The zombie army COVID-19 Gardening thread.
Discussion
So, we are all at home, for quite a while, in the growing season.
In the Flashman house, this also means both working parents are entertaining an energetic 18 month year old. For those of us lucky enough to have gardens, I suspect that being outside and working on the garden will become a welcome diversion and source of entertainment even for young children. Our daughter has been following me around whilst I do things to the lawn, plant things, weed etc.
I have become a keen but amateur gardener after we bought a house with a decent outside space, so am always happy to learn things.
Of course, I have also realised that I have left all sorts of lethal things all over the place, so priority one is a bit of a clear up and organisation mission.
But I thought that here, we could post what we are doing (and pictures), and tips/tricks and general things to plant. We can't go and buy things, and I am not sure how much ordering of garden stuff online will be possible as people are retasked to delivering essential items)
So my first job has been lawn stuff. I have already posted in the lawn thread, so won't duplicate. But here's a pic of the garden.
Things are happening, as this is a great time of year.
- Damson trees have bloomed. Crabapple seems to be just starting, apple trees are coming into bud.
- various bulbs I planted last winter have thrown up green leaves, hopefully in preparation for flowering
- everything evergreen is growing
- various plants have died over winter, so I know that those species don't like those location
Things to do
- plant some summer bulbs I have lying around, hoping that some will flower
- continue dealing with my patchy lawn
- prune some evergreen shrubs and trees
- sort out the giant patch of weeds to the left of the patio with some wildflower meadow seed (have covered it, but may just nuke it with gylphosate soon as I am impatient)
- sort out my garage, which is full of junk
These are weird days, as we work for a few hours, childmind for a few hours and try to do jobs round the house. My regular working day has disappeared as I work mostly with US markets, and so tend to now be online in the evenings. So I am going to religiously deal with daytime jobs around the house whilst our child has her 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. All ideas, resources and pictures appreciated. This should be like a PH garden diary!
Here's ours, this morning. I am hoping that the rather sad looking beds will start coming up nicely soon.
20200324_092817 by baconrashers, on Flickr
In the Flashman house, this also means both working parents are entertaining an energetic 18 month year old. For those of us lucky enough to have gardens, I suspect that being outside and working on the garden will become a welcome diversion and source of entertainment even for young children. Our daughter has been following me around whilst I do things to the lawn, plant things, weed etc.
I have become a keen but amateur gardener after we bought a house with a decent outside space, so am always happy to learn things.
Of course, I have also realised that I have left all sorts of lethal things all over the place, so priority one is a bit of a clear up and organisation mission.
But I thought that here, we could post what we are doing (and pictures), and tips/tricks and general things to plant. We can't go and buy things, and I am not sure how much ordering of garden stuff online will be possible as people are retasked to delivering essential items)
So my first job has been lawn stuff. I have already posted in the lawn thread, so won't duplicate. But here's a pic of the garden.
Things are happening, as this is a great time of year.
- Damson trees have bloomed. Crabapple seems to be just starting, apple trees are coming into bud.
- various bulbs I planted last winter have thrown up green leaves, hopefully in preparation for flowering
- everything evergreen is growing
- various plants have died over winter, so I know that those species don't like those location
Things to do
- plant some summer bulbs I have lying around, hoping that some will flower
- continue dealing with my patchy lawn
- prune some evergreen shrubs and trees
- sort out the giant patch of weeds to the left of the patio with some wildflower meadow seed (have covered it, but may just nuke it with gylphosate soon as I am impatient)
- sort out my garage, which is full of junk
These are weird days, as we work for a few hours, childmind for a few hours and try to do jobs round the house. My regular working day has disappeared as I work mostly with US markets, and so tend to now be online in the evenings. So I am going to religiously deal with daytime jobs around the house whilst our child has her 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. All ideas, resources and pictures appreciated. This should be like a PH garden diary!
Here's ours, this morning. I am hoping that the rather sad looking beds will start coming up nicely soon.
