‘gardening tips’ Articles
Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Do my garden birds know more than me and the weather forecasters? Sometimes it makes me wonder. This is the most severe winter we have had for years. Snow, freezing temperatures that have not even reached as high as the norm for this time of the year and yet as soon as the snow and ice have cleared the birds are singing like spring is just around the corner. Not only are the garden birds singing to claim their territories but the Jackdaws are trying to build a nest in my chimney. With the winds coming from the north temperatures are still below what they should be so what is it that instils so much encouragement in them? Maybe it is the lengthening days.
Food for our feathered friends must be in short supply; a Greater Spotted Woodpecker is visiting and feeding on the large fatball I hang in the tree near the seed feeder. I have had them visiting and taking peanuts from the feeder but this is the first time I have seem them take fat. The Blackbirds are still coming to me to beg for dried fruit but even they are now taking peanuts from the feeder.
The garden birds may be preparing for spring but I think it is going to be a while before I can do any gardening outside. The lawns are looking a bit sad after the snow and I have never seen so many shrubs, including hedging, with such burnt leaves for a long time. Mother Nature has a way of recovering from these setbacks but it would not surprise me to find the odd shrub and perennial plant not putting in an appearance this year.
Probably another week and I will be making a sowing of tomato seeds. As decided after last years growing season I will just be growing Harbinger. There are newer tomato varieties that will produce fruits all the same size. However that is not a consideration for me, my tomatoes can ripen at many different sizes and I can put up with that in exchange for the excellent flavour.
In spite of the very bad weather my early flowering Mohonia is still providing colour. I have met gardeners who do not like this group of shrubs but I am a fan. There were a couple in the garden when I moved here and I have added to the collection. Very accommodating, nice yellow flowers with a pleasing perfume that can fill a garden. They make great “full stop” plants in a border or can be used as architectural plants due to their shapely (and spiky!) dark green leaves.
Tags: birds, feathered friends, flower, garden, garden birds, garden diary, garden tools, gardener, gardeners, gardening, hints and tips, how to vegetable garden, lawns, leaves, plants, pot, seed, seeds, shrub, shrubs, tomatoes, vegetable, vegetable garden, wildlife
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
When you go away on holiday in the height of summer it is always a worry that friends or neighbours cannot get round often enough to keep up the watering. Everyone is busy and they cannot be expected to lavish all the love and care that you would yourself. One of the good things about taking a vacation this time of the year is that most things will survive well enough with a watering every other day. This has been the case with my week away rambling in the wilds enjoying the fresh air.
The birds have had to find alternative arrangements for the week but they are slowly finding the food again. Each day is bringing back more feathered friends.
Only a week away but I can see significant changes. Autumn colour in plants, tree and shrubs that was not present a week ago. The grass is not growing so quickly, it is cooler and the days are getting shorter.
There is still plenty of colour in the garden from flowers and the colour from the flowers is being joined by foliage colour.
The Rudbeckias seem to have been flowering for weeks as do the white Cosmos. The large flowered Dahlias have certainly been worth waiting for and have provided good value.
The tomatoes are coming to an end now. There are still tomatoes on the vines but it is doubtful whether they will all ripen. Of course I can pick them and ripen them inside but my preference is to use the green tomatoes in chutney. The theory is that we will eat the chutney through the winter months but believe me it has no chance of lasting that long no matter how much we manage to make!
The Runner Beans are also coming to an end, there are still some to pick but do not look as appetising as a couple of weeks ago. Very likely they will be a bit hard and stringy.
One success of this year has to be the Mini Iceberg Hearts lettuce. Sown close together in a deep box they have done well and hearted up into nice crunchy heads. They stand for a long period and the cut heads will keep for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.
I sowed seed of Winter Flowering Pansies a few weeks ago and they are ready to go into their winter locations now. Two containers can be cleared to make way but I am pleased to say that the other containers that will home them are still full of flower. Sorry pansies, you will just have to sit in trays a little bit longer.
Tags: birds, container, containers, feathered friends, flower, garden, gardening, plants, pot, pots, runner beans, seed, shrub, shrubs, tomatoes
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
It is not so long ago that I made an entry in my diary giving an opinion on the tomato varieties that I have grown this year. At the time I stated that I would grow more of the same next year, this being Harbinger and the plum variety Red Alert. I have changed my mind and will only be growing Harbinger next season.
So what has changed?
Harbinger has proved to be the best cropper by far and in my opinion Harbinger has the better flavour. In addition Harbinger tomato plants have proven to be much healthier.
The blackbirds have disappeared as they usually do at this time of the year to moult. I spotted one in one of my rhododendrons and he hardly had a feather left on his head.
The great news on the bird front is that we have more sparrows this year that we have had for a very long time. They are doing their best to eat me out of bird seed but I have no complaints. Flocks of them arrive on mass and disappear together. I hear them in the bushes near the feeder waiting for a refill. Their numbers suddenly declined dramatically one winter and it has taken years for them to make a comeback. The funny thing is, last winter was the harshest we have had for many years and yet it is this summer that we have had the biggest increase in numbers. Long may it continue.
For the first time ever I have had problems with caterpillars on my salad crops grown under cover. I recognised the caterpillar of the cabbage white but I must confess my ignorance when it comes to identifying the other thug. Whatever it was it had a voracious appetite!
