Last Post 1146 days 23 hours ago
31 March 2010 22:12:14
This is a statement I use a lot and covers a multitude. You see I am a veg man and as they say would know me peas and carrots. However when it comes to flowers, well there lies the problem. I am fasnicated when I hear people discussing flowers, their habits, qualities and their planting companions. I love when I hear people discuss flowers with a passion. I am fasnicated when I hear their latin names mentioned and their family genus. I am amazed when a person points to rows of flowers and names them all as if their all long lost family members. However the extent of my flower knowledge is "Its a lovely flower".
Yes I plant flowers, but I stick with a few of the simple old reliables like nightstock, sweetpea, pansies and a few others easily recognisable ones. These I can name and point out. However the rest of the flower world causes me problems. I can never remember names and if they do not following the growing habits of the few I know, well then I am snookered. The few that do survive because I cannot remember their name, I do not know how to look after them. When I am asked what they are, the reply is easy "Its a lovely flower". This statement prevents the inquisitive party asking any more questions and saves me showing my ignorance.
You will always know me in the garden centre's, you will hear across the large displays tables of flowers, the greatest fountain of floral knowledge," Its a lovely flower"
28 March 2010 21:39:14
During the year I was in Aldi and they had fruit bushes for sale. I had no interest in them, but yet when I reached the checkout they were in my trolley. I planted them in a multi-purpose compost in pots and left them in the greenhouse. I fully expected them to die, but they havent and now leaf is growing. As they are surviving I now need advice.
As I have no area designated for a fruit garden I would like them to grow in large containers. Can I mix compost and clay together and plant them in that ? do I need to add farm yard manure ? Do I need to give them a feed every few weeks ?
I would be grateful for any advice as I know nothing about fruit bushes, but living by my mantra, "you should learnd something new everyday". Today the lesson to be learnt is fruit bushes. Oh I forgot to mention that the fruits are Gooseberry, raspberry, and blackberry.
26 March 2010 21:33:04
Just to remind those members taking part in the bird survey that the form is due back in before April 1st.
Today also I heard on the radio that the first swallows were spotted in Ireland. According to the radio that these sightings were confirmed by Bird Watch Ireland. Strange to hear of them this early. However I had a lot of driving to do today and i kept my eyes open for a swallow, but alas saw none. However I did see a bullfinch today, what a beautiful bird. I don-t remember seeing a bullfinch before, well certainly not in my adult life.
I must say doing the survey has give me a greater interest in our feathered friends and a greater awareness of the bird and the work it does in our garden.
23 March 2010 21:10:41
Starting to come together
On Saturday I managed to finish building the raised bed. The wall was built before Christmas but I never got back to the building due to the frost and snow. I have to order clay now and some trellis for the wall. However by completing this, it means I can use the two flower beds created when we were tarmacing the yard two years ago. They lay abandoned covered with weed barrier. Now I will have the oppurunity to plant all three up together.
22 March 2010 23:23:23
It is not often I or anybody else on this site would praise a wet day. No indeed not, instead we would give more time and energy to lamenting the hardships and misery the rain brings upon it. How many hours of planned work on our day off has being lost to a wet spiteful day, which only rained because we were off.
However today for one day only I will praise the rain. It rained here over part of the weekend, mostly fair to say at night when I was lying in me bed dreaming of winning chelsea flower show. However two days later the effects of the rain is to be seen. No longer do I have a lawn of some sort of yellow browny colour. I have a lawn of green, and a dark green colour to be proud off. No longer do I have daffodils peeking thru the clay wondering whether to withdraw to the clay or grow. They have decided to put a spurt of life into themselves and reach for the sky, whether they flower is another question. I seen buds on me roses and even spotted a bee yesterday. I see hedges and fields returning to their natural colour of green, and i even heard an auld fella giving about the wet morning . All this has happen since the rain fell and it should be praised for the new life it brings to our gardens.
