[oil painter]

Hi everyone:

We have had 2 days of rain, but today is nice and sunny. It is supposed to hit a high of 20 C today so that is nice. I'll have to keep an eye on my greenhouse, because it doesn't take long for the temperature to rise in there.

I started my tomatoes yesterday and transplanted some dusty miller that my neighbor gave me. I think I will put them next to the geraniums in my driveway plot.

I just came in from cleaning out my back flower bed, so that only leaves one more to do and I will do that in a little while. While it is tempting to go full out and get it all done, slow and easy gets it done without your body paying for it.

I was pleased to see my stargazer lily has sent up 3 shoots this year so it will be interesting to see how it does.

Horsetail is not a problem here Bob.
We did have a problem with parslane but we managed to get rid of it by pulling and destroying it every time it cropped up. It took a lot of work. It's easy to pull but if you leave one little piece it will grow again.

I wonder if a dandilion puller would work for your horsetail. My husband has one with 8 or 10 tines --I don't know the exact number but that seems about right--on the bottom. You push the tines into the ground and step on the pedal. The tines come together wrapping around the root and then you just lift it out. He uses it for all kinds of weeds. It's easy on the back because you stand up to do it.

[Tuppence2]

Hello Myrna. I couldn't find the tool your husband uses. Perhaps it's not available here. I did find these;

This one looks good

http://www.egardencentre.co.uk/broch...eed-wizard.asp

http://www.egardencentre.co.uk/broch...pas-weeder.asp

http://www.weedtwister.com/

Hello Bob - Chickens enjoy eating mares tail. You need to let some range free in your garden. Only problem is that they'll eat everything else too. Strangely, I don't have that particular weed problem, yet my neighbour two doors away does. The big problem weed in my flower garden is ground elder - a pernicious thing. Here's a site with frames for supporting growing things, including a Gro-Bag frame.

http://www.agriframes.co.uk/sub_cate...d=21&sc_id=129

Rained most of the day and the plants are happy. The cloud cover is patchy now at 5.30 and the sun is breaking through.

My mange-tout and peas are doing well - nice little shoots on them now. The leeks in the greenhouse are just beginning to show hair-like shoots.

Hope you were able to get some gardening done today.

[oil painter]

Hi Penny:

Here is a picture of my husbands weeder. It is made by Garant and it's called The Weed Hound. It's too bad if you can't get it there because it's a great tool. Our son bought it for his dad as a Christmas present and my husband claims it is the best Christmas present he ever got.

I have every vent and my door open on the greenhouse and it's still almost 30 in there. I finished cleaning out my last flower bed so that's it for them for a while, until it's time to dig them. Time to take things easy for the rest of the day.

[oil painter]

Here's a better picture Penny: it is also called the Hound Dog

[Tuppence2]

A very nice Christmas present, Myrna. I'll keep an eye out in future for it.

That sounds very hot in your greenhouse. I must shut mine up for the night. I leave the door ajar and one of the windows down a little for ventilation. Sounds as though you can put your feet up with a good conscience. I'm going to. I'm watching TV, reading and going to have a glass of sherry.

[telecom69]

Hi Ladies, Well it was a horrible day yesterday,not only did it rain for most of the day but the temperatures were very low,it was not very pleasant out,even working in the greenhouse after about an hour I gave up and finished off some work I had to do in the kitchen,thats all finished now at last ....thanks for all the interesting points about getting rid of the horsetail,unfortunately they wont work,as this plant doesn't have roots as such,instead it has rhizomes,which can be as deep as 6 ft or even more (has been recorded) and from these rhizomes shoots are sent up at intervals and thats what you see above ground level,these are very easy indeed to pull out,but alas they just send up more shoots the only way to completely eradicate the problem is to dig out all the rhizomes but that of course is impractical if not impossible as the smallest piece left will just go on multiplying strangely enough this weed has many beneficial uses and you can indeed buy it,but anyone who did so would forever regret it Im afraid its a long standing bane for gardeners and if you have it your stuck with it forever,Ive now come to regard it as an irritation and a pest that is part of my gardening season ..(thank you for listening ) ...

There was just one short period around midday when it looked like it was going to clear up,the sun came out and the temp in the greenhouse shot up rapidly,so I took that opportunity to do a couple more hanging baskets for one of the Daughters,she sent them still full of last years compost,saying I could re-use it ( I shook my head in disbelief at hearing this )...i then thought I would take a last look for my Spring Onion seedlings that I had given up on and there they were those little hooks that first appear pushing through the compost,was very pleased about that ...now if only the older Daughter would send me her baskets it would give me the room to remove my temporary benching,and plant my Tomatos in their grow bags and fix their cane supports,that will be a job well done that Im wanting to complete now ...

We have one more day of rainy weather today according to the forecast,so I will spread some lime on the front garden,I should have done it yesterday of course, but forgot,it needs to be washed into the ground,Im doing this in the hope it will help the summer bedding plants,as the ground has become rather acidic,by continually spreading spent compost over it in recent years, we shall see how it goes,its an experiment really ....The weather after today is supposedly going to get progressively better,and by the weekend will be back to what we have been used to this last 3 weeks ....


