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Post by keff on Feb 29, 2024 13:59:54 GMT
I have been gardening this week, digging over a small flower bed that now needs restocking. We haven't managed to get to a garden centre this week as I thought we might. Also started to tidy our little patio area which I laid perhaps 34 years ago using brick sized concrete blocks (Marshalls block paving as it was known). The path around the north side of the house still needs many of last years leaves removing. It is a job that has to be revisited throughout winter and early spring.
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Post by Zi on Feb 29, 2024 15:55:52 GMT
I'm thinking about gardening and doing odd chores. Right now my time is being taken up with designing a new bed and turning the large bed we built last year into more of a perennial bed. It was mostly annuals last year; and dahlias. I'm also ordering things for hanging baskets. We have just three of them here and I know some people don't like them (and I understand) but I adore them! I grow things for all the pots in the courtyard but I tend to buy in the hanging basket plants. I think sometimes thinking about the garden takes up more time than doing. @keff - That patio doesn't owe you anything! Have you been in the house much longer than 34 years? It must be really nice to have stayed put and see things develop.
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Post by keff on Feb 29, 2024 18:22:03 GMT
That patio doesn't owe you anything! Have you been in the house much longer than 34 years? It must be really nice to have stayed put and see things develop. We have been in this house for 36 years. During that first year we had a kitchen and sitting room extension. During the next summer I reduced the level of garden along the west (the longest) wall of the extension and built the patio. I didn't have a block cutting jig so they were laid in basket weave pattern. It has remained remarkably level but suffers with moss growing along the lines between the blocks.
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Post by pavane on Feb 29, 2024 20:52:52 GMT
I'm highly impressed by all this gardening activity in February. I'm really not a cold weather person - I look out of the window, see the sun shining and think it looks good and I'll venture out into it, and I do, and mostly I wish I hadn't. We'll be starting on the outside stuff in April. Ish.
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Post by keff on Mar 1, 2024 8:55:30 GMT
gardening activity in February I can assure pavane that when it is cold or wet I am not going to stay outside for long but sometimes it is good to breath the fresh air and do a few little jobs.
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Post by Zi on Mar 1, 2024 9:25:37 GMT
I sympathise with both positions. We're more or less forced out when we can because the garden is such a wilderness and there's The Collie - she likes to be out and about if it isn't raining. She doesn't believe she is water-proof. So we do short bursts then rush back in. Mr Z has been chopping wood. I'm doing that taking stock thing and I've done a bit of weeding - not nearly enough. Our problem is it is seriously wet here.
I have some more ordering to do today - I think I prefer that kind of gardening in winter... though in meteorological terms it's Spring today...or was that yesterday because of the leap year?
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Post by Zi on Mar 8, 2024 10:02:17 GMT
We're planting trees at the moment. We planted some fruit trees in an area that was meant to be our little orchard 18 months ago. It consists of 3 apples, 2 plums, a pear and a walnut (already there and quite big)and then it turns into native non-fruiting trees which were already there. We have a 'meadow' area at the other end of the garden but we put a few fruit trees in there over the last couple of years and it's now got more fruit trees than the 'orchard area'! Anyway, we added three more yesterday and three more are to go in today. Someone one day will have some great trees! But I think the meadow has shrunk a bit... I'm intending to develop 'meadow' areas in the 'field' to make up for it.
Fingers crossed it doesn't rain!
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Post by keff on Mar 8, 2024 17:38:24 GMT
We called in at a garden centre on our way back from Ambleside and bought some primulas as in Zi's picture.
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Post by Zi on Mar 9, 2024 9:51:16 GMT
I really like the primula family - particularly the little primrose type things. I bought a load of laced edge primula at the end of last year - they were too small to plant out. The Victorians absolutely adored them so I thought they'd fit in well here somewhere. I also love auriculas but they can be awkward.
