[telecom69]

Originally Posted by Shadow Bea

Just dropping in to see whats being done with your gardens!!

Nice to see you visiting us here Bea, not a lot happening at the moment in the gardens as the Winter is very reluctant to leave us were having storms at the moment so any work outside is off the agenda once we get to add the extra hours daylight at the end of the month things will really get going .....

[telecom69]

Originally Posted by Tuppence2

Yes, an early Easter this year. Hope your seedlings cope with being moved. I'm ordering the seeds from AR today.



I'll have a go at the sides of the greenhouse today, then there will be the door. After that the cladding - it's that I can't picture how to do, but I'll get there eventually!

Im pretty sure that once you get the framework all bolted together it should be easy enough to fix the cladding,not sure whats its made off? is it rigid perspex or what? I would imagine (but just guessing) that the panels will be fixed into the framework with some sort of clips just like glass is ...on mine the glass panels are all 2ft square with the exception of the shaped ones front and back and are each fixed in place with just 4 tiny spring clips and they do the job perfectly ...althogh they could just be just snap in trim strips which would be even easier than clips ...

The winds are much stronger outside this morning than they were two days ago expecting to find a lot of my pots etc blown about when its daylight ...main concern is whether the fence withstands it really as funds are restricted this year,heard no bangs etc at the moment

Glad to hear that you have ordered from AR let me know what you think of the germination rates etc as things progress ...

[Tuppence2]

I'll certainly let you know how the seeds grow, Tom. I choose seeds I could plant straight into the garden.

The greenhouse has semi-rigid perspex panels in place of glass. The green trim fits to the struts then the perspex slides into that, from what I can tell from the diagram. I've found a neighbvour who is willing to advise me when I get to that stage. I'm walking his dog as the moment as he aggravated a chronic back problem when he and his wife were on holiday recently.

The winds are stronger today (and they were in the night) than they have been. It's blowing hard now (8.16 a.m.). I hope your fence survives - I know what you mean about the expense of replacing it. Luckily my fencing is the more rugged sort, not panels - my neighbour on the left of the garden has panels that are always needing to be replaced. I picked up several wheeliebins when out yesterday and pushed them onto people's paths. It's surprising how many people walk round them and don't bother to move them!

March is said to often come in like a lion and goes out like a lamb - let's hope is settles down very soon.

I've just taken a photo of a very pretty daffodil and will post it later.

[Tuppence2]

Here's the pretty daffodil.

[Shadow Bea]

Wow.. Penny thats beautiful!!

Hi Tom

[Tuppence2]

Bea - I'm very pleased you enjoyed seeing the daffodil. It is a lovely one.

[franca]

Originally Posted by Tuppence2

Here's the pretty daffodil.

It's beautiful.......Thanks for sharing my Penny Rose.......

Hope all is going well with you greenhouse assembly....

[Tuppence2]

You are very welcome, Frank.

I was looking at fruit bushes in the garden centre this afternoon. I already have a blackcurrant but no others.

Drizzling at the moment. I've just planted out a seedling geranium that appeared in a tub, and some what I think are forget-me-nots that self seeded in the same tub.

[Tuppence2]

It's Friday and I've just seen blackthorn blossom open on bushes alongside the railway line. Beautiful flowers. Have been watching a bee buzzing around the pulmonaria in the front garden. It's been a damp and drizzly day, but mild. I spent a couple of hours tidying pansies at the garden centre this morning and have just walked a neighbour's JRT, as he (the neighbour) is laid up with a bad back. Have been taking photos of the clematis cirhossa's little bell-shaped flowers and of the new growth on the roses.

[Tuppence2]

This is the winter flowering clematis I have, and the forsythia.

[Farmgirl22]

Tuppence, your forsythia looks a heck of a lot better than the one we had....how did you keep it from getting all "knotted up"?? Ours had branches entangled in each other and it was a big ugly mess...not to mention that it only had like 1 branch that flowered. So because it was such an eyesore, we ripped it out.

I saved some lilac bushes at this same place (as we had the forsythia) since I have a bit of a weakness for their scent... Although, everyone was worried they weren't going to make it when I got done with them--I guess you aren't supposed to cut them back to almost nothing... But after I did, they came back with a vengence!! And they had 10x as many blooms that next season. Sometimes ignorance isn't so bad... Everyone else said that there is no way they would have cut so much off of them and told me that I had killed both bushes...needless to say they were shocked when they came back so much better the next year, and I'm going to ask the current tenant to tell me how they look this year to see if there's even more improvement.

[Tuppence2]

Hello Farmgirl. The forsythia was cut right back to only the main trunk earlier last year. They do much better for being pruned hard. Lilacs need pruning, too. Here's an article you might find of interest.
http://www.gardenersnet.com/lilac/lilac02.htm This part is interesting:

"If life with your overgrown shrub has just become unbearable, remove all old stock and leave just new shoots. This is pretty drastic. And, you will go a couple of years with out lilac flowers. But Lilacs are hardy. As long as there are a few healthy new shoots, they will grow back."

I love lilac. My mother had a white one in the garden for many years until it grew old and brittle and heavy snow one year snapped it and it didn't recover. She obviously didn't know how to prune it. Don't know why I didn't plant another.

[Farmgirl22]

Originally Posted by Tuppence2

Hello Farmgirl. The forsythia was cut right back to only the main trunk earlier last year. They do much better for being pruned hard. Lilacs need pruning, too. Here's an article you might find of interest.
http://www.gardenersnet.com/lilac/lilac02.htm

I love lilac. My mother had a white one in the garden for many years until it grew old and brittle and heavy snow one year snapped it and it didn't recover. She obviously didn't know how to prune it. Don't know why I didn't plant another.

So you are supposed to trim the forsythia all the way back? OK, that would make sense. These bushes had been neglected for several years--the lady that owned the house before was elderly and didn't have the ability to get out and do the gardening. So everything got out of hand. There was a beautiful rosebush there too, but it was very lopsided and while I trimmed it back (late May), it didn't seem like it was recovering as quickly as the other bushes. It wasn't dying, but it wasn't seeming to thrive...

According to the article, I picked a bad time to go to pruning on the bush--I think I did it in late May, however, I must not have ruined the flowers for the next year, because as I said, it had BUNCHES more blooms the next year.

My house that I grew up in had probably 2 dozen lilac bushes in the yard, and it always smelled so nice for those couple of weeks that they bloomed. However, my parents didn't have time to take care of them and they died off. It was a shame--there were lots of pretty flowers there when we moved there...a Jasmine(?) bush, lilacs, purple coneflowers, some purple morning glory looking things that were the size of dinner plates, a pink friendship rose (the one with the teensy pairs of roses??), 2 or 3 weeping cherry trees, and one exceptionally beautiful tree that had big thick leaves and purple flowers on it (can't think of it right now, redbud maybe??).

You should plant another lilac bush, IMO they are the best-smelling bush ever!! I prefer them over roses even, which many disagree with me on. Does your blooming season last longer there? Ours is 2 weeks or a little less generally--gets hot too fast here I think.

[Farmgirl22]

Hmmm...I was reading THIS article, and wondering where I could find out what "zone" I live in...They have those little map things on the back of seedlings, but I can't ever tell for sure which zone I'm in since it appears I'm right on a line...also, how do you find out for sure which soil type you have? I mean, my hubby used to take soil samples for the co-op to test for fertilizer necessities and whatnot, but that's expensive, and probably a bit of overkill for a garden.

I've always liked the smell of Jasmine, and would be thrilled if I could possibly grow it here.

[telecom69]

Hi folks, done nothing in the garden this past few days because Ive done it all filled up the garden compost waste bin again the day they emptied the previous one and still got another bin load ready when thats emptied....not had your drizzly,rain weather Penny its been great weather up here and Friday was the best day of the year in my opinion,was verey mild and sunny ...seeing as you were showing an interest in fruit bushes Penny I would suggest you try a Gooseberry (providing you like them of course) they fruit prolifically,well worth trying one I think....

On the subject of pruning Forsythia Ive always gone with cutting out the branches that have flowered this year and next years flowers appear on the new shoots,works well for me anyway...

Farmgirls question about which soil caught my eye and the best way to tell is to look arounds for plants that are growing nearby and if you can see the likes of Rhododendron, Azaleas,Summer Heathers,Foxgloves and Cammelias growing well, then you can bet its acid soil as thats what they grow in on the other hand if you see Honeysuckle, Buddleia, Lilac,Clematis then its more likely to be Limey soil ...you can of course buy a soil testing kit but that will only test the sample you put in ...you can have different types of soil in different parts of the garden..... Good read about Jasmine here http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1106.htm

Nice to see the photos Penny thanks for posting them most of my Hostas that are grown in buckets to combat the slug menace are in the greenhouse over Winter have 2 inch shoots on them whilst some that are outside have none so thats the difference a greenhouse makes, also can just about see the new growth starting to appear on the Fuchsias which are in buckets in the greenhouse which is very early as these are always among the last to start into growth ...

Once Easter weekend is over shall be gowing to the garden centre to get my plug plants of Geraniums and Begonias to grow on till planting out time and also sowing more seeds of Summer bedding plants...no sun today but its very mild still and its dry at the moment,still some activity in the frog pond never known them take this long perhaps nature has decided we need a bumper crop of spawn this year ...