What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

@CanadianLori Well, I noticed some people in the neighborhood have multiple bins, so perhaps there are ways to get extra ones and I still have to find out.

On an unrelated note, today a neighbour told me that he is not registered for garden waste collection, but he leaves a bin full on the occasion and they collect it anyway, but leaving a note reminding him that perhaps he has forgotten to pay for the service :D
British politeness I guess..
In Italy they would leave it all there, with a "Good try, but don't do it again" note :D

 

Lovely sunny weather today!
Stuck with work until the afternoon, but operation "plant them all" has finally begun!
Well, I spent quite some time wondering about what to put where, and most plants will go tomorrow, but at least I planted most beans.
The blocks were getting a bit dry, so it was time anyway. Half of them went to the front of the house and half to a bed in the garden, I am curious to see what will do better.
More plants are sprouting from the new blocks, but most are not yet. I hope it was not a mistake to leave them all in the mini greenhouses, perhaps the temperature dropped too much, particularly for melons and peppers.
But then, it will be nice and warm for several days, perhaps they are just a bit late.

Got a few plants from the gardening center, one sage and two rosemary just delivered, look quite healthy so I started cloning them (our track with rosemary is not good for some reason, so some backup plant is useful). The discarded leaves ended up in the stew
Also, I received some Cayenne seeds. I have never grown chilli peppers, and perhaps it is a bit late, but I will give it a go. Supposedly if it is warm they could be planted outside in full summer, but peppers are yet another thing I am not very good at.

I tried and read about my Californian cucumbers. They are called Spacemaster and they grew well from seed. Apparently I could chance planting one or two in hanging baskets. I did that two years ago with a small variety and it did surprisingly well, so if I have a few plants left I might give it a go.

Well, looking forward to a sunny weekend!

 

Plant out Runner and French beans and rest of maincrop peas. Plant out Ipomea and other annual climbers, pot up dahlia cuttings that have rooted. Repot some perennials from last year in case I can find a home for them with other people. Hate throwing plants on the compost heap.

 

When I been out for a bike ride and collected my plants bit touch and go how I were getting 5 two litre pots in the rucksack , manged to get 4 in ( 3 persicaria september spire and one geranium orion ) and a lobelia tannia in a the little bag which I took just incase , all arrive home safely but the lobelia looks like its been for a ride . Got some planting out to do this afternoon then along with the miscanthus memory which arrived earlier on in the week.

 

Today Ive been getting tender plants out of the tunnel and splitting a few ready for the season ahead. Think Ive brought about 20 large pots out but lots more to go. I'm having to rationalise some plants as splitting them in previous years means I am beginning to hoard.

I split one Canna musifolia into 6 plants, put 3 up for sale locally and they sold within 30 mins. The other three will be going the same way once I'm happy that they are growing ok.

Ive been selling a lot of excess plants on ebay and facebook this year and can recommend it to anyone wanting to recoup some of their plant / greenhouse running costs. I'm not selling in anger but have made a tidy sum. Take into account my time with the plants and its not so lucrative but its more of a hobby than anything else so hourly rate doesn't really matter. Previous years it has cost me hundreds (maybe more) in plants but this year the tables are turnded

 

A very good plan @andrews , I'm hoping to do something similar when it's safer to go to post office or have neighbourhood folks collecting. I have a myriad of rooted cuttings of both garden and houseplants, some will go for free to people who have asked for them but I'm also going to sell the surplus in my Neighbourhood social group. There are many people wanting plants and I can hopefully help with growing tips if needed. The potential profits will go to ground, literally I'm planning to collect my takings in a jar and see if I can make it even with the cost of compost and other things I'm paying for.

How much do you charge for your plants and how do the logistics work? How do you pack and post the plants?

When I get rich I will start to do this for charity. At the moment it will just fund my habit...

Anyways, I wasted the beautiful morning by sitting by the kitchen table finishing my book. When it got cold and murky I ventured out to do the serious watering, everything got a good soak. Hung up the new bauble lights in the Viburnum, transplanted some Vinca Minor to the front where I need some good ground cover and spent ages just laughing at the Newcastle Birds Youth Club activities.

