March in your Garden - Page 4

Discodave, I really laughed when I read about your tea-tasting dog

Thanks artjak, she is a character.

Bunny.. wrote (see)

Good exercise dave , should've borrowed some sheep they'd have cut it already

Bunny, thats what the OH said..

All lab owners I have met are batty about labs, same for Border Collie owners!  I've had Border Collies for the last 35 years. They are so intelligent, trainable and loving. My Tigger never steals food when it's on a table, but when a friend left her picnic lunch on the ground by her car Tigger thought it was for him - obviously, people don't eat off the ground he thought! He's had a thing about smoked salmon ever since!  Think it was Dave's dog's photo on another thread, so beautiful.

Sorry, this is meant to be gardening in March. Raining today so gardening on hold.

I had a Border Collie who did that, and he like cowpats!

Thanks Busy-Lizzie, I used to do opedience training and showing with border collies aswell. (managed to show at crufts). She loved horse poo and rolling in cow pats too..

Am off down the garden to play with my new toy; a telescopic lopper. There's a willow that leans over my fence from the field and shades my veg bed a bit. Tackled the pear tree on Sunday and it's made a big difference. This week I hope to sow a lot of seeds in the greenhouse.

Talk about what you want on here for me a light interlude is great,  I have a dog and a cat,  Phoebe the dog is a Greyhound |Border Collie cross as worked out by a vet many years ago,   she will be 16 in June,  she has her moments even now will run around like a spring lamb then realise her age and stop,  she still chases her ball in one of the launcher things but I have to get it and launch it again,  Akhenaten Aki for short he will be 17 in August he's a house cat so almost comatose all day never been a lap cat or a loving cat but he will come for a stoke every day.

I managed to get in the garden before work this morning. What a staggeringly beautiful day!

I'm still cautious about getting too stuck in so pretty much just pottered about forgotting to pot my lillies, discovering Tulips I didn't know I had and talking plant positions with the other half, who came up with one brilliant idea I never would have considered and which is bloody perfect for that area.

The lawn also got its first mow yesterday but nothing too harsh.

Imagine how miffed I am, I just spent 3 days carefully cutting back my ivy (growing on my fences) and had a chat with the "gardener" next door at the retirement home, only for him to tell me that he has decided to use killer on the ivy on his side of the fence. I mentioned to him that as its interwoven between and over both sides that if he uses killer on his side wont it kill the ivy on my side not to mention if it seeps down into the soil that it may also seep into my border. He has assured me that it wont but I cant see how it wont affect my side. Plus I can't help thinking that hes doubling his work load by firstly having to apply the killer then wait for it to die off then by having to remove the dead ivy. 

I've used various sorts of weedkiller over the years on a patch of ivy that I didn't plant and don't want and it hasn't worked.

We and the neighbours either side are over run with Ivy, We have all tried everythin and have now decided the only way to rid our gardens is to cut it and pull it every tme we see it. It's beginning to work, but don't mention the word Ivy to the oneside as it was worse there than any where

Verdun, thank you, but the ivy is along a wall 20 metres long, over 2 mtres tall with some roses in front of it, and perennials in front of the roses it's difficult. Try bruising that lot! I've tried carefully to spray it, including with glphosate and bramble killer but it just looked a bit ill then came back. But, sadly, a Constance Spry rose and an Albertine died. The ivy roots disappear under the wall and there is bindweed there too. I still have 2 Albertines so access is difficult I can't reach to get it out by hand. I'm surrounded by forest which is full of ivy and ivy pops up all over the place, lots of which I can weed out. Garden is around an acre.

Ex next door neighbours planted ivy against their garage, which eventually intruded into my garden, but on their garage wall.  Hope that makes sense.  Did not like or want it so did as Verdun suggested and cut it off as far as I could manage at the bottom.  I was amazed how strongly it was suckered to the wall.  Much of it would not budge.  Gradually pulled it off taking a lot of the rendering with it!  On one of our lovely days this week, I managed to get the rest off, together with more rendering!