Starved of gardening talk

sunny day here, fet magical with a bit of warmth and it attracted me out into the garden. Three tall stone pots dealt with, washed and moved. I always have trouble with planting these tall pots but today decided to put large pots or curved bowls into the tops. They are sorted and I have ordered some sun patiens which will arrive as large plugs in april

I have 2 massive patios at angles and simply moved a few bits of storage and pots and suddenly created another seating area. A bench outside the house, plant sideboard on left, planters in front and planters with trellis on the right. I am pleased and will be able to see my lovely tulips from the house. I am expecting a very nice show this year

Monty Don is on soon and I spent time doing my veg roatations in a notebook, bring on spring!!

The winter jasmine was moved and we were worried it would not survive but it's better than ever this year

Oh it is good to get some gardening chat.
It was quite warm this afternoon with a lot of clothes on .I also noted the snowdrops just about sticking its white heads out.
That is a good sign.

Sounds good Crafty have to post pics later in Spring.?

I kick myself for having given so much gardening stuff away, that time when I was in a panic about moving to a smaller house with much less outside storage. One large bag of various gardening bits also vanished in transit,that included items like outside tap covers and very nice haws watering can spray heads.

So basically I started again last night, very easy to spend via online however much easier to shop for the best prices. I spent £250 total last night on 4 sites, including a rootrainer stand. I used to have one ( crying) and my husband made slats so it was supreme for trays of seeds, seedlings and pots, they stood on the slats and the rootrainers hang down. The slats were wood and had become weather worn so had to go anyway. I have ordered 2 sets of rootrainers gave 12 away, (more wailing) and I will wait for that stand to come and then cut more slats, good job I have a jig saw and a saw horse. I `might` use decent plastic shelving as that won`t harbour nasties and rain will run off, not sure yet

I did order an electric thermostatic propagator, stewart at a bargain £62. I can find a storage shelf for that in my garage. All it took was a flashback to the last one (wailing again) sitting on a coffee table by the window. Maybe ok about giving that away as it was 11 years old

Today if dry, I will set to inside my outside storage box, I will need to find room for seed and gravel trays. Btw I ordered 2 hardwood greenhouses from wayfair a few weeks ago. £89 each and bargains, roughly 60 x 60 cm with a good slope down from the back. Very well made with minimum putting together. Rowlinson I think. I put them side by side on cut up rubber outside draining mat (amazon 9.99), to stop the feet sucking water. I covered with a 2 seater bench cover from primrose and what an absolute perfect fit. They should now last me a very long time without the winter weathering

I really feel like making room today, I have a big sack of buckwheat hulls in that box, don`t ask me why. I used to use them on my allotment, superb for stopping the soil surface caking in very dry weather. I will be scattering them today. I also have a sack of composted bark in there to feed my hotbin. Might have to store that sack outside, will have to work out a way of keeping the rain off

The sites I used last night
primrose
greenfingers
two wests and elliot
garden4less

and

I ordered my summer plugs, only 2 easy beautiful varieties these days, for pots. Non stop begonias and sun patiens. From Brookside nursery to be sent from april 20th

This has got the best rotation guide I have ever seen
www.growveg.co.uk/guides/crop-rotation-for-growing-vegetables/

Next rainy day I will be sitting with my new notebook, just waiting for my 3 single tier ergo beds to be delivered, low beds for my potager,so I can dig down in specific areas to remove yet more hardcore and also to define where to add my hotbin compost

craftyone what a wonderfully productive time you've had! Congratulations! It's good to get on with preparatory chores at this time of year isn't it, while watching the early plants emerge. Though here in the west country I'm merely watching the mizzle fall, keeping everything nice and wet.

gaunt I love it, it keeps me going, mizzling here too, I love being outside and tbh planning is what helped me to form the best allotment on the site. I am not dwelling on that, was so very hard to give it up but I was doing a ridiculous number of miles. I found a local man with a youngster who needed to be out growing things. The good thing for me is that they will reap massive benefits in fruit production alone. Enough to sell at their gate

Anyway, I am back from wickes, bought a little outdoor keter box for £20. Took me 5 minutes to slot it together and it now contains the bark and bags of shredded paper for hotbin. Very happy.

After lunch I will wrap rolls of weed fabric and store standing on edge with the canes. I made weighted rain proof sausages once for holding environmesh down and they are in the big box. Might as well remove those too, which will just leave pop-up cages and thankfully I did keep some. They were excellent for keeping caterpillars away from single cabbages. They are incentives for growing a couple of drumheads which are pretty well clean as it is, would be enough for sauteed red cabbage for a year (frozen). Drumheads in between the roses. I will need to keep track

today was sunny, so I went into the garden to do a bit of tidying up. Felt so weird, because normally at this time of year, we have 1 metre + of snow. Pruned the last of the perenials and put in compost bin. Roses are budding - this is crazy. I live in the mountains at nearly 1000 metres.

