Learnincurve, I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm but honeysuckle can get very big & heavy so you will need to keep it in check, unless your shed is very strong.
As for my own exploits spent most of the time replanting the onion sets & garlic that the birds had pulled out . Who said its because the tops look like straw mine were green as I had raised them in modules beforehand. Spent another 40 mins putting up canes & string etc to keep them off.
I have finally committed and ordered honeysuckle lol. They are being planted about a foot back from the shed and I’ve got some reclaimed metal tray things for them to start off on, but as you say weight is a concern then it looks like I’ll have to use a trellis instead of the shed itself to support them.
So today I spent hours researching what to put around my shed to create a secondary structure that will hold the weight of 4 honeysuckle. It’s a bad job because only one long side and one short side has actual soil. Other two sides are concrete and a bank of rubble and hardcore.
Im going to grow and train twisted willow and tora for it to grow up. I’m not paying through the nose for something that grows so fast and is so easy to propagate from cuttings so Im using the 5 twisted I already have and 10 new cuttings. It’s going to be a loose more organic than structured design with the twisted branches providing the winter interest. maximum height will be 2m. Nice thing about both willow and honeysuckle is that if you royally mess up you can cut them both right back in the winter and start again.
Im thanking past me for putting down thick paving slabs on top of the old and broken concrete driveway before building the shed, roots will go to the left down towards my neighbours horrible overgrown evergreen hedge which is the direction the water runs and tends to pool in the clay.
I keep having to replant my onions as well Iain, thought it was birds at first but it almost looks as if the soil is shrinking away and many of them are soft Garlic looks fine, I think they have all come up, nice tufts of green, hope there is some garlic growing underneath.
Finished(ish) the pond yesterday. Still got some bags of stones, will keep until the new plants turn up and then see if I can thicken the beach or when the water clears a bit chuck on a lower ledge. Emptied the trug of gunk, leeches and snails back in and dug out an awkward area under the bridge where there was a mound of liner on show. Thought it might bring the path down but it hasn't. Glad that's done, it was in line of sight from my viewing window and was quite offensive. Still got lots of stones to collect from the pond admin area/dumping ground, it's going to be lawn but don't need to worry about that just yet. At least I can stop stamping around on the bulbs and hellebores.
Had a bit of a tidy-up today. Not a proper spring one, just getting rid of some debris not tidied up from recent activities.
Planted foxgloves that had seeded in some containers. Didn't check my list and have put them in the wrong place. Also planted Veronica gentianoides grown from seed, put them near the pond with some red clover and a red panicum. Also planted an orpine I dug up a few months ago and potted up a couple of bulbs ditto.
Blimey, you've been busy. I felt quite pleased with myself for doing a bit of weeding and clearing last year's soggy geraniums before they start sprouting again.
I cut back last year's aster stems too, although I hope I haven't done that a bit too early having just seen the forecast for Glasgow for the next few days.
Not much of a day rain then it did dry up for a short time and now it's been raining for the last few hours and got colder I did start to get the staging set up ready for seed trays, cleaned and disinfected some of the trays and stuff.
It is suppose to be a better day here tomorrow so have given up for today.
In between showers we took down the rest of the decking,and piled it up at the bottom of the garden.It is badly rotted,and the resident pair of Robins had a feast on all the insect life living in it. Proper gardening can't start until the dry stone wall has been repaired,but some of the fallen rocks are huge,so might have to get someone in who knows what theyre doing!
I have a dozen Penstemons on the kitchen windowsill,which although tiny,appear to be very strong.My first time without a greenhouse,so am choosing what to bring on from seed with great care!?????
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
First real working day at my allotment today . Cut back the Autumn fruiting raspberries , then pulled back the covering and began digging over the plot , it's a full size plot but I am confident it will be ready for planting in time . Hard work but very invigorating on what was a cold but sunny morning , also lovely to have a couple of Robins for company .
Too cold for me to want to do any gardening today, but did my usual amble around the garden, counting the bulbs coming up and seeing what is sprouting. Funny that, the bulbs don't seem to have grown much since yesterday!
Posts
Learnincurve, I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm but honeysuckle can get very big & heavy so you will need to keep it in check, unless your shed is very strong.
