The Fence *The Gardening Forum Off Topic and Chat Thread

Planet X

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

This weather really is great. At last a weekend in the garden with no major jobs to do

I'm still planting. Bought a biggish propagator at the weekend in Homebase and have a bunch of Winter Cabbage, Artic Lettuce and all year round Cauliflowers planted. Alot have sprouted already. That heat is great! Bought a roll of polythene also which fits over my netting poles snugly. Will post a pic. soon.

Have mixed salad leaves on the go the whole time, they're bullet proof it seems. Still busy but worried that my beds will need serious feeding soon. As in a few sacks of cow sh1te.

(Hey, two or more tomatoes have turned, you know what colour, in the last few days. Still holding on in hope!)

The Sweeper

Wow, well that was the worst interview EVAR!!!! Oh well. If I don't get the job it still means I work three days on and four days off and have time to spend in my garden!

Have to go into work for a pathetic 3.5 hours now - how sad is that - so can't wait to finish up and get home and back to my gardening!

Dizzyblonde

Planet X wrote: »

Hey, two or more tomatoes have turned, you know what colour, in the last few days. Still holding on in hope!

I got almost a kilo of ripe tomatoes off my plants (I have 3) today - yippee! The good weather's really helping.

Your veg sounds great - my patch is still full of beetroot, carrots, turnips, cabbage and broccoli that'll be ready from next month. I took a chance and threw in some seed potatoes last month and they're thriving.

The Sweeper

It's the weekend!! And this weekend I shall mostly be doing as much as I physically possibly can in the garden. Already got a bunch of work done yesterday in terms of planting and weeding. Have two days of sunshine and mild temperatures and then it's due to rain Mon to Weds... It's like it WANTS me to garden...

The Sweeper

AAArrrrrrgggghhhh, struck down by the dreaded lurgy, and no brass instruments to cure it... Spent Thurs, Fri and Sat in the garden, and got a lot of work done. Was very pleased, but started to feel a bit crappy Saturday night. Have a full blown lurgy - sinus infection, face on fire, feeling bleh - today. Called in sick to work, but will have to go to the doctor because I have no sick leave entitlement without a certificate, even for one day. Day could be better.

Dr Galen

anyone know a good masseuse

8 hours at the allotment yesterday................world of pain today

The Sweeper

You know, I think there are fewer things in the world more beautiful than an Australian summer morning. It's the best thing about the place. At the moment it starts to get bright around a quarter past five. Sunrise itself isn't officially until about 6.45, but before then it's bright, and the skies are high and blue and endless.

I wake up early because I do shift work that means sometimes I'm at work for 7am. However for the next five weeks I'm covering a colleague's shifts while she's on long leave, and this is unfortunate beause it means less time in my garden.

This morning, however, I had a surge of motivation that when I get up early (usually 6.15am) but don't have to leave for work for a while (usually 8.15am), I might go out in the garden for an hour and a half in the mornings and tend to the little jobs - potting up tube stock, weeding, mulching, so on and so forth... And it's amazing what the outdoors does for you mentally, because even the thought of 90 minutes out in the early sunshine with blue skies over me makes me feel more light-hearted and happy!

Dr Galen

my greenhouse blew down

treesireland

thats terabil i do hope u will try put it up agin

The Sweeper

That's not good on the greenhouse!

We've had rain. I know that's not exciting if you're in Ireland, but it certainly is here, where we'd just had the hottest start to the summer since 1918 or some such. I tried to plant tube stock seedlings on Saturday. Couldn't get the fork into the clay. No amount of standing and jumping on it would let the tines penetrate the ground. I was able to plant in some areas of my front garden - I had it remodelled when we moved in, because it was just a weed-strewn embankment, and anywhere that the landscaper had cut and backfilled earth, I could still dig, but anywhere that was original impacted paddock, I had no chance.

And then it rained. So I ran around like a mad thing, planting.

Dizzyblonde

Sorry to hear that Mystik Monkey, I hope it's not beyond repair.

Dr Galen

it's fecked.......was out yesterday having a look

looksee

In spite of the sad looking trees - which do have buds if you look very closely - and the loads of dead looking shrubs around the place, today I saw daffodils - lots of them. Camellias are in brave pink flower, some winter heather, catkins on some trees - my contorted hazel looks very pretty with long yellow catkins. A few garden primulas.

Not much else that I can see, and some shrubs and trees which would normally be coming into leaf now seem to be doing nothing at all. Lots of bluebell greenery but it will be a while before they flower.

Any other signs of life around the country?

TequilaMockingBird

All my rose bushes are bursting with new shoots, honeysuckle has loads of new leaves and I had snowdrops, but the local kids picked them all... :mad:

My bamboo is trying to take over the world, and the acers are full of new growth.

Great to see it.

