6/7/22 - New Ryobi toys

 Put the new shorter, hand held hedge trimmer to good use - my long arms more than make up for its 20cm length. 

Spent an hour in the morning on the top bank tidying up the holly, the intertwined brambles and the various bits of hawthorn, ivy and cornflour that grow up in between.  The apple tree is looking good but needs to be freed from the overbearing rowan.  

Shane and I did the summer prune of the wisteria - I'd let it grow over the front porch roof and it had gotten a bit gnarly - have taken it right back to before the guttering on the left hand side.  

The missing allium (from the previous post)

Found the missing bulb information - I also planted 3 x allium bulgaricum in the black planter which previously held the horseradish.  The picture on the packet showed flowers which were more pendulous/droopy than the one below, but the colours are about the same.

Alliums bought/planted

Finally got round to planting the alliums bought at Tatton last year - they should have gone in in October but 1st January seemed like a nice round date to put them into tubs. 

Into the two green/brown plastic pots I put

5 x Schuberti



10 x Sphaerocephalum



3 x red mohican



I may have got the planting slightly wrong in terms of height - the Sphaerocephalum around the outside of the pots may dwarf the Schuberti.  Perhaps they'll flower at different times - fingers crossed. 

I also bunged a load more Sphaerocephalum from other bulb packets into the long trough which had previously held the horseradish, Thai basil and agapanthus.  The latter have been re-potted with the thought that they will get a bit pot bound and thus flower this year.  The horseradish was treated to its own big tub as it failed to put down a proper tap root in the shallow planter.  Need to get some Thai basil on the way indoors.  

Alocasia Amazonica

https://www.ourhouseplants.com/plants/alocasia

Rose pruning

Groundcover rose - wait until March:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=174

Climbing rose can be done a little earlier (I have climbers, not ramblers because they flower repeatedly - ramblers only flower once in early summer).

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=189

Late summer sowing

It's the last day of August and I've taken advantage of the fine weather over the past couple of days to weed the veg beds and sow some seeds - this may come to a whole heap of nothing but it's worth a try.  Unfortunately the early onset of the heatwave caused all the pak choi, daikon and mong bok (Chinese leaf/napa cabbage) to bolt and I managed only a couple of lettuces (partly due to my own indifference as well as the heat). 

So, today I have planted:

A couple of rows of daikon.  I might get some smallish roots out of them, not sure if they can overwinter. 
A row of mong bok - again, not sure how big they might grow - I reckon I've only got about 6 weeks, 8 tops before things will start to shut down.
A row of white radish - these grow a bit quicker so may get something out of them before the winter.
A row of pak choi - probably should have planted this a month ago.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I've also put in liberal sprinklings of rocket, mizuna, lamb's lettuce and a 'spicy salad mix' from Wilko.  Got nothing out of them from May's sowing - it all got too hot. 

I've also scattered some of the poppy seeds that I bought from premier seeds direct into the coffin beds.  Not been too precious about these - they're like dust and if I get one or two plants to take that will be fine. 

And I've just had a quick sprinkle of hollyhock seeds into the shady edge of the garden by the compost bin. 

In other news:  The tomatoes are surprising me with their ability to ripen.  Removing most of the leaves from the plants in the gro-bags seems to have been the right thing to do - seeing what Iain did to his cordons in his garden was an inspiration.  I think that I shall save seeds from a posh tesco variety (probably cherry) later this year and sow them, rather than buy a commercially raised plants.  Whilst the harvest has been prolific, the flavour has been lacking on some of the plants, with the exception of the cherry tomato plant that Dad gave me (which I think was grown from shop bought tomatoes) and one of the ones from B&Q (the plant label is in the gro-bag - let's see if I remember to put it in here when I break it down). 

Allium bulb instructions

(from W.S. Warmenhoven)

As soon as you bought the bulbs, unpack them and lay them on the paper bag.  Keep the bulbs until October in a dry place, well ventilated and let them breathe.

Don't plant in heavy clay - if you must, mix the clay with grit.  Well drained soil is the best.  They need water in the autumn to make a good root system to soak up water in the spring to produce the flowers.  Make sure you don't plant the bulbs in a dry spot.

After planting put some bonemeal on top.  Planting depth is 2.5 times the size of the bulb.  If you have a windy garden plant them a bit deeper. 

Don't plant them in pots.  If you do so water them frequently directly after planting throughout the whole winter. 

If you let them make seed heads by the end of the flowering season they will not easily flower a second time.  Cut off the flower if you don't want the seed heads. 

After three years take out the bulbs and let them dry.  Take off the small bulbs and plant them in fresh soil.