Such a good idea to have gardening chats whilst the days are still short and the weather gloomy. We have Hellebores in bud, and Snowdrops, Crocus and Daffodils poking through. The Cornus is providing some warm colour and there are lots of buds on the Camellia, which is in a large pot. I've got some planning to do as the depth of one of the borders needs to be extended, after having a new fence (to stop our dog jumping over the old one . It is the shady side, so I am researching appropriate shrubs and perennials to plant. Looking forward to some drier & sunnier weather. In the meantime, I listen to GQT on BBC Radio 4 (Friday & Sunday) and BBC Radio Kent Sunday Gardening from 8.30 to 11am.

Bright green leaves still cover the branches of my summer flowering jasmine (Officinalis) Two roses have flowered since Jan 1.

Roses are budding Ours were too but have now been chopped!

Today was miserable again so I'm glad we got out there yesterday and managed to do just a bit (well, DH did more than me, I was the general labourer picking up the prunings).

It's been quite mild here in Hertfordshire and having just moved house a month ago we've been busy trying to make a start in the garden. We've had to remove some sort of membrane that was mixed in with pea shingle in one of the beds as when I tried to weed it all the roots seemed to be stuck on the underside making it impossible to remove. It took the two of us with much tugging and pulling (plus several cups of tea) before we got most of it out.

Its going to be mild and relatively calm today with intermittent mizzle but don`t be deceived, tomorrow we are going to have very bad winds. I have done 3 solid hours since breakfast, mostly in the garden. Everything is wind-proofed, weights on anything I have doubts about. They said calm today but I can hear the wind howling outside.

I did some shifting and moving of storage so I can easily open their doors or tops and it looks better, pretty well hidden out of sight anyway. Best is that I have defined spaces to put my new purchases as soon as I have torn the packaging off. I am a big fan of keter ouydoor storage, non of it gets wet inside. I even store logs in one

It`s amazing how much you can do with the sun on your back. I had half an hour until the rain came

buckwheat hulls scattered and soil raked
picked a bucket of stones (bit at a time over future time)
cut artemisia and thyme down
cut lower branches off 2 of my new apple trees

Re my apples, I had 7 trees M26 rootstocks at my last house/allotment and taking lower branches off helped tremendously. Otherwise heavy apples bent to the ground plus codling and earwigs have an easier climb with low branches. I am just preventing problems and best to cut thin low side branches now. Only 4 apples now but more than ample and I have a wooden apple store still containing pigs snout (trwyn mochyn) from Ian Sturrock from last season. I made sure to buy myself a young whip, one twig, three years will see it produce nice fruits here

I ran in, forgot about the mud under my garden shoes and made more work for myself

Such a lovely morning that DH and I went for a walk. Lots to do in the garden though. My DD has bought me some mistletoe seeds. They will be delivered in February. I would love to be able to grow some on our apple trees or our oak. Has anyone done this?

BBbeven mistletoe sounds interesting.
As you are growing from seed, is it a case of planting seeds around the tree trunk and protecting them from birds etc or will you be planting seeds indoors and growing them on? ?

Oops just read, no roots, mistletoe grafted to tree!
Still love to know how you get on with your seeds BBbeven

I think you have to squish the mistletoe seeds into open bits of stem, weaker bits with spaces and/or maybe some areas of softer wood. Good luck, it should work. There are tonnes of trees with mistletoe in my county. If it doesn`t work then the berries from mistletoe one winter

We have done this before. You get about 40 seeds which you squash onto suitable branches Lots of advice too on how, where and when. . We did this a few years ago in DDs garden but none took. Apparently Christmas mistletoe is not suitable. Not ripe enough?. Anyway I shall give it another go and, fingers crossed, that even just one takes. Might be some time though before I can report back with any news.

I`ll follow that with interest BB

Propagator arrived, I am very happy with speed of delivery. Looks like slightly older stock and there is no instruction book but its perfect, large and I will just use capillary matting in the bottom. I am very glad that I cleared spaces for these things, it is now safe on a shelf in my garage.

I had to pop a couple of weighted home made bags on top of the greenhouses cover, it was trying to lift itself up and the 2 small geenhouses are not that weighty. The wind is working itself up to something mighty, all bins are in the garage. At least here in my new house, I do feel safe and my heart is not in my mouth

heavy weighted bags were lifted by the cover and were on the ground, I replaced at 90 degrees to before ie front to back, they are sausage shaped. Trellis divider is moving back and forth too much for my liking, I just used 6 canes as props to give some additional support. If the trellis goes then I will have to re-thing that divider or make some sort of additional support

Raining here so all I e managed to do is tidy up dads grave and replace the christmas wreath with a small grey lavender I have been nurturing for the purpose. I've put a variegated ivy with it as contrast.
Then took cover from the rather heavy rain and sipped a hot coffee looking through the windows at it fall.

Thank you craftyone for reminding me I need to look at seed catalogue!
And please slow down a little you're making me dizzy

haha namsnanny, you`ll get used to me, I always have a whizzy brain but I am zonked by 9.30 and go to bed, then at 7am I am raring to go again

I am hating the wind, it makes me twitchy. I have closed all the bedroom vents but I know it will wake me up. Nature is so powerful