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

EssexHebridean

No damage with us thankfully although we do have a fence panel beginning to flex rather alarmingly - we might have to have a natter with next door about that at some stage I think. The posts are concrete and are fine, so it will likely just be a case of getting a new panel & MrEH and Mr Next Door working together to slide it in.

Lots of seed sowing happening, and we now also have the new mini-greenhouse constructed and in use. I'm still debating whether I can build some sort of frame to attach the panels from the old (rubbish!) cheapy coldframe to - it would come in handy if I can, but I need to take a proper look I think. we're certainly not going to bother trying to reconstruct the thing this year - it was a waste of time and money.

I think I'm going to get some more flowers sown over the weekend - I did the nasturtiums and some more calandula/pot marigolds last weekend, plus some lobelia, so we have stuff on the go, but I might do an additional sowing of sunflowers I think, and also see what else I have that can be given a go.

greenbee

I got annoyed at work so went and dug up all the horrid red/orange/yellow blend tulips that have annoyed me for the last two years.

The ground is VERY dry in places, so I really do need to get the veg plot irrigation system set up at the weekend.

Cherryfudge

I'm still fighting the lawn - it got overgrown so I had hack parts of it with shears, but parts are still too damp to get the mower through. Gradually making progress, though.

Sadly, the ground elder is back with a vengeance and I think I'm going to have to use weedkiller, at least on the lawn. I got close to doing that last year but this year we are soon to have work done on the house so it will have even more of a hold if I have a week or more without much garden time. Needs must - and it took so much time last year, but has still gained ground, that at least it might give me time to do more in other areas.

DH and I have also cut back some shrubs between us and next door, and it looks better. I was pleased to have the green wheelie bin fairly full of last winter's twigs, topped up with today's prunings, and it should be emptied tomorrow ready for the next round.

We're also still working on cutting through the fallen tree in the back lane! Lots of twiggy bits from that went into the bin as well.

greenbee

Old apple tree is definitely dead. Gardener over-pruned it last year and it seems to have succumbed to honey fungus. While the apples weren’t good it did screen next door a bit (and could have done more if it had been allowed to grow). However, it is also the ideal spot to put a second greenhouse… so I’ll leave it for now and take it out in the autumn and see what might fit there.

I cleaned the greenhouse yesterday (don’t look too closely, but at least the glass is no longer green…) and have started moving seedlings - some of which need potting on already. So I need to plan where they will go.

I’ve mulched bits of the garden I want to convert from lawn grass and weeds to beds with cardboard and wood chip, but I have more to do and not as much woodchip as I’d like (need to save some for composting. As I have far more green than brown to compost (at least until I get rid of the ‘lawn’) I wondered whether I could mulch with grass clippings over the cardboard rather than wood chip. I have a feeling that I need to water whatever mulch I have at the moment as otherwise it’ll dry out rather than compost. Thoughts welcomed, but I’m trying to avoid digging as there is so much to do. The soil we have applied masses of compost and mulch to is doing well and has worms and insects now - it was completely dead before, as are new areas we dig holes in. The veg plot is 100% no dig and doing really well, so I want to expand this approach to the rest of the garden.

SuzeQStan

A plant that does a good job screening is always sad to lose - we lost a photinia this year which I would have said was impossible as they are hard to kill. And it blocks neighbour’s bedroom window from looking into ours. I don’t really like photinias much - previous home owners choice - but it did do a good job.

Then again as you say there’s now opportunity for your 2nd greenhouse. And for me it will allow a magnolia to grow into the space.

Im not much help on the mulch front but I don’t know if grass clippings might be a bit flimsy in the driving wind and rain compared to wood chip mulch - but then again they should break down more quickly. Let me know how you get on with it pls as it’s an idea I would be interested in.

Cherryfudge

I think I've done four or five hours in the garden this weekend. Yesterday DH and I took the chainsaw to the fallen tree in the back lane for the second time and this time got through it. It's dragged to one side for now - far too heavy to lift and would take ages to slice up, but no one is using our end of the lane apart from us, and possibly the builders when they arrive to do the roof.

I also did some more work on the lawn edges and decided on a treatment to kill the weeds and moss and perhaps even get some grass growing where they were. I've still to measure the space so I can order it.

Today I went back to a task from last year and sorted out a little more of the gravel near the house. This means digging it out, sieving each trowelful, throwing red gravel in one container, emptying the older grey gravel into another and the sieved soil into a bag, while taking out any roots and rubbish. With that amount of detail, only a small area got done, but the grey gravel then goes back in, cardboard goes on top for a mulch and the red gravel goes on top. To encourage myself, I measured what looks like such a small area and it seems it's actually just over two and half square metres, which sounds more impressive than it looks.

I've used some of the sieved soil, with compost, to fill a tub and plant garlic that I bought some time before Christmas and which was, amazingly, still in good condition. I'm not putting it in the open soil, partly because there's nowhere prepared and partly so I can keep it away from any building activity. I've even remembered to put mesh over and weight it down, as the blackbirds love digging things up!

And some good news: I'd been concerned about a tree that seemed to be shedding twigs, but now I've seen there's a pigeon nesting precariously and dropping bits of nest frequently!

Merlin's_Beard

Reseeded my tiny lawn yesterday- scarifying it exposed it for the sad thing it really is under the moss! Fingers crossed that it sprouts nicely and the birds don't get it.

SuzeQStan

starting this year as I always do - desperately rationing my rain barrels - loving the sun in the garden and hoping for rain at night 🤣.

Also not keeping on top the ‘weeds’ this year - amazing how many are so charmingly flowering. Yes I know I will regret it but I’m blaming my sore back this spring.

Cheery_Daff

Nice pottering afternoon in the garden for me today 😊 quick weeding of the new flower bed, planted out a couple of things i bought last weekend (although I've just sat on a bench and decided I wanted to move one of them 😂). Have also planted a load of seeds - kale, beetroot, leek, cabbage etc 😊 Always dangerous as I now have to keep them alive in the greenhouse - thermometer tells me it's ranged from 3 to 54 degrees in there over the last couple of days 😬

Cherryfudge

I have finally faced Tackling The Grass over the last couple of days. One side of the house is a very small lawn with a lot of plantain. Unless you look, it more or less merges with the grass. The other side is thick with moss and, unfortunately, rampant ground elder. I used a 4-in-1 treatment and the moss has blackened already! Tomorrow it's forecast to rain all day so weedkiller should be washed further into the soil.

Other than that, there's been a small amount of tidying and moving pots ready for the builders coming. Not that anything has actually gone to temporary homes yet: it's been more about preparing space for them.