Morning Light: The Fetchland Gardening Wire

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UltraDunc Jan 2023 9:35pm, 12 Jan 2023 16,199 posts	0 UltraDunc Will do
Cheeky’s Dad Jan 2023 12:20am, 13 Jan 2023 3,230 posts	0 Cheeky’s Dad That’s much better news than mealy bug! Fingers crossed it bounces back
Flatlander Feb 2023 11:01am, 8 Feb 2023 2,720 posts	0 Flatlander I bought my seed potatoes yesterday, 8.5kg in total. I usually buy 2kg of Suttons Foremost earlies, but this year they were so tiny I bought only 1.5kg - and still got about the same number as I used to get in 2kg!
3M Feb 2023 11:12am, 8 Feb 2023 20,432 posts	0 3M Are they appreciably smaller, Flatlander? I gave up on potatoes a few years ago - dry summers made it a lot of effort and space dedicated to not much return! Although that shouldn't be such an issue with earlies, I suppose... I planted my onion sets last week - about 80 onions in total! They fit nicely around the edge of the raised bed leaving me with a sensible shape for this year's "other veg" when I get around to them. I have tomato and cucumber seeds started on the office windowsill - to encourage me when working! And yesterday I finished pruning back the dead and unwanted growth from my raspberry bushes, both Summer and Autumn varieties). The Autumn ones currently look like dead sticks in the bed, except for where they're pushing runners out into the veg bed! I have to keep chopping them off (and taking out the shoots!) well below ground level. I've also noticed I have a handful of very early anemones of some variety (I'd forgotten I'd planted the bulbs, never mind what variety they are!), about 3 snowdrops, and a lot of daffodil buds.
Flatlander Feb 2023 11:27am, 8 Feb 2023 2,721 posts	0 Flatlander Yes 3M they are. Most of them in the crate were only about 1" (2.5cm) in diameter, they are usually twice that size. I had to search hard in the crate to find some large ones.
Cerrertonia Feb 2023 11:43am, 8 Feb 2023 18,380 posts	0 Cerrertonia I have ~15 raspberry canes, several currants, gooseberries, jostaberry and some less commonly grown soft fruit like honeyberry and arona waiting to be planted. Also a number of fruit trees, plus a couple of hazels. I've spent much of the winter digging out nettles and weeds, and removing rubble from the area where I'm creating beds for the soft fruit. It's almost done - just need to put up some supporting wires for the raspberry canes and finish edging the area with the rocks I have everywhere. I'll be ordering some bare root trees and shrubs too, but I'm off to the US to do some work for a couple of weeks this month, so it will have to wait until early March, hopefully not too late for bare root stuff. These are mainly intended for bees, butterflies, birds etc. Won't be sowing any seeds until April I suspect. Lots of herbs grown from cuttings waiting to be planted out. Also have lots of pots of alpines I've propagated - should be easy to make a nice rock garden given the ample supplies of stone.
Hanneke Feb 2023 11:51am, 8 Feb 2023 99,401 posts	0 Hanneke Argh! I forgot to buy spuds and onions yesterday when in town!!!
3M Feb 2023 2:21pm, 18 Feb 2023 20,548 posts	0 3M I've just mown the lawn. 😲 I don't think I have ever mowed the lawn in February before. It could be an interesting year of gardening. 🤔
Hanneke Feb 2023 2:52pm, 18 Feb 2023 99,643 posts	0 Hanneke I have kept mowing the grass all winter!!!
Fragile Do Not Bend Feb 2023 3:34pm, 18 Feb 2023 10,754 posts	0 Fragile Do Not Bend Strangely our grass (southeast England) doesn’t need cutting yet. Well, it’s slightly long but it’s a way from definitely needing cutting. Anyway a lot of the daffodil leaves in the grass aren’t tall enough to be obvious so I wouldn’t trust Mr F to avoid them if he mowed now.