No……do much the same. Put a few more spuds in a lidl potato planter today. A lidl plant trug behind with herbs for our bunnies.
8 Likes
I’m using raised beds of approximately 600mm to save the back.
The main problem with this system is that it is a long way above the water table and thus dries out quickly.
I concentrate on new potatoes and salad crops during summer.
10 Likes
Looking through the bent-backed tulips, to see how the other half lives…
Glorious spring day today - a switch has been flicked. Back home after 4 days away and it’s quite incredible how much growth occurs during this time of the year in such a short period of time. Planted 4,000 tulips back in October and the early varieties are up and away already. As dusk sets this evening there is an luminescence about them. Wonderful to be a gardener in this season. Wishing all on this thread a good year ahead.
7 Likes
My prize acer kinshi has been damaged. Not by frost, drought, mealy bugs or verticillium wilt. No, by a bloody Woody woodpecker. What’s the chances of that? I give in.
7 Likes
Mother nature… Woodpeckers primarily search for food, especially insects and larvae, by using their strong bills to peck at trees, listening for the sounds of hidden prey, and using their keen eyesight to spot insects and their eggs.
Beautiful and noisy… but do have their down sides.
In a article it mentioned " If the bug hunting isn’t very good, they’ll happily make a meal out of seeds, nuts or acorns. They will also chow down fruit when they need to meet their daily requirement of Vitamin C." So perhaps a bird feeder, or leaving out slices of an orange might keep them away from your trees.
I have a bird feeder quite nearby and a stunning great spotted woodpecker loves the fat balls. Beautiful bird. Out of all the average trees/bushes, pear tree, rhododendrons, it goes for the prized one. That’s me and my way.
6 Likes
Similar to Count.d, I have regular visits from two woodpeckers - they and several other bird types revel in Pets at Home fat balls!
Peter
4 Likes
Apparently bees are a priority for the government (I hope this does not count as political) and there is a bee week coming
Lots of weeds , long grass and no herbicides or pesticides are a help
2 Likes
Tulipa clusiana lady Jane. 3rd year in a pot and come up far better than last year. It must be due to the better feeding and growing medium I’ve evolved last year. Beautiful tulip. If I can think of any more photo angles, I’ll be back.
15 Likes
Lovely, absolutely lovely and really attractive to pollinators
Botanical /species tulips are rapidly becoming a favourite , I have two pots that are just about ready to come into flower
2 Likes
our woodpeckers enjoy hammering away at the metal guard on the chimney, usually around 6:30am!
3 Likes
This is one of the species tulips I have ordered that are yet to flower (stock picture)
I think this is crying out for pollinators
9 Likes
Neither dearly beloved or I are natural gardeners. Outdoors needs a good seeing to.
Indoors has produced some surprises, a supermarket mini rose that has constantly bloomed for two years, Christmas cactus that blooms every four months (fingers crossed they don’t stop having written this), our favourite though is a succulent from Ikea, chosen for the novelty of bring partly translucent, it has just presented a very tiny flower.
4 Likes
All I wanted to do was dig a 1.4m x 1.4m hole 10” deep and fill with hardcore. I’m now knackered. Digging into clay and having to wheelbarrow the hardcore from the front drive to the back makes a big difference on a job.
Just got to lay 9 paving slabs on it now. I suppose that’s going to take hours. These jobs are a pain really.
6 Likes
At a first glance at the picture I thought it marking out a grave!
What a knobhead.
1 Like
It’s for a big plant. All to be revealed, if I have the strength to finish it.
Between me and you, there’s so much hardcore, to be followed by cement and the plant, they’ll never look under it for the body. They’ll be looking in the drain manhole, under the floorboards and in the loft.
6 Likes
Sounds more exciting than the expected new firmware release.
1 Like
It didn’t take quite as long as I thought and every slab went down perfect first time and level. The whole platform level and square. Not having laid slabs before, I didn’t know what to expect. Watching videos of pros is one thing, but I was half expecting to shovel cement on the hardcore, placing a slab down and finding it far too high or low and having to repeat. However, getting the cement water ratio right, shovelling on the correct height and then gently tapping with a rubber mallet (not at the edges), it went great.
9 Likes
That’s neat. I’ve put precisely one slab in my garden and it’s by far the worst positioned slab.
2 Likes