My Gardening year 2018

Overnight in greenhouse 2.4 C A bit grey today. I took the anemone corms out of the water, they have swollen well. Will plant as soon as I can. Madeit out into the garden and cut up some of the large quantity of prunings from the apple trees yesterday. All good in the greenhouse, cauliflowers coming on good.

Overnight in greenhouse 3.8 C Managed to get out into the garden late afternoon and pruned (took a lot off) the second Bramley apple tree. That is all the major apple tree pruning for this year. I am reshaping the trees so that they are not so big.

Overnight in greenhouse 2.4 C Nice bright day but cold. Made the journey today to Natural World Products and bought 4 bags of recycled compost. This company recycles garden waste and makes it available to the public. The Anemones White Splendour arrived in the post, with some free Allium seeds. Bought from Humphreys Garden. I have put them into water to soak for the night. Will plant out tomorrow. The purple sprouting broccoli in the veg garden is looking good. We should get a feed soon. The all year round cauliflower seeds planted last week are coming along nicely.

Overnight in greenhouse 2.2 C A lot of rain overnight but a nice bright morning. checked greenhouse all OK. Pruned a big lump off one of the Victoria Plums  part of a cutting back to a better size and cleaning up the plant. Spent some time at the chrysanthemums, resurrected some Max Riley, a lovely Yellow one, see  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4515702789222060649#editor/target=post;postID=8807494709725435235;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname Got back out this afternoon, nice bright day, blowy and not too warm. Planted 2 dozen Shallots, golden gourmet. Moved 3 raspberries across the garden to the new patch.

Overnight in greenhouse 5.4 C A wee bit warmer than it has been. Everything looking good in the green house. The all year round cauliflowers are starting to show. Some of the chilli pots are starting to show shoots. Coriander shooting through. A bit grey today although not really raining much. I tidied up the garden a bit and then managed to get the 50 red onions planted out. Just finished when the rain started.

Sunday 21st was a wipe out, it never stopped raining until it was too late to do anything. We went out and got some onion sets and plant labels. Overnight Saturday/Sunday in Greenhouse was 3 C. I got notification from Ebay that I had won an auction for 50 x  Anemone White Splendour  Overnight  Su nday/Monday was 3.8 C I checked greenhouse this morning, everything looking good. Went to Donaghadee garden centre and got some Shallots, potatoes and Ailsa Craig tomato seeds. Came home and planted some of the Ailsa Craig tomatoes and some potatoes in containers.  I managed to get onto the garden and prepared part of the bed to be used for the onion sets.

Weather on Thursday was not good for gardening. Very cold. Overnight in greenhouse 3 deg C Friday I was out all day just checked the greenhouse. overnight in greenhouse 3.2 deg C Saturday has dawned grey, but dry. overnight in greenhouse 3.6 C I put a bid on ebay for some anemones. I set up two more heated trays in the greenhouse so that I can start soon to plant some seeds for early vegetables. The coriander seeds planted last week are starting to come through well. I took 8 cuttings off an Allouise Pink chrysanthemum and potted them on for rooting. Into the garden with the strimmer and cleared the ground outside the fruit cage where I am going to transplant the gooseberries to. Went round the front and decided to remove the arbour beside the front door, it is made of metal and is rusting away. We cut the Jasmine down to suit and might move it if it comes again. I was never very good. Good day in the garden today.

Overnight in greenhouse, 0 C. Snowed quite a bit overnight, no gardening today. Cleared snow from front path and did a few bit outside. Going to Bangor Horticultural Society lunch in Bangor Golf Club today. Lunch was good, with lots of talk with other members of the BHS. After returning home I fixed the bird table by putting in a much stronger post to hold everything in place, turned out a good job. Alison went into the garden and harvested some kale and some lettuces.

Overnight in greenhouse was 3.2 Forecast bad. Snow started about 1000. Tied up all day in workshop. Not a great gardening day.

A reasonable day today. Had to go out this morning, but when I returned we went to Greenbank Nursery out by Saintfield and bought some plants. A red Edgworthia Chrysantha. A miniature Prunus, Incisa, "Koto-no-mai" Also 2 Dianthus, "Strawberry Sunday" and "Gran's Favourite" Brought them home and did a bit of tidying up. I got the old felt from the roof damage last week taken to the dump. Overnight in the greenhouse showed 3.5 C

Overnight in greenhouse on Saturday 13th was 3.2 C Not a lot done in garden on Saturday, away woodturning. Overnight in greenhouse on Saturday 3.5 C Got a freezer to keep the fresh woodturning wood in this morning. Got it home and sorted. Some of the wood lying around the garden is now getting properly stored and removed from the garden. The cauliflower seeds planted the other day are starting to show. Good job.

Overnight in Greenhouse 3.8 Everything seems OK in there. Visited Greenbank nurseries on the way back from Ballynahinch and discovered that they have the same Edgworthia Chrysantha that I bought last year and another variety, a red one. I think a purchase is in the offing. Did a little bit more weeding outside, but very cold, I gave up.

After a couple of bad days Thursday dawns a bit brighter.  All I have done in the last couple of days is check the greenhouse and another small bit of weeding. Temperatures are going up a bit.  Tuesday morning greenhouse -.08 c  Wed morning green house 1.8 C. Thursday morning 1.4 C Planted some cauliflower seed in greenhouse this morning. Got some more weeding around some of the garlics in the raised bed.

  Another cold night, -1.8C last night (Monday) in greenhouse.  Another lovely day bright sunshine, but cold. Got the shed roof repaired, at least the new mineral felt in place and fastened down. Will need to finish the edges when the weather warms a bit. No real gardening work today. Everything looks OK.

Woke early and listened to GQT on Iplayer Radio. Some good tips about Grape vines and Clematis. A beautiful day today, -2C in greenhouse this morning. I tried to do some weeding but the ground was too cold to work on, hands getting very cold. Out again before lunchtime, looks like a good day to try and repair the felt roof on the shed. I managed to get all the nails holding the damaged section loosened, but by this time it was getting too late to finish the job. I put it on hold till tomorrow. Forecast looks OK.  Back to the weeding and am now almost finished the fruit bush area. I decided to take Bob Flowerdew's advice and prune the vine in the greenhouse. I cut it back to 3 buds on each of the two main shoots. It will be interesting to see what I get in the summer.

I have been working in my garden for about 20 years. Alison and I have created a good garden with some lovely plants and lots of variation. I have decided that in 2018 I would try to maintain a record of all that we do and try to do. So here goes. I started after Christmas by going into the fruit garden and getting rid of the weeds. I started on 30th December. Cold but dry, I made a good start. I also tackled my Black Turkey Fig that was getting a bit big. 10 years old and fruits very well. Not as big now. I also potted up a lot of the cuttings, will see if they take. 31st December same again, got more weeds in the compost heap. Again cold but showery, managed about an hour before being rained off. 1st  January about another hour before being rained off. Starting to see the difference from when I started. 2nd January No danger of getting onto the garden, for more that 30 minutes before the rain started. Forecast rubbish, Storm Elanor to come through this even...