'How does your garden grow?'


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One of our cherry trees which was planted 60+ years ago, the first photo is in a book we have about the first occupants of our house, Harry Freckleton and his wife who had a photographic studio on Mar

First runners of the year some salt butter and a baked spud lovely jubbly  

That's on my to do list  nonna, chilli jam, apple and sage jelly. Just finished a batch of plum and ginger chutney. My family love them for the winter months and they make good Christmas pre

The return of Winter here in the far north has put a stop to any further planting-out for the time being. Yesterday the temperature peaked at a miserable 8°C with a strong north wind. Much too cold to be of any use to a garden.  Where's my share of Global Warming?

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Runner beans picking up a bit now (saved seed from last years crop)

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Pansies doing well in the new beds under the trees

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Front garden coming along nice now after a slow start

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Rog

took these pictures about ten minutes ago in lovely sunshine

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Looking good, Rog. I wish the temperature would pick up a bit here. It hasn't reached double figures since last Monday. Can't get owt planted out in this.

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They'll still come on even if the season is a bit later, just need to give the new plants a bit more feed to help them along

 

Rog

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Trouble is that up here our season is short. If things don't get a good start they don't mature. Can't have it all ways though.....at least my garden stuff will not get pinched by raiders. :)

 

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Mrs C thinned the garden plants out also got rid of loads of garden ornaments to the kids  & my sister. A move could be imminent in the near future. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've spent part of today 'pricking out and potting on' seedlings. I've not done this since around 1972 when I got my first garden, so I'm a bit rusty. 

 

Both lots were started in shallow trays on 23rd May and have been under a propagator on a bright window sill and then uncovered in the same place, with careful watering via a spray.

 

The Echinacea have reached around 1.1/2 to 2" and only have a single 'true leaf' so far, but seem to have stalled.  So, I potted 15  into 3" pots which are indoors at the moment but I'll put out into the Cold Frame tomorrow., bringing in at night for a couple of days, after which they can take their chances.  I potted them into ordinary compost but added about 10% seived farmyard manure ( from bagged supply) and a bit of vermiculite.  I just put the more 'backward' ones straight out in the Cold Frame, if any more of them reach 'pricking out' stage , I'll do so.

 

The Aquilegia are supposed to take 1-3 months to germinate (though assorted crosses seem to have no trouble in my borders.) In the event they germinated in a week or so, but have done little since, remaining tiny and only a very few producing a tiny 'true' leaf.  So, I've put some of them in 3" pots indoors and more in the same in the cold frame.  I've also given everything a drink with half strength Phostrogen, including the numerous Aquilegias still in the original trays.  If they don't start to move after that, I'll try thinning them.

 

Not sure if this is the right approach, or if I'm being too impatient.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

A while ago I bought 2 lemon trees and a fig tree from Lidl. They were very small and only cost  €1.99 each. I planted them in plant pots thinking that if they grew , fine , if they didn't I hadn't wasted much. Well they have taken flight and now look 3 healthy plants. Every day there are new leaves sprouting and yesterday I noticed the fig had quite a few little " things " . They turned out to be future figs. I couldn't believe my eyes. I looked on internet and found a site that produced fig trees and there were quite a number of them started out as twigs and with 6 mths to a year were producing fruit. So my little baby is being cosseted. Did take a photo but getting near enough without getting blurred was difficult so will try again in the next few days.

My lemon tree during the winter got most of its leaves curled and now its gradually recovering and is laden with lemons albeit tiny ones which I hope don't all drop off . My neighbour has about 4 lemon trees and she couldn't believe how many lemons are on mine and its only a young plant, I must be doing something right.

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Last autumn, a friend gave me a bag of conkers to try out the conkers deter spiders theory.  I put some in the corners of the sitting room and my ginger moggie had a good time playing football with them in the early hours but still found as many mangled spiders first thing in the morning!  I put a few conkers in the garden and am delighted to see they've germinated. To me, it's always a miracle to see this happen. I've potted them up and shall enjoy watching them grow.

