Early Witer bits and bobs.

[oldherbaceous]

And what a nice way to start, and that's to see Tigger all over the forum....
It's brightened a rather dull morning.

[Motherwoman]

Confessions of a gardener.... Yesterday I planted the daffodil bulbs that have making me feel guilty for weeks, they have two chances!

Like the change of seasons OH, I quite fancy a bit of Witer... Seen what you wrote but know what you meant.

MW

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Motherwoman, what's the odd missing letter among close friends.

I'm just going in the greenhouse, to pot the last of the bulbs, so it's not just you, MW...

[Elaine]

Oh my giddy aunt.....I had forgotten about the bulbs. I have tulips, daffs and crocus still in their bags, in the greenhouse ...

[peter]

Finished coppicing my hazel yesterday, it sits in the northeast corner of the garden behind my greenhouse, with a person sized gap between hedge east and fence north with a kennel type shed to the west. Next doors greenhouse is over the hedge & across their path.

Thickest stem, previous coppicing ah-erm years ago, was nine inches and longest bit removed was about twenty feet.. Managed it without breaking anything!

Our council planted up the rough area of park behind us about twenty years ago and hasn't bothered to thin or coppice the resulting wood. Together with my hazel this was killing off next doors beech hedge, so a few choice limbs somehow "fell off" the pair of field maples just twelve foot from the beeches.

[oldherbaceous]

Sounds like a good job done, Peter... I suppose it's all pea sticks and thatching spars, now then....

[Motherwoman]

Glad it's not just me with the bulbs!

Peter, I have a section of hazel, about 20 plants, in one corner of the garden and we cut ours the year before last as it hadn't been done for about 12 years. Got lots of logs out of it, bean sticks and pea sticks. This year I'll be cutting back the ones closest to himself's workshop as the tallest bits play merry hell with the Onduline roofing. In two years they have grown plenty big enough for bean sticks with the top bits cut off for pea sticks. If you have room in the garden a stand of hazel is well worth the space.

MW

[peter]

Motherwoman is absolutely right. Plus nuts and a pleasing, easily controlled shrub. I have a wall of them across the top of my allotment.

Many pea sticks, a "keep out Max" the dog pile, a few bean poles and a satisfying log pile for the wood burner we dont yet have. It was mature growth mostly with many catkins, not whippy.

Just back from an 11.6 mile dog walk along the canal, across the fields and through Hatfield Forest NT property, back along Essex CC Flitch way.

[oldherbaceous]

Been and cut the grass over the allotment, i couldn't believe how much grass came off it. I think that must be the latest cut i've done over there.

[Monika]

Our lawns at home and the grass paths on the allotment are in dire need of cutting, but the ground is really too wet, and today's weather ....... wow, a few times today I thought our roof would be lifted off!

We have had a large bird cherry lopped back which lets in a lot more light into our own garden and especially into our neighbour's garden. We had the same done about 10 years ago but it had grown enormously again. Perhaps not the best choice of tree for that situation but it IS lovely and much appreciated by birds and insects.

My seeds orders from DT Brown and Marshalls arrived today which, in the case of the latter, also included a FREE huge windowsill propagator with two different sizes of inserts. I am not usually fond of freebies (they tend to be things I would not dream of buying), but that really is a bargain.

[Compo]

Today I had a bit of an anorak event, not because of the sharp showers though.............I went to the local landfill site where they sell loose soild conditioner, certainly a high quality compost. It is run by Viridor and is where they take all the green waste from those that don't home compost and those that take all their clippings and green waste to the local recyclying centre.

The chap that loaded my trailer (240kg of rich crumbly slightly steaming compost for £13 by the way). was brilliant, noting i had a slightly flat tyre with the weight of the compost he took me off to the garage, showed me the recycling process and gave me a cuppa!!

The stuff comes in raw just as when the public throw it in the skip, and is then shredded, reaching peak temperature after a few days, it is then turned and goes through 14 different heaps each the size of a large detached house, finally being shredded and graded before being ready for sale. Quite a pong but in my mind not an unpleasant one.

A bit like going to the brewery when I was a sailor!! Will go back for some more on my next day off. The material is now neatly heaped on my plot!!

[peter]

My daily commute goes within half a mile of a malting. Some days mmmmmm.

[Ricard with an H]

I also have a pile of bulbs that need planting, many of them will go onto Molly's grave site. She always loved to sit on a bed of daffodills, when I bawled at her she gave me that look that said, "Whats all the fuss about ".

Not today though, I've been sickening for something that hasn't manifested itself any further than a few extra aches and feeling very tired. I probably need a sunny day to perk me up and get me galvanised into my usually unstoppable action.

We're still looking at photos of dogs "who lost their humans" though I really don't want another dog to sit on my daffs.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Richard, that's a lovely idea about planting bulbs on Molly's grave, you will always remember that cheeky look she used to give you, when they burst into bloom.

Another dog can never replace the ones we lose, but what they can do is, give us another lot of happy memories, and these are the ones you need to keep hold of at all times.

I do hope you shake off the poorly symptoms, as it's horrid when there's lots that you would like to be getting on with.....there's a lot of people in the village with the exact same symptoms as your describing, they say by the afternoon the are exhausted....

Things could always be worse for you, Richard, you could have me as a nieghbour...

[Ricard with an H]

Things could always be worse for you, Richard, you could have me as a nieghbour...

I would love to have a gardening-type neighbour to bounce-off.

I had a very strong immune system since I was around 50 so when I catch something it rarely manifests itself in the full blown whatever it is I caught but I'm not firing on all-four for a few days.

Regarding planting bulbs, I need help. I dug-up most of our bulbs because they don't do well in claggy soil, Daffs are fairly resilient but I also have a selection of alium and lots of tiny bulbs that produce low growing flowers and other stuff she keeps buying without considering where they are to live or how they'll cope.

I assuming I need to plant bulbs in a fibrous material that drains, also, any Daffs that are planted in claggy soil are very difficult to dig out if they are planted in areas where I need to lift them after they dried-out.

More compost ?