My Garden 2019

My garden in a year - 2019

Just a quick monthly view of what been going on.  Also have look at the specific plant pages, the index is on the left side of the blog.   Hope you enjoy it all. 

January 2019

A new addition!   Citrus "Vulc" [C18] bought cheaply in the January clear-out at my local garden center. 

Brilliant.   Only problem is space to store it for the next few months.  

My glass greenhouse is full

But  just manged to create space in my temporary plastic greenhouse.

February 2019

Another winter sale - a discounted Trachycarpus fortunei [G40]

A great sunny day so a good time to check on some Citrus trees by taking them out of the greenhouse for an afternoon airing

Quince showing signs of life, below [2nd Feb]

Heleborus in flower

Nectarin budding

and strawberries having a look in

My Peach tree in the greenhouse, lots of buds on it [February 24]

The Nectarin, below.   February 24th

March 2019

A new addition - the Corydyline australis "Atlantic Green"

And a Buddleja Black Knight going cheap [March 3]

March 17 2019 and hailstones

March 23rd and the Pear is budding

The greenhouse Citrus are OK

With only a few things to worry about

old fruit to take off the trees

March 23 and a sunny day out for the trees [only for the day though]. 

and more bug hunting

April 2019

Rhubarb picking

The Citrus are now being brought out of the greenhouses at last

and time to take apart my temporary greenhouse

I have been planning this for ages, finally had the time and good weather to lift these patio stones up so I can plant into this area.  A lot harder than expected. 

And planted in the tree . 

A getting more organised now as you can see [April 21]

Still a bit of sorting to do [April 27]

May 2019

Propagating Chilies Peppers and Sweet Peppers in the greenhouse

The Buddleja growing away nicely

and so is the Quince

May is such a nice time in the garden [hopefully]

Peaches growing really quickly now [May 10]

Tomatoes grown from seed are getting potted up to their tubs

Cucumbers also growing well, on the right of the picture [May 11]

A full greenhouse of tomato plants now, below

Meanwhile, outside the geraniums are in bloom [May 29]

A couple of weeks of growing in the greenhouse and the second sown peppers and chilies are doing really well in the propagator.  Mainly in there to keep of the slugs and snails.



and the cucumbers are growing well.   I kept five cumbers out of the seedlings and only one has actually survived the slugs, but that enough [see end of July pictures]

Tomatoes May 29

June2019

Two weeks on holiday and then too much work to do, but the gardens looking fine.
The fig is really doing well now [June 30]

And two of the Yukkas are flowing [end of June in these pictures]

and citrus looking great [Clementine]

July 2019 

Looking good but am a bit concerned that one of the trunks may be dying, we shall see [Cordyline australis] , below.    I have planted in the Buddleja Black Knight shrub, bottom right]

Peppers and Chilies have been potted up [July 14]

and the cucumber is doing fine [last surviving one]

The cucumbers are a bit messy but fruiting.
 
The last peach on the tree, all the rest went into fruit pies.

Phormium "chocomint" , below

and the rejuvenated Bay tree is growing nicely [July 14]

Yuckka and its pup

Banana plant growing well - Musa Basjoo [G55].   One of the others died unfortunately

Last days of July [27th] and re-potting some of the Citrus.   I was worried about the weight of the pots and if the drainage was bad.   These particular plants were all in bad way a couple of years ago so maybe a soil change and clean was needed.    These plants are G06, G11 and G17 in my index.  

This time of year is not ideal to repot them [Spring is best] but I felt it needed doing sooner rather than wait till next year. 

 

The old pot mixture was very heavy and compacted.   Its been raining really heavily the last couple of days so I am not sure if the soil being so wet was bad drainage or just the extreme rain. The pots were really heavy, much heavier than some of my much larger Citrus trees.  

When I removed the plants, the soil was heavy and compacted and sodden.  The root-balls seemed OK with no sign of rotting or damage. 

I used a mix of 1/3 organic compost, 1/3 Perlite and 1/3 Vermiculite.  I also downsized the pots by about 2" in diameter.   The plants are now about half the weight to lift so that's a big plus.

 The Citrus G06 and G17 have been kept in the greenhouse until now, but I was bit worried that they were overheating in the hot weather we are having.   The last few days we have been really hot and now we have lots of rain, so ideal for the citrus to out side.  Citrus C06 [front left in the picture above] is finally doing rather well. 

Whilst I was re-potting some Citrus I thought maybe change of soil would be good for my Citrus "Etrog" [C03] which has not been doing that well.  Slow growth and lots woody stem dieback.  And its been attacked by snails a lot.   Here it is after a soil change, same pot.  Again very heavy and compacted old soil.   I used the same mix as mentioned above.   The root ball was very compacted so I gently knocked out a bit of the earth off it, to release some roots.   A noticeable lighter pot now.

Citrus Etrog, below.