Gardening

[plaques]

A good crop of snowbells all round the garden. These and moss are about the only thing we can grow. The secret is to leave them to die naturally, Ideal for the lazy gardener like me.

The grey bit on the lawn is supposed to be grass. Actually its what's left over when you drag the moss out.

[Stanley]

I once dragged all the moss out of a lawn in Bacup P and it was never as good and springy afterwards! It is the time of year when my front garden is nagging me.... All those tough dead mint stalks.

[Stanley]

The better the weather the more this nags me.....

[Tripps]

I thought I was taking still photos, but got short videos. Must read the instructions one day. Let's see if it posts. Anyone know what these flowers are called?

Seems not - so back to You Tube - Flowers

And what Storm Dora did last week. Fence down

Mercifully - it's not my fence.

[plaques]

My thoughts are Helleborus niger, A winter flowering perennial. But there again I'm only the JCB man. My limit is.. Plant the green bits on top.

[Whyperion]

the front and rear lawns appear to be 80% water, 10% moss and 10% grass .though most of the grass is stubbornly growing through the gaps in the paving flagstones (concrete) . I will rake out some moss in the dry summer, if we have one.

[Moh]

We have a couple of those pink plants in our garden. We don't have a lawn anymore, we had a pation made at the back and golden stone pebbles on the front which has a couple of layers with stone walls level with the stones.

[Stanley]

I once heard Roy Strong delivering a diatribe against the English obsession with garden lawns but can't find it on the web. It was very acerbic but quite right!

[Tizer]

Like Plaques says, definitely Hellebores. Lovely flowers for a shady spot.

[Stanley]

Why is it that flowers don't excite me. Am I alone in this?

[Wendyf]

Why is it that flowers don't excite me. Am I alone in this?

No you aren't alone Stanley, I enjoy other people's gardens full of flowers but I can never achieve anything flowery in mine! The altitude is no excuse as my neighbours at Blearaside have a magnificent garden....they are south facing though.

On the grounds that posting in here will encourage me to get out in the garden.....
On Sunday I finished tidying up in the poly tunnel, washing plant trays and benches and throwing away a pile of plastic containers that have crumbled away to nothing. (Certain plastics deteriorate very quickly in there.)
Yesterday, after a trip to LBS to buy seeds and onion sets, I attacked my little greenhouse which, though it is sheltered from the winds and sunny from about April onwards, gets no sun all winter and suffers a bit from moss and mould. I tidied stuff out and got half of the glass washed down.
We are up in the clouds this morning with 25mph winds driving the light rain so I'm stopping indoors till it clears.

[Tizer]

Wendy, we learnt over many years of failures and successes that the secret is don't try to grow the plants that don't want to grow in your garden, grow the ones that love your garden; and don't shy away from the plants that other folk call weeds. We have a lot of celandine in flower just now and they have lovely yellow flowers. They spread rapidly and are invasive so many people regard them as weeds - we love them! We're on heavy clay and ornamental Viburnums grow like weeds but plants that like drainage are a waste of money and die off quickly. Native plants are good idea too because they're used to our British weather. We have a lot of native hedgerow shrubs like hawthorn, blackthorn, field maple, bird cherry.

Here's a photo of celandine flowering today on the outside bank along our hedge, and below it another photo showing ornamental quince beside our front door also in flower now.

[Stanley]

Mint stalks.......

[Sue]

Our ornamental quince is in full flower in France. We were lucky to catch the mimosa tree this year, because we have come at a slightly different time. Our garden in Rochdale is devoid of colour except daffodils and a few random crocuses.

[Wendyf]

The mimosa is beautiful Sue.
The weather had changed by midday, still quite windy but bright and sunny, so I got a bit more glass washing done in the greenhouse. We have a concrete path leading to the "back" barn, oil tank etc which is a dark, wet and gloomy place at this time of year and has been left to gather about half an inch of slimy moss, so I set about scraping and brushing to clear it up. If only him indoors would get rid of the rotting tractor and flat bed trailer that block most of that path I could do a decent job!