The blackbird chicks are now being instructed by their patient dad that worms grow in the soil rather than fall into open beaks. They try very hard. The sparrow chicks are now out and still on full service basis and are ever so cute when they fluff up shaking their wings asking to be beak fed.

I'm quite happy with my herb garden, chives are flowering and marjoram and thyme are perking up. The wonderful rosemary is nearly past flowering now.



Clearly I will not start a jam making business quite yet but the blackcurrant I'm growing as a standard is sort of agreeing with me regarding the desired shape.


The bucket farm of tatties and leeks looks to be doing fine. The fleece on the leeks is to discourage the sparrows, they love leek and spring onion shoots. And, for some reason, Semprevivum (possibly they know they are called houseLeeks )



Tomorrow the winds are supposed to die down a bit so it's the Debutante Day for the dahlias and overwintered pelargoniums. I use ikea bags to move them in and out.

The solar powered pump for my little pond should arrive next week

 

@Selleri I sell mainly small plants on ebay and bigger plants on a local facebook group. We recently started a wax melt business so have a label printer to print postage via RM click and drop and plenty of assorted boxes. You can print labels from click and drop and sellotape the label to the box so this reduces the time youre at the post office. If the box fits in the post box you can drop them in there too. I sell at a price that is attractive to buyers and makes me a bit of money. Aeonium seedlings have been selling for £3 a plant plus 1st class postage - take into account paypal fees, 27p for the box and ebay fees - youre not making loads but today I've had orders for about £30 of plants. That pays for my seed and I still have plenty of plants to sell.

Ive been selling Aloe striatula at £8 a plant. This was prunings from a friends Aloe from last year. I stuck them in some gritty compost and every plant rooted. Ive sold over 20 of these this year - not bad for a bit of time and rescuing rubbish from a compost bin. These post ok as they have a good strong stem. I will bag the roots wrapped in kitchen towel and then sellotape this closed. Then sellotape the bag to the box to stop it bouncing about.

I got my plant passport authorisation so all plants are posted with a plant passport label

I sold canna musifolia for £8 a plant. They are good strong plants and could've stood a bit more on the price due to Monty mentioning them in last nights GW but I was happy with that and it gets them moving quickly. I ask for paypal when selling socially distanced face to face.

I sold my excess chillies and sweet peppers for £1.50 a plant and the last of these was collected today.

A lot of my plants are tender so I have to heat the polytunnel which cost about £150 this winter. The plants are paying for the gas, my seed and making a few quid.

I did say that I wouldn't pay for a plant passport inspection but at £120 a year it will be money well spent.

 

Well, not much done today..
Whatever large animal decided to dig one of my beds, sending half the soil out, choose to spare my beans. That was nice..

Still I wonder what that is. The hole seems to large for a squirrel, so perhaps a fox or a cat.

 

I can only quote from what I know locally. It appears that here in the UK each local authority has it's own rules etc. A few years ago when all this recycling started, here in Greenwich, we were given three wheelie bins. Black top, for non-recycleable ie; landfil. Blue top for recycleable and green top for garden rubbish.

Having one week put my bin, blue top out I was annoyed next day when the cart left it un emptied. Phoning the council and soon an inspector was here. So strange. This inspector was a family member of a local family from Woolwich. The family had worked for generations on the dust cart. Inspector to dust cart driver, bin not emptied etc . Check bin. Contents compromised. There on top was a doggy poo bag. Across the road is the local park and doggy walk.

Inspector said to me. Put it al in the black bin for landfil. Whisper whisper, neary all of this councils refuse ends up in landfil.

Now any bin with the wrong contents gets a red label and is finally chucked on the black bin wagon. Years ago as a kid. My nextdoor neighbour worked for the counil on the sorting conveyor. Honest the junk he used to bring home.

Bexley council are acclaimed to be the best recycling borough. Mind you, they always seem to be changing the rules.

What really gets to me is. Despite most councils go all out to keep a clean borough. You still get the lazy barstewards who often can't be bothered to put their rubbish in a bi at all.

