Gardening: Hints and Help!

Takethedogalong, I understand where you're coming from completely....... I think that's how I have one large covered area, and several smaller areas that I've been ruthless with, where 3 cornered leek has been allowed to run wild and rampant 😡😡😡. Someone told me they had suggested a cull, the reply by the previous owner - I like it...

I bottled using chemicals but I'm taking to smaller "returning" blighters with our heat weed gun. Last year, when I thought it was wild garlic, I pulled out the bulbs by hand and continued turning the soil. I fear I gave it more impetus 🤐 I've binned several plants that it was entangled with for fear of spreading it around.

Having bought LOTS of potted plants from nursery's their Compost doesn't look like the peat free stuff I've bought! Maybe it gets 'better' with root balls??

I was taught to be rather ruthless when I worked at Brodsworth Hall as a volunteer. If something isn’t working, it’s out now, and either moved elsewhere, passed onto neighbours, family, friends who might want it. I also cut shrubs back hard each year. 

I am pondering on a bit of a special project for our garden for next year. It’s our Ruby Wedding, so I thought I might get rid of our smaller lawn area, put in a raised bed and have a go at a sort of knot garden. But I don’t want to use Box, as it’s very labour intensive and if it gets blight then it’s curtains. So thinking cap is on. Would use sleepers and bark, fancy a water feature in centre, couple of standard roses, then plant with bulbs in Spring, and then something else in Summer. Sunny spot, well sheltered from winds.🤔

Wow that sounds like a lovely idea. I agree about the box, expensive too! No suggestions at present. Biggest issue is growth rate and not minding a good trim!

I repotted and divided up my Christmas Box, keep in a pot so i could move it to and from entrances, bought from our old house.  Got 2 extra pots of it. Used non peat Compost with added John Innes, still had 'wood chips in it..

Sadly the pot I exchanged it with, a Hardy fushia that 'matched' our block paving colourwise 😉. Didn't look healthy at the end of last summer. Took a couple of cuttings and stuck them and the original behind the garage in an unlidded cold frame. Delighted to say the cuttings appear to have taken but the original went to the Compost in the sky.

I've never been as ruthless as I am at the moment. I gave the garden a year to show me what it offered - sad to say not impressed apart from hundreds of bulbs. Wouldn't dare move within the garden from certain areas 😡 much less give plants away. I must admit it feels tantamount to abuse 😱.

These days I no longer have my own garden but now I tend my children’s outdoor spaces and am involved in some volunteering projects. We always consider wildlife in our plans and imagine my daughters delight when last night a hedgehog was discovered scuttling around the back garden. These creatures are really suffering and need our help.

This article may be of interest to those who wish to do their own little areas to help.It’s also good to see the CaMC also supporting with bug hotels, hedgehog hostels, wild flower areas and bee corridors all appearing on many sites. We can all do our bit

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/chris-packham-calls-secret-weapon-29852667

It's good that you can still enjoy working outside Micky. I always hope the hedgehogs will devour a few slugs, unfortunately we have more slugs than hedgehogs!

I checked out our latest peat free compost, see photo. We're well into the growing season and still getting mixed results. I suppose the "old" gardeners would probably put stuff through a sieve?

We also make our own compost and this goes straight onto the veg plot. 

The little bits of blue are the results of some old disintegrated mesh. I will pick it our later when I move the seedlings on. Sometimes seeds fail don't they, I haven't done very well with sweet peas this year. OH'S veg are doing well so all OK on that score. 

Have started work on a neglected area, a new tree has gone in. A crabapple called "Royalty" which just happened to take our fancy in this coronation year.

They are such lovely little animals are hedgehogs😁 We don’t find as many as we used to do, but then we have always had dogs. Thankfully, none of the dogs have ever got beyond the sniffing stage, even the terriers. We put hedgehog holes in the two fencing panels we have. We built a hedgehog house, (inspired by Bakers), but no idea if it’s used as we leave it alone. We put nesting pockets in thick climbers and hedges, have got nest boxes, bat box (we’ve always had Pipistrelles around), insect boxes, and there are still nettle patches around. I plant for bees as well. I think we run a McDonalds for squirrels, as I only seem to get a 50% return on bulbs like tulips, little blighters are always digging in pots and containers. Ponds full of tadpoles, sadly no newts though. It doesn’t take much really to get things visiting. Mum had a couple of Partridges yesterday, but she lives out on edge of town with woodlands and fields all around. There are a lot of urban foxes around us as well, bold as brass at times.

Berberis, the purple kind might work as a low hedge, need to read up🤔

Someone near us has a dwarf photonia,( probably Red Robin) as a low hedge, it has stayed that way too which is good and the changing colours are interesting. Might be a bit too colourful but works in the right place.

Good idea about the berberis. There are some nice dwarf ones, lots of colours too. We were looking at some yesterday. 

Yes, I wondered about Photinia. Ideally, I don’t want it more that a foot high, don’t mind clipping it, good exercise😁 I really fancy Myrtle, but I don’t think it would survive our Winters up her to be honest. We had a wonderful huge Myrtle at Brodsworth that was Cloud clipped, but it lived in a very big tub, and was only on display during warm months, it was forklifted back into hothouses for over Wintering.

Sounds good with either takethedogalong.

Back to peat free compost. NOT impressed with the Dobbies, Aldi's seems better doing a direct comparison.. It's certainly not holding the water. I did some large pot repotting 2 days ago. Soaked it after repot, even stood the pots in receptacle for a couple of hours. Watered again this afternoon by watering can, running almost straight out as it went in 😡🤐. Not quite as fast as the ones with added John Innes.

Photo shows what I described as dead blackbird earlier. I'd watered the salad leaves before I took the photo. The other side is the Aldi compost. I didn't think to take photo to show both side doh!