Is there a lockdown gardening thread?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

It can’t be just me who is not a regular gardener and who is wondering how on earth to get the garden into shape now I have spare time to do it, but nowhere to put bits of pruned bushes, mown grass and weeds. Not to mention no trips to the garden centre for anything, including compost and plants. My garden is too small for a compost bin. I already have to have the lawn mower in a plastic shed thing so dont want to add another unsightly thing like a compost bin into the mix.

I live in a a suburban semi with small front and back garden but LOTS to cut back. Our green bin collection is on hold. All my green garden bags are full and the local waste centre is closed. (I really thought it might stay open as I thought people mainly just sit in their cars in a queue, then get out and dump their waste without really getting close to anyone else.

I think, apart from anything, I’m just wondering what everyone is doing differently to normal than what they would normally do on an Easter bank holiday weekend. Which I’m guessing is visit the garden centre!

Digging Curly! Usually the big garden fork to try to loosen the roots and then pull them up - it's been so dry that if the earth is loosened then they come up relatively easily. There are just a lot of them...

My two climbers both get the sun for most of the day, although they also each have a spell in shade morning and evening...and although one is tucked in a corner, it gets quite windy in our garden so I'd be surprised if the air wasn't being circulated around it, from a leaf mold perspective.

We have heavy clay soil and a very high water table, so I'd have also thought there was plenty of moisture to their roots - but I've been slinging a bit of water their way, just in case!

I'm thinking of giving up on the small, super shall and super dry bed out the front - I might just fill it with rocks to stop the cats shitting in it and bung some pockets of aubretia in there. Can I plant aubretia seeds straight in there this time of year (or grow some in a makeshift mini greenhouse first) or is it best to buy the - - horribly expensive. Mml0

Haha, the puppy leapt up and hit post for me! I sneezed, he panics at the sound and rushes to revive me.

I'll finish my previous post...or is it best to buy the horribly expensive 10cm pre-grown pots online?

I found a local garden centre doing orders by email - they send you an order form - but there are only limited bundles and they aren't advertising aubretia. I've ordered my bedding for baskets though...a few varieties of petunia, plus bacopa and napeta. I fancied some trailing busy lizzies this year, oh well.

Hello! Does anyone know anywhere with raspberry canes and strawbs in stock that delivers?

magis I ordered raspberries and strawbs through Marshall’s reportedly in stock and still delivering but no sign as yet. I think it was just over a week ago so I remain hopeful!

Magis - I ordered strawberry plants off of Marshalls about a month ago... came last week after about 7 days in the post!

Ordered raspberry canes off esty and were due to arrive on 15th April but no bloody sign of them from Royal Mail :( Poor seller is trying to find out what they've bloody done with them.

Oh for god’s sake, my delphiniums have all been eaten overnight. They were all still in the tray that I bought last year and the same thing happened but I’d forgotten all about that till I discovered them growing back in the chucked-aside tray a few weeks ago. I was delighted and had thought of a space to put them once they were big enough. I haven’t seen any slugs or snails about at all where they were so thought the were safe. No trails. And then just stalks this morning! Found a snail underneath the tray which must have been the culprit.

Is that it now for this year? No way they’ll start growing again from the pathetic bits of stalks that are left?

Re ordering stuff by post. I don’t think we can expect great quality or customer service at the moment, particularly with plants which might be hanging around somewhere. Even the bloody veg I’m getting from the supermarket isn’t lasting before it goes soft or yellow or slimy. And I had a confirmed order from Boots online from 17th April but the payment has been showing as pending in online banking for days so I don’t know if it’s been shipped or not or just stuck in the system.

I had some flowers delivered which didn’t last as long as I expected them to. I’ve got some perennials coming from one company but who knows when and in what condition? Packs of seeds were ordered a week ago and no sign so you wonder if it will end up being too late to sow them! But we should all still support these companies I guess. I just don’t like the thought of their reputation going down the pan because of the circumstances we’re in. They must be doing the best they can with fewer members of staff and new ways of working in thrust at them all of a sudden.

