What Jobs Are We Doing in the Garden Today... MK3.. 2013

FC, I'm growing Petunias this year and mine are sluggish too, I don't think they can make up their minds whether to turn up their toes or battle on. Having said that everything else I'm growing is making slow progress too. I don't know whether it's because there's still a chill around or perhaps it's the seed supplied this year from last years plants, remembering they were late to get going and all the rain, I'm wondering if that has caused the seed to be inferior.

 

Having decided to weed my rose bed today I got more than I bargained for, the soil was very compacted probably due to the snow we had in March, so I had to dig it all over again.

 

My tomatoes stalled to FC, there's got to be something amiss somewhere! For three weeks they just sat and did nothing and it's only this week that they've started to move again. I still haven't put them in the greenhouse yet it's just not warm enough, but they'll have to go out there soon as they'll need potting on and I haven't got the room indoors.

 

Finally got around to planting the two tree ferns that I got in the B&Q BOGOF weekend - they were very dry so Ive been soaking them every night for a week before trying to plant them. Turns out I was wasting my time as they had put no roots out in the pots anyway - but Im sure they will be OK.


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Ive got some little ones in pots that have grown from plugs - you can just see them sitting under last years fern - they are going to take a while to get to any size !

 

I NEED pics!!!!!





I cut the lawn, then fertilised it.
Fed my plants
Planted (after a trip the homebase) a fuscia, a variagated yukka gloriosa, some gazanias, grasses, a chamerops humilis, and some more runuculus. Edged the lawn and dug some nasty dandelions out.

 

They make tiny seedlings, so start off very small, and they are at risk that the compost is too wet - i.e. if the seedling is very small, relative to the size of its container, and grows slowly then I think it is that much harder to get the watering right the the compost gradually compacts the longer the plants have been in the pot. This is clearly not a problem for something that romps away ...

You need to carry on doing that - water into the crowns, and preferably with rain water if you are in a hard water area.

They root very slowly ... suggest you put a cane in down the side of the trunk and tie it firmly to that so that they don't rock about which could damage the slowly forming roots.

Dunno if it is necessary but my small ones (a foot of trunk) I grew in pots, and brought in for two winters, before planting to give maximum chance of rooting before having to withstand a winter on their own.

 

Still pricking out:

Melon Sweetheart x25

... and potting on from 1" modules to 9cm pots:

Alyogyne huegelii "Swan River" x3
Salvia chamaedryoides x6
Salvia azure x2
Salvia Oxford Blue x22
Salvia microphylla x3
Aquilegia Yabeana x3
Amaranthus Fat Spike x20
Amaranthus Dreadlocks x20
Amaranthus caudatus Red x20

Another of my Travellers Palms has germinated - got 4 now ... no idea if I will be able to nurse them to a size where they can cope on their own though ... we shall see.

 

Patience al n
Done another 7 panels tonight and 7 to go

 

I'd try to let them dry out before you water them again ... that may not be easy if the plants are so small that they cannot drink very much.

 

Think we may be at cross purposes? as I think unlikely there are any outdoors in the UK? I was meaning Ravenala madagascariensis - here's a photo I took of the one at Wisley back at New Year's

 

Dug out some of the runners from the bamboo thats been invading from next door & seems to be intent on world domination:

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Not really sure what to do about it - I quite like it against the fence 'cos nothing much else will grow over there & the canes are useful - but I will have to put some sort of barrier the whole way along to keep it in check.

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Might have a chat with next door & see if they would like me to dig it out for them, although I suspect that getting rid of it completely will require a more chemical approach..