hello from Yorkshire!

[trishs]

So yes, here I am in the introductions section, not before time! 

My name is Trish, and I'm a Goth lol 
http://www.gogpromotions.co.uk/

I'm also a longtime plant grower and gardener, and a bit of an old wreck (see my blog for further info http://phyzzezee.wordpress.com/

Here is a plan of our plot of land


As you can see we have a very long garden which runs up onto a hillside which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
The land and the garden are the reason we bought this house almost 30 years ago.  Prior to that we lived in the same village, for about eight years, which has now grown considerably in size but is still a friendly and very pleasant place to have a home.

My husband and I  ; D  are both retired schoolteachers, and it's only since he finally stopped part-time teaching recently that we have been on a mission to get our land/garden back into shape.  It has always looked nice but there is always SO MUCH work that needs doing!  When we first moved here there wasn't much of any great value as far as cultivated plants are concerned, so the vast majority of trees have been planted by us as small plants over the years, all fitting initially in the back of different cars.

At the moment we have 3/4 feral cats, one dog, 4 or 5 elderly sheep (can't remember! one died a while back) and one married son and two wonderful grandchildren, a boy and a girl, aged two and one.

We've been busy working outdoors all day and I am about to go and eat and then knit in front of the telly for the rest of the evening.  I've had a few ideas for new threads after reading some of the other posts here so I might be back later tonight

[trishs]

Oh and perhaps I should have mentioned, I'm in the process of trying to get to grips with Ideas Genie.  Why aren't there more hours in a day?

[ideasguy]

Welcome to the forum Trish.
With that plot of land, you certainly do need more hours in a day, or better still more months in Spring Summer and Autumn (with a short rest from the garden in Winter).
I can help you with the Ideas Genie task

[trishs]

Thanks for that George, now I just need to find someone to fetch and carry the rest of the heavy pots between greenhouse and potting area tomorrow so that I can finish repotting the dahlias before the weather deteriorates as they are warning for the rest of the week.  I am so looking forward to being able to cross this job off my to do list.

[trishs]

hello!  Apologies for my long absence.  Our son built me a new PC and it's taken a while to get everything back!

Hope everyone is keeping well and gardening furiously  

It's such a busy time of year!  We have so much to complete before the first week of June when we leave all our plants for almost a week, and hope they will all survive until our return.  It's always a worry and it all depends on the weather of course.  I've taken a few chances and planted up some outdoor pots and spaces with tender stuff because there won't be time to do it all in a couple of days at the end of the month.  If we get frosts forecast I'll be having to dash out to try and protect plants all over the place!  But the forecast for the next few days is ok so I'm hoping things will be able to settle in whilst I'm around to tend to them.  I'm currently halfway through digging up tulips to make way for summer bedding type plants and the dahlias.  All the tomatoes, courgettes and cucumbers are also now installed, but the leeks need planting out in the morning.  Also our pond needs some attention as the various willows have covered the area in white fluff , and we need to put the fine netting back on the fruit cage, etc etc etc!

I've read some of the recent posts and looked at the garden pictures.  Eric's garden plants seem a little further on than ours in Yorkshire.  Fortunately we weren't affected by the dreadful floods but the mild winter may have caused some issues;  time will tell. 

[ideasguy]

Hi Trish
I'm impressed! You make very thorough preparations!

I understand your concern about leaving your precious plants and garden for a whole week unattended in June!
If your weather was like here in Ireland then frost was not a problem with those things you planted out early, but my biggest worry when leaving for a few days in June would be a heatwave!

I don't lift tulips - I wait until they (and daffodils and crocus) are died down and then plant bedding plants in their positions. Any bulbs that are disturbed are buried again. I wouldn't have time to replant them all in Autumn.

I was behind you on the Tomatoes, but Ive now bought grafted plants and have them growing nicely.

Hope you have a nice break and tell us how things are on your return.

[trishs]

Well we're back and apart from returning with a bad cold I survived the trip quite well.  It was very hot and sunny.  Three days  were 31-34 degrees.  Fortunately the weather here in Yorkshire incorporated regular showers of rain intermixed with sunshine so all the outdoor plants have grown like mad (apart from the two courgette plants which the slugs/snails have consumed).  My greenhouse plants are also in good shape thanks to a kind friend/neighbour who visited daily to water and keep a general eye on things.

Our wildflower hillside meadow (SSSI) is doing well too.  We have spotted four orchids from the footpaths, and a goodly amount of the very important hay rattle.

The asparagus is poor though this year   Is this a result of the very wet and relatively mild winter perhaps, or has it just got old and tired?  We're going to dig up half of the bed and replant later this year.

I'm hoping to get to grips with my newly installed versions of the plant genie later this evening.  Ben (son) is going to look at it with me online via teamviewer as we both need to learn how to use the program.  Then I'm hoping it will be easier for me to include pictures with any future posts as I have a long laborious process re-sizing them atm.