Spring - did I mention I hate gardening?

[AJB Temple]

It's become T shirt weather. In order to avoid doing any useful work that makes money, and with Mrs AJB T at work so I am unsupervised, I decided to start sprucing up the garden.

Started with cooked breakfast at the garden centre, and bought a book

First proper mow of the year (ie down to a lowish level) on the ride on
Garden furniture all out and hosed off
Various mouse nests cleaned up!
Cut my fingers badly getting the sleeve off the hedge cutter and dripped blood through the kitchen (but was not told off as aforementioned Mrs AJB T not home)
Cut some hedges after plastering up.
Shaped some topiary with brand new superb Japanese long handled and razor sharp hand shears that were a birthday present from wifey
Had a bit of a rest
Did some sweeping up
Cleaned up both BBQs ready for action (even though I'm still on a diet of gruel)
Topped up fish ponds.

Then the radio this evening says it will be cold again next week :|

I like the garden to look nice, but boy is it a lot of work! Barely scratched the surface today. Has anyone else got going yet?

And...I could be wrong but I think I have seen a very early pair of swallows this evening.

 

[AndyP]

I might have mentioned before that I do not consider myself a gardener but I do like to garden. Last spring due to an enforced layoff, apart from grass cutting, not a lot got done.
So in the past couple of weeks I have taken two years unwanted growth off 12 fruit trees and two years off nearly 100m of conifer hedge. Grass has been cut once, that only takes a couple of hours, no ride-on here.

So be satisfied that you are fit enough to do what you can. Weekend is still forecast to be good so make sure your garden gets a good dose of looking at.

Just starting planting lettuces in the greenhouse under cloches, toms will follow soon and this year we might even get some runner beans in. Still harvesting leeks, and cabbages, for the first time, are nearly ready. Rhubarb looking good too.
Seed potatoes are ready to go in just need the under gardener to finishing weeding the bed.

 

[Mike G]

I've spent 6 or 7 hours digging over the last couple of days, after spending 4 or 5 hours shredding and chipping stuff into the compost bins. I took up a path, prepared the soil, and laid turfs (which I'd cut from underneath the pergola when preparing that last week). I spent a few hours bashing stinging nettles and digging out the roots, as the last part of the wilderness becomes garden soon. This all only starts at 4 or 5 in the afternoon after a 9 or 10 hour day of ****** drawing. I don't do planting or much of the general garden work, but the bigger one-off jobs like this are mine, and I do find them quite relaxing and rewarding.

 

[jimmy s]

I like the garden and mainly do the fruit and vegetable side of things and leave the flowers etc to the Boss.

I'm way behind but have started getting vegetable patch ready as running out of time as potatoes will need to go in soon. I've got a number of varieties this year - Red Duke of York, Jazzy, Mayan Gold, Yetholm Gypsies, Rooster, King Edward, Shetland Black and Pink Fir Apple. Ground is heavy clay so putting on a thick layer of spent mushroom compost. Moved about 10 cubic metres at the weekend so nearly done.

Garlic is in the ground, bit late but hopefully ok, have onions (Sturon and Globo), spring onion (Holland Blood Red), leeks, chilli's and tomatoes growing. I'm going to have a go at grafting tomatoes soon. Had a go at grafting apple "sunset" onto MM116 rootstock a couple of weeks ago. Planted a couple of new fruit trees - another apple, tree - tickled pink and a gauge - Stella's Star.

I got a Stihl robotic mower last year so have that out of the shed doing its thing, I'm quite happy with it as it frees up my time for other jobs.

Lots to be getting on with. More tomatoes to sow, peas and beans to sow and carrots. Will be trying sweetcorn again but its a bit hit or miss up here.

 

[Mike G]

Have you got a greenhouse, Jimmy? And why so many varieties of potato?

 

[jimmy s]

Hi Mike

Yes - we have a Greenhouse, its a reasonable size but could do with another. I would have liked to have gone for a polycrub but not sure if the boss agrees. I could hide it down the bottom of the garden.

I quite like decent fruit and veg and try to grow for flavour. On the spud front, Pink Fir Apples are a good Salad Potato with a good flavour. King Edward - good flavour and good for mash/ roast and chips. Proper Shetland Blacks are very late potatoes and have exceptional flavour. Yethom Gypsies are 2nd earlies, tasty and grow well here I make chips and crisps from them mainly. Never grown Jazzy before but supposed to be a good early similar to Jersey Royal (International Kidney), always used to enjoy the early potatoes with salt fish but alas my wife cant abide the smell of it cooking, so don't get that much now.

