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

Cherryfudge

We had a clear out of the log pile near the back door in order to fit the new log storage in, and found the garden was slowly getting in there: roots and mud had established themselves on the concrete underneath, as had my friend the frog who has been around on and off for months. I nearly missed the frog as she (probably she, as it's big) was brumating (my new word of the day). It was absolutely still: not even appearing the breathe, but it looked in very good condition and its eyes were bright. I thought perhaps the daytime air might warm it enough for it to move away as I couldn't risk rebuilding the log pile round it. Having gone indoors to look up what to do, I went out and it had moved of its own accord, so it must have been close to wakeful.

That was a bit of a lesson to me to do work like that earlier in the season as it seems frogs do sometimes chose log piles or the mud beneath them, and there's been a froggie presence in that part of the garden since time immemorial. I need to be very careful what else I move and chose a warmer day.

Meanwhile, the new log store is still in the garage as we ran out of time.

No further progress on the replacement path: today's possible path person, found in check a trade, was a no-show. I'm going to have to become an expert and make our own at this rate.

In better news, I've had an email to say there are rescue hens coming available soon. We always had chickens when I was growing up. The last few times they've been available, it's been just before I've been due to go on holiday but there's nothing like that planned at the moment. The log store should take most of the wood that's currently stacked in the chicken coop, so I might well ring the chicken people over the weekend. It would be lovely to have company when I'm pottering in the garden, particularly company that eats some of the weeds!

KajiKita

I thought it might be fun to run a review between us for wins and lessons learned through the year 😊

Wins:
- Osteospmums like my soil and often survive the winter - must plant more as I love their flowers and the colours they come in
- Begonias, with lobelia work beautifully in the morning-light-only courtyard 😊 I will rescue these and overwinter them
- keeping on top of the beds edging does make as big a difference as I hoped it would
- shoulder physio means I can garden more - need to do this all winter so I am garden fit for the spring! 😉😂
- The bind weed, in spite of it being a nightmare, does act as good light cover for spuds 😉
- Lots of rain stops scab in spuds - if we get a dry summer next year (ha!) I will get in the habit of watering weekly 😊
- The beds in the front of the house and the garage are good for tender things such as salvia, penstemons etc 
- pots on the patio bring me joy as I can see them from my living room sofa - the tulips this spring were an absolute joy 
- clearing out under the contorted Hazel has transformed that area - I want to keep the planting low, ground cover etc, so I can see the trunk. I want to do the same with the pine at the bottom of the garden which is getting surrounded by shrubby rubbish. 
- The meadow path we made this spring, with a curving sight line down to the pond, works really well - repeat next year 😊
- I am sloooowly learning what the weeds are in this garden and getting far better at editing what I don’t want 

Lessons Learned:
- I’m still not starting off my peppers early enough and I think they need a lot more light when they do. In the short term I will give up on growing these from seed and just buy plants from the garden centre 
- The bindweed still needs more effort put into it to beat it back ….
- I need to start ALL the jobs far earlier in the season - I.e. treat autumn as the start of the gardening year, get the place cleared down (it’s a big patch so clearing ornamental and veggie beds still leaves lots of areas for wildlife)
- I am too ambitious with my seed sowing - it saves no money if I don’t look after all these seedlings! This also feeds into the point above of getting the garden ready to receive these precious babies 😉

I would be interested to see how others see their gardening year … 😊

KK

Cherryfudge

I will have to give that one some thought @KajiKita, though I can learn from your starting the gardening year in autumn, or even perhaps very late summer when I won't risk disturbing wild things trying to settle down for the winter.

One thing I have learned is that weeds don't know when to give up, but just as last year's battle with the ivy has paid off this year, so I hope the ground elder will be a bit weaker next spring. My three main weeds are the above and herb bennet.

Yesterday I actually managed to mow the grass for the first time in ages. Normally it's been wet or I've had other things to do. I noticed some of it has gone over to a massive patch of moss which actually looks really nice but has grown in a formerly dry area. I'm not going to put any moss killer out: I'm sure it's the wet year that's triggered it and if we have a dry year next year that will counterbalance somewhat.

I moved the chicken coop in the hope of getting some chickens but then realised the release date for the rescue chickens is Saturday and I have to be elsewhere, as does DH - so no chooks yet. It's given me a better view of the area under and behind the coop, though, and that needs attention.

redofromstart

Great idea KK

KajiKita

Made a start on one of the worst areas of the garden (that is supposed to be cultivated at least!) yesterday:

Believe it or not, there is a young magnolia in there somewhere …. (you can just see some of the leaves under the biggest fuchsia flower.)

The fuchsia has survived better than I expected and I can give that a  good prune and feed next spring. 😊

The two big, going-for-the-skies-either-side-Hazels are going to be coppiced down to stumps. This will make the neighbours happy as it will help the light levels on that side of their house 😊 I will need a new pruning saw to complete this task - using my old one is like trying to cut it down with a butter knife! 🙄😉😂 (I have funds left from my holiday pocket money I can buy this from 😊) 

There is vast amounts of hardy geranium in here - I’m pulling it out by the armful… Not sure what the thing on the left front is, but that is going to be chopped severely back and dug out. 

Some of the geranium will get replanted down in the ‘copse’ (grand name for a few trees and brash together 😉) and I have found a long, semi rooted ‘string’ of the vigorous, gorgeously scented, frost proof jasmine (on the right, by the post) and potted up four semi rooted sections of that. I have friends who might appreciate some of that and I will take a take a couple of bits down to the copse as well, or maybe even pop a section in under the contorted Hazel …. 🤔

KK

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, are you going to do anything with your hazel?

I spent a good bit of time in the garden yesterday. Added the new plexiglass panes to the greenhouse, and had a good weed in there, and then shifted some more of the cut soggy grass from the hay field to use as mulch in the veg patch. 



I might have a rethink of the veg patch over the winter. I like having square beds but it does mean a lot of the space is paths! Will have a ponder over the next few months, and keep mulching in the meantime.

KajiKita

@Cheery_Daff, actually some of the hazel stems are so substantial that I think they are worth keeping as bean poles. I will leave them in a leaning heap at the bottom of the garden until they have lost their leaves and then stack them, with the ridiculously big and robust bamboo canes I bought by mistake this spring that I have now recovered from the garden, on the steps leading down to the cellar 😊

Is the greenhouse warmer now, with its new panes? Well done on the mulch collecting 😊 
I have long beds in the veggie garden and I would quite envy having square beds for ease of access … 🤔😉

KK

redofromstart

Apologies for my long absence, other events did take over.

i actually spent some time in the garden yesterday, major prune of a taller the house camelia Donation which was growing into the gutters and adding to the damp issues. They are fairly robust based on previous hacks at it. The bits I have chopped so far filled one green waste bin. I also cleared the greenhouse - something had chewed the peppers but lots of tomatoes picked. I cooked the ripest ones yesterday and made not quite puree. 

I love contorted hazel and well worth keeping for re use. 

KajiKita

redofromstart said:

i actually spent some time in the garden yesterday, major prune of a taller the house camelia Donation which was growing into the gutters and adding to the damp issues. They are fairly robust based on previous hacks at it. The bits I have chopped so far filled one green waste bin. 

Nice to see you back 😊
HOW big is that camellia if just the prunings filled a green waste bin?! 😳😉

KK

redofromstart

About 14 foot if I had to guess.  That's a top floor window and this was after the last trim in 2018: