Things are not germinating in the shop greenhouse, so I'm having to try and germinate everything in my glass greenhouse. If the plant sale is a success and if I manage knock down the brick greenhouse and if I manage to get my new greenhouse up and running then next year I might have a better chance ... that's a whole lot of IFs !!
It looks as though I am going to be engulfed by bindweed this season, it is popping up everywhere. I'm digging it up by the wheelbarrow full. Unfortunately it is coming from the hedges so it's really difficult to eradicate.
People keep telling me to use chemicals, but I really want to be organic, not least of all for my froggies, so I'll keep digging - weedkiller doesn't touch bindweed anyway in my opinion.
My peas looked like they were suffering with the heat so that and a combination of needing greenhouse space meant it was time for them to go out into the big wide world ... well under plastic cloches for at least. They are Greenshaft, so I must make some supports for them soon - and remember to give them some sort of protection from pigeons, I seem to recall they feasted last year, after the meeces had had their fill.
Despite the fun the foxes have had, digging up the seed beds, my carrot & beetroot seedlings are appearing ! Yeay. Need to make sure I keep them well watered now - OH soaked the plot yesterday, but it's been so dry that within half an hour the beds appeared totally dry again.
They are not quite in the straight lines that they once were and there are a few gaps that I'll need to fill in ..
My crab apple & brambly apple trees are budding up. The crab apple is a gorgeous colour:
Remember those newspaper fruit trees ! Here is the Gala apple ... looks promising so far:
Here is my fabulous new pigeon cage ... I need to get some pegs for the netting on a couple of sides and then it will be finished. It's a combination of bamboo canes, netting, zip ties & bulldog clips. My red cabbages, cauliflowers & broccoli are now in situ - I was going to give them a seaweed feed but the heavens opened, oh boy, did they open - so I beat a hasty retreat and headed for home ...
It was incredibly dark by the time I left and there were rivers running through the lottie !
Nice pigeon cage, can you make me one?!
ReplyDeleteI have exactly the same problems with the bind weed. It's as if its hiding under the hedge before making a break for it when I'm not looking. I manage to keep it off the veg beds (largely) but it's the fruit beds that really suffer with it.
Like you I stick to organic methods (i.e. a fork) and to be honest it's not too bad compared to the ground elder... :>(
first test for the pigeon cage ... surviving yesterdays ridiculously heavy rain ... thought the greenhouse was going to fall down ! Hope my outdoor seedlings all survived.
ReplyDeleteHmm we were having a debate about fork vs spade for digging .. I think I'm in the minority as I use a spade, I never seem to be able to get the weeds out with a fork.
We have Equisetum(Mare's/Horse/Cat's tail) so digging has to be by spade or you miss most of it!
ReplyDeleteWell since I lost my spade that answered the question for me ;>) However, I find my beds are usually so full of weeds it's far better to use a fork so I don't end up chopping up the roots!
ReplyDeleteOh and the biggest test for the cage is usually snow, that's what did mine in.
like the pigeon cage, best of luck with the plant sale.
ReplyDeleteBe a nature lover ! Use the pollution free Geothermal Heat Pumps !
ReplyDelete