Ive got 3 tomato types growing Flame, Marmande Superprecoce and Black Russian which are grown for taste. I have 2 others that I need to get on with. I think I have 5 chilli pepper varieties growing Biquinho Red and Yellow for pizzas - I like hot pizza, not that they are that hot. Satans kiss, a cayanne - which I cant remember the name of, Bulgarian Carrot and a Bananna pepper. None of them are massively hot but hot enough for me.

Its going to have to wait. My Wife tested positive for Covid this morning so just a matter of time before I succumb I recon so having a night off from the drawing board.

 

[Woodbloke]

I'm starting to get things going here. Yesterday I was installing a load of brown rubber edging (made from old tyres which is practically indestructible) around the path leading to the 'shop. The greenhouse is on the way to being sorted out (bought some peat free compost bags for the toms etc) and once I've finished off the edging today, I ought to think about giving the grass a first chop. I've also got a clumping bamboo to sort out (planted in a big pot) which SWIMBO has instructed me lift, split up and re-pot - Rob

 

[AndyT]

Am I the only one here without acres of grounds?

I cut the grass for the first time this year on Monday. It took 10 minutes.

I also used the garden for sitting in, reading a book. That took a couple of hours!

 

[AJB Temple]

You've had your new chipper in action then Mike

I discovered yesterday that mine needs a new belt, so that's on order. It will be a right fiddly job to fit by the look of it.

Re digging: my wife is an advocate of the Charles Dowden 'no dig' method, which preserves soil microbes etc and relies heavily (I think) on mulching. We have an allotment sized kitchen garden at the end of our garden, and we double depth dug that (it was a real mess) with spades when we first moved in, then used a rotovator to break it up finer (rotovator would not touch it until then). This backbreaking job was the impetus for adopting the no dig method. She gets a lorry load of well rotted manure delivered each year, just before her parents visit, and then her dad is made to barrow it up from the drive. Naturally I refuse to have anything to do with it :lol:

The kitchen garden was surrounded by Leylandii. It is apparently my job to remove these this year (we did one end already). It's a lot of shredding and a horrible job. I might plead allergy.

 

[Tiresias]

I paid the gardener. Does that count?



Jimmy, you're doing well to be getting your stuff in the ground. We're about 40 or more miles south of you and still getting hard frosts.

I think this year we are doing anya, ratte and pink fir apple (which was disappointing last year, but, strangely, improved with keeping).

And of course my ongoing and so far totally unsucessful project to grow south east asian vegetables in Scotland. God loves a trier, so they say.

 

[sunnybob]

Am I the only one here without acres of grounds?

I cut the grass for the first time this year on Monday. It took 10 minutes.

I also used the garden for sitting in, reading a book. That took a couple of hours!

The missus power washed the 50 square metres of concrete around our house last week. Thats our gardening done till autumn.

 

[AJB Temple]

Tiresias, I like the maze. Do you have a close up shot? I've looked a few times at growing a simple maze or large knot garden, but they take years to establish in a slow growing wood like yew, or require too much clipping in the faster growing species. The short hedge in front of our Koi pond requires clipping 4 times a year. Too much.

 

[Tiresias]

Tiresias, I like the maze. Do you have a close up shot? I've looked a few times at growing a simple maze or large knot garden, but they take years to establish in a slow growing wood like yew, or require too much clipping in the faster growing species. The short hedge in front of our Koi pond requires clipping 4 times a year. Too much.

You're right. Ages to establish. It's box. Planted in the 1930s. Suffering a bit from the dread lurgi these days. But we seem to have it controlled.

Not a maze really, a knot garden with floral infills in season. Cut twice a year at enormous expense. You can't really see the box hedging around all the borders within the walled garden. I calculated it once - it's over a kilometer of hedging.

The statue in the centre is the Infant Hercules. Not my choice, but hey. I wasn't alive then.

Don't have a close up to hand, but can do one at the weekend.

And sometimes it looks like this.

 

[wallace]

I cut the moss, I mean grass this morning.

 

[droogs]

I paid the gardener. Does that count?



Jimmy, you're doing well to be getting your stuff in the ground. We're about 40 or more miles south of you and still getting hard frosts.

I think this year we are doing anya, ratte and pink fir apple (which was disappointing last year, but, strangely, improved with keeping).

And of course my ongoing and so far totally unsucessful project to grow south east asian vegetables in Scotland. God loves a trier, so they say.

