GARDENING CARE
25 Oct 2008
Gardening Care
Gardening Care is the number one important thing to do in gardening, but when and how do you do you know what to do? This is why the Gardening Care Blog Site has been set up. I want to share my 20 years of experience with you so that everyone can benefit from the Gardening Care information that I have. I am writing this blog in day to day format, based on what it is that I am doing at the moment in the Garden. I garden in the Northern Hemisphere and have a distinct set of seasons, namely spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. At the moment of writing this it happens to be the Fall and where I am we have some of the most amazing colours in the trees and are having some of the best weather that we have had all year. I will endeavour to enlighten you with my witty writing about what I have been doing during the day and what it is I think that you should be doing at the weekend, I will include some plant details which can be found on the left hand side in the categories section these are little in-depth analysis about the particular plant in question. I hope you can take the time to send me questions and comments about what interests you and also weather I’m doing a good job. I wish you luck with your Gardening Care
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18 Nov 2008
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The Vegi Patch
17 Nov 2008
Growing Vegetables
I can hear you thinking that you have no idea about growing vegetables. The truth is that you can easily learn enough to be growing useful crops very quickly, and each session spent in your garden teaches you even more. You will learn much that is unique to your own situation, such as local soil conditions, your particular aspect in relation to the sun, and oddities that relate to your local microclimate. You will learn most of this by getting out and giving it a go.
The taste of home grown vegetables is vastly superior to that of the commercially grown produce. Have you heard people complain that tomatoes no longer have any taste? They will have when you grow your own – you will never taste better. The lack of taste with the commercial crop is not all the fault of the growers, as they are under pressure to produce a crop, of uniform size and colour, to the schedule of the wholesale market, and ultimately the supermarket. You set your own schedule.
The freshness of your own crop is a big plus. Vegetables I have bought from the supermarket, and stored in the refrigerator, have started to become inedible after a few days. I have had home grown produce still fresh in the refrigerator after 2 weeks!
Typically, your home garden will produce a generous yield, and can readily help pay for the cost of growing them. You can effectively end up having free vegetables. Summer, especially, is usually a time of abundance, even glut, as family and friends leave your place with perhaps more produce than they had expected to see. A tip – when giving away fresh produce, try to limit your generosity – it is better to give a small amount to many rather than to give to the few more than they can actually use.
One of the turn-offs to trying something you have not done before is the intimidating flood of information (and misinformation) you will receive.
If you are browsing one of the major bookstores, you may find hundreds of books on the topic – which do you buy? To begin with, look for the simple, basic information. Do not bother with those full of jargon – you will learn the technical terms as you go.
You will hear folklore from the family, such as “Uncle Henry always put … (you name it) … on his … (name it again)”. Folklore is part of our heritage, but there is no guarantee of its usefulness.
You will hear from the office genius, who has done nothing, but still knows all the answers - nod wisely, and then ignore him.
Plants evolved millions of years before humans, and they actually want to grow. It has been said that in many cases plants grow despite what we do to help them. If you provide the basics, and these are reasonable nutrition and regular watering, Mother Nature does the rest – let her work for you.
Wham Bam and another load of leaves
17 Nov 2008
Leaves when will it finish, sometimes as a gardener you feel that you do the same thing day in day out, like most jobs I suppose, but this one involves raking leaves and every time you do it so that a lawn looks great and the house looking so nice, the minute you turn your back, its wham bam and another load of leaves fall, what’s it all about hey? Took form one house 6 large builders sacks full of leaves and this is a small garden for me, imagine then when its gets to my largest which is 12 Acres. I would like you to pause for a second and think to yourself how lucky you are that you don’t have to do that amount of leaves on the weekend, lol.
So apart from the blasted leaves never stopping, what else was on the blackboard for the day so to speak? I taught my young lad I employ and taught him pruning of climbing roses, this turn out to be a relatively easy prune, even if it was up two large ladders, as we had pruned these roses hard last year to gain back some dignity to these poor climbing roses. Needless to say the flowering was not at its best this year, although it was quoted by the customer the best she had seen, good thing is this will be the better year and is already budding up and looking ready for action when nature asks. Only pruned a few laterals of and took out any dead or diseased wood. The most important thing to remember when pruning roses is remove all dead and diseased wood first this will then give you a great view of what lies in front.