20200324_092817 by baconrashers, on FlickrEdited by Harry Flashman on Friday 19th June 18:00
Pheo said:
devnull said:
Lovely looking garden.
I do wonder how you handle waste management? My garden looks about half the size as yours and generate a ton of cuttings, which the piddly green bin can't really deal with. Thinking of getting a chipper to mulch it all down a bit smaller. Im being inadvertently dragged into gardening just to keep on top of it all, not something I've normally had an interest in as an engineer!
Uh, compost heap? I do wonder how you handle waste management? My garden looks about half the size as yours and generate a ton of cuttings, which the piddly green bin can't really deal with. Thinking of getting a chipper to mulch it all down a bit smaller. Im being inadvertently dragged into gardening just to keep on top of it all, not something I've normally had an interest in as an engineer!
When we first bought the house three years ago, it had been abandoned for nearly a decade, so the garden was heavily pruned back and skiploads of matter removed.
Since then, I have used a Robomow, which mulches. It is also totally useless due to relentless foxes digging holes, which act like a tank trap for the mower, and ripping up the perimeter wire. Foxes are a whole other topic for this thread as they cause a great deal of damage to my garden; mainly digging up plants/lawn and chewing through wires (so my low voltage lighting system is totally borked). I am hoping that a constant daytime presence will keep them out, but damned if I know what to do at night.
Anyway, I have decided to do a compost heap as we are luck to have the space, and I found an old compost bin hiding in a disused corner. I wa thinking of buying a hot compost bin as they work so much faster.
But composting, as I read, seems as much a faff as any other part of the gardening experience! You don't simply chuck stuff in and hope forthe best, apparently.
RichB said:
I built my own compost bins when we moved in 3 years ago, each is approx one cubic metre and we churn out finished compost about once or twice a year. As HF says though, it's not just a chuck it in and forget job, I also bought a sizeable petrol mulching machine (which I managed to bust last week) and a petrol tiller that I use to chop up all the prunings and stuff generated by the garden. It is a process in itself but I quite enjoy returning everything from the garden back into compost that is then used on the garden. It is also cost effective because a 1 x m2 bag of compost is probably about £100 and so far we've generated about 5 bin fulls from them.
Rich - share your thoughts/instructions on the process? I notice three bins...So much of my gardening project is dictated by working from home and having a toddler here. When Flash Jr is around, I need to keep an eye on her - so only basic tasks like weeding and planting are practical. No advanced building projects. However, she naps in the middle of the day and Lady F and I have worked out that this is a good time, conference calls permitting, to take to be outside in this weather.
However, I have in no uncertain terms been asked to sort out the patio. My problem is that I am an extraordinarily messy person if left to my own devices, and over winter the patio became a storage space for stuff, and now that I am working outside, it seems that everything I am using gets dumped out there. Not helped by me having filled my garage with overflow junk and a broken down scooter. The alleyway behind the garage is a mess of paint tine, old tyres, random junk and buckets full of rubbish.
I had planned on a skip, but that isn't happening now...
This is shaming. But I feel I need to post it to motivate me to get my s
t together. We keep a lovely home indoors, and the garden itself is pretty well-ordered, but there are some zones that need some serious work!
The Patio of mild shame
20200325_090020 by baconrashers, on Flickr
The alleyway of despair:
20200325_091026 by baconrashers, on Flickr
20200325_090955 by baconrashers, on Flickr
The garage of abject slovenliness
20200325_091014 by baconrashers, on Flickr
However, I have in no uncertain terms been asked to sort out the patio. My problem is that I am an extraordinarily messy person if left to my own devices, and over winter the patio became a storage space for stuff, and now that I am working outside, it seems that everything I am using gets dumped out there. Not helped by me having filled my garage with overflow junk and a broken down scooter. The alleyway behind the garage is a mess of paint tine, old tyres, random junk and buckets full of rubbish.
I had planned on a skip, but that isn't happening now...
