Well so much for the weather forecast of a dry morning, it's now chucking it down, so I will post a few pics to show there is still some colour in the garden - for once I don't mind seeing the creeping buttercups!!
I have a question to ask if I may
The silt left on the plants hasn't washed off in spite of heavy rain, so we have washed the geraniums and the courgette, but they took some doing and I can't really devote the time to cleaning everything else in the garden.
I am thinking that I should prioritise anything just sprouting, whose leaves are mostly covered as they will be less able to photosynthesise if covered in dry silt. Anything that has a good percentage of clean leaves can wait. Does that sound about right? I don't think i need to trim anything and will otherwise let nature take its course until I get round the rest of the garden
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish.
Stephanie. That sounds the right thing to do . First look after your most precious and delicate plants. The rest will probably survive even if is takes them a bit of time to come back.
Agree your priorities should be cleaning up plants which are just budding followed by anything expensive or particularly precious.
I would also check to make sure no plants (especially shrubs) have had their roots exposed by running water. Any that have - make sure they are secure in the soil so they don't get rocked around by the wind (re heel them in if necessary) and re-cover the roots with soil, compost - whatever is to hand.
Once you're a bit more sorted you can slowly make your way around the rest of the garden cleaning up as you go.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Thanks topbird, I hadn't thought much about checking for exposed roots, but I know an old rose that we moved in the winter now has a gaping hole round it so I should do something about that soon. We weren't sure it was surviving the move, never mind having the soil washed from round it's feet.
The next obvious issue is how to deal with the silt on the lawn. It's not too bad on most of the lawn and won't interfere with the next cut but there are areas near where a raised bed was washed down where there are swathes of soil in the grass. It's not yet dry enough to try to sweep it off but I think that's going to be the only option really.
We did really well with getting things dried over the weekend but I can't take any more time off work now so I have to be selective about what jobs I tackle. Talking of which, I should really go and get on with what I'm paid to do.....
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish.
I know this may sound ridiculous under the circumstances but would hosing work on the silt?
I understand you've seen quite enough water to last you a lifetime but now that the floods have subsided it could work. A pressure hose uses less water than a normal one and you could maybe use it from a distance that didn't blast your lawn to kingdom come but moved the mank.
Just a thought.
Great positive attitude BTW. I suppose it's either laugh or cry.
Yes sorry did not really appreciate how serious it was.
As for the lawn, carefully scrape up the thick soil from above the grass then I would use a spring tine or plastic rake to gently go over the whole thing. This will knock down the silt off the grass and level it up, the grass will grow through- on the bright side the silt will probably be quite fertile lets face it the Egyptians used to plant corn after the Nile flooded!!
Well we managed to mow quite a bit of the lawn this evening. it was past needing a cut last week but it was too wet, even before the deluge, so it couldn't wait much longer. I raked up a lot of junk and debris and OH followed with the mower. There are areas that I can't rake though as there are quite a lot of reasonable sized stones. I'm thinking maybe drag a square rake over it on its back and then I think the hose might work for the area I'm looking at, so thanks for the suggestion.
I finally washed the courgette plant off properly today but the fruit on it was less than happy. I haven't had chance to look it up but I wonder whether it is blossom end rot (do courgettes get that?) Or maybe just being dunked sent the fruit funny.
I gave it a feed with tomato feed and will wait and see how subsequent fruit develop. I used a soft paintbrush and clean water and also tried to carefully clean the flowers as I thought they might not pollinate otherwise. Any thoughts please?
And on a happier note, here are some rudbeckia and a plant whose name escapes me, both of which I grew from seed last year. They took ages to flower and seemed to really struggle. I was therefore really pleased to see them come up again this year so I thought they deserved a bit of a wash! They don't look much at the moment but they heaved a sigh of relief and reached for the sunglasses when I washed the silt off them!
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish.
Oh, and another happy thing to report: the next-but-one downstream neighbour came round today with my timer for the irrigation kit for the greenhouse. It had been inside the large plastic store that went over the wall, bits of which have apparently been seen on the beach and in a bay just around the coast.
The timer was found wedged in a rock where the water would have been flowing over it really quickly, but it is totally dry inside and it still works! Hurrah!
The weekend's job was going to be setting up the irrigation kit to look after the greenhouse plants later this week as we are away for the wedding of my husband's daughter. That went out the window, not least because the timer was seemingly lost. Fortunately a neighbour is going to nip down and water the plants for me. Sadly she lost about 200 potted plants from her garden and polytunnel but like me she is stoic about it - as she said, at least it didn't touch any part of her house.
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish.
This morning's quick question is what should I do with the two cineraria? They had been in the ground less than a week when the flood hit and I re heeled the one on the left as best I could on the soggy ground but neither look good
Should I nip off the saddest looking flowers, and if so do I just take the head or should i take a length of stem too?
