WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2018

A fair bit to do there Armandii. I like your Lupin idea.

@Perki I've found if growing Lupins from seed they are best not planted out to early. I plant mine when they are at least a foot high to give them a chance against slugs.

 

@Sheal I been using wool pellets, they do work for me quite well but they don't last long enough without reapplying more gets costly. I've got a red one called MY Castle it was magnificent in 2016 got biggish but still got shredded, I moved it in 2017 to the back of the border cause of this, it sulked all year then and then got eaten. I got a yellow one as well called Chandelier (yellow) but that struggling as well, when my laburnum tree grows up and going to under plant it with a few chandelier lupins .

I have some delphiniums but they don't seem to go for them the same .

 

I've not heard of wool pellets @Perki, I'm not quite sure how they would work? No good to me anyway as I'm allergic to wool. I wonder if scattering something like sawdust around the base of the Lupins would work, I can't see slugs liking that stuck to their foot.

I've never grown Delphiniums but they're no replacement if Lupins are what you like and want.

 

@Sheal it called Slug gone spread it around the base of the plant, I've tried sharp sand - egg shells - woodchip before but didn't work for me, shame about wool allergy there quite handy I use them around lots of vulnerable plants when they first emerge. You have to try growing some Delephiniums there like the queen of the herbaceous border in my opinion .
Lupin MY castle in 2016

One of the 5 Delphinium I've grown from seed 2-3 years ago, all different colour as well last year this pic

 

Pretty garden Perki. I may well try Delphiniums next year but this year I have to concentrate on getting my (new) garden into some sort of order, it's not been worked on in years. A current, third fall of snow this winter is stopping play out there again.

 

A worthwhile investment! Bought my first one (new) in 2006 to house an Ex-Batt.



Moved house = bigger garden (2010) and ended up with the one above plus 2 second hand ones, plus a limited edition one plus a Cube version for my walk in run.

When I moved here, almost 4 years ago, I sold off the small ones on Ebay - went like hotcakes! - and just kept the Cube (back to a small garden once again).

Keep an eye on the Omlet forums because that is how I managed to get 2nd hand ones. At that time, I only had a Renault Clio but we managed to fit one in the back of that

The advantage of the cube over the one pictured above (other than the number of hens it will house) is the height of the coop when it comes to cleaning = less bending!

Less issues with red spider mite too in comparison to wooden coops.

If you can stretch to a new one, great. If not, go 2nd hand. They are very robust and will last years!

 

We had one of those for our cat before we got round to building the big cage. We got ours second hand from someone we knew. I believe they are pretty expensive to by new. When we built the big cage we sold our Egloo. It had held its value. They are very good. Very sturdy. Weatherproof. They are very heavy and cumbersome so it’s best not to try to move it around too much.

G.

 

Or snails

 

It’s been a perfect morning for gardening. The frost has gone and the sun is shining. Last night I marked out a channel approx 18” and dug out the grass. Today I dug out anything that had taken root under the grass. I then added a couple of 25l bags of topsoil and a barrow full of multipurpose compost. I used plastic plant labels to roughly measure out where my lamiums will need to be planted. In the gaps I planted out all of my left over bulbs. Somewhere in there are daffodils, snowdrops and tulips. I then covered the whole thing with a layer of bark chippings. Then to finish things off I swept up a nice pile of dead leaves from around the yard and scattered them on top.

I have decided to use this section as a test section. If everything works as it should this year, next year I can then think about replicating it on the other sections of hedge.

I repotted my lamium into a slightly bigger pot and broke up the congested roots in the process. Hopefully it will grow big enough this summer for me to split it before I plant it. I calculated that I need 6 in total to fill the space. They come in bundles of 4. That should be enough. Next year when all the plants are fully grown I can split them again and spread them across the other sections of hedge. In theory at least.



G.

 

Thanks @"M" and @Jack Sparrow , it's good to hear they're not just a fad design! I like the look of the Eglu Go Up online, need to get somewhere to look at one in 3D at some point...

 

Better watch out you don't meet me coming around a corner in the dark one night there could be disastrous results for you.