What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

Oh yes please

 

HRRRR... the wind is rather cold! Anyways, I did what had to be done i.e. dug out the hosepipe and gave everything a really good soak. We haven't had rain for weeks and none is forecasted, which is very unusual up here.

Tesco online has stepped up their gardening products which is a blessing as I'm not going to take a bus to pop into Wilkos. So I have grass seed, BloodFish&Bone and 4in1, but no rain to spread them.

The stronger seedlings (Chia and Cosmos) have been taking day trips out when the temperatures have been nice, that's another positive point of working from home. Back in the normal days I'd have to forecast the winds before seven and leave things as they are until I'm back around 5pm. Now I can monitor things all day.

Round and purple carrots, boltardy beetroots and dill have germinated well in my makeshift raised bed under fleece. Lettuce is growing so well I had to make a tent out of the fleece to cover the washing up bowl they are in.

Last weekend we finally potted up Dahlias. We have, or had, 6 dinnerplates and one Franz Kafka. The good news is that all had survived the winter in the garage, the not so good is that I had forgotten to label them so have no idea which are pink and which white. The alarming news is that all broke up a bit when potting so instead of 6, I now have 9, and room for about three All have now sprouted in the living room.

 

More potting on this afternoon and tidying up some of the plants ready for bringing then into the garden.

Pricked out a half tray of Puya Chilensis and ended up with this.



Ive used 100L of compost today so my stash is reducing rapidly. So glad that I can still get as much as I need from a friends allotment society.

 

Sowed some seeds beetroot, Chinese lettuce, little gem lettuce, pac choi and another lettuce that i can't remember.

 

Had a very lazy day today. Cleaned out chickens and composted old bedding, I have ran out of bedding so will have to go and source some tomorrow or Monday. I have pricked out cabbage and spinach and then sat on sofa listening to the local radio station that my kids school had been given a 2 hour spot on. They enjoyed listening out for their dedications and song choices, plus listening out for their mates and teachers. Whilst doing this I ordered some seeds (leeks, salad onions, parsnips, carrot and lettuce). Also found a 40 x 24 inch heat made on wish.com for £33 delivered. As I have lost the front windowsill as of next year I ordered this.

Rusty

 

Potted on some of the Cherry tomatoes, and pricked out some more Little Gem Lettuce.

Walked up our lane and collected nettles to make some stinky fertiliser.

Checked on the Ziploc bags and planted up the newly germinated seedlings.

Planted out some more Hellebores.

Did around of dead heading.

 

No, I did not pin it down but the smell has all but gone, just a faint whiff now and again. There is Alexanders growing all along the lanes, although I've not noticed any smell emanating from them. I like them and keep hoping they will find their way into the garden. Thanks for the info links

 

Another bike ride involving lots of hills, legs were shaking when we got back. Didn't bail septic tank yesterday so had to do double today. Not much enthusiasm for gardening but managed watering one of the baths and a few pots. Tidied up the red valerian growing along boundary wall in front garden. Dead headed a few daffs. Speaking of which, I pulled out several daffs whilst working on the cherry tree flower bed. I meant to re plant but forgot about them. They've been out of the ground for about a week. If I plant them now will they flower next year or is it too late to save them.

 

@luciusmaximus ...I'd plant the daff bulbs,they should be OK I would think.

 

Talking about trees @shiney ..if you remember I posted about my Dad's trees in his front garden a while back. Well as one was diagnosed as potentially dangerous and near the road permission was granted and he had one chopped down and the other two had a serious lopping last Friday. The Beech that was felled was apparently very badly rotted, scarily to the untrained eye you wouldn't have known...in fact it was one of the other trees that caused our original concern.

 

Hi @luciusmaximus , as you may have seen from the "What's looking good in March " and "What's looking good in April " threads I grow around 60 different varieties of Narcissu/Daffodils.
If you have the room then plant them straight away at around two times the depth of the bulb ( so if the bulb is 2" high then plant at 4", if it is a baby at 1' high then plant it at 2 " deep )
Or you could do what I do........

Every year after flowering I dig a large number of them up to make way for Summer bulbs etc.
What I do is lay them flat on a seed tray and cover them lightly with any spare compost to save them drying out and leave them behind the greenhouse in a semi-sunny position. After the leaves have died then they're stored in paper bags until August and replanted then.

 

Think I'll do that @KFF. Some of my new ones came up blind....I planted them deep enough...I think, so why?? If I dig them up as you do and replant in Aug do you think they might bloom next year?

 

Hi @Upsydaisy , it's worth a go if you have somewhere bright and airy to store them, I've been doing it for years.

As for blindness the main reasons are .........

Not planting big bulbs deep enough.

Planting smaller bulbs too deep
( By using the method above you can sort the sizes for each one )

The bulbs themselves aren't mature enough ( especially if buying cheaply, they may be one year old bulblets ( offsets) or even grown from seed and so aren't mature enough).

They didn't receive enough moisture in the Summer. A lot of people don't realise that Narcissi/Daffodils need water from as early as the end of July beginning of August . This is because they start rooting around mid August.

I think that if they 've got a decent amount of foliage on them and you let this die down natuarally (it feeds the bulbs for next year ) then they should be good next year