The zombie army COVID-19 Gardening thread.

[Harry Flashman]

Dunlop Purofort+

Not the cheapest, but steel toe, ladder grip between heel and sole, with penetration resistant steel insert in the midsole perfect for spade kicking, and warm. Grip is great too, even in snow/ice - SRC slip rating is the highest you can get, I believe; these are proper workboots. I abuse mine, constantly. Everything from gardening, shooting clays, working on cars/up ladders, chopping wood, to using as snowboots. They make fashion items like Hunters look as overpriced and basic as they really are.

I have my Dad's ancient, knackered old Le Chameaus for when I have to pretend to be posh, and these for everything else.

Can be found cheaply on eBay, sometimes.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dunlop-purofort-safety-...

Edited by Harry Flashman on Monday 10th April 22:55

[Sway]

Perfect, thanks. I'll pick some up from screwfix during the week - there's plenty of digging to do!

[Harry Flashman]

By the way Sway, that's not an allotment - that's a smallholding farm.

[dirty boy]

I've got absolutely nothing in my garden with colour on it. This time last year it was really coming alive.

Not even the bluebells are out.

I think a fair number of plants have died completely, had a lot of frosts this year and i'm in a dip just below a field, so literally a degree colder on my road and there'll be frost on the windscreen but not 200m away on the next road.

Hoping my car is ready soon and i'll take a trip to Burford and treat myself to some new stuff on the way back from collecting [5 hours away....]

[sleepezy]

dirty boy said:

I think a fair number of plants have died completely

I know that feeling well - we've likely lost (at least)
mature Bay tree
mature Olive (this was wrapped loosely in fleece, under cover and close to the house)
About 6 climbers including a couple of really slow growing ones (blasted Clematis Montana weed of a thing survived, of course)
About 1/3rd of the mature shrubs
Almost all herbs
And entire hedge of Griselinia plus the reserve plants that we nestled elsewhere in the beds.

We have fingers crossed that some will come back but most aren't looking hopeful. At least our large Magnolia tree survived and is in full flower.

[akirk]

We have the (new a year or so ago) magnolia doing well and flowering...
and the bulb lasagne continues to give lots of joy and colour (layers of bulbs planted to continue flowering...)
mainly survived the weird weather but half the Cordylines have died due to bacterial infection (apparently weather related) and the lemon tree has given up!

[Patrick Bateman]

Bringing the dahlias out of hibernation today. Hopefully have more joy with them back in the New Horizon peat free compost compared to the Evergreen brand I tried last year.

[guitarcarfanatic]

Less flowers, more landscaping for me.

We had a little area under the tree that was poorly gravelled when the previous owners did the drive. It wasn't really useable, and a bit of a waste of space.



Excuse poor pic.

I made the decision to get the gravel out, level it a little, replace the rotten gravel boards, pop a little pad down for a play house and then add bark (more child safety when they start climbing the tree / playhouse).







I added some brick steps to stop bark/stone mixing and built two little beds around the magnolias either side of the entrance

Old feeding station for the birds was getting ransacked by pigeons who perched on the wall below. Made a new one from scrap and raised it up a bit... (with help from the boy)...

[Diderot]

sleepezy said:

dirty boy said:

I think a fair number of plants have died completely

I know that feeling well - we've likely lost (at least)
mature Bay tree
mature Olive (this was wrapped loosely in fleece, under cover and close to the house)
About 6 climbers including a couple of really slow growing ones (blasted Clematis Montana weed of a thing survived, of course)
About 1/3rd of the mature shrubs
Almost all herbs
And entire hedge of Griselinia plus the reserve plants that we nestled elsewhere in the beds.

We have fingers crossed that some will come back but most aren't looking hopeful. At least our large Magnolia tree survived and is in full flower.

Our magnolia has been magnificent this year, right up until yesterday when the gale force winds took down maybe a third of the flowers. Chance of a storm blowing through tomorrow, so that will no doubt finish the rest off.

[Harry Flashman]

We too had stuff die. Perennial ornamental grasses, mostly, which is odd! Also some alliums that poked their heads up too early were killed by frosts.

Thanks for revitalizing the thread, folks! Love seeing what you are all up to. Keep it coming...

[Swervin_Mervin]

Currently keeping our fingers crossed that our large Phormium (6ft high probably 8ft dia) and a neighbouring Cordyline are going to come back. We've had them for probably about 10yrs, having brought them back from Cornwall. However, the extended cold spell seems to have done for them. Same for a few down the street also.

I'll probably need to cut them back to tidy them up but that's going to be a massive job on the big one.

[RichB]

Swervin_Mervin said:

Currently keeping our fingers crossed that our large Phormium (6ft high probably 8ft dia) and a neighbouring Cordyline are going to come back. We've had them for probably about 10yrs, having brought them back from Cornwall. However, the extended cold spell seems to have done for them. Same for a few down the street also.