Dr Galen

i hate and love my job in equal measure

lucy2010

Anyone want a dog ????????????
She just upended everything i planted yesterday & is using all the pots as frisbees :mad::mad:

Dr Galen

your dog can throw pots around?
impressive

lucy2010

Mystik Monkey wrote: »

your dog can throw pots around?
impressive

You want her to see actually how impressive she is ?????:D:D

The Sweeper

I spent the day finishing off a large garden bed along one of the fences, with a lot of climbing, flowering plants. The cats were good - hung around with me, didn't get into trouble, didn't try to escape from the garden. Frank did roll in the mulch at one stage, but there was a marked lack of anyone digging in it to take a crap the second it was laid, which is nice. (Fuckers still haven't learned to pick up a shovel yet though.)

The Sweeper

PS: I'm so tired I think I might pass out.

lucy2010

Im just sitting here looking st it deciding what to do ..

I did make new fat-cocunut shells for the birds yesterday.

& my new monster windmill looks just savage out there....:):)

Forgot to add - I say to keep cats from digging & pooing - small dish of vinegar !!!

Dr Galen

7 hours of allotment ground works. My back is killing me. On the plus side, I can confirm that camping stove allotment tea is better than at home kettle tea.

lucy2010

Back is broken - had the mad brainwave to run a flower bed all the way around the front lawn ! But never engaged brain before I started...Neighbours conifers roots are all through it .. In tatters here & more to do tomorrow:mad:

Dr Galen

my back is better

i can get out into the garden and the allotment again!!!!!!

foxinsox

I hate cats!!!!

They s*it and sit in my garden!

They lie there sunbathing on top of my plants, they always seem to pick the most fragile and prettiest to sit on and flatten it.

I've even bought a crappy cat deterrent plant €3 which "apparantly" if they touch off or smell keeps them well away!!! Ha Ha Ha not a hope they lie on top of it!

Rant over...:mad:

lucy2010

lucy2010 wrote: »

Forgot to add - I say to keep cats from digging & pooing - small dish of vinegar !!!

Does that really work....one of mine has decided my lettuce bed is his own personal sand pit.

Nothing manages to grow with his shenanigans.
Grr!!!


I think the frosts got one of my pampus grasses. It was really impressive too.

Sapsorrow

You can get this powdery stuff to pour around your beds to keep cats off. With five cats myself I've given up. Weeds are going mental in the veg patch can anyone advise me on a cheap and easy fix for keeping them down on the 'paths'? I don't want to invest too much money or time because I'm only renting but it's getting really unmanagable. I've been using shears just to keep them trimmed back but they're growing up to 2 feet tall and taking over big time. The beds aren't raised and are in the middle of a meadow disasterous!

Dr Galen

good old elbow grease sapsorrow is the best thing. Its theraputic i swear!

Sapsorrow

Sapsorrow wrote: »

You can get this powdery stuff to pour around your beds to keep cats off. With five cats myself I've given up. Weeds are going mental in the veg patch can anyone advise me on a cheap and easy fix for keeping them down on the 'paths'? I don't want to invest too much money or time because I'm only renting but it's getting really unmanagable. I've been using shears just to keep them trimmed back but they're growing up to 2 feet tall and taking over big time. The beds aren't raised and are in the middle of a meadow disasterous!

How about laying down sheets of cardboard?
I'm covering all mine in Silage wraps, over next winter, to see if it will kill off the weeds.

Do you think if they widdle on my veg, that it will be bad for my veg.
I have 8 atm, and it is just one bad adorable bastard causing the trouble! argh!

Sapsorrow

Dr Galen wrote: »

good old elbow grease sapsorrow is the best thing. Its theraputic i swear!

Lol I'm generally well up for hard work (I actually love digging beds very therapeutic to do manual labour like that) but seriously my garden consists of a few beds and tunnels smack bang in the middle of a big meadow and the grass and flowers growing on the supposed to be paths and arounds the edges is up to my waist! It would be a mammoth task to dig them up and I can't afford any mulch type things to lay down to make paths. It's actually stressing me out after seeing how lovely everyone elses patchs are on the photos thread, I keep trying to convince myself it's a new holistic gardening technique where you try and coexist with nature, it's not working though

Moonbaby wrote: »

How about laying down sheets of cardboard?
I'm covering all mine in Silage wraps, over next winter, to see if it will kill off the weeds.

Do you think if they widdle on my veg, that it will be bad for my veg.
I have 8 atm, and it is just one bad adorable bastard causing the trouble! argh!

I used silage wraps on my beds last autumn and they worked a treat, it was amazing just pulling the plastic off to find the manure all lovely and rotted in and not a weed in site! Ah the memories :pac: I have a HUGE patch of the field covered with plastic since last year at the minute waiting for my pumkin plants, I'm planning a mammoth crop this year fingers crossed!
We were thinkin of using black plastic on the outside edges of the beds where you don't need to walk to try and tackle some of the problem at least. It really is getting insane.
Lol I'm the same with my cats, you remember the kitten you met (poppy) last summer? She's obsessed with the veg patch and hangs out there loads and does loads of other stuff there too the little f*cker! I would have though the amount of pee is very small anyway and if anything the nitrogen in the ammonia might do some good if it's not directly on the plants. All of mine have taken to sleeping in the cloches though like little cat saunas.