Reluctant Gardeners sign up here - gardening flylady style.

[Carrotsandcelery]

Anyone up for a gardening motivational thread, flylady style?

The idea is little and often.

We post what we have done here and hopefully inspire/motivate each other to get cracking in the garden and have a beautiful summer.

Keen gardeners are very welcome too, to show us how it is done.

[cardoon]

Hoe all you can in this dry weather.

Cover your seed drills after sowing with bought compost - no weeds and you can see where everything is.

Use enviromesh over your carrots and brassicas.

[3isthemagicnumber]

me please.

Have quite taken to gardening for the first time this year, but am aware of my limited -cluelessness- knowledge.

Have so far-
weeded,
planted bulbs, ( cardoon wish i had taken your 'covering' advce-not sure where they all are now)
reseeded lawn (hopeless mission with 3 DS')
.....and dug and planted a vegetable patch

not sure where i should be going from here...

[supadupacreameggscupa]

hi there,

I normally leave the gardening to dh as i find it difficult on the old knees and back, however after doing pilates for some time now decided to give it a whirl and I have now stocked up the herb garden (a patch really but that sounds odd somehow).

Done a bit of weeding too and now have to pluck up the courage to plant a strawberry and a magnolia.

[DoodleAlley]

Oh I'll sign up. When we moved house we opted for one with a big ish garden (well big for us) and have since discovered we can kill things with just a glance. Apart from weeds which seem to thrive.

And because IRS such a big task I garden so we can use the garden rather than out if a love if gardening. I think I'd probably enjoy it more if it wasn't such a big job and if I wasn't so useless at it.

Just planted a few plants to fill the gaps where the last lit died from all the snow over winter ( at least I'm blaming it on the snow...!)

[DoodleAlley]

Sorry that was littered with typos. My phone keeps thinking I've typed things incorrectly when I haven't and doesnt notice my mistakes!

Suffice it to say IRS should have been "its"...

[Carrotsandcelery]

Welcome all! So far this year I have planted the pot at the front door with flowers, planted pots at the back door with herbs (and killed some basil which I stupidly planted out WAY too early). I have weeded round half of the back lawn (which amounted to 3 huge garden refuse bags which went to the green waste at the tip) but now have hurt my arms
I put in a couple of ivies at the start of the season to try to dry up a really wet spot and break up a fence at one end of the garden and I have put in two other climbers against the fence to cover it where we lost plants in yet another arctic winter.
That is what I have done so far this year. I just need a little boost to keep me going now with weeding, dead heading etc.

[Dosey]

hi carrots thought I would have a nosey. I have been to the garden centre today bought some compost, plants and pots. I started planted a few weeks ago in the boarders so its looking quite colourful. The problem I am having is with the lawn. We have a dog and we have lots of patches where she wees. Last week I put some grass seed down on quite a big patch but so far nothing has happend. Any tips on dog wee patches would be grateful.

I am going to try a flylady style gardening system. Fifteen minutes a day watering and deading heading then once a week garden blessing, weeding and tyding up. All sounds very good in theory!!!!

[Carrotsandcelery]

Dosey thanks for coming along in support. I like your plan of 15 mins and weekly garden blessing. I think I will join you on that one.

We also have the dog wee patches. I have heard you can buy some sort of Australian stone and put it in their water bowl and it stops the wee leaving a patch. I have heard mixed reviews though.

I have done a bit of dead heading as I pass things today and it has rained so I didn't need to water the pots.

[twinmumplus1inthetum]

Oh I'd like to join you all.
We are about to move into a new house and I want to keep on top of the garden.
There are lots of spaces with no plants I want to fill and also need to keep up with the weeding.
Have had a couple of trips to the garden centre and I'm quite shocked by how expensive plants are. Has anyone had any luck taking cuttings from friends gardens? Have never tried it and it seems like a good money saver.

[Carrotsandcelery]

Welcome to the thread - My parents used to take cuttings a lot twinmumplus. They would dip it in rooting powder and then pop it in a pot on the windowsill iirc. Once it had grown they planted it out in the garden. They have shrubs that are now taller than me that began life that way.

[Carrotsandcelery]

Some plants also seem to create little offshoots that pop up through the ground nearby. I have potted them before and nursed them into "adult" plants successfully. I have swapped with friends quite a lot. It works best with the cottage garden stuff in my experience.

[Mirage]

I'm watching this thread with interest.I garden for a living and my own garden never gets the time it needs.After 6 or 7 hours gardening for other people,the last thing I want to do is go out and start on my unruly plot.But,I have forced myself the last 2 nights and mowed 2 lawns,weeded a border and replanted the peas for a 3rd time thanks to the pigeons,they even ripped holes in the netting to get to them.

[Carrotsandcelery]

Welcome Mirage - great to have someone with expertise onboard. Are you going to try to do what Dosey suggested and try 15 mins a day with a weekly thorough tidy up?

