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

debtfreewannabe321

Aw love the cows cheery

debtfreewannabe321

I'm so excited by my greenhouse I realised I'd officially hit middle age. I come out every morning (as does my partner 😆) to see how the babies are doing 🙈🤔 we've hit and miss on success rate but it's still fun and I didn't expect to be growing anything quite so soon after moving in 😁. Just wanted to share my greenhouse and cobbled together potting table and reclaimed shelf we found here and there around the garden, garage and summer house. The spot where I sit depends on weather but if it's raining I've found sitting inside the greenhouse is possible and quite nice otherwise I sit on the patio or one of the other seats around the garden. Here's a pic of the raised beds too... although they all need more compost and the nearest one hasn't got anything growing in it yet as that's the last one budgeted for 😆. I can't believe I use this garden on the outskirts of the city, with all the noises around me and houses, more than the one we had in the countryside last year. It's nowhere near as big as some of your gardens but I am struggling with the size of this one, I take my hat off to all of you with big gardens and acreage! 
Ps I've got some cabbages that have actually survived! And the lettuce is doing well too. 

Working_Mum

What a glorious spot DFW321 - how ace does that all look. Your greenhouse is really sweet.
It feels like you've got the fire in your belly to sort it all out - I definitely think something changes when you hit a certain age
Can't wait to see what you do with the space!
((WM))

EssexHebridean

DFW321 I LOVE your post! It's an absolute joy hearing how enthused you are by your lovely garden!

We finally seem to have a decent array of seedlings poking through - including most of the direct-sown runners round the obelisk which is excellent news. 

debtfreewannabe321

Ahh thank you @EssexHebridean ☺️
I'm having a lot of fun in the garden this year after saying no to non stop diy like we've done for the last 4-5 years!

Today I bought an aubergine plant. £8.99 and it looks okay to me although I've had comments that it looks a bit sad 🤔 I think it looks better already for a good watering. And I've potted on to a few sizes bigger than it was in. I'll keep it in the greenhouse too. I'm not sure how big they get but hopefully it will give me some edible aubergine. At the mo the ones on there are tiny. 

Also, I've got quite large tomato plants now but I have no flowers 🤔 is it too early do you think or do I have duds. I did feed them when I first got them before I read you should wait until the first flowers. Did I make a boo boo that means I won't get any now? The cucumber plants are also growing but again I've no flowers. I think I fed those too 🙈. 

I think I need to stay off allotment pages on FB as I keep comparing mine to theirs and theirs are all huge 🙈😳🤣. 

I read a tip about strawberries and picking them whilst still white and leaving to ripen on a windowsill. Does anyone here do this and does it work? Comments on that post were varied.

Hope everyone had some rain and their water butts are getting filled up. 😁

debtfreewannabe321

Working_Mum said:

What a glorious spot DFW321 - how ace does that all look. Your greenhouse is really sweet.
It feels like you've got the fire in your belly to sort it all out - I definitely think something changes when you hit a certain age
Can't wait to see what you do with the space!
((WM))

Ah thank you! At the moment I am just watching and waiting most of the garden. I don't want to dig areas until I see if any spring/ summer bulbs are still to come up. And the only bits I feel safe digging and weeding in is the beds I already repurposed (and took any bulbs out I found). Having so much fun with the greenhouse even though it's not all that big, I've always wanted one and I've already nearly filled it with hopeful pots of seeds and compost 😆. 

greenbee

Have filled pots on the patio with compost and planted up some - chocolate cosmos by the water bowl, rosemary (and I did remember to add soil and grit!), and parsley (random bit I'd moved in with the lemon balm when I emptied the planter it was in). I've got seeds out to sow more herbs in the others, and am working out what's going to go in the remaining pots.

Greenhouse blinds installed - I'd put it off for ages as I thought it would be hard. It took less time to put them up than it took to open the package. So that's one HUGE box off the garden table and the shade netting down in the greenhouse and freed up to use on the doors/gable end if needed.

I've got a HUGE list for the weekend, but some are quick wins - sowing the herb seeds, poking nasturtium seeds in with the climbing beans/peas/squash as a sacrificial crop (and to look pretty). And if I can weed/cardboard/fill the last three veg plot beds then I can plant out broccoli, squash, loofah and sow a few other bits. 

I also need to mow.

Thankfully I've had help today, and the long border is now completely weeded, and all the edges are done. Plus the last IBC and some water barrels have been moved out of the drive. 

EssexHebridean

Right you lot - who can tell me the things I need to know about nematodes/beneficial insect introduction? Specifically thinking against aphids and slugs - I am aware that is two different forms of attack needed though!  we're thinking Ladybirds for the aphids though...

Farway

Lady birds, you'd need the larvae, the adults will just fly away

Not cheap at all, more suited under glass as well

Could you encourage birds, like blue tits, to do the job.

You'd need to supply water & some hiding but cheaper, more permanent than ladybirds

That said, I have birds feeding but there are so many aphids this year I'd need a flock of vultures to even make a dent in them

KajiKita

EssexHebridean said:

Right you lot - who can tell me the things I need to know about nematodes/beneficial insect introduction? Specifically thinking against aphids and slugs - I am aware that is two different forms of attack needed though!  we're thinking Ladybirds for the aphids though...

You can buy nematodes for the slugs. Not cheap and won't do your whole garden from one packet to be specific about areas you want to protect, needs damp ground and to be applied whilst raining with a wide holed rose on your watering can. If you do get them to work, they do work very well for c. 6 weeks and then the effects gradually fade - generally gives the plants chance to get going.

KK