This is shaming. But I feel I need to post it to motivate me to get my s
t together. We keep a lovely home indoors, and the garden itself is pretty well-ordered, but there are some zones that need some serious work!The Patio of mild shame
20200325_090020 by baconrashers, on FlickrThe alleyway of despair:
20200325_091026 by baconrashers, on Flickr20200325_090955 by baconrashers, on FlickrThe garage of abject slovenliness
20200325_091014 by baconrashers, on FlickrI am thinking of using those tyres (funnily enough also off a Range Rover, which is no longer in our possession) for growing potatoes. APparently they make excellent vessels for this, and that location (alleyway) is sunny and out of sight.
The Piaggio three wheeler's hydraulics are broken, which is a real shame as that is a perfect vehicle for short London trips. I have no ide where to even begin fixing them - they are notoriously complex and difficult to fix. It may just be wheeled onto the driveway now that winter is largely over.Then a lot of stuff currently gracing the garden can go in the garage.
This all makes perfect sense. I just can't be bothered. Pottering in the garden is much more fun.
However, as Lady F said this morning, my choices have been curtailed. Clean-up it is!! Then gardening. On that, I am thinking:
- start composting
- prepare unused bed with poor soil for wildflower meadow planting (weeding and raking etc)
- prune evergreen trees so I can rake clippings off the lawn before I have to overseed it
- plant summer flowering bulbs
- general weeding
- trim unruly leylandii hedge at back of garden
- consider shooting a fox.
The Piaggio three wheeler's hydraulics are broken, which is a real shame as that is a perfect vehicle for short London trips. I have no ide where to even begin fixing them - they are notoriously complex and difficult to fix. It may just be wheeled onto the driveway now that winter is largely over.Then a lot of stuff currently gracing the garden can go in the garage.
This all makes perfect sense. I just can't be bothered. Pottering in the garden is much more fun.
However, as Lady F said this morning, my choices have been curtailed. Clean-up it is!! Then gardening. On that, I am thinking:
- start composting
- prepare unused bed with poor soil for wildflower meadow planting (weeding and raking etc)
- prune evergreen trees so I can rake clippings off the lawn before I have to overseed it
- plant summer flowering bulbs
- general weeding
- trim unruly leylandii hedge at back of garden
- consider shooting a fox.
Pics please people, and any suggested projects.
Doing some pruning of various overgrown things before I seed the lawn in April. This is not safe.
20200328_095422 by baconrashers, on Flickr
Doing some pruning of various overgrown things before I seed the lawn in April. This is not safe.
20200328_095422 by baconrashers, on FlickrVery nice! And a definite yes on waiting for things to flower before working out what is to be chopped down. I nearly got rid of a load of damson trees that way, which now deliver an excellent crop that goes straight into damson gin and vodka later in the year.
That would have been a bad mistake to make.
That would have been a bad mistake to make.
Spent the day sorting out the complete mess behind the garage. There is now a giant pile of rubbish to be disposed of. But at least I feel better.
Also, this is a great time of year for being in the garden. Our damson trees have stopped blooming, but the apple trees have started!
Definitely feeling for folk living in flats in the current situation. That must be really bloody hard.
20200405_145907 by baconrashers, on Flickr
Also, this is a great time of year for being in the garden. Our damson trees have stopped blooming, but the apple trees have started!
Definitely feeling for folk living in flats in the current situation. That must be really bloody hard.
20200405_145907 by baconrashers, on FlickrAs above! I'd like to fit a Y connector to the hose on the rear sprinkler for the same reason, but the water flow direction would mean no stop as the standard hozelock hose end connector only stops water one way?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HOZELOCK-Conector-Y-grane...
+ this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-Hose-connector-1...
= water gushing out unless you have a hose connected to all three points at all times.
What you need is a diverter valve thing that you can select the channel on.
Like this, but with three male ends:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-Ltd-HZ22560000-D...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HOZELOCK-Conector-Y-grane...
+ this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-Hose-connector-1...
= water gushing out unless you have a hose connected to all three points at all times.
What you need is a diverter valve thing that you can select the channel on.
Like this, but with three male ends:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-Ltd-HZ22560000-D...
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