 

Several days ago I asked R to cut the strip of grass between us and next door. He also took it upon himself to cut down the self seeders that were growing in a crack between the concrete pathway close to the grass, aquilegia, toadflax, dandelion, fleabane and campion . I thought they were weeds he said . Day before yesterday he offered to cut some of the hedges. And, then decided to cut down the umbellifers growing close by . I think they are a mix of cow parsley and something larger.

I've been busy with art stuff but have found time for some gardening too. Cut grass in side garden, fed several pots with liquid seaweed, planted a Lavender into the ground next to the disused bun run, filled wheelbarrow with several loads of gravel and filled in the holes forom Dolores's excavations, cut grass in both bun runs and lots of watering. No rain for 6 weeks, apart from 1 day of light drizzle in April. My butts are empty so having to use hosepipe.

I was looking at my herb baths yesterday and they are still not thriving. Earlier this year I added more gravel and spent compost to them but my herbs are not growing well. Any thoughts on how to fix them, please?

 

Made another bird feeder in the shape of a garden bench, just out of bamboo screening that we had taken down and some lightweight wood. I already had some light weight chain too, so used that to hang it. Was very pleased with myself but I had hung this one nearer the house so I could watch the little birds feeding, the bird table/bath I built a couple of weeks keeps getting visited by pigeons because eit is big and sturdy, the little hanging one at the other side of the garden the pigeons dont go on because it swings, they just scavenge on the floor for seed, hence the reason why I made another swinging one thinking they wouldn't go on it, but they kept landing on it yesterday and happy to swing on it too, hubby kept trying to scare them off it and let the little ones feed but one is defiant and stands close by and as soon as hubby moves it comes back for another attempt....so today I think I may have to either make some sort of shelter over the top of it to prevent mr pigeon landing and climbing onto it....or get my phone ready to video record hubby doing his pigeon scarer dance and send it to you've been framed and get myself 250 quid

 

Yesterday started to sow the wallflower seeds going to do some more today.

 

Watered the borders yesterday and sewn some more seeds. Snap dragon, Delphinium and pansies. Finally I have decided I can't live without a greenhouse looking online most look rubbish and have tripled in price. The decent ones have sold out so going to have a shop tomorrow see what I can pick up. Verbena's and penstemon are looking good and our favourites the Salvia Amistad look like they are doing well too. They were all put in last year having the pooch running round whilst I'm pottering is lovely

 

@Mike Allen
Our neighbourhood is reasonably tidy and clean, but we do get some habitual.. bar tenders as well.
In particular, there is someone dropping weekly or so an empty pack of crisps in our hedge, always in the same spot :D
It seems to happen when the schools are open only, so I started imagining that it must be a kid with some sort of compulsive disorder. On Wednesday little Jack will come up of school, he will open his crisps packet. 257 steps after, he will have finished the 43 crisps in the packet and he will throw the packet exactly in the same spot. Then he will open his soda and 123 steps and 15 sips after, he will get to his house.
I think imagining that keeps me from hiding in the bush and wait for the bar tender.

And yes, like you say each local authority seem to have their own rules when it comes to recycling.
Actually, it reminds me of when I lived in Charlton. I shared a house with some people, including a French girl. When we had just moved there, she asked me how recycling collection worked and which bins where which. In her mind, because I had a degree in environmental management, I was expected to know that from the top of my head.
I explained to her that each local authority has its own ever-changing rules, so no, I did not keep constantly updated about recycling in the 32 London boroughs. Also because I had studied water management and renewable energy mainly. But we could certainly look that up online.

From that day, I think, she started suspecting I had forged my degree. In her mind was simply unconceivable that any degree with "environment" in the title could possibly fail to impart detailed information about Greenwhich Borough recycling policies :D

 

Well, I did plant out only half of what I was planning, but at least all the beans.
I just realized I did not grow enough USA cucumbers (spacemaster, so it says on the package) and way too many USA pumpkins.
Last year pumpkin seeds had very bad germination rates. So just in case I planted quite a few extra seeds, and they all germinated. I think they grow 10-15 feet, I do not have the space to plant that many. Maybe some neighbour or friend will take them.

I might try more cucumbers from seed though. It is a bit late now, but apparently this variety are succession plants and run out of steam after a while.

Anyway, more photos of my bins.