Can we have a thread for what we should be doing in the garden this month? Here's one for February

[hunkermunker]

My name is Hunker and I am a novice gardener.

I would like it looking fantastic all year round.

It currently looks "OK".

We have some grass. Some paving at the end. Two sheds. Two apple trees. A path down one side (overgrown - flowerbed spilling onto it), flowerbed with some things in [dunno what]

And a huge light-sapping tree that has All Sorts growing on it which will have to come down when next door have their extension (can we make them pay for it, they're lovely?).

I know lots of gardening terminology and I have a kneeler pad, some nice gloves, a trowel, fork and hoe thingummy - oh, and a trug.

I'd like the garden to look pretty and provice food for us - salad, especially - and blueberries - VVV says they're v easy to grow - although how can I stop DS2 snarfing them off the sodding bush?

If it looks OK now then I'd spend your time planning what and where to grow stuff. Which side is sunny, what sort of soil you have, do you want shrubs that are easy to look after and provide 'interest' all year etc.

And sort out the tree. If neighbours extension is the only cause of it coming down then I think they should pay for it. If it's a rotten fungus-covered monstrosity of your own making then perhaps go halves?

Do you have a compost heap? If not, WHY NOT? If you do, turn it and get ready to use it. If it's not 'cooking' you need to wee on it.

Planting seeds and er, plants is for March/April when it's warmer.

Yes, have compost heap - and composting bin thungummy in kitchen that gets a pretty good mix of stuff in it.

Soil type - London clay...

Want something easy to tend and nice to look at

Cause of tree coming down - well, we'd probably keep it a while longer, but it'll need to come down for extension. It blocks a lot of light from the kitchen.

Thank you

Build a propagator. Have you got any spare hose?

Also, start planning your seeds. I know you have some

Also, start planning your chicken coop

A what with spare what? [novice I said]

I have lots of lovely seeds

I will get more out of them this year! [marginally more organised]

We are quite 'clayish'. No carrots I'm afraid.

I'll think of some intristing shrubs and pretty things that flower every year without assistance. But tomorrow. I must get to bed or I'll be late for school tomorrow and have to post my shame on Cods thread...

Right I shall join you Hunker. We have recently moved house and have a garden for first time. We moved in in autumn and planted bulbs. Which are coming up .

We have a pear tree, apple tree, silver birch and a bed in the middle with an acanthus (sp) growing and lordy knows what else around the rather large (for us!) (30m) garden.

We have composts, two of em, but we think they might be a bit erm, green? I mean sludgy so we're trying to add egg boxes and woody stuff.

So yes. What for this month?

AND does anyone know how I am going to rotavate the back end of the garden and get it all lovely for midsummer?

Hunker, are you going to use a shed for seed storage/growing etc? We have a garage but not sure it will suffice. I keep reading about starting seeds off in trays, yawn, can't we just chuck them in garden a la jack and the beanstalk?

I'd fair shit myself if a beanstalk grew overnight and I've nowhere to keep a cow in the first place, but I do agree, Slur, it could be made a bit easier, this gardening malarkey.

I have a feeling I'll really enjoy it though.

I must investigate the sheds properly. One has a table and chairs in it. The other - dunno. Lawnmower?

Do I even live here?!

Oh but the golden goose would be nice would it not?

Ooh I loved my little time autumnal gardenign, we had a lot to clear and it was all very therapeutic.

Mkake sure you do investigate the sheds and nab one of them before your dp takes them both. He may not seem interested at the moment but sheds hold a strange allure for xys.

Assuming you haven't in fact just wandered into some random strangers house, in which case I STRONGLY advise you not to take up in their shed.

Norks - if you make a "V" shaped trough with a spade (ie, stick the spade in, up to the spit, and bend back and forth) then fill it with compost you can happily sow carrots (and parsnips) without them forking or struggling.

Spare hosepipe hunker. You can make propagators with lengths of hose and polythene/fleece.

Onion sets can be planted now.

Cali - do you still have the oranges/lemons?

Here are some tips from BBC
I have a not bad sized garden south facing but very windy, clay soil, mostly lawn with beds around the perimeter.

This month I will...
*Be nuturing my new bit of badly laid turf lawn.
*Already cleared out a lot of junk an broken or unused pots and planters.
*Weed out all the beds and add feed plu new compost.
*Prepare new beds around new lawn, perhaps veg for DC to tend.
*Bring in my old caravan for the kids to use as a play house, I am getting really excited about this, can't tow it myself anymore so instead of trying to sell it (ancient) I thought the kids would love to use it, it is water tight.
*Tackle my lavender bushes.

With lavender is it best to cut it right back at some point or just trim?

lavender can only be trimmed back, dont cut into old wood as it wont regrow.

Doh I think I might of hacked a few lavenders back too far then, but they were all straggly and horrible, perhaps time to get new ones.

I spent all afternnon in the garden, sio its looking not too bad (apart from the baldy lavenders )

I have planted tomatoes and peppers but they are under cover AND inside so lovely and warm

I would love a green house, that might be my next project.

My aim this week - dig over veg plot, plan where to create new additional veg plot, sort out rhubarb and potatoes. That is, if I can ever get dd2 to stop feeding.

I'm also a novice. We moved house last year and now have a big garden with loads of trees, shrubs, and stuff in - but I want veg. I stuck some runner beans and peas in the middle of the flowers in the border last year but want to make a proper veg patch this year
My main problem is that we got very excited having a garden and have put a big trampoline, climbing frame and swings in, and now I realise that they are on the sunny bit, so I have to persuade dh to help clear some ground to move kids stuff to, and then get the veggie patch clear..not sure if I'll get it done before the plants need to be in this year.
Dh's main obsession is the compost heaps - which have taken over most of the bottom of the garden and still seem to be growing.

This month I am: pruning all my roses back, pruning lavatera and dogwood (so I get red stems next winter), trimming winter jasmine in conservatory now its flowered, finishing off mulching the first herbaceous border, and planting garlic in the veg patch

Scramble, I think we have the same garden ('cept I don't have a caravan ) My lavenders just looked scrubby last year, I think they'd just got too old, so I chopped them all back, and used any nice green bits as cuttings- gave me loads of little lavender plants to replace the old ones.

Salvolatile- I have a dogwood, too, would I be able to try to propagate the cuttings, do you think? (I have an unheated greenhouse to put them in)

(can you tell I like to get something for nothing? )

Bugger I never thought to take cuttings all in the compost now.