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

Cherryfudge

All I've done today is relocate a compost bin. It's been standing in the disused lane at the back of us and occasionally had stuff put in, but I generally forgot to water it and it got too twiggy to turn so on a whim, I rocked the bin a few times and managed to loosen it, then it just lifted off and left a hill of something vaguely resembling compost, which I've just left for now. The bin itself is now a short distance away where I can see it from the house. I hope that reminds me to use it properly.

I've no idea whether the old contents are of an nutritional value but I can use them somewhere, if only to build height on borders.

greenbee

Minimal gardening done here - thankfully I had help on Friday so the last of the pots from the greenhouse have been emptied and used to mulch the border - which also means that the borders on both sides in the 'main' bit of the garden (i.e. up to the shed on one side and summerhouse on the other) have been weeded and replanted this year. Even if not with stuff I'd choose, it's better than last year. Work on the veg plot has also stopped - I need to have a look and see whether the broad beans can be picked, and then clear the bean and squash beds, weed the autumn raspberries, weed the second asparagus bed, weed the bed that the cavalo nero and fennel have been disappointing in, and then mulch and cover them with chicken wire. And decide what to do with them over the winter. Hoses need disconnecting and packing up, pots need putting away. Greenhouse needs emptying, cleaning, cardboarding and mulching. Dierama need potting up. 

No bulbs have been planted. There are still some lavenders to shove in the ground although they're not looking great. Rosemary and sage in pots need to go in the ground (maybe in the veg plot) as they're not happy in the pots with the other herbs.

A tiny bit of deadheading has been done with help from the puppy. Who tries to eat the buckets/secateurs/gloves/dead bits. 

Cheery_Daff

Glad to see you back ElmoR,  some good progress there! 

I'm hoping to get outside for a bit tomorrow- we're due snow on Monday so it would be nice to do SOMETHING before that! Not sure what. I've got a couple of pots that could do with being nearer the house, they've had nothing planted in them for a couple of years, so I might just empty them where they are and refill, maybe with some bulbs as a starting point 😊

I also want to get a bit more grass shifted out of the field and laid as mulch. Want to start a couple of new beds next year so might lay it where I want them to kill the grass off. (Or probably make it even more lush and fertile 😂)

greenbee

@Cheery_Daff - my cut hay has started sprouting where I dumped it... 

EssexHebridean

Nothing gardeney achieved here today, but we have been doing a lot of talking and a lot of planning of late, and some ideas are falling in to place I think. Plan for tomorrow is to get the last runner bean plants stripped down, and the final courgette plant out as I suspect we are going to have frosts next week, and striping down slimy veg plants is not in my game plan! 

The final potatoes are also going to be dug - We’re approaching the end of the first and second rows that we dug a while ago, so row 3’s time has come. We’re finding that for storage, a brown paper carrier bag wrapped round with newspaper and left in the shed is doing a marvellous job - now we know that they do store well like that, it makes us more inclined to try to get some more in the ground next year.

KajiKita

I followed your suggestion @EssexHebridean and also hoicked out the last courgette plant and dragged it off to the compost heap before last night’s frosts 😊

The other timely job, in a similar vein I knocked over yesterday was to empty the begonia and lobelia pots. The tubers are now drying a little in the potting shed before I pot them up into dryish compost ready for reuse next year. They have done so well this summer and brought me so much pleasure I will definitely be repeating this and may add to it too, with three pots in the courtyard and two pots on the conservatory steps. My very serious gardening friend hates begonias but I have a soft spot for them, partly because both my parents and my Irish grandpa always had begonias either side of the front door every year 😊❤️

I got the last of the spring bulbs in the ground! (This is a step forward - no sad packets desiccating and trying to flower in the potting shed, which always upsets me … 😉).  I have put some under the contorted Hazel in a spot that was getting sun yesterday morning so I hope will also get sun in mid February or so? 🤞 That will fall on yellow crocus and blue chinodoxia. I have put a goodly clump of purple crocus at the front of the amalanchier bed and the random bag of mixed crocus that are collated leftovers from other packets or accidental finds from across the garden, I have tucked under a lump of turf by the pond seat 😊

Whilst working under the contorted Hazel I saw a lot of seedling cleavers, so all of those were removed! Hopefully that will slow the green tide a bit next spring! 😉

KK

EssexHebridean

That sounds like you're going to have a wonderful display of bulbs in the spring KK! 

Final courgette plant is out - MrEH dealt with that and chopped it into the compost while I dealt with the bean plants which went into the garden waste bin as they still have some evidence of blackfly (for goodness sake - even in flipping November!)

Final potatoes have been dug - that third row yielded masses, we got close to half a trug out of that, so that should keep us going for a while yet! A thorough dig through the entire patch to break up any more patches of clay plus hopefully nail any stray tatties that were missed on the first dig - and indeed, there were a few! Gave the bean bed a decent dig as well, trimmed an argumentative bit of gooseberry bush and pulled up some random weeds from the very back of that bed (but *whispers* no bindweed...) 

I picked some chard leaves to have with our lunch (stir fried in smoked rapeseed oil and a dash of lemon juice) - those are going great guns in spite of various things attempting to eat them (various things aside from us, that is). 

KajiKita

@EssexHebridean, maybe, maybe not. It’s a big space and there were literally NO bulbs apart from a few gallumphing daffodils when we came here. It feels a bit like I am painting with a one haired brush! 😂😉

Well done on the spuds and the chard 😊👏

KK

spendaholic

We went and got spring-flowering bulbs on Thursday and there were hardly any left, so we got them at sale price. Also bought 2 bags of compost, a packet of sweetpea seeds, some bio-degradable pots (for the sweetpeas), and 2 sets of new pot feet. Mr S assembled a new chipper and tried it out on the Buddleia, finishing the job Friday morning. That's our green bin filled now, though, and we only have one more collection before they stop over the winter. Any further chippings will have to go to the tip. 

We didn't do any planting at the weekend as we were out and about for some of it and it was pouring with ice-cold rain for the rest of it. With snow forecast this evening, I don't know when we'll get the bulbs done. But Mr S is working from home and if he gets everything done (for work), at least he'll be able to go in the garden again in daylight once the snow has gone (if it comes). 

greenbee

Garden waste bins are out. And I stirred the compost heap. But that's the extent of the gardening today, as the Stinky puppy is not helpful. Unless you want cardboard shredding.