That is not a garden. It's a 9 hole golf course! Have you tried dual wall poly tunnels Tiresias. Make some hoops 1 1/2" x 1/2" and steam them to a hoop shape and then staple an inside and outside layer of poly. Really is amazing how much of a difference the 2nd layer makes to the temp and humidity inside.

 

[jimmy s]

I paid the gardener. Does that count?



Jimmy, you're doing well to be getting your stuff in the ground. We're about 40 or more miles south of you and still getting hard frosts.

I think this year we are doing anya, ratte and pink fir apple (which was disappointing last year, but, strangely, improved with keeping).

And of course my ongoing and so far totally unsucessful project to grow south east asian vegetables in Scotland. God loves a trier, so they say.

Lovely Garden Tiresias are you in East Lothian? or the Scottish Borders? We've had a bit of frost but its not been too bad. I'm hoping to get some potates in at the end of the month.

Were on heavy clay here so have been adopting the no-dig approach in a similar manner to Adrian. There's someone nearby that has spent mushroom compost so I've had 4 tipper loads off him. Most of its going on the potato patch. Our Pink Fir Apple's (PFA's) did really well in it last year. I wish the access to our house was a bit better as a bigger lorry load of the mushroom compost would be better and work out cheaper but its been great for our clay soil. The PFA's keep well, we are still using ours.

About the most exotic thing I'm trying is sweetcorn (again - for the 3rd year) one of these years we will hopefully get some cobs to ripen. I may try some melons as well, space permitting.

We have a reasonable sized greenhouse, I think its 16x10 but it fills up in notime. Hence the hankering for something like a 4x12 metre polycrub. Or make something similar myself.

https://www.polycrub.co.uk/polycrub/range

A hot bed might be good for the asian vegetables?

Jimmy

 

[AJB Temple]

The box problem is a real nuisance.

There is a commercial (restricted) spray that is effective against blight, but it's expensive. Worth it though if you have ornamental box of any size.

We were afflicted by box moth caterpillar last year and that thing can strip box in just a few days. We caught it just in time, jet washed all the plants and then the (expensive) caterpillar spray.

Tonight I will be putting out the pheromone lures to catch and kill the male moths. The season supposedly starts in April but I think we are a week or two early this year.

 

[Mike G]

........About the most exotic thing I'm trying is sweetcorn (again - for the 3rd year) one of these years we will hopefully get some cobs to ripen. .......

Of all the stuff we grow, this has far and away the biggest taste differential with the shop-bought alternative. To twist a cob off the plant and eat it quarter of an hour later is an absolute delight. We grow a lot, and have had some trouble with rats getting into them before we do, but if we win that battle then sweetcorn is the highlight of our years veggie gardening. Perservere; it's worth it. Germination is actually our biggest problem. Quite a low percentage of what we sow actually germinates, and one year we got some free seeds from the supplier because not a single one germinated. We have about 140 square metres of veggie garden, and if I had my way, a third of it would be planted with sweetcorn.

 

[AJB Temple]

I remember you mentioning that before. I will get my garden controller to plant some as I use loads during BBQ season (which starts on Saturday with slow smoked whole chicken).

 

[AndyP]

We’ve had mixed success with sweetcorn. Corn on the cob is a family favourite so we try each year. The problem we have is with the cobs themselves. They form but a fair proportion of the kernels do not set.

 

[AJB Temple]

Right chaps. I have consulted with the oracle. She who is RHS qualified.

She informs me that "as usual" we have sweetcorn.

She has trays and trays of it. I am advised that it must be manually pollinated to get the pods to set. If you want I can find out how to do this, but I confess I glazed over a bit at that point as she is frankly obsessed with propagation.

Picture of 1 tray sown 2 weeks ago. Don't laugh - we have a bedroom dedicated to growing weeny plants like this.



Obviously in real life they grow upright but this forum remains running on steam powered software.

 

[AndyP]

I’ll look up how to manually pollinate the pods.

Images looks fine from here Adrian Did you upload from the Mac? Did you ever try that image rotation workflow I sent you?

 

[MattS]

It might be controversial but I find corn on the cob overated! That includes fresh as my Dad used to grow them. Love all veg but they don’t do it for me.

