll wait. 

ajmoney

I am at the point of trying to get on top of my garden which is no mean feat but with 15 minutes a day I am seeing quite a difference. 

The first thing I am asking advice for is my grass. I am not bothered about a "perfect" lawn but the weeds are a lot more. They are like dandelions but not, any suggestions on how to tackle them because just cutting the grass won't help.

greenbee

Those look like some kind of hawkweed, which is what I have. You can dig/pull out, but it leaves holes. Or poison (which leaves bare patches). Either way it’s a long-term project as they will have been seeding themselves everywhere. If you poison then you’ll need a selective weed kill (broad leaves/not grass). Give the price of the stuff as well as the environmental impact I recommend spot treating with a sprayer rather than using a watering can. A 5 litre pressure sprayer may be a worthwhile investment as you’re going to need to repeat regularly. It also allows you to avoid the daisies, self heal, clover and other wildflowers you want to keep. 

ajmoney

Thanks @greenbee it is in most of the grass now. I will look at what I can get