We planted three more fruit years yesterday along with some more hedging rose, a blackthorn, a hornbeam and a dogrose. I have to order more hedging rose. We're using it to add some flowers and hips to the Big Orchard area (we now call the orchards 'big and 'little' - in the case of 'big' it's all relative!) Today, it's alder, hazel, whitebeam and some more hedging roses... if it stays fine. It's a bit iffy... Mr Z says he aches a bit. I've been planting the roses and they're small so I haven't had to dig to any great size. The ground is sodden and heavy and it's all weeds and stuff. It's really hard work digging holes... But we feel soooo pleased when we've managed to get the plants in!
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Post by Zi on Mar 14, 2024 16:54:38 GMT
I bought some new plants for the new border we haven't yet dug. It's going to be slightly bigger than the last one - 7.5 by 2.5 metres - the last one was 5 by 2.5; basically we are using sleepers to make the edges so it's dictated by that. We dug the last one with spades and it was hard work as it's in the 'field' so it's all grass and weeds. We thought this time we'd try the rotavator on it first and then do some digging.
I've bought some more tough shrub roses to start making areas around the edge of the 'field' which vaguely look like a garden. And I'm trying to make a list of really tough climbing roses that will scramble over the 'hedges'.
However, we are still trying to work out what to do with our greenhouse which is still stuck together will sticky tape and we sealed the doors to stop the wind getting in that way... we can't actually get inside at the moment! Mr Z built a small lean-to last year which we started using at the end of the season but it's way too small to deal with all our plants. So, we're getting nowhere fast with our dithering. We're good at dithering - we'd both ace in it.
And it's raining!
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Post by Zi on Apr 2, 2024 21:20:15 GMT
We've decided to move our small polytunnel... So far we've dug up a massive globe artichoke to make sure there's sufficient space for it. And we've started levelling the ground. Moving it will be hilarious... If we can actually move it, it will mean if/when the greenhouse blows away in the summer gales, we can put stuff into the polytunnel while we figure out what to do...
I hope other people's gardening is considerably less 'exciting'!
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Post by keff on Apr 3, 2024 18:35:10 GMT
I was outside this afternoon for a short period whilst cutting out some weed shrubs from the middle of one of our beech hedges. It was drizzling so I became a little damp. Filled up our garden waste green bin which will be emptied tomorrow.
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Post by Zi on Apr 4, 2024 10:00:44 GMT
I'd settle for drizzle. We've had some rain and then some. Mr Z has started talking about building something 300 cubits by 50 by 30... The polytunnel is still where it was rather than where it might be if it stops raining. I'm so looking forward to shifting it. It'll be hilarious... We're hoping to move the frame in one bit. There's part of me that would love to move the whole thing in one bit but our arms aren't long enough and quite little. We probably could do with Superman...
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Post by pavane on Apr 4, 2024 16:39:07 GMT
Luckily our polytunnel is concreted firmly into place so there is no question of having to move it. On the other hand, it's been so wet for so long that Mrs P (the one who does all the work inside the polytunnel) hasn't been able to access it, so I am now the proud owner of a pile of formers, a roll of weed suppressing fabric, and one tonne of gravel. I'm sort of hoping that I'll get up tomorrow and elves will have transformed that lot into a pathway but, as they say, hope for the best but prepare for the worst, so I'm resigned to doing it myself. Luckily, the weather forecast for the next few days is terrible
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Post by Zi on Apr 4, 2024 16:52:27 GMT
elves will have transformed that lot into a pathway I hadn't thought of that. Are elves any good at that sort of thing? We've moved the polytunnel... The problem was that Mr Z has things in his head that don't communicate well to me. Partly because I'm a bit deaf and partly because my mind doesn't work like his does... and I can be very very literal... It didn't take as long as we thought but we got very very muddy and we aren't sure if all our bits are where they should be now. And I don't mean polytunnel bits... The Collie was wonderful and took herself to the courtyard to laugh at our antics... It's a very small polytunnel - 2 and a bit metres by 3 and a bit metres and it's rather like a frame tent. We both did a lot of camping when we were very young and it looks like the skills have remained in place. I wish some other skills had remained as well...
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