BoldonLad
Not part of the Elite
- Location
- South Tyneside
My wife, if bored, often asks me: "is there anything to do in the garden", I always reply "there is ALWAYS something to do in the garden"
Gardening 2023
- Thread starter Red17
- Start date
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My wife, if bored, often asks me: "is there anything to do in the garden", I always reply "there is ALWAYS something to do in the garden"
biggs682
Touch it up and ride it
- Location
- Northamptonshire
My wife, if bored, often asks me: "is there anything to do in the garden", I always reply "there is ALWAYS something to do in the garden"
That's so true
biggs682
Touch it up and ride it
- Location
- Northamptonshire
A 15 minute walk around the block and we have a pot of blackberries
And another picking of runner beans
And another picking of runner beans
Windle
Über Member
- Location
- Burnthouses
Second flower tub of Casablanca tatties retrieved, had half with my tea and lovely they were too, (they're not actually green, it's just the light in the workshop).
rockyroller
Guru
- Location
- 20 miles northwest of Boston, MA
rockyroller
Guru
- Location
- 20 miles northwest of Boston, MA
rockyroller
Guru
- Location
- 20 miles northwest of Boston, MA
biggs682
Touch it up and ride it
- Location
- Northamptonshire
They have been lovely and a bumper crop
Windle
Über Member
- Location
- Burnthouses
That's one flower tub's worth (a thin plastic bucket used to display flowers in supermarkets over here, we get them from our local Morrisons usually). I've got another four of those with that type in and five more that I planted later in the season that I'll keep for Christmas, plus a fair few in a small plot in the garden. The tops of the plants go in for the chucks to eat. You can't beat home grown potatoes and they're almost free!
Time Waster
Veteran
Just spent best part of 2 days work on a 2m squared patch of border. We were weeding out the pervasive plant with one of its common names being frogweed I believe. It has nice white flowers with red fringed green leaves but it spreads. 2 years of trimming back at the edges resulted in this year it taking over the corner of the border.
Cue two days digging the roots up, which are comparable to the root growth you get with rotovated couch grass. Buried rocks had roots on top and underneath so they came out. Loads of heavy limestone rocks. Anyway, we now have almost all the roots out, you will never completely clear it so regrowth will be an issue ongoing, but we see it as either ongoing forever or a few years of vigilance.
Anyway, now we have a corner border section with nice, friable soil that looks in decent condition. Full of worms. We've used the rocks to build up separate bed areas and I have 75l of top soil to build up these levels up to the raised path from the front door behind. It'll be worth it. So far small rose, anenome and another plant are in there. Probably move the small rose though. My partner thought it would grow bigger but it's a small leaved patio rose.
It's only when my partner has done something without knowing better that I realise I actually know a lot more about gardening than I thought I did. I grew up around a dad and grandad who really knew their stuff. Real hands on knowledge. I must have picked up a bit from them without realising it growing up. My sister didn't but then I'm the type for absorbing random knowledge subconsciously. However I can't give that knowledge out until I notice my partner doing something wrong or not the best way. That's annoying her but can't help that.
Gardening seems easy in theory but hard in practise. As in hard work! Our back garden is too big and too much hard work. Never ends. We've already got our first criteria for any new house we might look for when we decide to move. That is a smaller, more manageable garden. We've been burnt by the big garden now.
Cue two days digging the roots up, which are comparable to the root growth you get with rotovated couch grass. Buried rocks had roots on top and underneath so they came out. Loads of heavy limestone rocks. Anyway, we now have almost all the roots out, you will never completely clear it so regrowth will be an issue ongoing, but we see it as either ongoing forever or a few years of vigilance.
Anyway, now we have a corner border section with nice, friable soil that looks in decent condition. Full of worms. We've used the rocks to build up separate bed areas and I have 75l of top soil to build up these levels up to the raised path from the front door behind. It'll be worth it. So far small rose, anenome and another plant are in there. Probably move the small rose though. My partner thought it would grow bigger but it's a small leaved patio rose.
It's only when my partner has done something without knowing better that I realise I actually know a lot more about gardening than I thought I did. I grew up around a dad and grandad who really knew their stuff. Real hands on knowledge. I must have picked up a bit from them without realising it growing up. My sister didn't but then I'm the type for absorbing random knowledge subconsciously. However I can't give that knowledge out until I notice my partner doing something wrong or not the best way. That's annoying her but can't help that.
Gardening seems easy in theory but hard in practise. As in hard work! Our back garden is too big and too much hard work. Never ends. We've already got our first criteria for any new house we might look for when we decide to move. That is a smaller, more manageable garden. We've been burnt by the big garden now.
We’ll this year I decided my front lawn needed more than just a scarify and pray! It’s been on my to sort list for a long time nut life events meant it stayed on the list!
It was in poor condition after the earlier hot weather and the years of thatch that made it like a soft mattress and it needed sorting.
I decided to completely remove the current ‘grass’ and start again. So many passes of the scarifier and dozens of bags of waste removed, I can start to see soil - no going back now!
After this I applied around 20 bags of top soil and sand to level the ground and create the seed bed.
Levelled as best I could and seeded I then put a layer of compost on top of the seed followed by a blanket of fleece that would serve to protect from birds but also create a more humid and warm environment for the seed to germinate.
This had got the neighbours talking for sure!
I applied a wetting agent then watered daily for the next week or so and the grass came through, slowly but surely.
After another week or so, the grass was established enough albeit patchy and I removed the covers.
A bit patchy but some seed was slower to germinate and there will be some areas that I’ll likely have to overseed.. A week later and it had its first cut ! Just a trim and will take it lower over the next couple of weeks and give it a good feed, keeping an eye on those areas still a little thin.
It was in poor condition after the earlier hot weather and the years of thatch that made it like a soft mattress and it needed sorting.
I decided to completely remove the current ‘grass’ and start again. So many passes of the scarifier and dozens of bags of waste removed, I can start to see soil - no going back now!
After this I applied around 20 bags of top soil and sand to level the ground and create the seed bed.
Levelled as best I could and seeded I then put a layer of compost on top of the seed followed by a blanket of fleece that would serve to protect from birds but also create a more humid and warm environment for the seed to germinate.
This had got the neighbours talking for sure!
I applied a wetting agent then watered daily for the next week or so and the grass came through, slowly but surely.
After another week or so, the grass was established enough albeit patchy and I removed the covers.
A bit patchy but some seed was slower to germinate and there will be some areas that I’ll likely have to overseed.. A week later and it had its first cut ! Just a trim and will take it lower over the next couple of weeks and give it a good feed, keeping an eye on those areas still a little thin.
Mad Doug Biker
Just a damaged guy.
- Location
- Craggy Island
