General gardening thread

The_Arbiter

The_Arbiter

The_Arbiter

Soldato
Joined
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There doesn't appear to be a general gardening thread, and I do know there are some avid gardeners here.

So how's this weather treating you?

Ground is saturated, moss is alive and kicking, bluebells are poking up already, and the bindweed appears to still be growing.

I don't dare prune anything until mid January and we see something that resembles winter.
 
My garden has gone beyond saturated, it's flooded. I have pools of water that ducks would love!! It's been raining very heavily here for almost two days now and our soil is around 8 inches of topsoil with a very heavy clay under that so drainage is abysmal. The lawn is ruined and full of moss which wasn't helped by my new idiot neighbour putting up a solid 6 foot high fence on his side and blocked the sun from my garden until 11am every day.
 
I laid second hand paving as stepping stones so at least I can get to the end of the garden this year. So far no floods but the grass is quite long and I won't cut it until March or maybe late February. All the perennial shrubs are in winter condition, bare and brown. I have two evergreen 'lollipop' trees and a variegated hedge which will get trimmed after the birds have flown in early summer.

There us nothing much to do until March anyway except keep the geraniums alive in the greenhouse and collect containers to plant seeds in, chillies etc.

Bulbs are beginning to sprout and they may get a shock before January is out. Ditto the cherry tree in the front garden, buds are starting to appear. We need a few hard frosts to remind these plants that winter has not really begun.
 
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Not a lot happening right now just clearing up the dregs of the leaf fall going to have another session with the blower this weekend. Once thats done its time to sort out the compost bins and the cycle starts anew! Oh yes and cut the grass previous sunday before xmas as it was a miraculously dry and sunny day was getting a bit shaggy with all the mild weather and its handy to blow out the leaves and suck them up with the mower kill two birds with on stone. Mower's now drained of fuel so it goes into the shed for the next couple of months at least going to have to get some other fuel this time probably E5 something with less alcohol than E10 as its said leaving it standing rots the internals or the pipes at anyrate
 
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Bloody hell, slabs to reach around the garden. Talking of grass, i'm kinda glad i didn't get another last mow in, the longer grass might be more beneficial with the parts that like to get very mossy.
 
Just moved into a new house at the end of November. Quite a large back garden. The front garden is also actually bigger than the garden at the previous house.

Seems to drain fairly well, although there has been lots of rain so it is getting quite water logged, until the sun's out again. Luckily, it seems to be holding up fairly well to our 3 dogs.

There is quite a lot of brambles growing anywhere and everywhere, which is ******* me off no end as Im getting caught on them quite a lot. Any tips on getting rid of the things?

Also, is it worth trying to cut the grass at this time of year? It's not long, but it's long enough for our smaller dog to get it up to his empty nut sack and struggle getting through it sometimes!
 
D-Ranged said:
T.here is quite a lot of brambles growing anywhere and everywhere, which is ******* me off no end as Im getting caught on them quite a lot. Any tips on getting rid of the things?

Also, is it worth trying to cut the grass at this time of year? It's not long, but it's long enough for our smaller dog to get it up to his empty nut sack and struggle getting through it sometimes!
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Mow the grass on a very dry day if it's long as it will be moist underneath and get chewed up. I'd just skim the top off. I'm no grass expert, but my guess is better not to go mental at a time of cold temps, right now it's good being mild, if it's dry enough.

Digging out brambles are the only way. They're a pain, and have they have a few different ways of multiplying. They're easy to control unless the area has other foliage. If you like gardening they can be fun to battle, otherwise a nightmare.
 
The_Arbiter said:
Mow the grass on a very dry day if it's long as it will be moist underneath and get chewed up. I'd just skim the top off. I'm no grass expert, but my guess is better not to go mental at a time of cold temps, right now it's good being mild, if it's dry enough.

