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

SuzeQStan

Thanks @Farway that’s them! Feeling happier now hopefully the problem will resolve itself with those hungry larvae about 😊

EssexHebridean

That's actually a good idea about finding a way of attaching the salad tops that have the aphids to the bird feeder - at the moment I've been tending to drop them in a bucket of water, but I much prefer the concept of enhancing the food chain! 

I dread to think how much water we're using at the moment but there's not a lot of choice unless we want a lot of dead plants. We're mostly trying to do it first thing as that seems to minimise the issues we then get with slugs and snails overnight - MrEH is finding masses of slugs in particular when he has his walk around last thing.

Tomatoes finally seem to be springing up a bit, beans are flowering (including the bush beans that really need to grow more before they try to flower!), we harvested the first tatties from one of the bags at the weekend - enough there for a couple of meals but not really as good as we hoped - and the last of the peas are sitting in the freezer now waiting for a suitable meal. 

More rocket & salad sown... need to do more radishes as well plus probably starting to think about thinning those that are already in. 

Cherryfudge

We have our first ripe tomatoes! Yellow cherry tomatoes in the hanging basket. There are two so far. Exciting!

Now I have a question for you: my sister let me take some runners from her alpine strawberries, which are abundant. I put them in water overnight but they wilted straight away. Since then I've had them in a washed out milk carton with a little water and the lid screwed on, and they've revived. If I just leave them to it, do you think roots will develop or should I take them out and put them on soil, and if I do, do I then seal them so they don't dry out before they develop roots?

Or it there another way? I'd also like to try growing some from the seeds of the fruit I picked.

I've also saved some raspberry seeds - do they need to go in the freezer before I plant them? What else do I need to know about growing raspberries from seed?

EssexHebridean

I always just shove strawberry runners into moist compost while still attached to the plants, and cut them free once they've rooted - although obviously you can't do it that way if they've been given to you already cut free. In fairness I've not idea if that's the usually accepted way of doing it - it is what worked for me years back so I instinctively leaned towards doing it that way again.

Actually, this reminds me I have a few ready to be cut free and set aside to get a bit bigger ahead of potting on...need to work out where they are going too! 

Cherryfudge

Thanks @EssexHebridean, I suspect that's correct and if it works, I will do my best to follow suit. Peering into the milk carton, it's now a sort of water-based terrarium and I can see one of the runner has the beginnings of roots, so I will let those grow a bit then try pegging it down in some compost. It's quite fun and I do like alpine strawberries!

On my way home tonight I saw someone had put some plant troughs out with a sign saying 'free'. One of them was close on the size we want in the dip between the new steps and the fence, so it came home with me and I will give some thought about what to put in it. I have a few Sweet Williams that have been ticking over for about three years and did well in that place but a smaller trough last year, so those would be a cheerful starting point.

Slinky

SuzeQStan said:

Lots of aphid this year and on plants that are normally unaffected - my lollipop female holly has been inundated to the point of leaf drop and army of ants up and down constantly. There are some small yellow/black stripe insects (not bees about 1/4 the size of a bee) surrounded the aphid holly as well - wonder if they are after the aphid nectar. I have been collecting water in the sink from hand washing and throw it over the whole holly in hopes the soap / cold water shock will help. But so far no progress 

One of our buddliea's was so infested with black fly that despite spraying it wasn't picking up, we cut back all this year's growth. Fortunately it's resprouted and is growing away with no repetition of the black fly. We had the same problem with black fly on the clematis.

We've been away for nearly 3 weeks and a friend came in to water for us as it's been so dry. What is noticeable are the weeds that have sprung up whilst we were away. I did have a good blitz on them before we left, not so that you would notice now.  If I had a quid for all the self seeded verbena I'd have thousands. It's gone rampant.  I must make sure I don't leave the seed heads on this year. Whilst I do love verbana there's just way too much of it!

I need to get outside this week and catch up. There's some new plants which were bare root this year, in pots, that will need to be found a home now we're back. I didn't want to plant them out and leave for my friend to care for while we were away.

