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

New_in_the_fens

MadamMim2013, I adore the idea of windmills on the lawn! Gets quite breezy here in the fens as it is so flat and open! 

I think I’ll hire a heavy roller and try that first, and then buy some bright, colourful windmills - love it! 🥰 

greenbee

I'm doing well by doing bits of gardening in my breaks. So the patio pots are done AND all the rubbish has been taken away. One asparagus bed has had a trench dug, compost and manure dug in, and three donated crowns planted. The rest is ready for my delivery (whenever it turns up).

One more (wooden) raised bed has been put together and the old loft boards round the bed have been disposed of. A pile of metal raised beds needs to be unpacked and constructed at some point. But I need to work out how they are going to be used (which I think will happen after I unpack them and lay them out - so probably a job for Saturday or next week). 

ElmoR

Afternoon all 😊

Can I do a hydrangea survey with you all please? I am not sure if I have missed the chance to prune mine? I know we are all in different micro climate areas but maybe you have experience that will help? The plants are already produced leaf buds. I let most heads on over winter. Will I damage the plants and reduce flowering later if I prune now? Couple of pics...

Thank you for putting up with my pruning inexperience! ElmoR

redofromstart

I was under the vague impression that leaving the heads on protects them from frosts, I rarely dead head mine before mid March. You just have to be a bit more careful. 

greenbee

I have the same recollection. Leave the heads on until later. RHS says early spring, but I think it's probably still a bit too early https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/hydrangea/pruning-guide

Cherryfudge

Yesterday was lovely weather and I gave the grass its first cut of the year. It looks lush and green but half of it's moss. There's also a fresh sprouting of ground elder... I have to get out there and start fighting it but at least the mower took some of the leaves off.

We also put our new chain saw to work and have started cutting down the logs and branches that were too long for the log burner. They mostly have another year to dry but the garden looks tidier without so much scattered about. Out in the lane at the back is the remains of a tree that split during a storm so I'm hoping we can make use of that: no one else is and where it is, it's unsafe to walk underneath it.

I also bought various bags of bulbs reduced to 10p. Five out of the six tulips seem sound so I've popped them in water to try to kick start them. Is this a good idea or bad? I hope to plant them tomorrow.

greenbee

Personally I did very little in the garden today. However, the gardener comes on Fridays. So another tree was planted, as well as a donated hydrangea and a skimmia. Baby trees were watered. Grass was cut, compost turned, leaf mould moved out of bags and into a bin, and a new compost bay constructed. Some of the wood cluttering up the compost area was bagged up (there are lots of nails and bits of wire in some of it, so it needs to be out of the way of the dog), which means I can put off turning it into kindling for a bit longer. 

The garden looks a lot tidier. The cats aren't sure about the lack of long grass. 

greenbee

Built one more raised bed today - it's not great quality, but looks better than what was there before. I've got decisions to make on others.

Logs have been moved around, but there is still more to do. Hotbin has been topped up with grass to heat it up. 

Dierama from greenhouse have finally been potted up (should have been done in the autumn). I meant to do them last weekend and didn't... I'm not sure how many will actually survive. They're in pots, in gravel trays, on the staging outside the greenhouse, so we'll see how they do. 

Seedlings from the heated propagator are now in the unheated propagator, and padron pepper seeds are heating up. 

Houseplants have been watered, as have the pots on the patio. 

redofromstart

I think the weather is improving for most of us this week which will hopefully mean some garden time.  My suggestion is to look at your key vistas see what needs tidying or trimming.  Have you got any spots of colour or could you cheaply add some?  

Half an hour with a bucket to take out any emerging weeds will be time well spent.  

Is it time to mow the lawn? 

redofromstart

Vistas - for me looking out of the back door and from my tiny study window I can see the huge patio and the sloping beds up to the lawn.  I tidied the patio a few days ago, it had turned in to a general dumping ground.  Bigger and brighter now.  The low stone wall has many pots of bulbs on, and I rotate things into my eye line as they start to flower. I have started the prune back of the perennials so the beds themselves start to look tidier for a few minutes effort with my felcos.  The gravel does a good job of supressing weeds happily.

Weeding - Here this means digging the odd nettle and brambles. It is a lot easier to take them out while they are small.  

Lawn - We haven't done ours yet, but I have bought a levelling rake and some grass seed so I can start addressing the pot holes in the back lawn once it has had the first cut.  The tiny front lawn at the kitchen end is 80% moss and you basically mow the tufts of grass so it never looks that bad. It was cobbles, that had tarmac added, and then a few inches of poor quality top soil that doesn't drain (we had plans to plant it, but did a test hole and realised why it is such a problem).  I do have a few bulbs round the edges for something to look at and might try and expand those borders a little this year.

I have lots of things to carry on planting, and sowing.  I only have chilli and sweet pea seeds in at the moment.