After a wet start the day improved and the sun came out. Planted 4 roses and pruned one l forgot about 😳. A definite touch of Spring in the air, tea and biscuits sitting outside watching the birds.
Inspected 5 large strawberry pots (3 in each) which were looking very sad after the recent snow and frosts. However, the weather wasn't the cause of their demise, vine weevils were! Lost the lot.
The good news is that last year I decided to start growing them in the ground again, so planted 30 plants last spring. All of those are looking very healthy and no sign of VW.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
@BobTheGardener I found 4 Huecharras that were absolutely over run with vine weevil today, they were very cheap buys from our local nursery year end clearance due to be planted anytime. No sign of any damage elsewhere in the garden so hopefully that's the lot.
Dismantled the compost bins to begin a rebuild job, we've had no end of problems with rats they've been living in all the lovely kingspan insulation. Keeping chickens and ducks has been the lockdown thing in our village but it's seen a huge explosion of rats. I've split down the pallets so there are no longer any hollow sections, will see if I can keep the heaps as hot without the insulation in there.
Another bad nights sleep so got up and had a brew then headed out. Completed another compost bay conversion, using such slimmed down bay dividers means I might just be able to fit in an extra bay.
Noticed that several of the hellebore seedlings I planted last year have got a single flower, I'm really pleased I thought I'd be waiting 3/4 years for them to flower. It must be warming up now as all of a sudden the lupins and Holly hocks have shot into leaf.
The meadow bulbs are getting going now as well with a great display of crocus on show.
@Wilderbeast , it's lovely when you get an earlier Flower than expected. I have a very posh Flower on one of my hellebores so have very carefully labelled it. It's not good though that you are not sleeping well, has it always been a problem?
@Lizzie27 I'm always happy to see the flowers such a warming site. Just realised that our pulminaria in the winter spring garden are about to join the crocus, snow drops, hellebore and muscari in flower. The lack of sleep is down to my problematic shoulder which is absolutely crippling at night (apparently it's common to have so much pain at night with shoulder injuries). By the time I have loosened it off I'm wide awake and can't get off to sleep, it's a nightly event around 2am
Hello everybody , so nice to see all the various plants coming up , just laid 3 slabs for an extra water butt , however , had to move 2 fuchsia & peony , hope they recover also some bulbs which I’ll take to allotment coffee ☕️ break before lunch
@Wilderbeast,I had forgotten that night time pain. Only thing that worked for me was sleeping on my back and taking more pain killers in the early hours. It's a pig of a problem, now getting the same with my right hip. My sympathies.
Two dry days in a row! I’ve managed to fill both my green bins ready for tomorrow’s collection. Yesterday, I pulled up a lot of ivy which has strangled a flower bed. It’s currently full of red stemmed cornus, and for a few years Ive been meaning to get rid of the ivy. However, it’s not so easy in the summer with the leaves on, so I was very pleased with my progress. Today, I pruned a pittosporum and a laurel with my new Fiskars lopper. Very successful. I bought it last autumn, and in my enthusiasm to see what it could do, I managed to pull something in my shoulder and couldn’t use it since. It’s improved enough for me to carefully use the lopper today. I can really sympathise, Wilderbeast, it really plays up at night.
Posts
A definite touch of Spring in the air, tea and biscuits sitting outside watching the birds.
Dismantled the compost bins to begin a rebuild job, we've had no end of problems with rats they've been living in all the lovely kingspan insulation. Keeping chickens and ducks has been the lockdown thing in our village but it's seen a huge explosion of rats. I've split down the pallets so there are no longer any hollow sections, will see if I can keep the heaps as hot without the insulation in there.
Noticed that several of the hellebore seedlings I planted last year have got a single flower, I'm really pleased I thought I'd be waiting 3/4 years for them to flower. It must be warming up now as all of a sudden the lupins and Holly hocks have shot into leaf.
The meadow bulbs are getting going now as well with a great display of crocus on show.
It's not good though that you are not sleeping well, has it always been a problem?
coffee ☕️ break before lunch
Today, I pruned a pittosporum and a laurel with my new Fiskars lopper. Very successful. I bought it last autumn, and in my enthusiasm to see what it could do, I managed to pull something in my shoulder and couldn’t use it since. It’s improved enough for me to carefully use the lopper today. I can really sympathise, Wilderbeast, it really plays up at night.