Agree about the gardening, love the garden looking nice but I’ve spent so much time over the last 2 weeks and still lots to do. Our front garden has a long expanse of hedge which looks great but it takes up a lot more time each year than a fence would :lol:

 

[AJB Temple]

Andy, Andy, Andy. You keep mentioning that image flow thing. I am grateful. But it's another step. In another place (where I do not initiate posts any more) they have drag and drop. Super simple. I am a simple man as I only have 2 brain cells left and I just need it to be ever so easy. Sorry. A

 

[Jonathan]

Mike, totally agree with you on the sweet corn, plenty of butter on mine please...a South African mate has just given us some heirloom sweetcorn seeds, apparently there lacquer!
With these heirloom seeds we intend to set aside some of the crops to create a seed bank.


Sent from my Redmi Note 9S using Tapatalk

 

[RogerS]

My missus who's life is gardening has given up trying to grow anything other than bleedin' moss in this Hellhole.

Her daily dose of depression is to see yet another very, very rare and impossible...repeat impossible to source again...plant die.

For a proper gardener up here, in our little cesspit....it is simply vile.

Pure shite. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Can't wait to leave.

 

[jimmy s]

Right chaps. I have consulted with the oracle. She who is RHS qualified.

She informs me that "as usual" we have sweetcorn.

She has trays and trays of it. I am advised that it must be manually pollinated to get the pods to set. If you want I can find out how to do this, but I confess I glazed over a bit at that point as she is frankly obsessed with propagation.

Picture of 1 tray sown 2 weeks ago. Don't laugh - we have a bedroom dedicated to growing weeny plants like this.



Obviously in real life they grow upright but this forum remains running on steam powered software.

My sweetcorn is still in the seed packet, looks like I need to get sowing. I've heard its supposed to be better fresh of the plant, maybe this year.

I got the tomatoes grafted today hopefully they will survive the decapitation.

 

[CHJ]

It's getting to be a bit harder to manage Our Plot as it was 8 yrs ago. Weeds seem to be growing more vigorously year on year as a reciprocal of hours and energy available and range of varieties in the veg plot is somewhat reduced these days.

Love sweetcorn, always grow 80-100 plants, grown in block at about 20CM spacing never have any problems with pollination and get large full cobs, variety Bountiful (F1) being our favourite over recent years.

 

[Mike G]

I’ll look up how to manually pollinate the pods.......

You don't need to. You must just plant them in a square, not in a row (as Chas said). They're wind-pollinated, so a sqaure block ensures that the wind doesn't waste the pollen.

That's a lot of sweetcorn, Chas!!!

......My sweetcorn is still in the seed packet, looks like I need to get sowing.......

No rush, Jimmy. You've got a week or two.

 

[Phil]

apparently there lacquer!
Sent from my Redmi Note 9S using Tapatalk

Just a minor correction - it is lekker, one word which translates into nice, tasty, fantastic, etc etc


Wife buys me corn on the cob all year round from our grocery stores. (PnP, Woollies & Checkers)
Packet of 3 or 4
Yellow maize - tastes lekker
Yellow & white maize - tastes even very more lekker

Suspect they must be tunnel grown as they are always fresh.

Thick layer of butter on top, dash of salt, into a pyrex with a lid and then into the microwave for 3 minutes.
I have yellow Tupperware skewers that push in the ends.

 

[DaveL]

I grow sweetcorn on my allotment and last year lost a lot of it to a badger who really liked it!

 

[AndyP]

80-100 plants! :shock: I've only got a potager not a bleeding farm
Thanks for the square planting tip. Will give it a go

 

[droogs]

80-100 plants! :shock: I've only got a potager not a bleeding farm
Thanks for the square planting tip. Will give it a go

Remember Andy, you need at least 4 to get a square lol

 

[AJB Temple]

The pro advice (not from Mrs AJB T) is that even when planting in squares or blocks, hand pollinating increases reliability and improves yield by at least 20%. This is taught by the RHS colleges and West Dean apparently.

Apparently to get best results it is also very important to feed as soon as the plants are bigger than 4" tall but not bigger than 8" tall. If you are metric and don't know what 8" looks like, ask your wife.

Quote" Hand Pollinating Corn
Pollination by handHand Pollination with a Brush
When the white silks emerge from the husk, it is time to ensure the pollen gets to the ears. The simplest way to do this is to walk through the corn plot twice a day for at least three days. While walking, simply bump and slightly shake each plant so that pollen falls down onto the silks.

To be more precise, place a sack under the tassels and shake the pollen into the sack. Dip a paint brush into the pollen in the sack and then gently paint the pollen onto the silks. Repeat this procedure for 3 days on every ear of corn.

