How does your garden grow?

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Spreckly
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Spreckly »

You have been busy Mo! This morning I have planted a wild flower mix, marigolds, love in a mist, all seeds, and transferred a forget-me-not into the veg patch, which has long grass shooting up in the strawberry bed. I am just leaving it, as I can't easily weed. I've also planted hyacinth bulbs from Christmas into a border.

I am hoping that the man who does large garden jobs can come soon and strim under hedges, lawn edges, etc. I am unable to handle the strimmer, so it is a question of paying someone.

My youngest son cuts my lawns, but last weekend, and frequently other weekends, the grass is too wet to cut. My back lawn has a wonderful crop of daisies!
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

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Some organisation has declared No Mow May. Nothing wrong with daisies. Conservationists also applaud dandelions, which are welcome in my grass (I used to keep bees so I liked them for early nectar) - but they seed like mad and the roots go deep. I have them coming up between cracks in a path and they are impossible to get out. Must organise my twice a year strimmer-man to do a session and make some paths between the wild flowers in the orchard and the nettles at the back. I had a go at pulling some nettles out - they've suddenly shot up and blocked a path. If they're not too much of an underground net they do pull out fairly easily (with care and stout glove).
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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Spreckly
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Spreckly »

Mo, did you sow a packet of wild flower seeds in your orchard, or did you buy separate plants?

My front lawn has a very different type of grass to the one at the back, and I have vetches, daisies and bugle which come up after a couple of weeks. It is really attractive.

I have small violet plants growing all over, they are lovely. One is growing in a crack near the wash house drain.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Neither, they popped up by themselves. Jim used to mow round them so that they could seed. Loads of cow-parsley at the moment, and some cuckoo flower (ladies smock), hedge garlic and a clump of primrose. The primrose clump has got bigger and more varied since I first noticed it, must be a garden hybrid, the main clump is pale yellow but there's a bit of mauve and some gold.
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fabindia
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by fabindia »

Mo wrote: 27 May 2021, 09:43 Neither, they popped up by themselves. .... The primrose clump has got bigger ....
I don't mow the top of our garden where our orchard is and it is full of primroses, bluebells and other wild stuff. It is also where I keep our bees so great for them too.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

My bluebells (the Spanish sort) and daffs also self seed in the orchard.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

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Like LL I have triffids. There is a tall hypericum that grow to meet the hydrangea on the other side of the path between front and back door. But it has glorious gold flowers over quite a long period (so I wait far too long before cutting it). It's in completely the wrong place, like the weigela near the veg patch path (which also has beautiful flowers).
My grandchildren came this morning to do an hour and earn some pocket money. My daughter offered their services and hers to clear a way through so that there can be no question about the man coming to empty the septic tank claiming it was too overgrown. Last time he went away without even knocking. I saw his tanker next door, but then he wasn't there. She has been drastic. It was hot out there, we did 45 minutes before 10 after Tom had ridden, then a drink and game of knockout whist and 25 minutes more. I am left with piles of prunings mostly in the wrong place.
Looking out of my study window the flowers on the Clematis Montana Rubens is almost gone over, but I can't see it as there is a pink weigela, almost the same colour between my window and the garage. The seasons move on and always something to see.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Spreckly wrote: 26 May 2021, 18:50 I have small violet plants growing all over, they are lovely. One is growing in a crack near the wash house drain.
My daughter has violets coming up between her paving slabs.
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Gwenoakes
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Gwenoakes »

I also have small violet plants growing everywhere and I definitely have not planted any. I think it must be the birds.
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Spreckly
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Spreckly »

Just because I put shorts on this morning, the sun has not appeared, but I managed to water up before eight o'clock. Yesterday I sowed grass seed on an old empty flower bed, which simply refuses to let any seed germinate. I have put more compost into it, applied lawn sand provided by the gardener who comes occasionally, and am hoping that it will do something, anything! It originally had roses and irises in it, and in an effort to reduce weeding, I had them all dug up, and gave them to one of my sons.

The next step will be turf.

Bramble briars grow abundantly in my front garden, I filled a bucket with them this morning!
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

There's a magpie stealing my gooseberries
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Gwenoakes
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Gwenoakes »

I hope you have told it off, Mo. {rofwl}
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

it takes no notice. :-D keeps coming back. I wanted them to swell a bit
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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Spreckly
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Spreckly »

The man who does larger jobs for me came a couple of days since. I have written about this on DTL Daily, however, he tackled the unresponsive flower bed, strimming the patchy grass down, and using topsoil and lawn sand to try and improve it. After much raking and tamping down, he finally sowed grass seed. I now have the sprinkler set up to encourage the seed to germinate.

I have a gravel drive and a gravel area outside my living room window. Grass and plantains are the problem on the drive, and the weed killer is very hit and miss. There are small patches of daisies and one of aubretia, which I leave alone, but the area outside the back window is a real problem, despite several applications of weed killer. At one time I weeded the areas by hand, but am unable to do this now. My neighbour on one side has a beautiful garden, on the other, the neighbour has a wilderness, literally. Trees have grown across the back garden, it is not a pretty sight, and the front drive is full of weeds and nettles, plus lots of junk. I am determined that my garden will not go the same way yike* yike*
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

The wilderness takes over very quickly. I have my grass strimmed twice a year but the man who does it is booked to the end of July (and hasn't given me a date at all), I have grass and cowparsley over head height.
Good for hide & seek, not so good for avoiding nettles.

'Rewilding' - I think that's the fashionable term. And I certainly don't want to use a lot of chemicals and energy (both fuel and mine) to get a manicured acre that's no good for wildlife. Just wish the wildlife didn't sting, stab, or steal.
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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