Also after today,everything that is in pots,and there is still quite a lot,will be kept outside all day, every day,to gradually harden off for outside planting,which will be in a fortnights time as/when/if the weather is right, I shall then be able to straighten out my greenhouse again,and just concenrate on the Tomatoes,might just still plant a couple of Cucumbers,they germinate very rapidly,in a day or two,these too, will be in a grow bag in the greenhouse grown up canes the same as Tomatos,have always done well with them,it adds a bit more interest during the summer ...so Ladies thats it for today,sorry its been a long one, any comments, criticisms, suggestions, gratefully accepted take care and happy gardening

[oil painter]

Hi All:

Well our day started out sunny and hot, but by midafternoon the colouds had rolled in and it got windy. We got some showers by supper time and we are to get them off and on tonight. Tomorrow is to be one of those tricky days of just about everything. It's my painting day so my husband will be in charge of the greenhouse.

Aha Bob--I see what you mean about the horsetail. It is much like our quackgrass that is the bane of my existance. Those rhisomes seem to go on forever and occasionally are close to a foot deep. I 've been pulling them up for the last couple of weeks. If you get them when they first come up in the spring before they have really set their roots down and the soil is wet from the frost, sometimes you can pull up 2 feet of it.

I spread lime around every few years too. I tend to do it 2 or 3 weeks before planting and then I scratch it in with a rake and leave it for the rain to wash in. This way works for me and I guess it doesn't matter how it's done as long as it gets watered in.

Guess that's it. I'm off to bed.

[ymfoster]

Hi Everyone,

You are all very industrious in your gardens & greenhouses now, whilst we've been indoors as it's very cold & wet outside, I've only been out for a quick look & to feed the birds.

I have been transferring a lot of the photos from the Garden Show into Photobucket, still a very slow process on dial-up, took hours but finally done, some are a bit repetative


GARDEN SHOW

[Tuppence2]

hello, everyone.

Will take a look at your photos, Yvonne. Nice for you to have some rain, I would think, but I don't expect you enjoy the cold. It's chilly here this morning and some leaves look frosted. Might have had an air frost.

Hope you have an enjoyable day painting, Myrna.

Bob will be busy, no doubt, with all those plants. Do I take it you have the spring onions in the hanging basket. What a good idea. Hope your daughter comes up with some more baskets for you. Interesting to learn about the horsetail.

My hands are really cold from just being outside for 15 minutes or so. Will look at canes today, for beans.

[telecom69]

Hi Yvonne, Its very cold and wet here too,all day yesterday and the same again for today is forecast,but after that its going to get better they say I just fed the birds too,and took the opportunity to lime the garden before the rain starts,so it will get washed in ...just had a quick look in photobucket at your photos,then saw there are quite a few pages,so thats for later,must say photobucket displays them quite well ...

[telecom69]

Hi Penny, We had no signs of frost this way in the night it was much too cloudy for that, its my hands that suffer too,because you cant avoid them getting wet/damp and with cold hands you can't do much ...No I dont grow onions in hanging baskets,must be the way I typed it,that made you think that,I have sown them in my old recycling box that is now redundant say the council....remember to allow for pushing the bean canes into the soil when buying them as you need to push them in at least a foot or more for rigidity,so for 6ft canes you need to buy 7/8ft ones at least ...very cloudy at the moment looks like a repeat of yesterday,but temps will be doubling tommorrow and getting better from then .... I have just limed the garden before the rain starts,hope it does some good ...

[Farmgirl22]

Too wet here to do any gardening. Probably a good thing though, as I have a TON of homework to be done, and the weather is keeping me inside. So while it's crappy, I suppose it's for the best.

[Tuppence2]

Hello, everyone.

Hope you don't get too cold today, Bob. That's a good use for an old recycling bin. Thanks for the advice about the canes. A neighbour had spare ones and I've erected the wigwam. Here's a photo. I didn't push them in very far and will go and do that now.



I bought sweet pea plants today. Will any frost upset them and should I wait a couple of weeks before planting out? I'm waiting a couple of weeks, too, before I plant the beans. I put blood, fish & bone meal down and mixed in sand a grit. We had showers earlier but the sun is shining now.

Hope the homework goes well, Farmgirl. It's many years since I did any of that.

[oil painter]

Hi Everyone:

Farmgirl: Good luck with the homework. Better the rain when you have to do things inside. Just imagine--if it was sunny you would like to be outside.

Yvonne--I looked at your pics. Nice! I suppose your gardening time is winding down or do you do it year round.. I know my sister--the snow bird-- who has a house in Florida says you can tell who are the locals and who are Canadians just by looking at their yards. The Canadians put in flowers the locals don't.

Bob I hope your weather improved. We had cloudy cool weather this morning, but the afternoon turned out sunny.

Penny--Sweet Peas like their cousins the eating peas like cool weather to start with and mild frosts won't hurt them. I'd harden them off a bit and then plant them. I like your wigwam. Do you intend to plant anything with them. It looks like you have a little room around the edges.

I bought a few plants today after painting--a local store had them on sale. I got a couple more blue clips Bellflower, some dianthus and a couple of Ozark Sundrops. They will stay in the greenhouse until I get my big bed dug and things divided and moved around. A week or 2 before the ground is ready for that.

[Tuppence2]

Hello Bob. I wonder whether it will be another cold night. We had showers this morning and sunshine this afternoon. Thanks for the information about the sweet-pease. They have been outside at the garden centre so I'll plant them at the weekend, I think.

Good idea to put something in the area around the beans. Would winter cabbage do well with them? I could plant some seeds now and the rest in the autumn for over-wintering. I have a cold hardy variety from the Real Seed Company.

I had to look up your Ozark Sundrops - I see they're evening primroses. Those appeared in my garden a year or two back and self-seed. I was looking at the young plants earlier. I like dianthus - must think about growing some.

I watching "Gardener's World" on cable.