[Stanley]

I took advantage of the good weather in the afternoon. The mint stems were dry and brittle and burned well on a small fire. I feel a lot better now!

[Sue]

No garden fires allowed in France although you are allowed to yes a metal garden incinerater. I mean what is the difference except the size of fire i.e. A big fire burning for a short time or a small one chugging away for hours!

[Stanley]

Fires not popular here and possibly illegal but it was only small, no washing out and so I chanced it. I don't think I have condemned the planet to catastrophic change......

[Tizer]

I wish like the French we had a ban on garden fires here. Most of the neighbours and even most of the villagers don't have bonfires here even though many have gardens. They either take the garden rubbish to the dump or pay to have it collected in a green wheelie bin (which we do), or both. Some farmers and builders are a menace and burn not only wood but plastics and rubber. They do it on the weekend when the public health people are less likely to be about. But now we have a new neighbour and he's having bonfires. We're hoping that it's just for now because he's inherited a lot of overgrown shrubs and that he'll stop when that's done. He not only has fires but he puts a lot of damp stuff on that smoulders for ages and creates lots of smoke.

[Sue]

Here in France we take cuttings etc to,the local tip. However most like us have too much waste to take all of it. We have two huge compost heap and I mean huge, wood piles for the log burner , the BBQ and the pizza oven. We use finer twigs , branches and grass cuttings as mulch under the hedges but we still have more than we can cope with. Today I was burning some of that surplus in the metal incinerator to reduce the pile sizes before we start with this years waste.

Similarly the tip cannot cope with the volume of green waste. Ours had an ever increasing mountain. Some communes convert it to compost which is then given away free, but ours does not seem to do that. If they do it must be when we are not here.

[Stanley]

I don't think my tiny fire bothered anyone......

[Sue]

I don't think my tiny fire bothered anyone......

That is what I think about my little incinerater. The farmer passed and waved, he wasn't bothered. Our elderly neighbour Roland, waved too, he remembers when we set the field on fire ! We see lots of open fires around in fields and gardens, but Roland reminds us that we are not allowed. Last visit I had a proper garden fire, behind the largest compost heap. In view I had the little incinerater going as well. Thus a lot of the bulk went. Our field is about 100 metres long so cutting the hedgerow down the road side generates considerable waste. The other side is laurels. We cut and leave that to rot under the bushes. Any reasonable wood is collected for future use but hedgerow roses are nasty to handle and best burnt.

[Stanley]

I agree about the hedgerow bushes Sue. It was always the best way of dealing with them. I think back to my days of hedge-laying in Warwickshire and we kept tidy by having a fire going as we worked and any waste we made went straight on the fire. At the end of the day we had a tidy hedge and a well managed fire. The first job the next day was to kick the unburnt ends into the ashes and start another fire further down the hedge. At times these fires were big but I don't think in the great scheme of things we did any lasting damage to the world. Think of the natural bush and forest fires which are Nature's preferred way of managing brush and woodland.

[Sue]

We too now have a tidy hedgerow and a considerably smaller compost heap. Half of it has been spread on to the field. The pile itself is now only 5 feet high instead of 7! . Next visit I hope to shred the remaining cuttings , dig out the rest and spread it as appropriate, and leave what is left to rot down and return to field. We shall move the site of the pile this year and start again.

Our field has obviously been overworked when part of the local farm so it needs a bit of TLC and nourishment. Our veggie patch is benefitting from the extra work too.

Just approaching the Isle of Wight on the ferry, after a very choppy start this morning it is calmer now but poor visibility

[Stanley]

It's satisfying isn't it when you see something looking tidy, I feel the same about the front garden even though it is now a small bare plot with two bunches of chives, a Ladslove stump and a small Lilac bush! Welcome back to a cold and wet Todmorden......