I'll probably need to cut them back to tidy them up but that's going to be a massive job on the big one.

I don't where you are in the country but it is the same in north Hampshire. I would say that the cordylines have had it but there may be hope for the phormium. I cut mine down to about 10" with a saw last week. I think there may be the first signs of growth coming through.

[Swervin_Mervin]

RichB said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

Currently keeping our fingers crossed that our large Phormium (6ft high probably 8ft dia) and a neighbouring Cordyline are going to come back. We've had them for probably about 10yrs, having brought them back from Cornwall. However, the extended cold spell seems to have done for them. Same for a few down the street also.

I'll probably need to cut them back to tidy them up but that's going to be a massive job on the big one.

I don't where you are in the country but it is the same in north Hampshire. I would say that the cordylines have had it but there may be hope for the phormium. I cut mine down to about 10" with a saw last week. I think there may be the first signs of growth coming through.

We're S. Manchester/North Cheshire

What sort of saw did you use out of interest? In the past I've cut the dead lower leaves back just using secateurs, but the thought of doing hundreds of leaves that way does not appeal!

[SS9]

In the spirit of contributing to this thread rather than just being a silent reader….

Here’s the current state of my potting shed (still full of the kids toys sadly!)



Currently have:

Edibles
- Sungold and Apero Tomato (currently very leggy as I left them in a warm dark spot in my house too long - I reckon they can be salvaged)
- Aubergine Bonica
- Courgette Defender (germinated)
- Mint, Basil, Coriander
- Jalapeños

Flowers
- High hopes sunflower (germinated)
- Ammi Visnaga
- Rudbeckia Marmalade
- Tithonia rotundifolia
- Nasturtium Empress
- Calendula Sunset Buff

Not quite sure what the plan for all this is, but that’s tomorrows problem!

[RichB]

Swervin_Mervin said:

We're S. Manchester/North Cheshire - What sort of saw did you use out of interest? In the past I've cut the dead lower leaves back just using secateurs, but the thought of doing hundreds of leaves that way does not appeal

RichB said:

I just cut through it with a decent sized wood saw, went through really easily

Just as an update, here's a snap of my phormium / New Zealand Flax. It was last week I cut it down and I'm pleased to see this morning that there's new leaves shooting up all over.

Edited by RichB on Wednesday 12th April 14:02

[Bill]

We've reached the annoying "are they in or out" phase... Currently in the hall despite a perfectly good greenhouse with heat mat!

[Pheo]

sleepezy said:

I know that feeling well - we've likely lost (at least)
mature Bay tree
mature Olive (this was wrapped loosely in fleece, under cover and close to the house)
About 6 climbers including a couple of really slow growing ones (blasted Clematis Montana weed of a thing survived, of course)
About 1/3rd of the mature shrubs
Almost all herbs
And entire hedge of Griselinia plus the reserve plants that we nestled elsewhere in the beds.

We have fingers crossed that some will come back but most aren't looking hopeful. At least our large Magnolia tree survived and is in full flower.

I’d hold fire on ripping anything out just yet. It’s still cold out especially overnight, and I think some things may take longer to kick into gear. Plus you may find somethings regrow from the base.

No doubt we will all have lost quite a few bits as it was abnormally cold but some things will come back!

I’m waiting to see if my Musa Basjoo has survived - the trunk has obviously gone but I hear they come back from the root mass so waiting and seeing. Still way too cold right now for it obviously so doubt it’ll do much yet.

[justin220]

What would be the best way to 'soften' a fence?

We're half way through a bit of a garden refurb and part of it included fencing in our oil tank so we didn't have to stare at it all the time.

The fence is done but Mrs J220 isn't overly happy as it's very abrupt. I was thinking planters, climbers, or even a bit of a feature but not sure where to start

[CharlesdeGaulle]

justin220 said:

What would be the best way to 'soften' a fence?

We're half way through a bit of a garden refurb and part of it included fencing in our oil tank so we didn't have to stare at it all the time.

The fence is done but Mrs J220 isn't overly happy as it's very abrupt. I was thinking planters, climbers, or even a bit of a feature but not sure where to start

Depends what sort of height you're after but planting some pots up and placing them in front of the fence would give a pretty quick result, especially if you use attractive pots, and would allow you to move them as required. The longer term solution might be climbers of some sort. My last house had honeysuckle all over the oil tank which was a rather lovely disguise.

[sleepezy]

Pheo said:

I’d hold fire on ripping anything out just yet.

Oh we are (although not hopeful on the griselinia given that's pretty rotten) no harm in it being there a few more weeks in case anything recovers.