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

Cherryfudge

I spent about 50 minutes in the garden today. As usual there was regrowth of the ground elder but progress is more or less maintained and the most amazing nest of roots is slowly coming out of the patch I'd not even attempted to cut back before. I just throw the roots on the tarpaulin to dry out - but a cheeky ground elder leaf pushed its way through a split in the tarp today!

I weeded the spring bulb pots and added a bit of compost on top, in which I've sown borage and marigolds in the hope of colour later in the summer, and I watered things because everything is getting so dry.

redofromstart

Looking like a weekend of sunshine here.  My suggestions are:

1. Watering.  Better to do a good soak regularly then a light sprinkle daily.  I keep a tub trug with a few inches of water in for things in pots that really need a good soak.  I leave them in it for an hour so they can soak up the water.  Are you doing enough to gather and store water?  Already mutterings about hosepipe bans.  

2.  Feeding - does anything need feeding? Things in pots, tomatoes, etc

3. Slugs and snails and other pests (puppy dogs tails!) - vaseline round your pots is meant to work, one for me to try.  I have top dressed my big potted hostas with horticultural grit to see if this helps.  I found three red lily beetles earlier so daily checks here. 

4. Weeding - little and often is key.  Once it is clear is it worth mulching?

5.  The ground should now be warm enough for direct sowing.  

Any other suggestions?

debtfreewannabe321

I've decided to water a few times a week really well instead of a little bit each day too redo! 
One of my fruit trees has some sort of aphid on I need to Google how to get rid of it ☹️ it's covered! 

SuzeQStan

Am in a battle with lily beetles redo - at lunch I made a concoction of garlic & fairy liquid dilute in water in a spray bottle.  Am ready to wage war.

the thing that gets me the most is the !!!! covered grubs of the beetle. It is a vile but clever coping strategy. 

SuzeQStan

We are inundated with aphids this year as well DFW321 - I won’t use insecticides so have found myself finally putting pandemic nylon gloves to use and basically scraping them off buds, stems with a clad fingernail. And squashing them as well.  That is not as bad a job as the lily beetles tho- no matter
how hard you try to protect yourself you get covered in !!!! - am going to pass all
my lilies on this year Ol!o - I cannot be doing with it.

redofromstart

Much sympathy from me @SuzeQStan, it reminded me why I had stopped growing them originally
@debtfreewannabe321 try washing up liquid solution as a cheap easy immediate answer - 1 teaspoon per 3 litres of water.  I use it on green fly but I also do the grim squish them off thing. 

KajiKita

For all those wrangling ground elder and it is spreading in my garden, I realise now … I found this whilst reading last night 😊 I suspect we’ve discussed most of this but I didn’t remember mention of all of these possible plant options 🤔



KK

Cherryfudge

That's very useful thanks, @KajiKita. I can testify that my perennial geraniums are winning vs the ground elder, though some leaves get through.

The ground is getting baked hard now, but I discovered the little self-sown apple tree has rooted through a pot which is good for it but not at all to plan as I'm now trying to soften that soil so I can dig the tree out. I want to keep it if I can: it's a good shape and the blossoms are lovely though of course we don't know yet if the fruit will be nice. It can't stay where it is as it's too near the house and it could get damaged when the new path is laid.

Thank you to those who offered advice on what make of rake to get. Not all seem to be available locally to test but I've gone for a Kent and Stowe with a fifteen year warranty. I reckon that should be enough to withstand the sort of situations in which I might use it. It's quite weighty but I'm prepared to work with that. We had almost decided on this particular one when DH noticed there was a one-month £5 discount for garden centre members, and we're already members. We had to check with the staff as the advert said it was a May offer, starting on 31st May. We think that was a misprint. We got our discount and effectively it was free to us as I used garden centre tokens to pay.

Farway

SuzeQStan said:

Am in a battle with lily beetles redo - at lunch I made a concoction of garlic & fairy liquid dilute in water in a spray bottle.  Am ready to wage war.

the thing that gets me the most is the !!!! covered grubs of the beetle. It is a vile but clever coping strategy. 

I inspect my lilies a few times daily, to pick off & apply size 10 boot to all the beetles before they get a chance to lay eggs

Daily works, and seems to have reduced mine over the years

The little blighters will drop to the ground, black side up, if they sense you, so have a cupped hand underneath them before you dive in

One already squished this morning while watering

redofromstart

Thanks Farway, I will move the pots to the front so it is easier to check them daily.