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

Farway

KajiKita said:

@debtfreewannabe321, if ants are setting up home in your compost heap it suggests it’s a bit dry.

KK

On the plus side, ants will deter any rats from moving in

debtfreewannabe321

The ants have moved this morning. They were scurrying about carrying eggs as we unearthed them so they've probably gone deeper into the compost heap 🙈.

greenbee

Just tip some water on it DFW. One of mine is incredibly dry and really needs watering to get it going, but I'm being lazy because the shed water butt is empty. I think it's time to refill all the butts from the hose before we get a hosepipe ban!

Cherryfudge

greenbee said:

Can you take a photo? Could it be a fuschia of some kind?

Unfortunately I couldn't get close enough and the roads aren't the sort where you can stop and take photos without detailed knowledge of laybys, so it remains a mystery. I don't think it was a fuchsia, as the largest one was a small tree, but the pods, or whatever they were, could have been the size of a long narrow fuchsia flower, in dense bunches and a brilliant, intense red. I did try to look them up but nothing resembled my memory of them. I wonder if it's something that just doesn't grow where you get ice and snow, e.g. Yorkshire, where I live?

I'm home now, and none of my plants has died of not being watered for a week, though I think it was a bit of a close call for some. The first thing I did, on getting home after 10 last night, was put the outside light on and hose everything near the door, which is where most of the pots are. My Pheasant's Eye narcissi are blooming beautifully, thanks to being planted at the end of the year instead of late summer or autumn!

Today I've spent a couple of hours on the garden, with help from DH. The ground elder has been further hacked back and some roots removed from a corner that has been left but which needs to be clear in the hope that the person will come to lay the path soon. I knew it was absolutely riddled with ground elder, but I've been focussing on stopping the outlying growth from spreading, and limiting it in a flower bed. I think the dry weather is really helping, and I've learned from last year not to stop fighting it too early.

I've also cut back brambles and ivy that grew while we were away, and we've moved sundry pots and bricks from near the back door so there's less to do when the path man comes. The log store and water butt remain in place but at least the bitty things are elsewhere. I hope the work gets done in time to move them back before we get dead grass under them, but the lawn has yellowed a lot over this week so perhaps they will actually protect it from drying further (because I've to keep watering them, and I don't water the grass).

The strawberries have flowers and nearly all the trees are in full leaf, apart from the ash. You may remember the rhyme about the oak and the ash? Something like 'If the oak is out before the ash, the earth will only get a splash. If the ash is out before the oak, then the earth will get a soak.' It certainly looks as thought the ash is taking it's time this year.

And the gooseberries have lots of fruit coming! Yippee! We nearly always forget them and waste a lot but I grew some from cuttings and they are doing well so I'm reminded. The red currant died over the winter, and the raspberries have gone apart from a few oddments that are growing through the lawn and the gravel. (Sigh). I might try to transplant a few and see what happens.

Farway

Cherryfudge said:

greenbee said:

Can you take a photo? Could it be a fuschia of some kind?

Unfortunately I couldn't get close enough and the roads aren't the sort where you can stop and take photos without detailed knowledge of laybys, so it remains a mystery. I don't think it was a fuchsia, as the largest one was a small tree, but the pods, or whatever they were, could have been the size of a long narrow fuchsia flower, in dense bunches and a brilliant, intense red. I did try to look them up but nothing resembled my memory of them. I wonder if it's something that just doesn't grow where you get ice and snow, e.g. Yorkshire, where I live?

I'm with Greenbee, bet it was fuchsia. The narrow Devon lanes are full of them, and similar climate, mild & damp prone

Cherryfudge

Farway said:

I'm with Greenbee, bet it was fuchsia. The narrow Devon lanes are full of them, and similar climate, mild & damp prone

I've been searching again and thought I'd found it - a flame tree? But not convinced. The colour was, I think, too vivid for a fuchsia, and the grouping of coloured spots was like bunches of flowers or pods over green foliage. Some of them were the size and shape of a really well established fuchsia bush, but one was a tree, perhaps 15 feet tall. At this rate I will have to search for 'things that are never grown in Yorkshire' and see if that helps!

Farway

Cherryfudge said:

Farway said:

I'm with Greenbee, bet it was fuchsia. The narrow Devon lanes are full of them, and similar climate, mild & damp prone

I've been searching again and thought I'd found it - a flame tree? But not convinced. The colour was, I think, too vivid for a fuchsia, and the grouping of coloured spots was like bunches of flowers or pods over green foliage. Some of them were the size and shape of a really well established fuchsia bush, but one was a tree, perhaps 15 feet tall. At this rate I will have to search for 'things that are never grown in Yorkshire' and see if that helps!

Red roses?

Cherryfudge

  

Red roses?

         Brilliant!

-taff

Cherryfudge said:

I'm on holiday - Northern Ireland - and keep seeing an unfamiliar tree or shrub laden with scarlet pods, or possibly berries or flowers. They look as though they are longish and hanging in dense bunches. It's not something I'm familiar with at all - please can someone enlighten me about what I'm seeing?

@YoungBlueEyes do you know what these could be?

redofromstart

I have been hardening off things ready for my 'average' frost free date, website here suggests tomorrow for me and the forecast is good so I plan to make a start on potting up the half hardy stuff starting with some pink trailing fuchsias to go in the ancient metal pots on the drive wall.  I have some water retaining gel to add to the compost as they get the peak of the mid-day sun but are in the shade till mid morning and from mid afternoon.  Not the ideal spot for the half hardy fuchsias (dappled shade preferred I think) but they are good sized cheap ones from the local farm,  I usually do lobelias but they just cooked last year.