However in all fairness the truce ends tomorrow and I want nice summer days with a small fall of rain at night time. I live in hope but I have a funny idea we will all spend the next three months giving out about the abundance of wet days during the summer months.
17 March 2010 21:55:41
Still busy at work (thank god) and the first free day to get some time in the garden will be monday. However I have 7.5kg of "home guard" chitting in the kitchen. herself indoors is suprisingly quiet about this and said nothing about the seed trays in the kitchen windows. This in itself is a worry. However this is not what has me worried, I am well behind in my seed germination, garden preparation and planting. I was so well ahead earlier in the year, but I seem to have slipped up and am now paddy last.
However I have to pick up 7.5kg of "british Queens" to complet the seed potato requirement. I have appox 300 onions to be planted and hope to do this Saturday and Sunday. The cabbage and cauliflower plants are coming on well and I sowed turnip seeds late last night. I hope to start to germinate the pea and beans over the weekend. I will also sow the leek, spring onion and some more lettuce.
I am starting to panic and feel I will not catch up.
10 March 2010 22:14:16
During my day I do a lot of driving and I have noticed a lot of lawns and hedges start to change colour, and I don-t think it is a healthy colour. I have noticed a lot of llandi, spruce hedges turning a funny colour of yellew/green. These seem to be well established hedges and well mantained, but of late they have started to change colour. I have noticed a few lawns starting to go the same way. is this frost damage ? have their owners kept them too tightly cut and left them no protection from the frost or are they just suffering a set back in growth ?
09 March 2010 23:14:57
Bought a certain garden magazine the other day to cheer myself up and there is a packet of seeds containing courgettes, squash and pumpkin. These are not on my list this year or any year in the future. If anybody would like them, please let me know and I will drop them in the post to you.
09 March 2010 23:09:11
I was reading with great interest everybodys journals on heated propagators. With the weather that in it I was seriously considering buying one. In the end I decided to spend the money on something else for the garden. I planted my cabbage seeds ( greyhound), cauliflower ( all year round), lettuce ( all year round ) in unheated propagators. When the weather turned cold I thought that would be the end of the seeds, however today I found that my seeds had germinated. However the flower seeds have not struck yet and i am beginning to regret maybe not investing in a heated propagator. Very confusing this gardening, hard to be right, but great fun trying
05 March 2010 22:07:22
I would love to say that I am well prepared with the garden but unforunately I am not. I have become very busy at work for the next few weeks, I am not complaining as work is work and not to be sneezed at. However I am torn and gutted when I see the beautiful days and I cannot get out to my garden.
When I am off I want perfect sunshine, lovely dry clay as not to tire me when I am digging and allow me to get as much done as possible in the day. I want daylight to last till all my work is done, all my seedlings to germinate at the same time, when I hasten to add I am ready and prepared to deal and accomadate them.
When I am at work and unable to tend my garden, looking furlong out the window I want rain to ease my guilt of garden inactivity. I want my plants gently watered and the slugs drowned. I want the ghosts of gardeners past to tend it in my absence, keep it beautiful and maintained till I can return and once again take up my duties.
I know in these hard times I as for to much, but I am a man torn between two loves, my work and my garden
02 March 2010 22:37:57
i made a start this week and sowed a few seeds. I am reluctant to sow a large amount as I am of the belief there will be a late start to the season. With this cold weather, there is no growth or life in the soil and i am afraid of being caught with a large amount of young seedlings and the ground to cold for planting. I have a few jobs to finish in the garden anyway and this extra time hopefully will give me time to get them finished
02 March 2010 22:31:35
It,s not that I have being anywhere, but my laptop was. Last week it picked up a very nasty virus and was at the doc,s being cured. I have got busier at work which has limited my gardening time. However this evening when i got my cured laptop back I decided to catch up on peoples journals. Either I need a secretary to do the reading for me or everybody just post a short entry of what they have being up to. Theres hundreds of journals to catch up with. not a hope in reading even 1% of them. I remember some-one commenting at the start of winter that this site would be quiet......well I would need alot of quiet time to catch up with all journals.