How does your garden grow?

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lancashire lass
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by lancashire lass »

Mo wrote: 14 Feb 2021, 11:48 So my bin is full of brambles - given the way it tip roots and the vicious prickles I daren't put it in my compost bin. I've been spending as much time chopping it small as cutting / pulling it off all my shrubs. One session would fill the bin if I left it long and curly. It's tiring work pulling it out, so chopping means I can spend an hour outside, if my hands don't freeze first.
I've just been outside to check on the fish pond and it's lovely and "mild" out there (no need to wear gloves against the cold) In 2018 when I made a start on rescuing the garden, I erected a pallet enclosure to put all my hedge trimmings in, including all the brambles on top. It's a slow process unlike a composter, but it still never ceases to amaze me how a 8 foot high pile of twigs & thin branches settle down to about 5 feet every year. The trimmings naturally compact down but with enough gaps inbetween for all the bugs to get in (in winter, it's probably a giant bug hotel)
Mo wrote: 14 Feb 2021, 11:48 Jim dug out a hollow ('the dingley dell) which gradually became a winter puddle / an all-year puddle / a bigger pond with reed mace (aka bullrush though I haven't found Moses) / a lake. But I wish he'd left more level space by the hedge
It's likely there has been, over time, a gradual build up of silt so it's no longer as deep and instead, water is spreading out over the edge. That, plus all the wet weather we've had (I just found a bucket I know was empty (it wasn't under a downspout so any water collected has been from the rain this winter) and it is full up to the top. Is it possible to raise the ground level (bricks, gravel, sand, paving) by that hedge-side path (perhaps a bit ambitious unless you know someone handy, but what about having a bridge across?)
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

I did venture down to the end of the garden today. Spent some time chopping at the brambles first , then squeezed past the hedge.
I am bribing my grandson to come and cut it tomorrow. It is a double hedge, Jim was worried that the fence next door put up wouldn't last so he planted holly with evergreen in front of it. So even if Tom's attack on the evergreen kills some of it I won't mind.
I think the pond has enlarged partly because the silt stops water draining out and partly from all the rain. The garden has been very boggy these last 3 winters, with the veg patch flooded.
Really nice outside today, all the birds singing - must be Spring.
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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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

I shall have to visit the cash machine - both grandchildren came and chopped the hedge and the brambles, my purse is empty of notes and they are planning to do some every morning this week. It is an incentive to get me out, and they worked well.
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 »

Well done your grandchildren, Mo. I have a cotoneaster hedge down the side of my veggie plot, and have left it for a couple of years, the berries are so beautiful, and the birds enjoy them, I think.

My strawberry patch is taking over a lot of the veg plot, which is now not used, but last years, I sprinkled wild flower and poppy seeds over the bare earth. A friend cut my three week of growth grass last summer, and dumped the cuttings on the plot, which I raked out, and it stopped a lot of weeds coming through.

At the weekend, I noticed primroses flowering under the magnolia, and primrose leaves are up under the pear tree. The snowdrops are stunning this year, fourteen clumps under the big hedge, plus daffodil and narcissi shoots. The orchard, which only has three trees, two little more than sticks, has too many snowdrop clumps to count now. Only two flowering aconite clumps appear to have survived, despite planting around a dozen a few years since.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Cotoneater seems to spring up everywhere in my garden. Fine in the privet hedge, not so welcome among the soft fruit. That's another prickly one.
There are loads of snowdrops at the bottom of the garden and a couple of clumps of primroses - they came out first, before the snow. The clump in the orchard is self seeded. At first it popped up with pale yellow flowers. Then last year there was a small plant with mauve flowers next to it. This year I think one of the buds is a deeper golden yellow. Maybe I'll split them (or maybe I won't get round to it. Years ago I had a big go at separating the daffodils in the orchard - white in one place, yellow in another. I think they look better as a sheet of one type. But some were missed, and the self seeded ones pop up randomly.
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 »

I love the spring flowers Mo, so welcome.
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Spreckly
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Spreckly »

I brought several small plant pots inside when the weather turned much colder. The bay windowsill in the front room took some of them, the rest on a tray nearby. I had planted pansy seeds in some of the pots, but it seems that I have grown a tiny trefoil like plant, one of them with a dainty yellow flower. I had this in several places in the greenhouse during the summer, so will transplant it on the veggie patch when it is milder.

In the other pots, the pansy seedlings are doing well.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Do you think your wild flower (NOT a weed) is bird''s foot trefoil? Has it got a pea shaped flower?
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

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Tom & Emily came several times last week. The idea was to make it easier to get round the garden but the opposite has happened. Tom decided to cut fairly deep into the evergreen hedge - saw rather than loppers. So the pile of prunings grew massive. Emily chopped the prickly ones small so that I could fit more into my green bin which hasn't been emptied since Christmas.
Tom is old enough to walk home by himself but not Emily so my daughter decided to join the working party and cut a different hedge - it needed doing but now that path was blocked too.
It has all been neglected for 5 years so the bits weren't small. Sunday my daughter brought a battery hedge cutter and did the hedge along the drive (which I didn't think really needed doing as the drive is wide). We were all ready for a sit down, but after she'd gone I realised that I'd better shift all the cuttings as my milkman comes running down my drive in the dark on Mondays. Phew.
Did some more at the back today but can't do much at a time so it will take a while. Easier to get past anyway.
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 »

Your milkman would have had a shock Mo, if you hadn't shifted the cuttings.

Birds foot trefoil rings a bell, I will look it up on the internet.
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Spreckly
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Spreckly »

It isn't birds foot trefoil, I have that on the front lawn when it needs cutting, and love it. It has tiny leaves, and a star shaped yellow flower.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Now you have me puzzled. I've got out a book (Wild Flowers of Britain & N Europe by Fitter, Fitter & Blamey) that I've had for ages. It has a good key at the front, So I looked at the pictures of star shaped yellow flowers 5 petals then 6 or more petals. Couldn't see anything that might fit. You say the leaves are clover-like with 3 leaflets? So not a cinquefoil. This might deserve a new thread.
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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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

While clearing up a few more of the branches yesterday I found a tiny nest, dark brown outside (maybe the dead needles & twigs of the evergreen it was in) and long white hairs inside (either mine or Ruth's horse, we both put our groomings out for the birds. About as big as my thumb and not very thick
k. Goldfinch is my guess.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

The rhubarb is growing well. Had a second (cautious) picking at the weekend, a short fat stem from a few places in the clump. The first picking (during the cold spell) was only half a bowlful and needed stewed apple to help it out. Very skinny stems which I wouldn't have picked except that they were frozen and I thought they would just go mushy if I left them.
Nice at this time of year, though I don't bother with it for the freezer when there are better fruits ready.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
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Spreckly
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Spreckly »

Brought the bramble in from the greenhouse this morning, now on the back yard. It has a tiny leaf near the bottom of the stem.
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