What Jobs Are We Doing in the Garden Today... MK3.. 2013

Discussion in 'General Gardening Discussion' started by Marley Farley, Dec 12, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Marley Farley

    Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    Messages:
    30,589
    Occupation:
    Grandmother Gardener Councillor Homemaker
    Location:
    Under the Edge Zone 8b
    Ratings:
    +14,123
    New Thread.. :biggrin:
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Sheal

      Sheal Total Gardener

      Joined:
      Feb 2, 2011
      Messages:
      35,545
      Gender:
      Female
      Location:
      Beauly, Inverness-shire. Zone 9a
      Ratings:
      +52,309
      Matthew, leafmould.......you collect up all the fallen leaves and rot them down to use as a mulch. :)
       
    • landimad

      landimad Odd man rather than Land man

      Joined:
      Jan 23, 2012
      Messages:
      1,039
      Gender:
      Male
      Occupation:
      Retired Rail worker
      Location:
      Fenlands proper now
      Ratings:
      +915
      Back to feeding the birds and giving them a bath to freshen up with.
      Not much else I can do there at the moment.
       
    • Scrungee

      Scrungee Well known for it

      Joined:
      Dec 5, 2010
      Messages:
      16,524
      Location:
      Central England on heavy clay soil
      Ratings:
      +28,996
      Thawing out the outside tap and the hens' drinker.
       
    • al n

      al n Total Gardener

      Joined:
      Aug 31, 2011
      Messages:
      1,990
      Gender:
      Male
      Occupation:
      self employed
      Location:
      wirral
      Ratings:
      +3,267
      Fleeced my cyathea Australia's and my Washingtonia robusta, and also wrapped their pots with bubble wrap.
       
    • "M"

      "M" Total Gardener

      Joined:
      Aug 11, 2012
      Messages:
      18,607
      Location:
      The Garden of England
      Ratings:
      +31,885
      Smashed the water logged ice rink for the ducks.
      Defrosted the chooks water.
      Ran back inside, on crunchy frost hard grass, cos it's a wee bit nippy out there.
      Returned to give ducks and chooks some corn to warm their cockles.
      Walked back inside, on crunchy frost hard grass, cos I slipped the first time :doh:
       
      • Like Like x 5
      • landimad

        landimad Odd man rather than Land man

        Joined:
        Jan 23, 2012
        Messages:
        1,039
        Gender:
        Male
        Occupation:
        Retired Rail worker
        Location:
        Fenlands proper now
        Ratings:
        +915
        Windy out, keep having to go out and put back a piece of the greenhouse at the moment.:wallbanging:
         
      • Jenny namaste

        Jenny namaste Total Gardener

        Joined:
        Mar 11, 2012
        Messages:
        18,323
        Gender:
        Female
        Occupation:
        retired- blissfully retired......
        Location:
        Battle, East Sussex
        Ratings:
        +31,017
        Just looked over at the Barometer. OMG. It's dropped one heck of a lot in less than 12 hours!! 74 millibars? ( Ten to the hour on the clock face ). If it keeps going down we'll be in "Grand Pluie" then theres only "Tempete" left. Think we're in for Stormy Weather :whistle:,
        Jenny
         
      • OxfordNick

        OxfordNick Super Gardener

        Joined:
        Jul 25, 2011
        Messages:
        677
        Gender:
        Male
        Location:
        Oxfordshire
        Ratings:
        +1,615
        Added a more sensitive thermostat to the heater in the greenhouse as the built in one seemed to heat up faster than the air around it & cut the power too early.
        [​IMG]
        --
        Last week it got down to -4.9 in the garden & a recorded -2.2 in the greenhouse ; hopefully that was because I had the temperature sensor against the wall, the max-min in there didnt get lower than -1.. still too cold for my poor bannanas huddled in the corner:
        [​IMG]
        -- hopefully they will be OK, I will know in a week or so.