Digging out brambles are the only way. They're a pain, and have they have a few different ways of multiplying. They're easy to control unless the area has other foliage. If you like gardening they can be fun to battle, otherwise a nightmare.
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Great thanks. I was thinking of lifting the mower depth to the longest (shortest?) cut and seeing how that goes.

I was fearing that was the case. The ones closest to the house have completely engulfed a large bush and tree. That is going to be absolute hell to sort out. Also they are growing through the side of the garage roof and it's very tight down the side!
 
D-Ranged said:
Great thanks. I was thinking of lifting the mower depth to the longest (shortest?) cut and seeing how that goes.
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If you must cut it, do it at the highest setting on the mower over Winter. It gives the grass more leaf to collect any available sunlight in the shorter days.

We've had nothing but torrential rain over the last week so everything it just water logged. I did some general cleaning/sweeping today and happened to stand on a bit of lawn which butts up against the patio. When I looked down, the amount of water I had inadvertently squeezed out onto the patio was crazy :(
 
The_Arbiter said:
Bloody hell, slabs to reach around the garden. Talking of grass, i'm kinda glad i didn't get another last mow in, the longer grass might be more beneficial with the parts that like to get very mossy.
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Done properly and, laid so that the mower passes over them, they look neat and allow me to get from the top patio to the bottom one and drink my morning coffee seated in the arbor. Last winter the soil was waterlogged and impossible to walk over.

Also to occasionally disrupt the impending spider takeover of the arbor.
 
just tidying the garden while its soggy:) cleared a space next to the fence at the rear of house so i can start cutting down my old trusty greenhouse (aluminium 6x8 , hopefully going to be 6 x 4 :). new greenhouse is in the garage ready to be framed and assembled splashed out on a 12x8 needed more space . last year tomatoes,cucumber and squash didnt leave much room for peppers . became a bit of a jungle in there .hopefully will be assembling middle to late jan if all goes well.
 
Hagar said:
Done properly and, laid so that the mower passes over them, they look neat and allow me to get from the top patio to the bottom one and drink my morning coffee seated in the arbor. Last winter the soil was waterlogged and impossible to walk over.

Also to occasionally disrupt the impending spider takeover of the arbor.
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Wasn't a criticism btw, just surprised at the having to do it to cross the marsh.
 
Actually seems drier this year. The garden was part of a rose garden of the Brine Leas Hotel in the 1950's and the soil is quite good. Two years back shortly after we moved in, we removed a lot of quite big shrubs and small trees, grinding out the stumps and hence the lawn is less than two years old. I suspect that the soil structure has evolved and last year was quite resistant to rainfall and now absorbs it better being less spongy and waterlogged as the root system grows. Whatever it is more pleasant even with the rainfall of the past weeks. It is not a marsh by any account.
 
arknor said:
soon planting time.

I ordered 10,000 seeds of British lavender that will need a few weeks in the fridge.
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10,000! How much area will that cover? Do you have any photos from previous years?

I’ve got a garden re-landscaping project kicking off on Monday for the next 3-4 months so it’ll be an interesting period!
 
Coran said:
10,000! How much area will that cover? Do you have any photos from previous years?
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I only need about 50 :)

Gonna scatter some in local areas where it's mostly pure dirt or where I know only something like hogweed tries to grow

lavender is drought resistant so should grow almost anywhere. I think when go cycling I might scatter some in the wild as well..

it's native to here anyway... 10k lavender seeds doesnt look like much btw, it fits in the tiny pocket on a pair of jeans.

just needs a few weeks in the fridge so it knows winter has passed, even without that some still germinate but only a small percent.
 
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Starting (maybe too) early with Comos and Holyhocks (plenty more to come).
A few people down my lane keep bees, so the idea is to have as may bee friendly plants as possible.

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Too cold to put in the greenhouse, so on the floor in the extension will have to do for now.
Like Arknor, I've plenty of Lavender seeds to go in the ground, but may try to start them off indoors first.
 
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