What Jobs are we doing in the Garden today 2014..

Nice day today! managed to put together my portable 4-tier greenhouse, which arrived on friday! and it now houses (and most probably will frost-protect) my tree lily plantlets grown in containers, autumn crocus (saving it from those damn crows!) and newly sowed agapanthus, wild garlic and meconoposis seeds...


Also moved my tiny winy Medlar into a bigger pot.. the seedling was a gift from a friend and I am planning to make a bonsai out of it! so its a big project... right now keeping it safe from frosts (if we get any ), waiting for it to reach a desired height and then the cutting and pruning will begin....

 

Been out for a couple of hours this afternoon, nearly finished extending the tropical bed.
Just a few more hours at it should see it finished.
Got to get hold of some manure or buy some compost to add to the soil

 

Cleared up 2 storm damaged willow trellises (very weak and only 2 years old ).

Tied up a drooping Honeysuckle which also got affected by storms.

Pulled off droopy leaves off ferns, planted privet around a couple of fences for screening in future, potted the other 4 privet bare root plants, ground planted 2 Paulownia trees, cleared up some ground cover to make way for Crocuses attempting to peek through, removed a low reed screen to make way for railway sleepers (not bought yet).

Felt great being outside on a stunning winter's day

 

Please don't assume that. The temperature inside, at night, will be pretty much the same as outside.

It will keep the rain off, and the wind. But on sunny days the temperature may rocket up, particularly once we get to Spring.

 

@Derbyshire
How big are your Paulownias , as if only small may need some protection until late spring , once they are bigger can stand up to the weather better , I lost and learnt and replanted but amazing tree.

Spruce

 

60cm Spruce.

 

thats a good size to start with and should be hardy enough until they get settled in .
I coppice mine every 3 years and the leaves are massive , I dont think next door are to happy with it though , leaves can get a bit torn if its a very windy position.

This tree has so many names "Foxglove tree, Princess Tree" named after the

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Anna_Pavlovna_of_Russia

 

@Kristen thanks for giving me heads up! I was bit worried last night as we were expecting heavy frost this morning .. Happy to say the green house remained frost free! I was out at 6 in the morning to check the frost damage (if any) and it was covered in water from outside and vapour inside.. I think the plants had enough warmth to maintain relatively higher temperature as compared to outside and the plastic cover helped.. I also made sure to put some bubble wrap at the base of the greenhouse to keep the cold vading in from the floor.
We have a small garden and can’t find a place to build a proper greenhouse so settled on a portable one.. Idea is to keep the newly sprouted bulbs and some plants from freezing over. These were sitting in the shed all this time but now the plants have started coming out, so I guessed they will do well if we can give them more light. Until now all the light they got was from almost non-existent window in our shed.. also this may serve as a good solution to pre-conditioning the seedlings before putting them in soil. The plastic definitely will keep excess rain out, saving the pots from flooding. And will give them enough time to grow until they are planted out in april/may. The greenhouse will be coming down in summer, hopefully by then all my plants will be out and about :D Until then on a sunny they I am planning to leave the front flap open.
Mr. M was getting worried with all the pots I was piling in the house so had to do something to show him that I consider his concerns too.... (ofcourse, the number of pots in the house hasn’t gone down.. (but shush! He hasn’t noticed that)

 

Next to the house it will have protection from the house etc. but the plants themselves won't be warming it. You could put a lightbulb in there (if you have an old inefficient incandescent one), or a T-light with a clay flowerpot upturned over it, on cold nights.

If the temperature is only -1C or so then, against the house etc., it will remain frost free. But -5C, or perhaps even -3C, then I doubt it.

But even so, it will delay the cold a bit, so the time of cold will be shorter ... and the cold has to penetrate pots and soil before roots are damaged. Keeping a biting wind off the plants & pots also helps.

You could also chuck an old duvet, or something like that, over the frame in cold weather - to delay the time that the frost takes to penetrate. Even put a 5L bottle of hot water in their just before you go to bed.

Only need to do that on especially cold nights. Frost on the ground the following morning doesn't mean that the temperature got to 0C, and even when it does near-the-house will be warmer.

I'd recommend a Max/Min thermometer so you know what temperature it is getting to. A second one in the middle of the lawn, on a box or something (not on the ground) would give you something to compare against, then you will know what temperature the blowaway gets to, relative to the most exposed area, and you will then be able to predict if you need to take Emergency Precautions!! on any given night when cold is forecast.

 

New border is coming on nicely, need to do a before and after pic to show you all. Other than that I fully turned the compost bin for winter to do it's thing. It's packed with worms, yay!

Veg plot plan is taking shape, got plenty of seeds to sort through so might buy one of those seed organiser things. Went to Homebase to have a look at the seed tray/module things. I think I'll get some of those plastic see through tray cover things, so it's more like a propagator kit. Hopefully this will help with one side of the tray getting warm and one not (from the radiator!)

 

I use those tray thingiis (on the windowsill next to radiators) for my wheatgrass seeds/plants.. What really helps is to turn they tray around twice a day (morning and evening) so the whole tray gets realtively even warmth rather than one side getting baked too much.. this also helps all the seedlings get even..ish.. light from the window ..

 

Yes, that's what I was failing to do. Bad memory!

 

I use an old shoe box Seed packets are in alphabetical order, and I have a spreadsheet with the intended Sow dates. I then have columns for Actual sow date, germination date (so that, with experience, I know how long they can stay in the propagator before I need to get them into the light - e.g. I sow everything that takes more than a week just before I go on holiday ), Plant out date, First and Last harvest date (so I know how long the crop occupies that plot and when a follow-on crop can be planted).

I add new columns for Actual dates, and push last years across a bit more, so that I have side-by-side for same crops for comparison. And to remind em that LAST YEAR I WAS TWO WEEKS LAZY LATE !

Plastic bag will do for the cover - although often the clear plastic lids are included / cheap-as-chips, and stop the condensation dripping onto the seedlings.

 

Clear plastic bags, now that's a thought. For a single plastic hard cover it was £1.99 in Homebase!

 

Yup plastic bags are a fab idea... I have the big ziplock ones that can fit a seed tray, bought them on ebay 50 for £5.. so far those are very reliable.. http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=261227738764#undefined
I pre soak my seeds in 2% peroxide and sow them in seed compost , water with 2% solution again. And then seal the bag over the trays. This helps preventing all the fungus too.
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