The Good Life (gardening chat)

[Shoe]

Look at the bloody chaos I'm dealing with.

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I went to my favourite independent garden centre and they had almost nothing left, no bedding plants at all so I have a complete lack of colour.

I'm also disappointed in the farmer gracy bulbs, half of them still haven't done anything at all. A few rotted away completely and this is the only flower on the dahlia which did grow well.

[smalex]

How disappointing Shoe. The flower you do have is very pretty. Mine have done well so far, although the dahlias haven't got as far as flowering yet

[Jupiter]

That is a gorgeous colour, Shoe.

Smal, we have potatoes, onions, kale, courgettes and two pumpkin plants donated by our neighbours.

[Jupiter]

Further adventures in pergola building!

[Cosmopolitan]

That looks very professional! What are you going to grow up the sides / over the top?

[Cosmopolitan]

I have fences now and a huge bed made of railway sleepers. I need all the compost to fill it now. it's going to cost a fortune.

[Jupiter]

That looks amazing!

We built it around the existing clematis and honeysuckle so the plan is to try and train it over the pergola.

[smalex]

Looks brilliant Jupiter! Have you got furniture for underneath it?

That looks really good Cos, did you build it? You really will need vast amounts of compost! I couldn't believe how much compost it took to fill some of our pretty small new areas, its not easy to come by right now either.

[H1ppychick]

I think there’s a waste collection company which advertises on Sam FM that also supplies topsoil, might something like that be cheaper for your beds Cos? I can’t remember the company but it was a man’s name then Rubbish, like Derek’s Rubbish but I don’t think it was Derek, which always made me smirk because it appeared to be a claim to being shit.

[smalex]

Tom's Rubbish Clearance?

There's loads who deliver. I wish I'd ordered by delivery now, but I never thought I'd need so much. It must have been 700L at least!

[H1ppychick]

That’s it, thanks smal!

https://www.tomsrubbish.com/topsoil

[Cosmopolitan]

Thanks! I've seen the van driving around and was thinking of ordering some rather than trying to lug compost bags around myself.

We had someone in who did the fences, beds and a patio. They were very cheap but have done a crackingly good job.

[wendy james]

Arthur David have got some compost back in stock I think.

[Jupiter]

Looks brilliant Jupiter! Have you got furniture for underneath it?

That looks really good Cos, did you build it? You really will need vast amounts of compost! I couldn't believe how much compost it took to fill some of our pretty small new areas, its not easy to come by right now either.

We have a granite table and benches that we inherited with the house that will move there. But we need a mini digger to move them as they weigh a tonne

[Cosmopolitan]

Arthur David have got some compost back in stock I think.

Oh good call! I'll have a scout there and Mr Cos is going to sort out Tom's rubbish for some rubbish removal and topsoil at the same time.

[Cerise]

Sunflower question: should I pinch out the little growth between the main stem and the leaf “branches” like you do with tomatoes?

One of our sunflowers has 11 buds!

[baargain]

No! It might generate loads of side flowers! This is exciting. I grow Kong sunflowers and they do this, they have a main head and a billion side flowers.

[Cerise]

Yes I think their going to make extra heads. We’re excited to see which colours come because we’ve totally lost track of which ones were which!

[smalex]

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Veg coming on well. And The raspberries are tremendous this year!

[Disco]

Wow!