Dereks Diary Part 2

[balc2]

Thanks. Your flowers are beautiful! 👌👏👏

[derekbrooks]

Went on the allotment this morning.After yesterdays rain I thought it was too wet to carry on digging my potato bed.I decided to put the sweet peas and some other annuals that had finished onto the compost.It took me a while to take all the rings from the sweet peas and I had to cut the tithonia up to go on the compost because they were quite big plants.
Before I went to the allotment this morning I washed the boxes for boxing my chrysanths in the wheelbarrow under the car port.This afternoon I dug up all the chrysanth stools and took them into the greenhouse separated into the different varieties.I removed the canes and put the V clips that had fixed the canes to the horizontal wires away in the shed. The horizontal wires are attached to T posts at the end of the rows. I untied these and tied the wires along the fence at the back.I didn't have time to do any boxing up but because the stools are in the greenhouse I will be able to do them tomorrow if it is raining.

Chrysanth stools in the greenhouse searated into varieties waiting to be boxed up.

[derekbrooks]

It started drizzling mid morning and carried on much of the day so I have been in the greenhouse most of the time.I boxed up the chrysanth stools into 5 boxes and put them on a shelf. There are about 10 in each box and I use John Innes no3.The boxes I use are, I think, mushroom boxes.When I washed them yesterday I washed twice as many as I needed for these chrysanths because I still have the sprays to do and I haven't dug those up yet as there are still some nice flowers on them. Some of the boxes I didn't use today were split and needed repairing so I spent some time doing that.I just bind some duck tape round them.I have also potted some rooted cuttings of salvias,Hot Lips and Cerro Potosi into small custard pots.

[derekbrooks]

Drizzling again much of the day.Usually I have two beds full of chrysanths,4 rows on each.This year I hadn't enough plants so half of the second bed was planted with gladioli. There was one nice one left so I cut it and put it in a vase.I cut the rest of the plants down and dug up the corms then shifted the canes and tied the wires onto the fence like I did on the first bed. I put some old compost on both beds and raked it over.In the greenhouse I potted a few more rooted geranium and regal pelargonium cuttings.

Chrysanth stools boxed up and put on a shelf yesterday