I've got some seeds coming too - finally found some aubretia that wasn't from Serbia or China, Suttons had some. It does say expect dispatch in 7-10 days.

My plan was to start them in a windowsill propagator thing with a lid (bit of grit, bit of ordinary compost), let them germinate and grow on a bit then put them out in a sunny dry bed in early summer. Surrounded by slate so the local cats don't dig them up.

DH is looking sceptical and says they "won't do well", but I thought a shitty sandy dry bed previously used for alpines was exactly where aubretia would cope...isn't it? Nothing else lives in there, I tried lavender last year but that's already died.

Incidentally, DH says your delphiniums probably will grow from the shitty bits of stalk @CurlyhairedAssassin but just won't flower. I notice he'll answer the questions of an internet person but not mine!

What a great idea for a thread, can I join you? Another one with claggy clay soil. We redid our garden a couple of years ago, so it's a very slow work in progress but like everyone else I've been much more interested in it since lockdown!

I've spent a couple of years trying to establish a wildflower meadow, which is absurdly labour intensive, for what looks like a weedy mess.

I got some seedlings from Sarah Raven and I've cleared a patch at the front of the wildflower bit to plant them. They're a mix of self-seeding annuals, with some ammi that look cow-parley-ish, so hoping they blend and look pretty from the house. They're hardy, so hoping I can plant them out now....is that OK do you think?

Also planting a herb garden - local garden centre delivered.

My garden is TINY - more of a yard. We have a hot bin, which processes waste really quickly.
I've done lots of seed planting and tidied up a bit, so far!

I cant find anywhere that sells compost. Click n collect or delivered. Any ideas of where I can buy in the chelmsford essex area? 😁😁

Have you rung round the local garden centres?

I ordered my mini greenhouse!

Try Wickes for compost MJW and look on local Facebook page as we have a few people who deliver here.

My garden waste bin collection resuming, it took just a couple of hours to nearly fill it.

Our local Jet garage is selling compost - check your local facebook pages, and see if any small shops in your area are doing the same. Ring round the local independent garden centres - they wont be set up for internet ordering, but often are taking phone and email orders and are willing to deliver.

B&Q are selling compost either on click and collect or you can visit your local store as they seem to have re-opened all their branches from today.

B and Q and homebase open for gardening today 1 may. So don't pay over the odds for online compost.

Whare the queues like at B&Q, has anyone braved it? Our local one has been open a while but we couldn't even get in the car park when we tried last.

DH drove into the B and Q car park and drove out again. The queue was endless.

Does anyone know much about lavender? Some of mine has bare dead-looking patches. There's green bits too though, will it come back?

I dug my lavender out yesterday - all dead apart from one stem which had some green bits on it, but the cats just shit in the dirt around whatever I plant so I've given up. It's a crappy shallow dry bed so I've dug it over, raked out the biggest stones and picked out the cat turds, and put 2 bags of reclaimed slate over it.

If I ever manage to grow my aubretia seeds on, I'll plant some plugs of aubretia through it and see if that takes.

Sorry not very helpful - yes, I imagine it will come back if there are signs of life!

Hi @PlantSavers - your scheme looks good, but I can't see the registered address of your company or the names of any of its directors on your website, and I never buy remotely from companies where these details aren't available given the risk of fraud. It would also be helpful to have official endorsement on your website from the garden centres you're working with. Thanks!

I repotted my lavender in a larger pot and it's looking much more healthy now.

Can I ask about carrots?

I've managed to get them growing from seed, at the moment they are in large round pots. There must be 200 little green sprigs. What do I do next? How high should they be before I transfer them?

I've dug over a patch of the garden, it's sunny and I think the soil is OK. How do I proceed? Plant them a few inches apart? Do they need covering with chicken wire? We have a lot of squirrels and birds.

Also, I've got parnsip, buttenut squash peeping through too in small pots - can they be planted in the same patch with the carrots?