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Big Bamboo’s in Gardening Care
12 Nov 2008
Hello all of my fellow gardeners that are reading this at the moment, I hope that you have had a nice day and the sun has shone for you in you part of the world, even if it has not shone weather wise then lets hope it has in your heart. I have had an amazingly busy and tiring couple of days I have had the unfortunate news that a wonderful lady that I knew has died, she was a lover of all things from nature especially her garden and gardening care that she taught me. I will miss you terrible and hope that I can live my life as good as you did yours. This sad news has hit me a little hard and I have neglected this for a couple of days, I now endeavour to write again with more “funny and witty stories” according to one recent published article on this blog mentioned. Many thanks to the author who wrote these kinds words about this blog site.
My day today has been rather busy as well, with the help of my side kick Gavin we have managed to do an incredible amount today, about time I hear you cry lol.
Apart from having a rocky start with the leaf blower breaking down and is now in the hospital for broken Garden tools, I have had to exercise my muscles by actually raking the leaves from the lawn, forgot how hard that was lol. After Raking it was time to put our mind power and brute strength to the test in creating a new flower bed and transplant 3 massive bamboos from one pert of the garden and plant in this new designed flower bed we were constructing. Wow what a mission, Ok so if you are thinking of doing this in the future then this is what we did.
Clear an area of weeds, lawn turf and the kid’s toys. Dig it over and add some wonderful organic compost, hopefully the stuff you have been making throw out the year. Now dig some really nice size holes for the plants that you are transferring and add more wonderful compost in to it. Now go get the plants from where they sit, dig a massive root ball with them so as not to loose to much of the roots, get your helper to carry the plant over to the site where you just dug over and have the hole perfectly prepared. Our Bamboos were so big that both I and Gavin were really struggling with them even just to get it in the Wheelbarrow. Now place it in the hole and add the soil around the roots and hey presto bobs you uncle and all that give a good watering.
That’s it really, a hard days work but we had great satisfaction in doing it and our new flower bed did look fantastic after. Will have to add a few photo’s to it, unfortunately when we finished it was getting very dark. We are back there Monday so will try to do some photo’s then, so check back for update, Happy Gardening Care Andrew
Rain Rain and Gardening Care
10 Nov 2008
Rained off today. Actually the entire United Kingdom is rained off by the sounds of it. Shame but hey it gives me time to catch up on this blog post on Gardening Care, I have been doing my accounts for last year and have now finally finished a burden off my shoulders only now have to find the money to pay them, that’s the worst bit. Had a great day lined up today, was going to move a couple of Bamboos and show you guys all how its done but unfortunately with the rain the guys at the shop said they couldn’t deliver my top soil so I can’t really move them. I have three to move and will now be doing this on Wednesday, so if you mark the date in the calendar.
Have been trying to get my Vegetables Garden looking respectable before ground gets to water logged and squiggy, have had a lot of clearing to do as things have got into a little bit of a state more due to me not actually doing anything. Digging is not for the faint hearted and should really be done by someone other than yourself, like the Kids or Grand Children or maybe the friendly Gardener. Even for the friendly gardener I find it hard work and will try to limit myself to bits hear and bits there. This digging lark is the best thing to do, when it comes to vegetables gardening at this time of year and they will really love you when you plant them out in the spring. Nice easy soil to get there roots in, they will soon romp away producing wonderful harvest for you and your family
Gardening Care, what have you done this weekend? Come on be honest. If you were like me not much, I had accounts and brothers kids to stay for the night, that’s my excuse anyway have to be the uncle that plays and builds camps, he he. Remember when it comes to Gardening Care its all about little bits at a time don’t ever rush things. Hears to your Success
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A Day For Nature in Gardening Care
06 Nov 2008
Today was a day for nature, I witnessed some lovely things in the garden today, first of all a Robin was following me around the garden for most of the first half of the day. I was spending a lot of time weeding which creates worms and these I was throwing to my new friend the Robin, he was not really scared of me and came closer and closer. Time to get the camera I thought and have captured this Photo.
Then in the second half of the day I was a little way from the house and weeding a wild flower bank, taking out stinging nettles and dock leaves that sort of thing as they are not really welcome in my wild flower bed. Although it has to be said that a large patch of stinging nettles does attract a lot of butterflies which in turn lay there eggs and out come loads of caterpillars. Anyway while weeding this wild flower bank I was drifting away into my own thoughts when I heard a rustle behind me, I turn round and there is a beautiful deer standing right in front of me looking me up and down checking me out, I really could see her piercing eyes and right into her soul. Suddenly without warning she bolted barking like a dog up the rest of the land, stopping once to look at me again just to check if I was following I think. It was a lovely experience and I really did enjoy it.
