Daffodils not come up.

Both patches of 'almost' daffies are in sunny spots, and the other gardens around here are full of cheery yellow, but the ones in ours came up a while ago and didn't bloom yet. I know some types bloom later than others so it might be nothing, but I noticed this today. The bud has turned black. You can see the grass is very poor there, so I guess it's a soil problem - we had a really waterlogged patch not too far away from it all winter. But since I know nothing about gardening I'd really like someone's opinion on what might be happening?



Also, I saw this next to it. It smells like mud to me, but it's in an odd place. There's no obvious signs of digging next to it. Do you think it is mud? Something else? (ie a cat with an upset tummy!) And is it linked to the no-show daffies?

 

Hi Snify


How long have they been growing in the lawn and if you had them last spring did you leave all the leaves on until they turned brown or did you cut them off when still green , to me they look like they need a good feed, and leave the leaves on until they turn brown and shrivel away , the bulbs have not enough energy to produce a flower

Spruce

 

Thanks for your reply. We moved in just before Christmas and have no idea what was in the garden prior to that. Odd things just keep appearing but not coming to anything yet (except the nettles, which are doing just fine so far!) The drainage seems to be poor and there seem to be a lot of bricks under the lawn. That's really as much as I know so far.

 

poor drainage doesnt help as well as you have said , leave all the leaves on if you can as long as possible , but does make a lawn look untidy , thats if you want to keep them ? .

You could always plant more next Autumn , some of the varieties of daffs I grown some come back every year others just fade away

 

They might have been part of a border or something at one point, but at the moment they're quite randomly spaced on the lawn and I'm not really fussed about keeping them or not. I'm happy to get rid of them, though I'm worried that if conditions are poor I'll have trouble with the next thing that goes in there.

 

As the property has recently changed hands, it got me wondering if the previous owners 'tidied them up' too early whilst the house was on the market?

 

That's a good sign - they only grow in rich soil

That's a bad sign :(

Sounds typical of new builds. Builders bury rubble in the garden, or just cover it with a thin layer of topsoil. If you want a garden, even just a half-decent lawn, you will need to sort that out, there is no other remedy.

It is also possible (if a recently build house) that you have a plough-pan in the soil. If you dig a hole, the depth of a spade, and if you then find that the ground is rock hard, when you try to dig down the second spade-depth, then that is a "pan" - usually caused by ploughing agricultural fields over the years with the base of the plough scraping at the same depth every year, and the tractor wheels running in the furrow compressing the sub soil - again at the same place each year. Roots won't growth through it, water can't escape / soak away.

All the bricks and rubbish needs to come out, the soil be dug over two spade depths deep (as you dig you need to keep the top-soil separate from, and not mix it with, the sub-soil - you will probably find that the topsoil is roughly the depth of the spade, and then sub-soil below that).

If it were me I would put in French drains at the same time. Dig a trench, put some perforated drainage pipe (comes on a roll, 2" diameter should be enough) in the trench, cover (i.e. so that the pipe is just covered) with gravel. Route the pipe to the lowest point, or a storm drain, if the water will be able to flow away; if no suitable route for it to flow away then dig a deep hole at the lowest point, route the drainage pipes to it, and chuck all the builder's rubble in there to make a soak-away. Put a pipe in it vertically (or something else - I've known of people bury a wheelie bin with holes in the bottom!!) so that you have a "void" that you can put a submersible pump in. In really bad years when it doesn't soak away fast enough / at all you can hook up a small submersible pump to a hose and pump to the street / drains

Sorry - I'm sure it sounds like a lot of work :( but you'll struggle to make any sort of garden if compacted and/or standing water collects and drain away, say, 20 minutes after a downpour.

 

Wow! That's extremely helpful. Thank you. I thought I was going to have to dig up concrete and fit the drainage pipes to the drain, and it's several yards away from the problem. This is much more manageable for me and something I'll definitely do.

The house is about 80 years old, but there's been a fair bit of building work done over the years, some rebricking, 2 small porches, and I think there might have been some walls maybe used in borders, or some foundations for greenhouses or huts - I've found glass too in one part.

I'm picking up a fairly big job and I've never had a garden before. But I like learning new things and I'm always up for a challenge!

 

http://s952.photobucket.com/user/sniffysnuffles/library/?sort=2&page=1

Here is how it started. I'm going to update it as it develops. It's going to be a very long project. So far all I have done is dug in a tub as a makeshift wildlife pond and a bit of pruning. Mostly I'm just peering around looking at what's coming up and where the light falls and reading endless books about how to prune, design a garden, grow fruit, do square foot veg gardening etc etc! So many options!

 

Hi Sniffy

Great photos , garden has lots of scope to do stuff , I think it looks great already .

Lawn looks greener than mine

Spruce

 

"I have done is dug in a tub as a makeshift wildlife pond"

Sniffy just make sure if anything falls in like a hedgehog it can climb out , small thick branch will help.

Spruce

 

Thanks. Yes, I'm hoping to pick up a little hedgehog house tomorrow and if I can lift the fence alittle to make gaps (before finally planting a hedge there instead) I'll be picking up a hedgehog or two from a local rescue soon. When there's water in it I'll be using some of the bricks I've found to make a couple of easy to climb 'ladders' out of it.

 

That's a relief. Very unlikely that you have wholesale builder's rubble then - probably just some junk left over from some small building projects or, more likely, the previous bits of the building / foundations that were knocked down. Still a PITA to remove, but a lot less hassle than I was expecting

In that case I still think it worth putting in drains - a nightmare to put them in once you have borders in place, all planted up, and worse still when the plants are getting to a decent size

Other than that I would only worry about removing rubble when you make a flower bed and come across it. Other than that next time we get a cracking hot summer's drought look out at the lawn from an upstairs window and see if you can see lines where the grass is more-brown-than-the-rest! which may tell you where there is an old path, or footing for a wall, which has just had a couple of inches of top soil chucked over, and some grass seed, and then be prepared for some hard work if you need to dig it up - or - plant the borders to avoid that bit!!

If you do identify some, and you really really want a smart lawn, then you will have to sort it out so as not to have brown stripes on your lawn early on during a drought.

Its a good size and shaped patch. Good luck

 

Hmmm ... what are those dark green patches on the lawn? Might just be where they turfed over something? (Turf patches always looks a million times more lush than a lawn, when it is first laid!!)

 

Thank you everyone. I've had a look on google earth and it was very informative. I wish I'd had a proper look before I started this!

The dark green patch is the bit that floods. It was full of shrubs before we moved in. The patches of bricks I thought were random - no. I just happen to have chosen bits where a large shed and another smaller one once were!

This has been extremely helpful.