What are we doing in the garden 2025

I had never heard of it either, but from the photographic evidence here I assume you squash soil into a mould and then grow a seed in the block you have created. Not sure how this beats a tray of compost though! Maybe it means no disruption to the seedlings when potting on.

 

Yesterday I had a brainwave whilst in the shower. I could fill the collapsed rat-warren channels on the flat area of the lower garden with some of the 2 cubic metres of wood chip the tree man left me, when removing the hedge, old conifers and pyracantha. (They took away about 20 cubic metres to the local allotments, and I’m glad to say the stuff they left here is not from the pyracantha!). So I worked about 10 trugs-worth of woodchip into the biggest holes and collapsed channels. Still very uneven, but hopefully the lawnmower won’t get grounded or stuck quite so often now.

I have used soil to fill the holes that are in the part of the garden that floods, as the river will just wash the woodchip away.

I also lifted some more plants that might get damaged by the building work. A salvia hot lips, that is a cutting from my mother-in-law’s garden, a baby broom from our Belgian garden, and some snowdrops and primroses.

Today I have a tip visit booked, so this morning was a couple of hours bundling up all the waste fencing that was removed to re- fence the garden (neighbour had done a sterling effort to patch the holes in the hedge). Lengths that are relatively sound and more than 3 metres long have been rolled and tied, and moved to the shed. The scrappy bits, and all the sections of wire that were lying on the ground, have been gathered up to take to the tip. Hopefully cutting the grass will be less dangerous now, both for the machine and the (wo)man power.

 

Mine's been soaking in half an inch of cola overnight and it's cleaned up the metal (I hate to think what it does to people's insides - OH drinks it and "coincidentally" often has tummy trouble). There's still some encrusted buts, not sure what, looks like rust but apparently back then the copper coins really were mostly copper, with a bit of tin and zinc (so I suppose technically bronze) so it can't be actual rust.

 

I have not used them but yes, a soil blocker is a metal gadget that you use to "mould " soil into a square section block . A shape a bit like a root trainer if you know what they are. The idea is you put seeds singly in each and they don't need pricking on. As the roots get to the edge of the block, they are air pruned, so you get a more dense fibrous root system. When the plants are big enough you plant the whole thing, saves root disturbance. It eliminates plastic (unless you use a plastic tray). You have to get the soil mix just right so it holds together until the roots do the job but can be kept moist without falling apart.

 

I've sown cosmos, pot marigolds, daisy mixed marigolds, tomato sweet million.

 

Very pretty especially the leaf fossils. Think I'll stick to my bog standard concrete paving slabs though, as the lichen etc just improves those!

 

I’ve been on a Spanish bluebell eradication mission today . I started by just snipping the leaves off the ones in the narrow bed in my lower garden to weaken them. I didn’t want to dig them out as there are some anemones just starting to flower intermingled with them. I then moved on to the sloping bed in the far right corner of the garden where they were getting quite advanced. This time I dug deeply and managed to get quite a few bulbs up, not just the leaves with long white stems which normally happens . I then moved a large fern into the cleared space and moved a hardy geranium into a sunnier location. I also replaced a Verbena with a Nepeta, moved from the front garden.