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- Member
Sat May 12, 2018 7:58 am
I actually wrote this post latish last evening and then forgot to submit it. I was summoned by my alarm system (mum’s old one) as dad started to have one of his choking fits again. Once I’d sorted dad out I’d completely forgotten about CUK. So when I say today below I actually mean yesterday as I can’t be bothered editing it… lazy cow that I am!
Today has been a Red Letter day. Not only did my ill bro FINALLY (after much hassling from me) receive his DWP PIP letter informing him that he still retains his higher rate for the Daily living component, but that he’s been awarded the higher rate for the mobility component too. He’d been stripped of this in the spring of 2016.
I’ll write more fully about this later as it may be useful to others. I might do that in the Benefits section of the forum instead of here.
Also today is the first day that after what feels like weeks of incessant gardening I could finally see it all coming together…. AT LAST! I’ve sometimes felt as though I’ve wondered into the set of a mix between the films Never Ending Story and Groundhog Day; only minus the goblins and groundhogs of course.
The back garden has been invaded en-mass by bindweed. I swear to god that the stuff grows inches in the night. It definitely wasn’t this high yesterday as this photo demonstrates.
Tomorrow I shall blitz it, with my motto being ‘Death to the bindweed.’ Any tips on how to control this pest WITHOUT using weed killer will be gratefully received.
But apart from the dreaded bindweed invader, other interesting looking green and sometimes purple/pinky things are sprouting up left, right and centre. Some are pointy shoots, some frond-like, others spiky, some serrated. It’ll be interesting to see what they all actually are?
With hindsight I should’ve made notes/drew diagrams of what bulbs/seeds I planted and where. That way I’d have some idea of what’s going on. But I didn’t, so I’ll just have to wait and see instead.
A couple of weeks ago, maybe three, dad and me pitched up at B & Q as they were having a sale of plants. We thought we’d got there early, but not nearly early enough as most of the plants were gone by then. We wanted to buy a load of red geraniums, but only ended up with the last tray of sorry looking pink ones instead… bummer!
It got worse. Dad’s obsessed with pansies and petunias, but annuals really irritate me. You spend ages planting them out and then they go and die on you, and you then have to start the whole rigmarole all over again the next year. Those annoying annuals have no staying power. I’m a perennial girl through and through. Dad bought loads of these pesky annuals, but I do like the sweet Williams he bought as well.
I wanted something very specific but couldn’t see any. A man from B & Q approached me asking if he could help.
Me: Yes please. I’m after a load of ebola. Do you have any?
B & Q man: Ebola? Are you sure that’s what you mean?
Me: Positive. It has dinky little blue flowers, like a cross between cornflower blue and cerulean with a dash of ultramarine at its heart. I’d like some for my rockery please.
B & Q man: I think you mean lobelia. Ebola’s a deadly disease.
Me: Well I knew it had a ‘B’ and an ‘L’ somewhere in its name... they do sound alike don’t you think? … Do you have any?
After all that I had to settle for a mix of white and mixed colours lobelias from a local shop as B & Q had sold out.
I’m glad of that now as I’m not a fan of B & Q’s ‘teabag technology.’ I think it’s rubbish. It’s supposed to make bedding easier and protect them. But the first half I planted with their teabags left on have nearly all died. But the second half I planted with their teabags removed have lived. Maybe I should sue B & Q for the trauma caused by the needless death of so many pansies and petunias?
The Arum lilies that we thought had died as they’d all turned to mush have sprung back into life and then some! They’re bigger than ever
The rambling roses I though dad and my WB had butchered is growing well and I noticed rose buds on it for the first time today. One of my Blue Moon roses which I thought was dead now has green leaves on it. I’d put it on death row, but I’m glad I gave it a stay of execution instead of ripping it out and replacing it with Poached Egg plants.
When I was clearing, and digging over the front garden, I kept coming across huge bunches of tubers all clinging together. I didn’t want to throw them away, so I dug holes in the back garden rockery, plonked them in willy-nilly and left them to get on with it. Loads of little Arum lilies are now spring up. So that’s what those tuber things were.
