WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

Have you thought of having the whole roof replaced with Polycarbonate @shiney .
Or is the framework in a bad way, things just dont last these days do they.

 

Hi,

Many thanks @Logan it's so frustrating not being able to use the rotavator knowing the grass in the meadows is laughing at me; like you though I've got plenty of other things to do.

WOW @shiney I bet you said "Ouch" when you received the £10K quote; our first house a two bedroomed semi cost £6,300 with a 25 year mortgage; it was a huge amount at the time; things have changed since then. You can do a lot of patching up for £10K. Good luck.

It's now 8:23 and still dark although lately it doesn't get light at all; I've been out and it was bucketing down with rain driven by gusty wind; no gardening today and I can't see me doing anything in the garden for quite a while; I can occupy myself elsewhere but I'm highly frustrated wanting to do a lot of rotavating and prevented by our usual dire weather.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Hi,

You'll remember when a Farthing was real money @shiney your £2 12s 6d would buy a cup of coffee these days. So many people had allotments in those days in order to grow their own veg now they just visit food banks. How times have changed,

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Round here £2.53 wouldn't get you a coffee in many places if any.
As for allotments overall there has been a decline in numbers available. Good allotments near population centres have waiting lists.
None of the new estates round here have allotments anywhere near them, nor gardens big enough to grow much in the way of vegetables and fruit.
If you are a single parent, couple of kids, minimum wage job and long hours then, even if a nearby allotment is available, you probably have neither the time nor energy to grow vegetables.
Food banks are a last resort for many people and you often need a referral from a social worker or similar. Food banks themselves have been struggling to remain stocked during the recent period of high inflation.

 

Due to the size of the traditional plot, quite a lot of allotment have been split into halves and even quarters. Also I don't see why a couple of people couldn't share a plot officially or unofficially.

 

the standard allotment plot used to be 600m2 = approx 6.5k ft2 in my childhood (Europe, Latvia).
I finally managed to go out and prune and tie up 2 of my climbing roses.

 

They used to measure allotments in rods or perches, cant remember how many a standard one was, I assumed they varied from place to place, my sister has one on a privately owned site so who knows how big the ones are there.

Years ago I did share a council allotment with a neighbour, and it was official.

 

Busy day, I have designed two wonderful gardens from scratch!

I'm house hunting so browse property sale websites daily. Sadly most advertisements only have one or two photos of the garden and more of boring bedrooms.

That doesn't stop daydreaming though, it's so nice to plan where the pond and stream will go and how the path will curve and whether to have the Bergenias all the way there or break the flow up with some Geraniums. Ooo... and which Geranium was the nearly evergreen one?

In the real garden I cleared the leaves Storm Pia donated from the ponds and found some Oak leaves. The nearest Oak I know of is over a mile away. Perhaps they are from someone's Christmas wreath?

Checked the cuttings, Hydrangeas seem to have taken well They have now shed the leaves but the crowns (?) are plump and green. Fingers crossed, they are rather lovely old fashioned lacecaps.

Houseplant seedlings were ripe for potting on. Both Morinda and Giant Thorny Bamboo (Bambusa Bambos) are doing well. I didn't know what kind of roots they have so prepared both deep and shallow pots, it'll be pot luck.

The Bamboo is interesting, some seedlings are nearly albino so I kept also them after potting the stronger ones on. Some have white stripes on leaves even though this is not supposed to be variegated. We'll see how they turn out- I have never grown bamboos before.



Semprevivums will have to stay as they are, I'll break them up into clumps in spring to spread around as they wish. Eventually they'll go outdoors, it's just handy to start them indoors during the winter before the spring seed sowing carousel starts.



Morindas look great. Last time I tried not a single seed germinated. This time I had 10 healthy seedlings growing quite vigorously so ditched half. I'm allergic to binning seedlings as it's the best way to kill the saved ones if there are no spares... but seen that Morinda is in fact a tree I think 5 is enough for one living room.




Chiltern's seed catalogues arrived so it'll be more dreaming and less doing for some time.

 

Will try a couple hours of leaf removal. As it looks like it will rain on Monday. But waiting for my butter to soften to bake more.

 

Hi,

Another bad day weather wise turned into another bad night. A few days ago our rear garden had a good covering of oak leaves from the oak tree part way up the garden; the neighbours must now have them apart from some on the patio; the terrific wind had done a good job clearing the garden; it's been a whirlwind on the patio to the rear of the bungalow spinning the leaves around but not blowing them away.If ever it stops raining and the wind lets up I'll use the Makita cordless blower again to clear what's left of the debris.

Kind regards, Colin.