[3isthemagicnumber]

liking the 15 minutes a day ideathough mine seems mainly to be spent ridding the garden of cat shit.

Lots of different types of expertise on here, so really looking forward to being steered through the wilderness.
Aside from the cat issues, have weeded and edged today.
Also, need good child/pet/generally kind slug repellent for veg' patch-any suggestions?
(Though the boys and their football are doing a good job of repelling all things, including shoots/plants/general growth etc.....)

[KnickersOnOnesHead]

Hi all,

thought I would nip in.

My garden in fairly big, and my first ever garden.

So far I've managed to re-grass the 'fire spot'.

And today I've done

‎10 sprouts, 20 yellow toms, 4 red toms, 12 cayenne chilli peppers, 10 marrows, 10 chilli peppers, 10 sweetcorn, 10 broad beans and god knows what else, all planted and re-potted! Gah I really really need a green house!

[KnickersOnOnesHead]

Ooops posted too early.


I've still to put a fence up the back. Have the panels but no posts yet. Cut the grass, again. (was done two weeks ago)

Clear the patio of weeds.

Dig out the veg patch and rebuild the wall around it (was used for burnt out stuff)

Buy, and erect a greenhouse and shed.

Finish cutting down the hedge I started last summer. Dig out borders and plant ? something.

[Carrotsandcelery]

Knickers what time did you get up? Wow!

Magic I sympathise - are they your cats? I have done the poo run in our garden today but at least it is my dog - somehow that is slightly less offensive.

The man who comes to prune etc is coming today - he comes 2 or 3 times a year when the mood takes him. I am not sure what he will do but I am wondering if his work will count as my 15 mins today.

I am itching to get out there which is very unusual. I have some new plants to put in bare spots and still half the garden to weed. Today is the first day I haven't been in agony with my weeders arm though so I think I should approach cautiously.

[Dosey]

hi everybody, goodness me we all seem so very busy. I am going to sweep the front of our house today which will count towards my fifteen minutes. I keep finding piles of dead leafs so I need to pop them into the compost bin. I can get this done while the kiddies are playing outside which means the house is staying tidy!! Flylady would be very proud I feel.

[Carrotsandcelery]

Sweeping is a great idea Dosey - I may copy you once my man who does has finished and make that my 15 mins - I could cope with that, funny arm or not.

[twinmumplus1inthetum]

Thanks for the tips Carrots, good to know that it works best with cottage garden plants as those are the kind of plants I'm after.
Going to do my 15 mins this afternoon. Intensive weeding beckons.
Weeders arm sounds very impressive. You must have been working hard.

I really want to plant an apple tree at some point. I am a very novice gardener, is this completely the wrong time of year to do this? And can anyone recommend a variety that won't grow too big and has nice eaters?

[KnickersOnOnesHead]

Well, I am at a loss as to what to do with my garden.

The back fence really needs putting up, but to do that I've to straighten the bottom of the garden first. 60 years full of crap

I also want to put some nice borders around the garden but one one side there is hedge (most of it cut down) but I think the roots are still down there, which would mean poisoning it, then nothing would grown there anyway. Argh.

Also wanting to border the front garden.


Hmmmm should I just get someone in?

[lilibet]

Joining up as well. I hate gardening but am determined this year. I have dug out the long front bed and the rockery and I need to dig out the herb bed and start again with that. My mil gave me one of those four prong twisty things (that's the official name!) and I'm going great with it.

Tonight I have to do a bit of planting.

What does everyone use on their hands? I hate gardening gloves so tend to go bare handed but it takes forever to get my hands clean afterwards.

[Carrotsandcelery]

I wear rubber gloves - just ordinary Marigold type things. I find my hands still get dirty with gardening gloves and I find them bulky and clumsy. The rubber gloves do mean your hands sweat a lot and your hands smell a bit afterwards but it keeps the grime out from the fingernails. I was finding it ingrained in my dry skin and everything but not with the rubber gloves.

The gardener came and cut back what needed cut and removed some dead plants - winter has been hard on my garden over the last 2 years.

He has sprayed the weeds and told me not to weed them as they will die back to the root if I leave them alone. That leaves me free to concentrate of pots, dead heading, planting etc

[twinmumplus1inthetum]

Knickers - sounds like you have lots to do, the garden we have just moved into was left with gaps (where the previous owners had taken out the nice plants), weird twiggy (mostly dead) plants and a dog poo in the middle of the lawn. Nice.
I had someone in for a few sessions to get me started. She took out all the dead plants, dug in lots of compost and re-shaped a couple of the beds. It stopped the task seeming overwhelming and now I'm on my own and quite excited about it. Though I'm realising that patience is required. I want it to look like something out of garden magazine straight away!

[twinmumplus1inthetum]

Yeah carrots! no more weeding. Other stuff is so much more fun.