Cherryfudge

I've done very little in the garden this week (tired and busy) but we went to a car boot this morning and there were some excellent plant stalls. I've come back with a tray of leeks and no firm idea of where to plant them. I wonder if I could use potato bags? That way I can keep a 'veg patch' that can be moved if more of the dreaded ground elder comes up.

I also got a gorgeous scented pink and have planted it near the new steps. You can hardly avoid seeing it so I fondly imagine the whole path now looks planted up. At least I've put the trough of Sweet Williams near the house so there's some colour there too. 

SuzeQStan

I love this time of year in the garden - even though there is so much needs doing, have managed to just sit and enjoy it without feeling panicky from lack of ‘progress’

Relaxation helped by P!mms made with strawberries, mint, cucumber and borage from the garden 🥴

Prior to this chill out session - sorted a major garden frog - moved a couple of massive potted trees to sunnier locations - Gingko Biloba & a Blue Spruce. A strong sack trolley and a fair amount of strong language involved.

Cherryfudge

We had an absolute downpour at lunchtime today and I'm pleased to say the new drainage coped beautifully.

Various bits of tidying up have been done: DH went round the patch of shrubby brown wasteland formerly known as the lawn with secateurs, beheading the many scions of greengage and damson trees that have sprung up. If I've understood rightly, they are actually still part of the parent tree, just attempting a takeover.

We've picked dropped greengages out of the grass by the dozen, and the tree is still laden. I also picked up three fallen Mirabelle plums, but they may not yet be edible. DH harvested some blackcurrants (I should grow more, he loves them) and we had a look at the gooseberries but concluded they aren't quite ready.

We've only got a handful of raspberries and strawberries: the latter were doing well but I didn't water them enough in the hot weather.

I've put some effort into cutting back the geraniums and there are yet more ground elder leaves underneath so lots of digging in the future, though the drought has slowed the growth a lot. Then I cut back the hedge and various rampant brambles, though I've left the ones with berries. As a result the back garden looks straggly: there is various dead foliage under where the geraniums were and the hedges need more tidying. I'm hoping they will thicken up now the rain has come.

There was also a damson offshoot near the house which I've cut back and will probably remove . The parent plant is growing madly but has no fruit this year. I think they are generally bi-annual.

In more constructive news, I've planted a thyme by the new steps. I needed something that could withstand being run over by the wheelie bin and would soften the path edge.

I can't say the garden looks much better for all this, so I hope it will regulate itself over the next few days and start to look less gauche.

EssexHebridean

I love thyme for ground cover - we've got them dotted about in various places including a couple in the front garden to soften the edge between the pavement and the garden, there is also one doing the same with the corner of the veg bed except it's permanently covered by rhubarb at this time of the year! 

Our main task for the weekend was getting any remaining seedlings planted out - and we succeeded with everything aside from a handful of tomato plants that I think I will probably just compost now - I've got plenty of plants, precious little room for any more, and hopefully no more will now get eaten by slugs! MrEH found gaps for the last few squashes/courgettes - honestly, we'll be overrun with the thing if they all produce well - and there is still just a single bush bean to go in which will probably replace a pea plant as those are ready to come out, and I plan to direct-sow more bush beans to give a crop into the autumn, so that one may as well have a head start. 

My second salvaged wine box got planted up thanks to a garden centre trip - they were selling off various herbs for £1.50 each so the box has a golden marjoram, an upright thyme, a variagated sage and a rock hyssop with lovely blue flowers. I also got a Mexican tarragon (never even knew there was such a thing!) which I managed to find our one remaining nice pot for. That has orange flowers but seems to taste much the same as the french one I already have! Pictures of the planted up  boxes on my diary if anyone is interested. 

I'm quite pleased with my herbs this year - we seem to have solved the issue of the squirrels digging everything up, and so I have a decent crop of basil, in fact almost enough already for a batch of pesto I reckon, I need to get some hard cheese to throw into that. We're also doing decently with salad leaves which is an improvement on last year!

Sowed a few each of pointed and chinese cabbage, so we'll see if those do anything. The kale is ready to start taking some off of so that will begin to get filtered in to stir fries etc. 4 more sticks of rhubarb round to Mum's yesterday, and I will probably pull some more for us at the end of the week as well - I know we're not meant to take much off it this year but it's running riot!