3: Gardening Diaries ...

[Upsy Daisy]

Evening everyone....where are you all hiding??

Absolutely gorgeous day today...so hot, even the washing dried in an hour!! We also enjoyed a BBQ at lunch time.

Continued working on one border, planting it out with some more Primroses and Wallflowers ,will add some bulbs in a couple of weeks time and Winter Pansies and Bellis too.

Will start on the other borders when the summer display stops blooming, but at the moment that seems far off as buds are still forming.
Autumn colour

 

[alp]

Lovely photos, Upsy! A very enjoyable day so far. Been washing pots and repotting some more bamboos. Tidied up the area near where the hedgehog slept. Now it's too tidy and we need to fashion another area of the little wanderer.

Harvested a few potatoes and have determined to grow more. Freegled a rug for lining my lean to to keep the temperature up. Lady also gave me an insect zapper. Hope it works.

 

[alp]

Upsy - you obviously have done a lot of weeding - garden looks so tidy and weed free. Someone has worked hard!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

@alp how did you get on with using tea light candles and terracotta pots to keep temperatures above freezing. If I remember correctly you tried them? Wondering if it's worth a try in our greenhouse, not that we've had any problems, but if we are going to have a prolonged cold spell ( as they at one point forecasted ) it might prove helpful maybe.

 

[alp]

I tried it last year until I ran out of candles. Ex got me quite a few from charity shops. The thickest ones were the best. Tea lights were a bit too short lived. I got nervous and worried about fire hazard. In fact, it was quite safe. I overlapped terracotta pots according to size and the following morning, the terracotta pots were still warm or not too cold.

I got quite worried that there might be a fire hazard and so sometimes slept downstairs until I had pins and needles in my legs. When it was seriously cold, I used the electric heater. But it was quite costly. I am freegling for a greenhouse paraffin heater, but no joy!

 

[alp]

incidentally, a man on freegle keeps asking me about BTU and all the engineering stuff! I felt so out of depth. I even entered the width, height and lengths of my lean to. But the two sides of my lean-to are made of bricks lined by celotex. Very funny how some engineer turns every conversation into a project for me! And I felt like an idiot, made to feel even smaller by the B Science some kind of engineer .. kind of letters after his full name.

I reckon they should be quite safe as there were several pots on top of one another. But my ex obviously kept some 1950's candles from his mum's generation and they stank terrible .. you know those dark green ones which fouled the air when lit!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Ok, thanks for the info. I came across it tonight when I was Googling. Thought you had tried it. But as you say it could work out costly. The article that I came across used a loaf tin in which they placed 4 tea lights. Over this was put a wire rack ( cooling tray) then a terracotta smallish pot, a bigger pot was placed over the smaller one . Did look a bit of a kerfuffle setting it all up, but I suppose if it works it would be worth it......maybe

 

[Upsy Daisy]

I would definitely be out of my depth....just had to ask my friend Google to tell me what BTU meant!!!!

 

[alp]

Men like to show off when discussing something technical. In laws liked to go cruising and mother in law always said men would try to impress by being technical. On a freegle site and keeps adding his letters after his name is very old fashioned and a bit fuddy duddy to me! But that's life and we are all different. Something to laugh at and make me realise how different people can be.

Just watched an episode in which some poor girl got raped in 1995 and only in 2018 was the nasty piece of work convicted. Justice is surely a slow but sure process.

Tealight is quite expensive unless you go to bootsale and find some desperate people who suddenly want to get rid of it. I just used tons of pots so that the candle light heats up the terracotta pots which help keep the heat in. Best is to use polystyrene to line the pots and bubble wrap the greenhouse. I even use polystyrene trays which I don't think Perki would recommend. But it is a sure fire way to raise the temperature for the poor plants in winter.

Talking about BTU, I even had to understand the height from the eaves?????

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Yes I have a lot of polystyrene pizza trays that I saved from my days at work. The parents always allowed the children a pizza day treat each week....so I nabbed the trays and use them to stand all the plants on in the greenhouse.
Height from the eaves definitely gobbledygook to me!!

Watching the last of the latest GR....don't know what my late night garden fix will be now

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Morning all.
A bit of a cold and misty start to the day, but it promises to be another lovely day once it gets going
Here's the view at the moment

Have a great day

 

[alp]

Good morning - Got up very late and then son changed the mode of signing in. It's not even his laptop. Very frustrating - talking about hubs clamping wife's style of living!

After 2 attempts, finally I'm in. Going to the zoo before the temperature plunges another 6c.

Sorry for being so late. But haven't been able to fall asleep straight away.

More from the Wisley Flower Festival

Some floral display

Some spectacular dahlias

Wonder where Zenj bought his gladioli? Better than these!

Think I see Purple Rain.

Striking grass. Need a lot of land to house this beauty though!

exotic and distinctive!

Think Perki might have this Sanguinsorba in his crosshair!

I want to have a white big hibiscus .. Need to have very deep pocket ..

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Morning @alp lovely pics. Especially like that Echinacea 'Green Jewel '.
Are you going to London Zoo ?
Have a great time

 

[alp]

Thank you, @Upsy Daisy !

NO. I love Whipsnade! Overlooking the whole valley. Dream place. Love to live on an area like that.

I could probably do it if I live in Wales!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Sounds lovely, never been. Ideal weather too!