Today I did something in my Garden

looksee

When they are established they send out new canes which grow to a fair height in a season and they are very vigorous. Yours may not have done much first season but it should have shown some enthusiasm the second season. If it is still not doing anything after another season you may need to re-think it.

jaffa20

looksee wrote: »

When they are established they send out new canes which grow to a fair height in a season and they are very vigorous. Yours may not have done much first season but it should have shown some enthusiasm the second season. If it is still not doing anything after another season you may need to re-think it.

Thanks, yeah it has put on some growth each year. Hoping it will get to 6 foot this year. I have the golden one too and it's very beautiful. It's meant to be slower growing though

looksee

Its a good idea to cut out some of the canes each year, its a bit like buddliea in that respect. However I am not sure whether to recommend cutting it if it is slow growing.

jaffa20

looksee wrote: »

Its a good idea to cut out some of the canes each year, its a bit like buddliea in that respect. However I am not sure whether to recommend cutting it if it is slow growing.

Yeah i was going to leave it to it's own devices until it's at the height i want. I woldn't mind if it was bushoer. I have propagated a few cuttings from it though.

Supercell

Sowed tomato and celery seeds as well as some chilli seeds I forgot about, probably too late for those this year but maybe with a decent summer they might produce...

loyatemu

jaffa20 wrote: »

How long did it take your himalayan honeysuckle to get to 10ft? I have one planted for 2 years now and still only about 4 foot. I can't wait for it to get to that height for some extra privacy.

it was here when we moved in, and we had let it grow upwards for privacy while trimming the width. But it got too tall, and partially blew over in a storm last year. It was also growing unevenly as brambles had got in behind it - decided it was time to cut our losses. As others have said they're very vigorous and you end up with a lot of cuttings to get rid of. Have a couple of others in the garden that I think will be going the same way eventually.

SouthWesterly

Built a table from some pallets today for my newly built greenhouse.

Starting to put the seedlings out. I was reading that the breeze strengthens the stems which can get leggy indoors.

Thinned out last September's sowing of turnip. They are starting to swell.
Kohl rabi that I sowed in trays last week has germinated.

Another few days of dry weather and I'll sow the spuds.

Igotadose

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Built a table from some pallets today for my newly built greenhouse.

Starting to put the seedlings out. I was reading that the breeze strengthens the stems which can get leggy indoors.

Thinned out last September's sowing of turnip. They are starting to swell.
Kohl rabi that I sowed in trays last week has germinated.

Another few days of dry weather and I'll sow the spuds.

Not sure I believe the 'breeze strengthens the stems.' I'd have Schwarzeneggerian stems if that were true, and it isn't for me. Most of the time I'm fighting the endless breeze.

Stems do better with stronger light especially all around so they grow straight. Light from one direction makes them leggy in my experience. I do what I can once I put seedlings out to keep the breeze off of them, it's a challenge.


Today's activity was spreading seaweed I collected on 27 February that was rotting really fast, so I put it out in the beds. Usually I wait a little longer, but it was a very nice day in West Kerry so I had to do something.

CelticRambler

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Starting to put the seedlings out. I was reading that the breeze strengthens the stems which can get leggy indoors.

Yeah ... it depends on what you mean by a "breeze". I'm itching to get my sunflowers into the open air (they're outdoors, in windproof boxes), but the breeze here is still hitting 40-80km/h almost every day (we have it easy - it's up to 120km/h in some parts of the country) - probably a bit much for a 1.5mm diameter stem.

looksee

I have an interesting 'plant crate' from a large pile that a nursery was going to throw out. As soon as word got out an entire village of gardeners said ' I'd take one!' - or several. I got one and its like two pallets with walls between, so it has been sawn in two kinda diagonally to make two cold frame shapes. I have the remnants of a plastic greenhouse/tunnel that had a short existence last year so the plastic will be used to cover the cold frames.

Meanwhile main job is turning untouched weed territory into a potato patch. Two of us mattocked up the very solid turf/weeds then dug out the considerable amount of nettle and bramble roots. It needs digging over again but its still just a bit wet so it can sit for a couple of days then be turned into ridges.

Ms2011

Dug up my strawberry patch in the autumn, after 3 years they'd stopped producing much fruit. I dug over the bed, incorporated some of my own compost and covered the bed with heavy plastic sheets for the winter to keep the weeds at bay.
I saved some of the runners and grew them on over the winter so today I put them in the ground, another little job done.

SouthWesterly

Guys I've found the must have tool for your garden if you are no dig.. A broadfork.
I loosened up 3 15x 1.5 m beds in 30 minutes. Only 20 more beds to do.... Any volunteers?