Gardening Care today was mostly digging over the Vegetables Patch then spending a lot of time raking leaves to the point now where I am fed up with them, I think though for the south of England I think this could be the last weekend to see the leaves as most are of the trees now and I think that there will not be many left next week. Then the rest of the day was spent weeding the wild flower bank.
So if you want some jobs to do this weekend look at your vegetables Patch and dig it over ready for the winter frosts to break up the lumps leaving a perfect seed bed for the spring. Also tidy up any leaves that are still on the lawn before they start to kill the grass underneath and try getting the leaves of the flower beds and do some weeding. If you can get all the clearing and tidying up before the end of December there won’t be much to do for the Coldest parts of the year and you can do what I do and take a nice well earned break from it all. I can’t promise like me you can go of to far flung destinations like Zambia, Mozambique or Madagascar but a break will be good. Trust me when the winter sets in and the ground gets all soggy and waterlogged and frosty you won’t want to go out except top through snowballs and build a snowman. Happy Gardening Care
Leaves look like they are finally slowing down, not so many this week to clear up. Yes that’s what I have been doing clearing leaves today, no surprises for guessing, though. Myself and Gavin have been singing old songs today completely irrelevant to Gardening Care but we had a great laugh but I now think the owner of the house that we were at thinks we are completely mad, I know she thinks I am but I think Gavin is now tarred with the same brush. Oh well we were having fun with our Gardening Care and that shows we both love what we do and have a passion for it.
Another completely different fact is that apparently history has been made today with the elections in the USA with a first Black president, you know what I hadn’t even noticed he was black until it was splashed in the press about it. Ok I knew he was black but never contemplated it, I can’t believe there are still people thinking there is any difference. Shame on all you press that have tried to sensationalize this issue that makes no blind difference to anything except the history books.
Back to the Gardening Care and what I have been doing? And this is not the time really to be doing this sort of thing and can be left for a lot longer. I have been cutting back Stipia Gigantica or Giant Oat Grass as is the common name. This is usually done in the spring just as the new growth begins the old is cut back hard, as is the same advice given to all grasses really, the exception to this rule is if they really do look shabby and untidy. The oat grass that I cut back was neither in the spring as this is 5th November and it didn’t look shabby or untidy, so why did you cut it back Andrew?? I have to make sure my gardens look nice and clean and tidy before I leave for Zambia to teach Organic Sustainability for three months and this last 29 days is going to be a little hectic, Apple tree pruning, hedge cutting, leaves, fruit tree pruning, cutting back raspberry canes and loads of other stuff as well as a few things that really can wait till spring, but I have to do this now as to leave my gardens looking fabulous for my departure. So if your grasses fit into the above two types, they are tatty and untidy or its now spring and the new growth is starting then start your cutting back.
That’s it for the minute on Gardening Care for another day enjoy the Fireworks tonight if you are in England and be careful. All the best
Bit of a Grummble
03 Nov 2008
A very busy Gardening Care day, Indeed there was so much to do, so much to do. I am as most people know going to Zambia to teach Organic Sustainability to the locals, leaving on the 4th December, which is our winter months in the United Kingdom as many other places in the world. I seem to go to some far flung destinations in my time not only as a Gardener but also as a qualified River Guide. I have only one month to get all of my gardens looking rosy and glamorous before I leave. Is this task to big for One Man?? I think not, but hey some of the customers are starting to panic a bit. It’s something you get used to as a gardener the timing of stuff, There is always a lull patch in winter with not much to do, then spring comes and things start to grow at an incredible rate and all you customers suddenly get all panicky and want this cut and this pruned and so on, then the hedges are all the same time again a mass panic arises in the customer ranks and who has to stay calm and focused, blimy sometimes us gardeners should be given the Peace keeping jobs in this world. Dealing with Mrs so and so and dealing at the same time with all those fresh seedlings and the vegetable patch, I don’t know, Gardening Care hey.
Still mustn’t grumble I suppose its bread and butter at the end of the day. So a busy day, actually worked really well, even though things were cold and damp and not a dot of sun to be seen all day from where I was. Bar humbug. God and its not even Christmas yet, oh but the Home base’s and B&Q’s of the world are already at it selling Christmas Trees in pots and getting the old decorations out.
Had my Birthday over the weekend, I say over the weekend it actually went on for most of the weekend not because I’m a party animal and can do that sort of thing, just it took all that time to recover from the festivities of the Friday night.
So what did we do today, well I’m sure a few of you have been clearing leaves over the weekend well I’ve been doing it all last 3 weeks and once again today, actually got to weed a flower bed and also mow a lawn, and prune a 2 climbing roses. Check this blog post for pruning roses. CLICK HEAR.
Happy Gardening Care
