Gardening tips

Composting commandments

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:28:11 +0000

I was interested in building my own composting bin along the beehive-like lines suggested by Alys Fowler in her book that I like very much, “The Thrifty Gardener” (link on the right hand side of this page), but we bought a plastic bin for the time being.

These aren’t commandments – it just seemed a marginally catchy [...]

Greenhouse lizards

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:08:28 +0000

A very interesting idea to help deal with greenhouse pest control, as mentioned most notably in books by Stefan Buczacki, is to keep lizards in the greenhouse.

The green anole is a very active climber and will escape through vents but the brown anole or anolis sagrei naturally lives closer to the ground and looks a [...]

Growing on

admin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:09:46 +0000

What was that about spring approaching? Surpised by the amount of snow overnight, which you can see on the edges of the pictures. So it was back to the greenhouse and at least get some seeds into a heated propagator.

Taken through the lid of the propagator, at the back we’ve got sweet peas. Front left-hand side has [...]

Amaryllis or Hippeastrum?

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:52:27 +0000

Hippeastrum

One sign that spring’s approaching is this hippeastrum which we have had for five years. These are often sold as amaryllis because they are part of the same species but they bloom in spring, possibly even late winter, while the amaryllis that looks similar to this actually blooms in autumn. They also have a [...]

And so we wait…

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:49:33 +0000

Still quiet. Early February, weather still holding things back and oh how I long for better weather. As well as generally improving one’s mood, there are so many jobs and ideas that need a break in the frost and rain cycle that we seem stuck in; the occasional sunny day isn’t helping. The plants in the [...]

Triffids invading!

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:23:58 +0000

Not much to report after severe winter weather. It did cause us to cut back on various plans and a lot of jobs and projects have been deferred as a result, We had bought some tree lilies and have been unsurprised to see how they are growing, particularly with a decent greenhouse heater in action due to [...]

Magnolia problem

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:13:40 +0000

A hiccup. We have moved the magnolia back to its earlier position on the patio, nearer the house, after signs of frost damage to the leaves. It isn’t actually damage from frost but early morning dew on the leaves in its exposed position was then being caught by the sun coming around and over the house [...]

Greenhouse staging

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:25:12 +0000

Having looked yet again at what’s around, I opted to make the greenhouse staging, because it is:

easy to do can be customized to the size you require much cheaper Four tips from this setup, which might not suit all tastes: - you can hide screws neatly by working out the best way to build the frame - use braces across the [...]

Greenhouse building

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:05:46 +0000

Building the greenhouse took two of us just under two days and was relatively easy. The first picture shows the rear and side frames built and the trench for the electric cable can also be seen. The gravel has the weed control underlaid.

One very useful tip for this particular set-up, not stated by manufacturers, is [...]

Greenhouse base preparation

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:43:10 +0000

The position of the greenhouse is convenient in our garden and fits a few of the conventional principles:

The ridge will be positioned east-west It will not be overhung or under any future threat of anything overhanging It has a nice open aspect

The nearby fences are not an issue. I intend to build a hedge at the rear as a windbreak. I [...]

Digging

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:00:24 +0000

Plenty of digging required for various purposes:

Turning over beds and borders that were remaining in place Digging out a base for the greenhouse to lay flagstones Creating a separate flagstone base for a large water butt Moving soil from above areas and the rear of the garden, which is planned to be a hedge eventually Using the excess soil, [...]

Gardening challenges ahead

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:41:25 +0000

Recently we decided that we had let our garden drift to a point where we wanted to make changes. This subsequently developed into reintroducing greenhouse gardening into our hobby. Then we cleared quite a bit of the garden to address a few issues, including:

Overgrown borders and some plants that were out of control and getting [...]

The Pleasure Of Gardening

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:56:00 +0000

Our garden is never going to be a model for paradise, but just somewhere pleasant to relax. Both my wife and I enjoy gardening or sitting reading or writing and watching birds, butterflies and wildlife.

There are many aspects of gardening that I find interesting but overall I’m very much in favour of letting things evolve [...]