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish.
Posts
Well so much for the weather forecast of a dry morning, it's now chucking it down, so I will post a few pics to show there is still some colour in the garden - for once I don't mind seeing the creeping buttercups!!
I have a question to ask if I may
The silt left on the plants hasn't washed off in spite of heavy rain, so we have washed the geraniums and the courgette, but they took some doing and I can't really devote the time to cleaning everything else in the garden.
I am thinking that I should prioritise anything just sprouting, whose leaves are mostly covered as they will be less able to photosynthesise if covered in dry silt. Anything that has a good percentage of clean leaves can wait. Does that sound about right? I don't think i need to trim anything and will otherwise let nature take its course until I get round the rest of the garden
Stephanie. That sounds the right thing to do . First look after your most precious and delicate plants. The rest will probably survive even if is takes them a bit of time to come back.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
Sounds like a plan
Agree your priorities should be cleaning up plants which are just budding followed by anything expensive or particularly precious.
I would also check to make sure no plants (especially shrubs) have had their roots exposed by running water. Any that have - make sure they are secure in the soil so they don't get rocked around by the wind (re heel them in if necessary) and re-cover the roots with soil, compost - whatever is to hand.
Once you're a bit more sorted you can slowly make your way around the rest of the garden cleaning up as you go.
Thanks topbird, I hadn't thought much about checking for exposed roots, but I know an old rose that we moved in the winter now has a gaping hole round it so I should do something about that soon. We weren't sure it was surviving the move, never mind having the soil washed from round it's feet.
The next obvious issue is how to deal with the silt on the lawn. It's not too bad on most of the lawn and won't interfere with the next cut but there are areas near where a raised bed was washed down where there are swathes of soil in the grass. It's not yet dry enough to try to sweep it off but I think that's going to be the only option really.
We did really well with getting things dried over the weekend but I can't take any more time off work now so I have to be selective about what jobs I tackle. Talking of which, I should really go and get on with what I'm paid to do.....
I know this may sound ridiculous under the circumstances but would hosing work on the silt?
I understand you've seen quite enough water to last you a lifetime but now that the floods have subsided it could work. A pressure hose uses less water than a normal one and you could maybe use it from a distance that didn't blast your lawn to kingdom come but moved the mank.
Just a thought.
Great positive attitude BTW. I suppose it's either laugh or cry.
Yes sorry did not really appreciate how serious it was.
As for the lawn, carefully scrape up the thick soil from above the grass then I would use a spring tine or plastic rake to gently go over the whole thing. This will knock down the silt off the grass and level it up, the grass will grow through- on the bright side the silt will probably be quite fertile lets face it the Egyptians used to plant corn after the Nile flooded!!
Well we managed to mow quite a bit of the lawn this evening. it was past needing a cut last week but it was too wet, even before the deluge, so it couldn't wait much longer. I raked up a lot of junk and debris and OH followed with the mower. There are areas that I can't rake though as there are quite a lot of reasonable sized stones. I'm thinking maybe drag a square rake over it on its back and then I think the hose might work for the area I'm looking at, so thanks for the suggestion.
I finally washed the courgette plant off properly today but the fruit on it was less than happy. I haven't had chance to look it up but I wonder whether it is blossom end rot (do courgettes get that?) Or maybe just being dunked sent the fruit funny.
I gave it a feed with tomato feed and will wait and see how subsequent fruit develop. I used a soft paintbrush and clean water and also tried to carefully clean the flowers as I thought they might not pollinate otherwise. Any thoughts please?
And on a happier note, here are some rudbeckia and a plant whose name escapes me, both of which I grew from seed last year. They took ages to flower and seemed to really struggle. I was therefore really pleased to see them come up again this year so I thought they deserved a bit of a wash! They don't look much at the moment but they heaved a sigh of relief and reached for the sunglasses when I washed the silt off them!
Oh, and another happy thing to report: the next-but-one downstream neighbour came round today with my timer for the irrigation kit for the greenhouse. It had been inside the large plastic store that went over the wall, bits of which have apparently been seen on the beach and in a bay just around the coast.
The timer was found wedged in a rock where the water would have been flowing over it really quickly, but it is totally dry inside and it still works! Hurrah!
The weekend's job was going to be setting up the irrigation kit to look after the greenhouse plants later this week as we are away for the wedding of my husband's daughter. That went out the window, not least because the timer was seemingly lost. Fortunately a neighbour is going to nip down and water the plants for me. Sadly she lost about 200 potted plants from her garden and polytunnel but like me she is stoic about it - as she said, at least it didn't touch any part of her house.
This morning's quick question is what should I do with the two cineraria? They had been in the ground less than a week when the flood hit and I re heeled the one on the left as best I could on the soggy ground but neither look good
Should I nip off the saddest looking flowers, and if so do I just take the head or should i take a length of stem too?