This autumn I must give some thought to my vegetable garden layout. I have already made some alterations that will help next years crops which has entailed cutting back shrubs and trees that had put on more than expected growth due to good growing conditions.
My begonia hanging basket is looking good at last. For the first time this year I have grown tuberous begonias from seed that are recommended for baskets and containers, having only grown the fibrous rooted varieties from seed. They have taken a while to reach flowering size but the wait has been worth it. Hopefully I can over winter the tubers and have earlier flowers and a cheaper hanging basket next year.
Tags: birds, container, containers, flower, garden, garden diary, garden tools, gardener, gardeners, gardening, hanging basket, hints and tips, how to vegetable garden, plants, pot, salad, salad crops, seed, shrub, shrubs, tomatoes, trees, vegetable, vegetable garden, wildlife
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Normally I take pictures of beautiful flowers to show on my diary. This week is very different; this is a picture I never wanted to take.
I have been growing tomatoes for over thirty years with very few problems. This year I had a few extra tomato plants going spare so I asked my daughter whether she would like to try her hand at cultivating her own tomatoes. There was no room in the greenhouse and so I helped her to plant in containers outside.
She probably gave her tomatoes more TLC than me, she was doing a good job, listening to all the advice and had started to pick fruit. There is nothing better to encourage and enthuse people to gardening that enjoying the fruits of their labour.
However, one day she asked me to look at her tomatoes as she thought they were suddenly taking a turn for the worse. Although I have never experienced the problem it was clear what the problem was, tomato blight. Thankfully this is a tomato disease that does not affect tomatoes grown under glass very often but it can devastate tomatoes grown outside when the summer is warm but wet.
On a brighter note my large flowered dahlias are open and stunning again this year. The cuttings I took earlier in the year are looking healthy so I will hopefully increase my stock again next spring.
That sounds like I am already planning for next year in the garden and, yes, I am! I have identified one area of the garden that needs revision next year. Around the patio has perhaps been a bit neglected while developing another couple of new areas but you cannot do everything. I have not decided fully what changes I will make but I always like to mull several ideas over before taking action. Whatever I do I want it to be there for a few years so it is worth taking that extra time to think it over.
Tags: container, containers, flower, garden, garden diary, garden tools, gardener, gardeners, gardening, greenhouse, hints and tips, how to vegetable garden, plants, tomatoes, vegetable, vegetable garden, wildlife
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
I say that my first garden was not very big and yet when I see the small gardens that are offered with new build homes I realise how luck I was.
That garden was my learning curve and was fine at first but gradually I became frustrated because I could not plant specimens, especially shrubs that appealed to me. In a small garden you have the choice of planting small shrubs or medium sized shrubs that need to be pruned back each year. The latter solution is a never ending battle as the shrub tries to regenerate by being even more vigorous. Shrubby Potentillas performed extremely well for me and I still retain affection for these “superb doers”.
Moving to my present garden, over 20 years ago, I found that it had been maintained but for me it was not a garden. As I sit in the back garden writing this it is not only the colour on show that pleases me but the structure of the garden. I have to say it is made more pleasurable by the delicious perfume of Rosa Rugosa Alba that I introduced into the garden this year. Yes I know ideally I should not let it flower in its first year but could you snip off all those buds and miss those beautiful flowers and the scent?
The main structure of the garden is formed by trees and shrubs. A lot of thought went into choosing the right trees to plant as they were expensive to buy and I knew they hopefully would be with me for many years.
When developing the planting plan for the borders my first thoughts went to the shrubs that I wanted to form the backbone and being a much larger garden than my previous one I had a lot more to choose from. Colour, size and form needed to be right as, if done correctly, this would enable me to mix and match colourful perennial herbaceous plants and annuals. One thing I remember about this process was that the pencil eraser was worked very hard!
Perhaps all these years on I take these shrubs for granted. They demand so little from me yet give so much.
The reason that I sat down to pen this article is that I have just been reading something by a well known garden designer championing the cause for the return to favour of shrubs. Apparently they have been out of fashion for a number of years and he feels that it is time that they regained their rightful place in our gardens.
I have to confess that I didn’t know that they had gone out of fashion but this only goes to strengthen the opinion that I have held for a long time. If you are going to create a garden then create one to please yourself. Fashions and fads come and go, look at new ideas and pick out things that you like but incorporate them into your own ideas. I can think of “new ideas in gardening” that caught my imagination in my early days of learning to garden but certainly did not deliver what was promised and disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
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Tags: flower, garden, garden diary, garden tools, gardener, gardeners, gardening, hints and tips, plants, pot, shrub, shrubs, trees, wildlife
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Light up your garden with garden candles and garden torches
Tags: garden, garden candles
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Barbeques, barbecues or BBQ\’s. What is the best buy for your garden
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Garden gazebos to enjoy and to suit all budgets
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Lawn mowers are an essential piece of equipment for grassy gardens. Find the best lawnmower for your lawn
Tags: garden, lawn mower, Lawn Mowers, lawnmower
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Picnic tables and picnic benches to complement your outdoor garden experience and barbeque
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Pole pruners, pole saws and telescopic pole pruners make that pruning job so much easier
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Summerhouses in the garden can make such a difference to your outdoor living experience
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable Greenhouse
Resin rattan furniture is so practical and ideal for the garden
Tags: garden, garden furniture
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