A prickly job out of the way.
20 comments
At the end of May some Dutch Iris were flowering away in their pretty colours of mauve and yellow, but sadly were hard to see as they were in the shade of a Holly bush.
It has been on my mind to dig them up and re-site them in a sunnier spot, but the thought of all the very prickly fallen Holly leaves surrounding them was putting me off the task.
Rain was forecast by 1pm today, so after breakfast I gathered up a trug, hand trowel and fork, hand brush, garden kneeler and put two pairs of garden gloves on, mainly because I bleed very easily thanks to the blood thinners I take and those Holly leaves are vicious!
I began by removing a clump of Nigella, in the right of the photo, as they have now gone to seed, then, with head bowed down, to avoid the Holly bush above hitting it, I set to with the brush to gather up the dead leaves.
While digging up the Dutch Iris bulbs, I also removed some Spanish Bluebell bulbs as they can be a real thug in this border unless I remove them quickly. Note the parched grass, not able to call it a lawn now.
There were a couple of big garden Snails in amongst the leaves, which begs the question why don’t they get prickled by the Holly leaves?!!
This one was smaller and prettier but I moved it to another part of the garden, near the bird feeders, so it may have become a bird’s lunch by now!
Here are the bulbs I managed to dig up, some to the right of the Holly too, so it took me a while to get this job done. Well, all the jobs take me a bit longer these days if I’m honest.
Much of the foliage had turned a straw colour and came away very easily, but I shall need to discard all the little bulbils/bulblets before re-planting the larger bulbs.
Here is the cleared area, no rain has fallen and it’s now 2.45pm so the soil is bone dry as ever here in the South.
I hope the weather is good wherever you may be, happy gardening!
3 Jul, 2023
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Comments
Well done for all that hard work Shirley!
3 Jul, 2023
Well done managing to release those bulbs from that dry soil.
3 Jul, 2023
Well done you, what a fantastic job after all your hard work.
4 Jul, 2023
Amazing how one job always leads to another! I always enjoy the finished article when you can see how you've improved things, one small area at a time. Good job completed!
4 Jul, 2023
Thanks everyone for your lovely comments ... barely enough rain to make the soil wet more than an inch down!
4 Jul, 2023
Hope you’re having a bit more rain now … we’re enjoying a good long downpour, not before time!
4 Jul, 2023
Sheila, one water butt is filled to the top again after some overnight rain ... thank goodness ... :o)
5 Jul, 2023
That’s good news Shirley - ours is now full too 🙂.
5 Jul, 2023
Excellent.
5 Jul, 2023
It looks nice and clear now Shirley :) I hope the bulbs will do well in their new position.
7 Jul, 2023
Hywel, I confess to not having planted them yet!
7 Jul, 2023
Those Irises will thank you for moving them to a clearer spot, Shirley!
Getting very little rain here - if any! Though on Tuesday we had more rain than I think we had in the whole of June! Still not nearly enough! Maybe some rain again tomorrow - we will see!
It doesn't do much good on the balcony unless we get a really good heavy downpour as the leaves & flowers deflect the rain from the pots. So I was rather too optimistic when I checked on the saucers underneath the pots on the balcony railings - all as dry as the Sahara! 😆
7 Jul, 2023
David, we had a thunderstorm with heavy rain this morning, but it has not soaked the soil very much!
8 Jul, 2023
No, Shirley, it never does, does it? I have found that though I water deeper (???) than most people would that the church gardens (particularly along the path to the entrance) are still very dry after digging down for several cm in spite of have watered "deeply" the day before!
The heavy rain from thunderstorms just rolls off the surface & doesn't do hardly any good at all. At least in our gardens but on allotments with a lot of bare soil, or at least looser soil, it does sink it a bit better.
11 Jul, 2023
David, that's so true. Earlier this evening I watered the pots and have decided everything in the ground has to fend for itself!
12 Jul, 2023
We had a couple of heavy showers yesterday afternoon but only the hanging baskets benefit really most of the other pots on the railings just get a little as most just bounces off the leaves.
13 Jul, 2023
Yes, I can quite understand that ...
13 Jul, 2023
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Interesting blog Shirley. We have had some rain at last.
Quite a bit one night with lots of thunder & lightening ( which I never heard). It was nice to wake up & find a wet garden. Today we have had a light shower, still hoping for a bit more. It doesn’t seem to go down very deep.
3 Jul, 2023