In about 24 hours, you will know if your corn has been pollinated because the silks will begin to dry out and turn from white to brown.'

 

[CHJ]

That's a lot of sweetcorn, Chas!!!
.

Yes, get the same agro. each year about available freezer space, forgotten though when expressing dismay at lack of culinary choice when stock runs out mid summer.

 

[AndyP]

Up to now my bible for all things horticultural has been Dr D.G.Hessayon who I obviously dont read often enough because he also suggests planting in rectangular blocks.
He also recommends spacing of 18in (46cm).

 

[Tiresias]

Tiresias, I like the maze. Do you have a close up shot?

Here you go.







Looking a bit shaggy at the moment. It'll get its first clip in June, and then another in September I think. Provided conditions are right: you know Jupiter in conjunction with Mars, full moon and all the other things the gardener insists on.

 

[Tiresias]

That is not a garden. It's a 9 hole golf course! Have you tried dual wall poly tunnels Tiresias. Make some hoops 1 1/2" x 1/2" and steam them to a hoop shape and then staple an inside and outside layer of poly. Really is amazing how much of a difference the 2nd layer makes to the temp and humidity inside.

Nice sugestion droogs, but I doubt it would pass the aesthetics committee.

 

[Tiresias]

Lovely Garden Tiresias are you in East Lothian? or the Scottish Borders? We've had a bit of frost but its not been too bad. I'm hoping to get some potates in at the end of the month.

Were on heavy clay here so have been adopting the no-dig approach in a similar manner to Adrian. There's someone nearby that has spent mushroom compost so I've had 4 tipper loads off him. Most of its going on the potato patch. Our Pink Fir Apple's (PFA's) did really well in it last year. I wish the access to our house was a bit better as a bigger lorry load of the mushroom compost would be better and work out cheaper but its been great for our clay soil. The PFA's keep well, we are still using ours.

About the most exotic thing I'm trying is sweetcorn (again - for the 3rd year) one of these years we will hopefully get some cobs to ripen. I may try some melons as well, space permitting.

We have a reasonable sized greenhouse, I think its 16x10 but it fills up in notime. Hence the hankering for something like a 4x12 metre polycrub. Or make something similar myself.

https://www.polycrub.co.uk/polycrub/range

A hot bed might be good for the asian vegetables?

Jimmy

My place is down in the Borders Jimmy. Our real problem is just lack of heat/sunlight. I think we're at somewhere between 275m and 300m altitude.

And the soil is quite poor. Veg growing is done in a long raised bed which is all imported top soil and compost. A poly tunnel isn't an option because of its appearance. A hot bed may work - never tried one before. Have you experimented with them? We have a cold frame and Victorian-type cloches.

What we have grown successfully are the tatties, courgettes, runner beans. Some lettuces, various cabbagey/mustardy greens, chicories (di Treviso, puntarella, radicchio &c.), rocket. The borlotti beans could not be regarded as a success - 3 (yes, that's right, 3) beans does not represent a harvest. Carrots, radishes, mooli did ok though.

We have failed with aubergines (pea - of which I am inordinately fond - apple, and japanese), okra, yard long and wing beans, galangal, krachai, ginger, turmeric, basils, saw tooth leaf, lemon grass and chillis.

Some of the latter have been sucessful indoors.

Asian fruits are out of the question. But we do have more apples than we know what to do with, plums, bullaces and a cherry. And gooseberry, but those are in the wrong place. There's a quince somewhere too.

So it isn't all doom and gloom. Except we have -7C predicted for Wednesday night. I think that counts as a frost.

 

[AJB Temple]

Thank you. Fantastic. I am super jealous as I would really like a garden like that. What is the cause of the die back at the end of the tall hedge in the background?

Not sure I could handle the accurate clipping required to keep the topiary in that condition though. As a matter of interest, what are you using to keep the two types of box blight and the box caterpillar moth at bay?

We are trialling some new products for free as the firm making them has us as a trial garden this year. If it works out then we will recommend through the NGS network. This includes an entirely new natural product to stimulate Buxus S. into rapid re-growth after attacks. Though our primary strategy is to avoid the attacks in the first place. Pheromone traps went up this week.

Feedback from the local horticultural college is that Buxus is much less afflicted by fungus if it is not clipped, or, if it is clipped, then this should be well in advance of autumnal humid conditions, and that all clippings should be collected and burnt. We have taken to disinfecting shears and secateurs as well during use. I've already done the first clip as I want to get air into the plants, even though growth is appearing rapidly.