As for my own exploits spent most of the time replanting the onion sets & garlic that the birds had pulled out
. Who said its because the tops look like straw mine were green as I had raised them in modules beforehand. Spent another 40 mins putting up canes & string etc to keep them off
.
I have finally committed and ordered honeysuckle lol. They are being planted about a foot back from the shed and I’ve got some reclaimed metal tray things for them to start off on, but as you say weight is a concern then it looks like I’ll have to use a trellis instead of the shed itself to support them.
Good idea trellis is cheaper to replace than a shed.
So today I spent hours researching what to put around my shed to create a secondary structure that will hold the weight of 4 honeysuckle. It’s a bad job because only one long side and one short side has actual soil. Other two sides are concrete and a bank of rubble and hardcore.
Im going to grow and train twisted willow and tora for it to grow up. I’m not paying through the nose for something that grows so fast and is so easy to propagate from cuttings so Im using the 5 twisted I already have and 10 new cuttings. It’s going to be a loose more organic than structured design with the twisted branches providing the winter interest. maximum height will be 2m. Nice thing about both willow and honeysuckle is that if you royally mess up you can cut them both right back in the winter and start again.
Im thanking past me for putting down thick paving slabs on top of the old and broken concrete driveway before building the shed, roots will go to the left down towards my neighbours horrible overgrown evergreen hedge which is the direction the water runs and tends to pool in the clay.
Last edited: 03 February 2018 12:22:25
I keep having to replant my onions as well Iain, thought it was birds at first but it almost looks as if the soil is shrinking away and many of them are soft
Garlic looks fine, I think they have all come up, nice tufts of green, hope there is some garlic growing underneath.
Finished(ish) the pond yesterday. Still got some bags of stones, will keep until the new plants turn up and then see if I can thicken the beach or when the water clears a bit chuck on a lower ledge. Emptied the trug of gunk, leeches and snails back in and dug out an awkward area under the bridge where there was a mound of liner on show. Thought it might bring the path down but it hasn't. Glad that's done, it was in line of sight from my viewing window and was quite offensive. Still got lots of stones to collect from the pond admin area/dumping ground, it's going to be lawn but don't need to worry about that just yet. At least I can stop stamping around on the bulbs and hellebores.
Had a bit of a tidy-up today. Not a proper spring one, just getting rid of some debris not tidied up from recent activities.
Planted foxgloves that had seeded in some containers. Didn't check my list and have put them in the wrong place. Also planted Veronica gentianoides grown from seed, put them near the pond with some red clover and a red panicum. Also planted an orpine I dug up a few months ago and potted up a couple of bulbs ditto.
Blimey, you've been busy. I felt quite pleased with myself for doing a bit of weeding and clearing last year's soggy geraniums before they start sprouting again.
I cut back last year's aster stems too, although I hope I haven't done that a bit too early having just seen the forecast for Glasgow for the next few days.
Not much of a day rain then it did dry up for a short time and now it's been raining for the last few hours and got colder I did start to get the staging set up ready for seed trays, cleaned and disinfected some of the trays and stuff.
It is suppose to be a better day here tomorrow so have given up for today.
In between showers we took down the rest of the decking,and piled it up at the bottom of the garden.It is badly rotted,and the resident pair of Robins had a feast on all the insect life living in it. Proper gardening can't start until the dry stone wall has been repaired,but some of the fallen rocks are huge,so might have to get someone in who knows what theyre doing!
I have a dozen Penstemons on the kitchen windowsill,which although tiny,appear to be very strong.My first time without a greenhouse,so am choosing what to bring on from seed with great care!?????
First real working day at my allotment today . Cut back the Autumn fruiting raspberries , then pulled back the covering and began digging over the plot , it's a full size plot but I am confident it will be ready for planting in time . Hard work but very invigorating on what was a cold but sunny morning , also lovely to have a couple of Robins for company .
Too cold for me to want to do any gardening today, but did my usual amble around the garden, counting the bulbs coming up and seeing what is sprouting. Funny that, the bulbs don't seem to have grown much since yesterday!
At least it's sunny today.