But it’s not all hunky dory. My Lady Campbell camellia is dying I think. It’s certainly looking the worse for wear despite me putting it in a much larger pot.
Mum’s prized geraniums (some were over 20 years old) all looked dead to begin with. Some began to grow green leaves, others didn’t. I wanted to rip the leafless ones out and put new ones in their place. Dad begged me to give them a couple of weeks. So I put those on death row too.
But when the two weeks were up, and STILL no sign of life, I couldn’t bring myself to chuck them. So I put into effect my Lazarus plan by carefully digging up the sickly, slightly squishy boiled bone-like looking things, covered their roots in organic rooting powder, soaked the new soil/compost mix with double-strength Miracle Gro and re-planted them.
Re-planted geranium (one of many) STILL dead after two weeks despite my Lazarus plan.
The ones in the back ground looked just as bad yet are now thriving. A few days ago I reluctantly pulled up the dead ones and chucked them in the compost bin. They have not died in vain. I think that Miracle Gro stuff is over-hyped. It certainly didn’t perform any miracles on my, by now, composting old geraniums.
However, my 9 foot cutting (yes, 9 foot, not 9 inches), which I accidentally cut off from an unknown tree, is still thriving…. So far.
I put it in intensive care by placing it in a bucket of water. In this instance I think the Miracle Gro I added to the water did help here, and some of dad’s iron pills and multi-vitamin pills too.
It’s been in that pill enriched bucket of water for 16 days now and still no sign of drooping. Be interesting to see if it survives being transplanted into soil.
I think that’s enough of an update on my gardening shenanigans for tonight. Except for a couple of miscellaneous piccies.
My requisitioned ‘Work Station’ where I re-pot old plants, etc. I’ve ended up using that old chip pan wire basket possibly more than any other implement. It’s great for sifting old soil, and I use a normal eating fork too a lot for digging carefully around old roots prior to re-transplanting elsewhere.
The work station with my potted up Hollyhocks. These were droopy dying feeble looking things when one of dad’s mates gave them to me. They’re doing really well now. I was given about 40 in an old ice-cream container full of heavy clay soil. There are now only 21 left but they’re much healthier stronger seedlings now in my much more sandy, loamier soil (I’m learning the lingo.) That kiddie’s watering can my WB got me as a joke from H & B has actually come in really handy.
Back to today, as in Saturday NOT Friday. The sun’s shining, SM’s in Wales supervising the building of his parent’s ground floor extension which is to be their new bedroom, so no excuses not to get out into the garden and finish off Lake Grittifarter, amongst other things.
Chow for now... the sun and garden are beckoning. At this rate I might even get a tan and look less like an aging goth.
Today has been a Red Letter day. Not only did my ill bro FINALLY (after much hassling from me) receive his DWP PIP letter informing him that he still retains his higher rate for the Daily living component, but that he’s been awarded the higher rate for the mobility component too. He’d been stripped of this in the spring of 2016.
I’ll write more fully about this later as it may be useful to others. I might do that in the Benefits section of the forum instead of here.
Also today is the first day that after what feels like weeks of incessant gardening I could finally see it all coming together…. AT LAST! I’ve sometimes felt as though I’ve wondered into the set of a mix between the films Never Ending Story and Groundhog Day; only minus the goblins and groundhogs of course.
The back garden has been invaded en-mass by bindweed. I swear to god that the stuff grows inches in the night. It definitely wasn’t this high yesterday as this photo demonstrates.
But apart from the dreaded bindweed invader, other interesting looking green and sometimes purple/pinky things are sprouting up left, right and centre. Some are pointy shoots, some frond-like, others spiky, some serrated. It’ll be interesting to see what they all actually are?
With hindsight I should’ve made notes/drew diagrams of what bulbs/seeds I planted and where. That way I’d have some idea of what’s going on. But I didn’t, so I’ll just have to wait and see instead.
