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

Cherryfudge

Cold and bright here: I've had a few layers of bubble wrap over the pots of late-planted bulbs, some of which are starting to come through. I've taken it off while the sun is on them. I think more shoots are emerging!

A question: I have a couple of baskets on a sunny bit of wall and every year the blackbirds raid them to use the liners for nests! I used to use black plastic to line them - obviously not as attractive to birds but not something I want to use any more if I can help it. The soil in the baskets, with half its support removed, is now at half mast but the tiny daffodils are emerging so I don't want to break up what's left. I'd rather put in new liners, base fill with fresh compost, lift in the existing soil and top up with new compost.

Does anyone have ideas for an environmentally kind liner that birds don't like please?

Garden jobs for today are to replace the bubble wrap before dark and feed the birds.

redofromstart

Tricky - felt or capillary is supposed to be bird proof but not exactly environmentally sound.  

kazwookie

Woops somehow I have ordered 2 x apple trees (brambley, sunset) plum tree, pear tree.

I did go and look at my shooting garlic bulbs.

One of my roses has 2 buds on it, ! mad in this weather.

KajiKita

@kazwookie, I might have accidentally ordered a Goji berry bush and a winter honeysuckle yesterday… 😉

KK

greenbee

I need to check what I've ordered. And what I haven't ordered yet... all hedging apart from an apple (Norfolk Beefing), winter-flowering cherry, and thornless blackberry. Which means I need to put some other orders in (including the winter honeysuckle - annoyingly the shopping carts I had open have emptied themselves so I'll have to go back to my list and hope I can remember what I wanted!).

redofromstart

I ordered a Sarah Raven book on growing flowers for cutting.  I am supposed to be exiting books, not buying new to me ones.

kazwookie

greenbee all NORFOLK BEEFING I looked at were out of stock, but sunset is a Norfolk varity.

Redo if you are going to use theb ook then it is good, you just need to exit a book that you don't use!!.

Off to look at winter honeysuckle

greenbee

Ashridge trees have Norfolk Beefing Kaz I got it because it's one that my mum has painted (I have one version of the painting, the other is in a Florilegium somewhere). I probably need a pear, plum, and possibly a fig... But it's really hard to decide what varieties! Also a couple of crab apples... 

Cherryfudge

My pots of sprouting bulbs are under bubble wrap and the bubble wrap is under snow, but it's such fun seeing them emerge. I got no further yet on relining the wall baskets (thanks for the suggestions, @redofromstart: I am going to look into felt though the blackbirds will probably have a go at that, as they have at the mossy stuff).

I have a rhubarb in a pot that I rescued from a too-small pot and relocated last year, and new leaves are growing. Jubilation! I'm not going to force it even if I am in Yorkshire: I reckon it needs TLC and gentle harvesting after its rough early start in life. The pot for this and those of the bulbs are now off the ground to try to protect them from frost.

There's a steady stream of very cold rain and has been all day, but at last light, last night's snow was still there in patches. Ah well: an excuse not to mow the lawn, I suppose.

redofromstart

The hard frosts have meant little can be done outside here.  I had some bare root perennials delivered which need to be in pots but even the compost was frozen.  One for this week.  A little flurry of seeds arrived 'free' with a couple of magazines and as part of a subscription offer (I blame EH) so I have been sorting those this evening and looking for any gaps in the things we actually like to eat rather than growing all of the courgettes and giving them away.  

I put my heated propagator somewhere safe and I can't remember where, but when I find it I want to get some early seeds in.  Chilli and aubergine to start with I guess, and I have some nice sweet peas.  I have some broad bean seeds left but am not convinced they are worth the space after last years dismal performance.   Randomly I have ended up with four packs of rocket - luckily it is something we do like although I have never grown it.  Lots of flower seeds too, something I have had very little success with previously.

I have been reading various gardening magazines - mostly via the free app from the library.  It is prime time for pruning apple trees apparently, and the ivy that smothers various stone walls.  Might do that if it warms up enough.  The last bits of wisteria and camelia will go in one green waste bin tomorrow so it would be good to fill the other if I can.  There is still time to put any last lingering spring bulbs in - better than not planting them at all.  

So, do you need to...:
Prune anything - roses, apples, wisteria for example
Sort any seeds and identify gaps
Plant any remaining spring bulbs
Get any bare root plants heeled in 
Check on any bulbs you had in the dark for forcing
Clean and sharpen your tools - there was a useful article in Kitchen Garden on this, free to read via Libby

Has anyone else got any suggestions?