Gardening: Hints and Help!

Must admit I am ruthless with Bluebells. Any hint of a Spaniard and it’s out🤣 

Had some very welcome garden help today. It's a long slow slog but.....

Not convinced I've got all the 3 cornered leek covered! Sacrificed a few plants including a rose which was swamped by it and it was growing amongst its roots.  I think it certainly enhances my garden 😉. Only sprayed a small area with weedkiller and covered immediately. Didn't feel right.

I was surprised at all the bits I had on the 'may come in useful basis' in the garage. Old door mats here when we arrived. Old back seat dog covers, various bags containing compost etc and an oilcloth table cloth that fitted the huge outdoor table we had. I found some used tarpaulins but they were too unwieldy, so were returned to be useful another time. I think the area is definitely an enhancement and adds to the beauty of the garden! Fingers crossed it will do the job by this time next year.

Just the right hand corner and bed on the right to go. That bed is full of rose of Sharon and some non flowering trifolium so plenty of roots to chase about. Then I expect it'll be time to deadhead the hundreds of daffs and start weeding the first beds tackled....

Progress B2, hope it all works out! Our lawns got cut today so everything looks a lot better,  nice to be out in the sunshine for most of the day, rain tomorrow just when our garden help turns up after the winter break. I filled some seed trays today ready for sowing, OH grows the veg plants I stick to flowers. The veg plants are well on the way!

Snap Brue😁 I got home from Mum’s a bit earlier than usual, had ten minutes on garden swing in lovely sunshine with OH, then found myself potting up dahlia tubers and some seeds. Greenhouse is full of stuff now, some tender plants waiting to go out for Summer, and then newly potted, seeded stuff. I even managed to make a start of some supports for our prolific raspberry canes. Still a bit of weeding to go in this area, but OH had got a few nettles out for me.

Bakers, I think you have done wonders in the last few weeks.👏👏👏

Last two days have been glorious here, full on sunshine, real warmth in the sun. Slight breeze which was cool, but get out of it and it has been a treat. Forecast isn’t as good for rest of week, but it’s just so nice to be outside pottering again. A lawn cut doesn’t half tidy things up Brue👍😁

Bakers, I think you have done wonders in the last few weeks.👏👏👏

Thank you.  I've had help, once it would have been OH on a more frequent basis 🥲 than I can afford help. It's been a hard slog even with the help. I did maintenance to the borders last year to see what was there - sadly little, but we do have a wonderful amount narcissus getting on for 500-600 I guess. All pale, no yellow save 4 tete-a-tete. Plenty of snowdrops, but little else. Apart from the expense 😉 I'm looking forward to choosing plants/shrubs etc. And adding other spring bulbs.

Last year's 'help', let me down totally in August 🤐 but his 'skill' was limited but he was good a removing all the greenery from all our walls 😂. And he took away the debris, I'm currently relying on my neighbours having space in their garden bins despite having the maximum, 2, I can. That said it's very difficult to get gardening help in this area. 🤞this one stays the course. He's good.

I know what you mean Bakers, I must have tried four or five different so called Gardeners for Mum in the last few years. Finding a reliable, knowledgeable person/firm is like discovering gold! I usually throw in a few discreet “do you know……” questions at some point, too often met with almost blank looks. There’s a huge difference between grounds maintenance (cutting a hedge, a lawn, a bit of strimming) and gardening. I did have to have a word last year after some over zealous use of a strimmer around a couple of Acers and some roses. Lad had no idea that he was cutting through bark, he had killed an Acer before I found out, annoying as Dad had bought it for Mum a good few years ago, it was a beautiful little tree. I didn’t make a huge fuss, because he’s a nice young lad, very willing, but I have now padded the bottom of other precious items, and told them to go easy with the strimming. I don’t use a strimmer at home at all, we have too many frogs lurking around, and the thoughts of hurting one of them is just too awful to think about. I’m not into speed gardening, much prefer to do things by hand and get all the roots out, etc…

Oh how annoying about the acer. Not much you can do after the event, but it doesn't stop the annoyance.

I have never understood use of a strimmer in a general domestic setting, to me they are akin to a leaf blower 🤐🤐🤐. Both have their place but leave a mess unless cleared up properly after. With the strimmer you have additional hazards to wildlife and plants. 

Our 'man' 🤣🤣 doesn't come with learn-ed qualifications, but has great gardening knowledge and skills, I'm not too worried that the name of a plant escapes him, as it does me from time to time 😉, or that he doesn't know the Latin name. He reminds me of 'an old country greenfingered gardener'. I had help a couple of times from a lovely lady gardener, who literally lived around the corner, in our last house. She was studying for RHS qualifications looking more towards a career than gardening full-time, her charges reflected that...... but she was a great help and I already had the garden structure in place.

I'm usually a slow and steady gardener. Much preferring to work on my knees and close up. I'd not thought much about my style of gardening until a neighbour, at the opposite end of the T of the cul de sac, made a cheeky comment about recognising me 😊😂 soon after we moved in. It made me laugh and I didn't consider it offensive it was true. 

I gave our strimmer away years ago, and the leaf sucker/blower has been on eBay twice with no takers🤣

Yep, an old style gardener is what you need👍 Might not know the Latin names, but good on what plant grows where, pests and diseases and how not to take the ring bark off! 😁 I’m totally self taught, both Mum and my Grandad were what I would call plantsmen, huge practical knowledge, utterly green fingered. Dad grew vegetables, waged endless war on wireworm and organised the annual trip into our local woodlands for leaf mould. It was a family thing, Grandad, Dad, couple of Uncles.  all with those self built deep square wheel barrows, kids and a couple of dogs in tow, we loved it. I learned a lot more working as a volunteer at Brodsworth, and of course from family, plenty of reading, planning etc…. But I made some real bloopers in our garden in the early days, and still manage to succumb to the odd invasive mistake😱 I did think of doing an RHS course at one time, but to be honest, I spent decades studying while at work and Uni, and it got too much in the way of enjoying myself. 

I get teased all the time about being upside down in a flower bed, and usually to be found in a somewhat grubby state, covered in mud or grass stains. Like you, I just laugh🤣 

We have been putting up a replacement garden arch this morning, what a fiddle, OH patience stretched as much as the arch as we struggled to get it straight and stop it falling apart etc.! Very cold so freezing fingers hurt. Now waiting for a cherry tree to be delivered. Would you believe at David Austin roses we were more impressed by the love sick peacocks and a couple of pretty cherry trees! 

So we looked the trees up, they were called Accolade and we bought one on line to replace a flowering shrub lost in the freezing weather over this past winter.

Best Rose nursery I have ever been to was in Cornwall of all places. Inland, between Hayle and Godolphin Cross, it was a huge private house, where the owner specialised in roses, and sold quite a few. I was so glad I found it, as she was possibly the most knowledgeable rose person I have ever spoken to, and provided me with two perfect roses for where and what I wanted them for, both doing wonderfully well each year. Sadly no longer there, place has new owners now, and no sales.