A couple of weeks ago, maybe three, dad and me pitched up at B & Q as they were having a sale of plants. We thought we’d got there early, but not nearly early enough as most of the plants were gone by then. We wanted to buy a load of red geraniums, but only ended up with the last tray of sorry looking pink ones instead… bummer!
It got worse. Dad’s obsessed with pansies and petunias, but annuals really irritate me. You spend ages planting them out and then they go and die on you, and you then have to start the whole rigmarole all over again the next year. Those annoying annuals have no staying power. I’m a perennial girl through and through. Dad bought loads of these pesky annuals, but I do like the sweet Williams he bought as well.
I wanted something very specific but couldn’t see any. A man from B & Q approached me asking if he could help.
Me: Yes please. I’m after a load of ebola. Do you have any?
B & Q man: Ebola? Are you sure that’s what you mean?
Me: Positive. It has dinky little blue flowers, like a cross between cornflower blue and cerulean with a dash of ultramarine at its heart. I’d like some for my rockery please.
B & Q man: I think you mean lobelia. Ebola’s a deadly disease.
Me: Well I knew it had a ‘B’ and an ‘L’ somewhere in its name... they do sound alike don’t you think? … Do you have any?
After all that I had to settle for a mix of white and mixed colours lobelias from a local shop as B & Q had sold out.
I’m glad of that now as I’m not a fan of B & Q’s ‘teabag technology.’ I think it’s rubbish. It’s supposed to make bedding easier and protect them. But the first half I planted with their teabags left on have nearly all died. But the second half I planted with their teabags removed have lived. Maybe I should sue B & Q for the trauma caused by the needless death of so many pansies and petunias?
The Arum lilies that we thought had died as they’d all turned to mush have sprung back into life and then some! They’re bigger than ever
When I was clearing, and digging over the front garden, I kept coming across huge bunches of tubers all clinging together. I didn’t want to throw them away, so I dug holes in the back garden rockery, plonked them in willy-nilly and left them to get on with it. Loads of little Arum lilies are now spring up. So that’s what those tuber things were.
But it’s not all hunky dory. My Lady Campbell camellia is dying I think. It’s certainly looking the worse for wear despite me putting it in a much larger pot.
Mum’s prized geraniums (some were over 20 years old) all looked dead to begin with. Some began to grow green leaves, others didn’t. I wanted to rip the leafless ones out and put new ones in their place. Dad begged me to give them a couple of weeks. So I put those on death row too.
But when the two weeks were up, and STILL no sign of life, I couldn’t bring myself to chuck them. So I put into effect my Lazarus plan by carefully digging up the sickly, slightly squishy boiled bone-like looking things, covered their roots in organic rooting powder, soaked the new soil/compost mix with double-strength Miracle Gro and re-planted them.
However, my 9 foot cutting (yes, 9 foot, not 9 inches), which I accidentally cut off from an unknown tree, is still thriving…. So far.
I put it in intensive care by placing it in a bucket of water. In this instance I think the Miracle Gro I added to the water did help here, and some of dad’s iron pills and multi-vitamin pills too.
It’s been in that pill enriched bucket of water for 16 days now and still no sign of drooping. Be interesting to see if it survives being transplanted into soil.
I think that’s enough of an update on my gardening shenanigans for tonight. Except for a couple of miscellaneous piccies.
My requisitioned ‘Work Station’ where I re-pot old plants, etc. I’ve ended up using that old chip pan wire basket possibly more than any other implement. It’s great for sifting old soil, and I use a normal eating fork too a lot for digging carefully around old roots prior to re-transplanting elsewhere.
The work station with my potted up Hollyhocks. These were droopy dying feeble looking things when one of dad’s mates gave them to me. They’re doing really well now. I was given about 40 in an old ice-cream container full of heavy clay soil. There are now only 21 left but they’re much healthier stronger seedlings now in my much more sandy, loamier soil (I’m learning the lingo.) That kiddie’s watering can my WB got me as a joke from H & B has actually come in really handy.
Chow for now... the sun and garden are beckoning. At this rate I might even get a tan and look less like an aging goth.
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