Temptingly early Spring Bits and Bobs.- 2017

[oldherbaceous]

Well it's been a lovely day here today, so here is hoping, Spring really is just around the corner.

May i wish everyone of you, a superb growing season.

[Westi]

Thank you OH! Fingers crossed hey?

[tigerburnie]

I planted these , first plants in the new greenhouse, like a few sweet peas in the house and I used to get them earlier planting them under glass, also re sowed some more chillies and peppers in the heated propagator as I baked the last ones being inattentive.

First planting.jpg (934.45 KiB) Viewed 4436 times

[Geoff]

I might be tempted but another 10 mm of rain each side of midnight won't have helped me get any preparation done.

[Ricard with an H]

May i wish everyone of you, a superb growing season.

I'm far to busy with springtime indoors jobs to even look at the overgrown grasses that need attention, then I have 100 mixed bare root hedging plants to deal with. In the meantime my weed growth is impressive.

OH. Thanks for giving us a place to ramble-on, on. (Smile)

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Richard, call the impressive weed growth, green manure.....it might make you feel better about it....

Went and done a few hours work down the other end of the village this morning, then over the allotment and hard pruned the eight Gooseberry bushes. I took about a quarter of the old branches out and just generally tidied them up...that should let a little air through, to combat the mildew some of them suffered from last year. I then lightly forked the whole bed over, and does it look better for it.

[Ricard with an H]

Im wondering about pruning a trio of Himalayan birch we have that always look poorly, I'm not scared about hard pruning if I know my subject but in this case I'm scared. I suppose a photo would help so I'm hot-foot to take one now.

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Richard, well i can save you one job this year, as it is too late to prune Himalayan birch....if you do it now, they will bleed heavily. I don't think they recommend hard pruning Himalayan Birch at all... maybe Sally will see this and confirm my thoughts.
You could take some of the thinner, crossing branches out and i would do this late Autumn to Early Winter.

[Westi]

16 degrees down here today, lovely except for the carrying of my padded coat instead of wearing it, it was 3.5 degrees this morning! I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year - tempts & teases. Luckily at work so not in a position to regret anything on lottie!

[PLUMPUDDING]

My son once made some very good birch sap wine by making a cut in the trunk and collecting the sap which ran out. They recommended doing it at this time of the year when the sap is rising. So if you want to keep the trees I would wait until next autumn to prune them.

[Ricard with an H]

Thanks for the advise on my Himalayan birch, they were planted over subsoil with very little topsoil around them and whilst they do grow they always look poorly. The branches were affected by an algae so bad that they looked as if they may die, I treated them with the same algaecide I use on the paintwork and rooftops. The algaecide worked and didn't kill the trees, at the time it didn't matter because they looked on their way out anyway. In fact I'll treat them again today.

[Pawty]

Hi,

Preparing for tomorrow .... I have my first tractor load of well rotted manure turning up at the lotty. I'm a bit exited! The young farmers are raising funds for Macmillan - and so are selling and delivering it to our allotments. Ok, bit more expensive, but great cause and with work being hectic and last minute Doris damage repair work at my mum in laws I haven't had chance to spend much time there or collect from the local farm.

Pawty

[Geoff]

Might not be an over optimistic thread title - the drizzle seems warmer today.

[Ricard with an H]

If you look at my previous photos of the Himalayan birch trees, in the background you will see what is known as a 'Pembrokeshire bank'.

I intend planting 100 bare root hedging plants alongside the stock fence so the hedging becomes part of the fence and eventually supports it instead of the posts, and look nicer. I have a problem with planting anything in the top of these banks, the soil is mixed top soil stone and subsoil and the top of the banks dry out. Most things I planted so far failed even though I fed and watered them.

I already went round a glyphosate a foot either side of the fence because invasive grasses are part of the problem, this time I won't be digging a trench or removing stone. I'll be punching a hole and digging out for each bare root plant with a post hole digger. I'll be using Rootgrow though I'm not sure about adding nutrient. FBB ? Bonemeal ? Balanced fertiliser ? and or willow-water.

Any advise would be appreciated.

[Monika]

Bonemeal, I think, Richard.