Lashes28

Gate painted. Need to buy a small brush for the little bits I missed

CelticRambler

Lashes28 wrote: »

Gate painted. Need to buy a small brush for the little bits I missed

Looks like you repainted the sky as well.

Lashes28

CelticRambler wrote: »

Looks like you repainted the sky as well.

If only it was that easy 🀣

laoch na mona

Got told I can have a greenhouse for free from my neighbours today, just have to cut through an overgrown garden to dismantle it, move it and reassemble it on my garden

SouthWesterly

Got my earlies planted today. About 180 tubers.
Also sowed some carrot, radish (mixed them together as the radish comes up first to show the line for weeding) . Also sowed some lettuce

looksee

I made a cold frame from the plant crate I mentioned earlier, plus some left over 2x1 and the plastic that survived the demise of last year's greenhouse/tunnel. Its basic but solid.

I lifted the lid to show the inside and the cat jumped in before I could take the pic, I think there may be a problem here...

CelticRambler

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Got my earlies planted today. About 180 tubers.

This is the first year in a long time that I haven't had my first potatoes planted by St. Patrick's Day. I cut a few new trenches for them, but the ground there is just so unworkable at the moment that I couldn't even level it properly for surface sowing, never mind making traditional drills.

Instead, I spent the day fixing my trailer. Again. Same problem as is holding up the potato planting: the ground I'm pulling (or mostly pushing) it across, as well as what I'm heaping into it, is soooo gooey and heavy this week, it put too much strain on the hitch, and it snapped yesterday with only about 5 loads left to shift from the pond area.

The one small consolation is that at least it broke somewhere other than at the point where I repaired it last week! :rolleyes:

SnowyMuckish

Started clearing the veg patch of last year’s weeds and leftovers. Didn’t get too much done unfortunately, with an energetic toddler underfoot most of my day was spent walking around looking at jobs that need doing but not being able to get at them!

paddylonglegs

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

Started clearing the veg patch of last year’s weeds and leftovers. Didn’t get too much done unfortunately, with an energetic toddler underfoot most of my day was spent walking around looking at jobs that need doing but not being able to get at them!

Tell me about it.

Dig hole - come back 5 mins later - full of toys

SouthWesterly

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Tell me about it.

Dig hole - come back 5 mins later - full of toys

The trick is to get them involved in the game and use their lower centre of gravity to your advantage.

SnowyMuckish

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

Started clearing the veg patch of last year’s weeds and leftovers. Didn’t get too much done unfortunately, with an energetic toddler underfoot most of my day was spent walking around looking at jobs that need doing but not being able to get at them!

Mulched two beds last week and my two year old decided I had a made a "big mess" so he has been painstakingly removing the mulch from the beds in bucket fulls ever since.

I'm building him and his sister a full play area with sand pit, mud kitchen and planting areas that he can do his worst to over Easter, but I'll be expecting my garden back in 10 years' time!

CelticRambler

Deleted User wrote: »

... but I'll be expecting my garden back in 10 years' time!

:pac: Don't count on it! Generational divide as to what was the appropriate use of an old tractor tyre. I thought it'd make a good raised bed ...

GreeBo

Three hours yesterday removing wild onion, garlic and grape hyacinth from my raised beds.
This would have been easy enough, if I hadn't planted those beds with lavender and fescue last year before I knew what was lurking underneath!

lordgoat

Anyone got any recommendations for good growing topsoil or compost in bulk.

I need t freshen up some old beds and I have a couple of fancy new metal beds to install (not looking forward to putting these together).

I have some 2 year old compost but not enough for what I need.

Happy to get some messages if we are not allowed name businesses on thread.

Thanks

magicbastarder

where are you based?
we bought topsoil from mulch.ie recently, was decent enough stuff. they're dublin only AFAIK.

blackbox

I transplanted some miniature early daffodils "in the green" today. I know this works for snowdrops but I'm not sure if daffs will survive. Also planted a heap of snowdrops.

Ms2011

blackbox wrote: »

I transplanted some miniature early daffodils "in the green" today. I know this works for snowdrops but I'm not sure if daffs will survive. Also planted a heap of snowdrops.

I've thrown daffodils in the compost bin and they've grown the following year

GreeBo

blackbox wrote: »

I transplanted some miniature early daffodils "in the green" today. I know this works for snowdrops but I'm not sure if daffs will survive. Also planted a heap of snowdrops.

I did some yesterday that were technically "in the yellow!", I'm sure the bulbs will survive and recover in a year or two.