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You may remember my telling you that our apple tree fell down last summer... and was subsequently sawn off near the base of the trunk.   Since then, it has been 'the elephant in the room' (as it was going to be a big job to remove, we just didn't speak about it!!). ....well, it's decided it's not giving up yet and lots of little apple tree shoots have started pushing up through the lawn from the existing roots I suppose,  and lots more are growing from the main trunk.  

As it's making such an effort, we've decided to leave it as a 'feature'. (Can't kill it now, can we)

..... but any suggestions how much we need to keep trimming the shoots on the trunk?

The shoots in the lawn get cut by the mower.

 

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I’d dig round that to expose more trunk and then get a rope around it. Connect to a high lift farm jack (you can hire one or buy for about £50). Stand the jack on a piece of wood so it doesn’t sink into the ground and pull it up. It might snap off or you can saw the exposed trunk. I’ve successfully pulled out many tree stumps that way.

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I'm not sure we're up to that, Phil.  I found this on YouTube 

 

 

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That isn't me by the way, Margie, but I've pulled loads of stumps out using exactly that method. I've never had a disaster and your stump is tiny compared with his. If you can borrow one from a farming friend I'd give it a go - it really is very easy and there's nothing more annoying than tree stumps in the lawn. Like wisdom teeth they should be pulled out. If you lived closer I'd come and do it for you!

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That's a really nice offer, Phil, but I think we'll leave it and plant some other little plants round it - I have some  primroses and cowslips that need dividing, also lots of bluebell bulbs which I've already dug up.   I really don't want to pull it shrieking from the ground seeing as it's trying so hard to stay alive!!  

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This stump story has reminded me about one we had in the middle of the lawn.  It had been a very large holly tree which my husband had cut down.   He and the lads dug around it quite deep then roped it to the tow hitch on our Shogun.  It was funny but also a bit scary to watch as he tried to get the roots out of the ‘flinty’ ground.  At one point the front of the car lifted off the ground.   I’ve got photos somewhere of the exercise, I’ll try to find them when I’ve got more time.   I think you can buy something to pour into the stump to disintegrate it ...... I might be wrong though. 

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I had a similar problem with an old Christmas tree, whilst living at Saxondale. I managed to get my Land Rover into the front garden, and used a series of chains, but it only managed to drag the LR towards the tree base. Undeterred, I fixed hooks round a few of the biggest roots, and gradually managed it, by snapping them, until the thing came out with a sudden lurch, and the LR shot backwards at a terrific rate !

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Margie, you could try selecting one decent shoot and letting it grow on.  Then maybe train it as an 'espalier' or somesuch, up a bit of trellis.  With proper pruning you may get a crop of decent apples, but I suspect the stump may eventually rot.  Things will grow if you let them.

 

On the subject of 'stump stories'.  The year I had my heart attack, I decided to move a Peony (Sarah Bernhardt).  It was a good 20 years old then...  I still have it and it's in flower right now.  Anyway, having read that Peonies don't like being moved, I decided to dig around it and try to move the roots in a big lump of soil, to disturb them as little as possible.  Having dug around.. I pushed my fork under the plant and attempted to lift it... It wouldn't budge.  I tried from all sides and was beginning to work up quite a sweat, but the thing wouldn't move.  Mrs Col was urging me to be careful not to have another heart attack..  I decided to try lifting one side to see which root was holding the thing.  As I did so, the whole plant lifted away with almost no effort.  My fork was firmly jammed under a three inch thick root from next doors tree..

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Thanks so much for all the advice everyone......  but  because of all the new growth, I really would feel like a murderer if I killed it now!   Silly,  I know but that's just me.   It's not in the middle of the lawn anyway so it's not a big inconvenience to leave it in situ, and it can be made a feature of with some cowslips and primroses round it.   I'll just keep trimming the shoots and see what happens.    If it does get out of hand, I suppose I'll have to have a rethink....  

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