The Potting shed

I have some daffs down my field that I planted three years ago. For the first two years they came up blind, but this year there were numerous flowers. It seems to me that many plants do really well one year and not so well the next.

 

Yes I have planted them out in sunny beds.. And will give them a feed.. Is it good too now?

 

Ahh.... Thank you

 

Yes feed em now Yorkie.

 

cheers

 

I know that if the weather is dry after flowering then that can make the plants blind the following year, but I was talking with a gardening friend recently and he told me that if the weather is too wet before they surface, then that can make them blind as well. I think mine were dry last year and wet this year so I have a very poor display of yellow this year. Hope for a better show next year. When planting the bulbs I understand it is wise to put a bit of grit in the hole before the bulb so their feet don't get wet, but I couldn't be bothered to do this at the time.

 

Due to the closure of Garden Centres I have been digging up and replanting to avoid large barren areas
A lot of which are Foxgloves, if they all survive and blossom I will at least have something to look at

 

I love foxgloves and also aquilegia. They just self sew and need no care

 

Strangely enough I was digging up and moving Foxgloves this afternoon, not because I am worried about having no colour, but because there were dozens that had scattered their seed all over my vegetable patch where I wanted to sow my mange tout. I cannot bare to send them to the compost bins, so I cleared a different patch and moved them to their new home. Our newsagents here all sell plants, vegetables and flowers, and I see that they have started to arrive. Newsagents are allowed to stay open so that some people who rely on the papers can be kept up to date on what is or is not allowed at present.

 

Our local ice-cream shop is like that - newsagent, nursery, cafe, post office, off licence and greengrocer. It's run by my neighbour - he does a roaring trade, whatever the weather and even in these troubled times - although he has shut the cafe section.

 

I phoned my local garden centre as the web said they were open. They weren't but they said they would take orders over the phone and deliver then - free if over £25. Worth a try in your area? Good for them I thought trying to keep ticking over.

 

Thank you.. We have done an order with a big supplier... Bu looks like there will be further travel restrictions.. So hoping my plugs will arrive in time

 

People on our neighbourhood watch group have started offering seeds and seedlings to each other...... really useful as we always get too many seeds in a pack......

Lots of gardening to do ...as we are now noticing so much more......

 

Mrs Fez is currently in the greenhouse (recently cleaned, nay, scrubbed within an inch of its life! by yours truly) seeding...

 

Yes I initiated this with neighbours & friends locally. Seems to go down well.

 

We have several occasions each year when we visit someone's garden, have some nice cakes, a drink or two, and a plant swap. We currently have a collection of young plants that were being readied for the first gathering, but as it is not on the list of things you can travel for we might have to look after them for much longer.

 

The government here has announced that seeds and plants have been added to the list if things that you are allowed to go out for. With the French having loads of large gardens and allotments this does make sense. My haricot vert have failed to germinate, but it was some old seed. As I grow quite a lot of them I did have a new box of seed, so have scrapped out the trench, and put in some of the new seed. The peas have germinated well and there is a good looking row sheltering under cloches. I found that before I covered them birds would come along and pull the young seedlings out. There are pictures around showing the commercial garden centre suppliers with greenhouses full of plants that should be in the shops and garden centres by now, all started off before the virus spread such destruction. One of the garden centres that I always visited when in England because it was so good was a real disappointment last year. It had been taken over by an American company, and is now a coffee shop, tea room and restaurant, along with very expensive, but useless gifts. The plants have been moved over to make way for these unnecessary goods, and the quality had dropped off considerably. The only coffee you will get in the garden centres here is out of a machine.

 

Very sad here with so many plants going to waste..
I have ordered some seeds, so am planting some veg, beans, spinach, kale, broccoli, abd herbs for cooking : coriander and fenugreek...,
I would love to be able to buy more ..

 

General question here about compost which has been supplied from a recycling centre. We don't produce enough of our own and so, this year, I had a delivery of this from our local centre. The problem is that it appears to be hydrophobic (ie. extremely water resistant). I don't know if this is because it has never seen moisture or because the plastic content may be too high. You can pour water on it to your hearts content but it doesn't sink. Does anyone have any experience of working with this stuff ?

 

No.... not here....