Author Topic: Gardening  (Read 336575 times)

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Offline Nemesis

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #645 on: December 26, 2015, 05:53:14 pm »
A more modern one for you Hugo. He still gets grubby, but not quite like the one in your pic !
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #646 on: December 26, 2015, 06:14:32 pm »
He looks absolutely gorgeous Nemesis,  I'll have to remember not to show that photo to my wife as she's been on at me for years to have a Bichon Frise as a companion for Marco.
Don't take him to visit his cousin at the farm or else Frizzy will look like his scruffy cousin.      ;D


Offline Nemesis

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #647 on: December 27, 2015, 02:04:22 am »
Don't even go there Hugo ! We have had dogs now for more than 50 years of varying breeds and he has been the most difficult. He is now 5 and calmer, but we still daren't let him off the lead and he will tackle anything he doesn't like the look of.
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #648 on: December 27, 2015, 02:56:39 pm »
Thanks for the advice Nemesis,  I'll remember that if Mrs H carries on again about getting one.      $good$

Offline squiggle

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #649 on: December 27, 2015, 10:24:10 pm »
Don't even go there Hugo ! We have had dogs now for more than 50 years of varying breeds and he has been the most difficult. He is now 5 and calmer, but we still daren't let him off the lead and he will tackle anything he doesn't like the look of.

Maybe he's got a streak of Little Gomez in him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoDTef6pDg4

We've  only had three dogs in my lifetime and don't have one now.  Meg, a border collie we had during our time at Skerryvore could be quite headstrong.  Goes with the breed - I don't think I'd recommend them as family pets and despite her having a big playground with Skerryvore garden, Bodysgallen woods near by, etc. and I believe her having a good home, I sometimes felt she really belonged on the Welsh mountains as a working dog (she came from working stock in Llanbedyr Y Cenyn and I believe the farm gave her away as she turned out brown and white).

Offline squiggle

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #650 on: December 27, 2015, 11:12:32 pm »
And to move to gardening... My mother was given 2 roses as a Christmas present today.  I can't remember what they are but one is a climber/rambler and the other a bush rose.

She once had perhaps 3 or 4 roses stolen from the garden in Skerryvore, Bryn Pydew. Quite weird.  The only thing  taken were these newish David Austin roses.

Offline squiggle

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #651 on: December 28, 2015, 01:06:55 pm »
Does anyone else use micro irrigation systems? As my mother who (except for some greenhouse salad stuff which I do) is the gardener here grew older, watering became more and more of a chore so we switched to this stuff. It's worked out pretty well.

The vegetable plot, small greenhouses, etc. round the back might be of interest. We collect rainwater from the roof of the house and from a shed in the field.  There are 12 x 200L butts in total. One group is about 30M from the other - they are connected by a run of 25mm plastic pipe.

I use a solar panel set up and a pump to water this area. I chose a marine fresh water pump (they are used to pump fresh water to taps, etc. on boats) to do the pumping. They had a reasonably low power consumption (unlike some of the "water butt" pumps I looked at) and have the big advantage that they work on demand - turn a tap on and the pump starts up. This enables easy usage of standard battery powered tap timers.

I use 4 station Sunmate timers.  These allow me to split some areas into smaller sections, helping to conserve water and keeping the demand on the pump and the battery lower. We don't use the automatic scheduling part of the timers but do make use of their ability to water a station(s) for a given length of time. It's sort of push a button to set the watering going. This rainwater system will usually carry us through dry spells and enable say a weekly dose of Phostrogen to the veg plot and/or the Vitalink stuff I use in the greenhouses.

We use one of those Dosatron injector things for the fertiliser - I have one on a trolley.  I did look at the cheaper bag things but they didn't really suit or requirements (I think you usually have to empty the bag in one watering for starters). With this one, I can change the container of fertiliser as require and change the dilution ratio. I have 5L containers of "concentrated fertaliser" (eg. say 1Kg of phostrogen in 5L of water) and worked out a table on a spreadsheet that gives what I need to set the Dosatron to to bring my concentrate down to the correct dilution.

It's a bit expensive.  In fact the whole project for our smallish areas has been expensive but when you consider, the whole thing was done over 10-15 years with bits added or modified as required and that the set up has contributed in some  way to extending my mothers gardening years in some areas, it's probably not that bad.

I think we are on a winding down period now though.  I've no interest in taking on the main gardening although, while I'm here I'll try to keep a supply of fresh salad stuff for as long as I can. My mother is slowly but surely replacing squares in the veg plot with fruit trees.

Offline hollins

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #652 on: January 04, 2016, 11:58:47 am »
The first snowdrops are coming up.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #653 on: January 04, 2016, 12:16:57 pm »
Lovely photo Hollins and it looks like there are many more Snowdrops on their way up.       $good$
 
 Nature is fascinating in how it copes with all kinds of adverse weather.

Offline squiggle

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #654 on: January 04, 2016, 12:46:18 pm »
The first snowdrops are coming up.

Always a welcome sight, I think and often a sign of the changing seasons to me.  I didn't spot any one a quick scan round the front of or garden in north Norfolk but I'm sure we will be seeing some soon. Later in they year, I think one of the local churches has a sort of "snowdrop day" - an area of their ground gets covered in them.

One of the things in flower here  is the common primrose - sorry but I don't seem able to capture the pale yellow this morning.  In the background, there is some sort of daffodil/narcissus coming up.


Offline Hugo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #655 on: January 26, 2016, 07:40:24 pm »
Our first Daffodils survived the gales today but more gales are forecast so I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that they will survive the next lot.

Offline hollins

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #656 on: February 09, 2016, 12:59:49 pm »
Finally, a glimmer of sun came out so here are a few pics of the hellebores and snowdrops.

Offline Meleri

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #657 on: February 09, 2016, 04:03:43 pm »
Your dog appears to have shrunk, Hugo.  ;D

Hollins what beautiful Hellebores one of my all time favourites and such a lovely colour.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #658 on: March 03, 2016, 02:25:39 pm »
I called at Talgoed Nursery at Glan Conwy earlier and John has a nice selection of Polyanthus there.     A tray of 15 Polyanthus costs £10.00 and well worth it but if you buy two trays then you get the two for £15.00
I've now got 30 lovely plants and will have to find space for them in my garden somewhere, as all my pots have now got Daffodil bulbs in them

Offline Hugo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #659 on: March 07, 2016, 08:19:55 am »
Summer seems so far away at present but this little clip of an English Country garden makes it seem nearer.   I  remember the song the first time around too but that was ages ago!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/y7OqzUQRxq4?rel=0