        Tomorrows job is getting the temperature logger I picked up in the week to register the two sensors out there ; once thats done I can connect it to the PC & get it to text me if it thinks its too cold.. pure geeky pleasure !
         
        • Like Like x 2
        • Agree Agree x 1
        • Kristen

          Kristen Under gardener

          Joined:
          Jul 22, 2006
          Messages:
          17,534
          Gender:
          Male
          Location:
          Suffolk, UK
          Ratings:
          +12,667
          I think that is money well spent. Quite apart from what you have noticed about the thermostat on the heater being too close to the hot air the hysteresis of cheap thermostats is dreadful, so it may just be that which has caused your Min temperature recorded to be so low - i.e. it could easily be 10C between the OFF Max and coming back ON again at the Min. That is also hugely wasteful of fuel (assuming you are overheating the greenhouse by 10C when you hit the Max and the thermostat cuts out, or you wind up with dead plants because it hits 10C below the target before it cuts back in again :(

          It might be lousy hysteresis that is letting the temperature fall to -2.2C - rather than the thermostat being too close to the warm air?

          What have you bought?

          I've been playing with some sensors by AREXX
          [​IMG]http://www.arexx.com/arexx.php?cmd=goto&cparam=products#measurement
          and some USB Plug in devices (i.e. not wirelessly transmitting, just recording/logging until next plugged in).
          [​IMG] http://www.conrad-uk.com/ce/en/prod...erature-Humidity-Data-Logger/0510035&ref=list
          Both work tolerably well, but I have serious misgivings about both of them (I'll do a proper write-up when I have a bit more time)

          Hence I'd be interested to here what you are planning to use :)

          By the by, what were you using to measure that the Min fell to -2.2? I couldn't read my mercury Max/Min thermometer to within 2C ...

          Ah, typing that, I reckon you have a digital one :) Quite often display to 0.1C but specification says "+/- 1C" - so why do they make them display to 0.1C then:scratch: a sceptic (me?!!) would think they were trying to hoodwink the buying-public into thinking them are mega-accurate :(
           
          • Like Like x 1
          • Lolimac

            Lolimac Guest

            Ratings:
            +0
            Cutting some greenery for the fire places and refilling the Squirrel/bird feeders :dbgrtmb:
             
            • Like Like x 1
            • hans

              hans Gardener

              Joined:
              Jun 10, 2005
              Messages:
              1,087
              Gender:
              Male
              Occupation:
              Retired
              Location:
              Mid Wales
              Ratings:
              +745
              Covering my fig bush/tree with a bit of roofing twinwall plastic should have done it a month ago. I grows against house/conservatory wall corner so is a bit protected. Lovely and sunny at the mo 10/30 I feel a cuppa coming on. Then leaves lovely oak trees but they do make a some work.
               
            • Scrungee

              Scrungee Well known for it

              Joined:
              Dec 5, 2010
              Messages:
              16,524
              Location:
              Central England on heavy clay soil
              Ratings:
              +28,996
              The birds have eaten nearly all my holly berries! Last year I protected some for wreath making and as soon as I hung my wreath on the front door the birds went for the berries on it. It was really scary looking out the door viewer which is sited in the middle of where it hangs.
               
            • Lolimac

              Lolimac Guest

              Ratings:
              +0
              Low on berries here too Scrungee.....only last week the Holly was covered in them....i should have protected it:doh:
               
            • stephenprudence

              stephenprudence GC Weather Guru

              Joined:
              Jul 17, 2010
              Messages:
              1,719
              Gender:
              Male
              Occupation:
              General Asisstant (for now), and full time immatur
              Location:
              Wirral, Zone 9a
              Ratings:
              +2,368
              Today I threw out some of the dying summer bedding, planted some Ajanias to replace the expired bedding in pots. Took cutting from the semi-dead pelargoniums, then raked the beds over..
               
            Loading...
            Thread Status:
            Not open for further replies.

            Share This Page

            1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
              By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
              Dismiss Notice