Knockdene garden in 2021

Sunrise           06:56          Sunset          19:57 A good day in the garden. Alison potted up the Dahlia plants and put them in the little greenhouse. They should be ready to go come May/June.  Dahlias 1 Dahlias 2 Dahlias 3 I spent some time in the potting shed once again working at old potted plants. I took apart 2 pots of "River Lilies" and refreshed them into better compost.

Sunrise           06:59          Sunset          19:55 I have to go this morning to Carol's to get more  glass. Then visit my sister in law Gail to do a we job for her. Jay and I will do this together. Garden after lunch. We returned and after a bit of work we got the rest of the glass into the greenhouse. Finished at last. I ended the evening in the potting shed repotting and recovering previously grown pot plants.  Finished Greenhouse Alison unearthed the Dahlia tubers dug up last year, she is going to pot them up and leave them to come into 2021.

Sunrise          07:01          Sunset          19:53 A grey start to the day, but no real rain in the forecast.  I went out and took a few pictures before going to pick up Jay. Beans and Peas Garlic and Saffron Crocus Greenhouse 1 Greenhouse 2 Pear I moved over winter Strawberries Alison moved last week going well When Jay and I started we were able to get a DPC underneath the wooden frame of the base. We also cut some glass sheets and got the front apex finished. Dismantled, checked out the heating mat of the heating tray in the greenhouse. It was working intermittently. Found nothing wrong so I reinstalled it. Will check tomorrow. I moved some of yesterdays Chrysanthemum cuttings into the greenhouse for protection. I spent an hour in the potting shed in the evening pottering.

 First day of British Summer Time Sunrise          07:04          Sunset          19:51 A damp night and a grey start to Sunday. Forecast is for rain all day then a big wind forecast. I started today by taking Hesketh Knight Chrysanthemum cuttings for stools lifted earlier in January. I managed to get about 35 cuttings potted up. I did in the dry periods manage to finish the glazing of the roof of the greenhouse. So a good day altogether in the garden despite the iffy weather. I checked my cuttings taken earlier and found some of the cuttings of Hamamelis left in water, with leaves on, so I put some rooting compound onto 5 of them and potted them individually. Will be interesting to see if they strike. A lot of the other H cuttings that I potted as a group in compost have also started to show leaves. Rhubarb coming along nicely Polyanthus growing with daffodils. Potting Shed Various things on pots outside Va...

Sunrise          06:06          Sunset          18:50 A nice bright start to the day. Alison and I went first thing to the Health Centre for our second Covid vaccination. When we came home, I got ready and headed for Carol's place. I picked up 20 sheets of greenhouse glass, had a cup of coffee and headed home. I got home about 12:30, just in time for lunch. After lunch, Alison and I started working with the new glass. It was fairly dirty, so first job was to clean each sheet before fitting them to the greenhouse. We got the right hand side as you look from the front completed, a good job. The weather was looking inclement again so we called it a day. We checked out everything in the greenhouse and did a bit of watering. I took  some photos around the garden, front and back. Edgeworthia Chrysantha, "Red Dragon" Chives and Chrysanthemums in the greenhouse Flower seeds and Chrysanthemums in the greenhouse ...

Sunrise          06:09          Sunset           18:48   Plant of rain overnight but a very bright start to the day. Jay came down and we started on the glazing of the greenhouse. We had a lot of old glass that turned out to be very dirty. We cleaned each pane and started where Alison and I had left off the day before. We got each of the sides finished apart from the peaks and one pane into the roof. My sister Carol has got lots of glass in her garden from another old greenhouse, so I have arranged to pick 20 sheets up tomorrow. The weather turned inclement after 1500, so we called it a day. All in all a good days progress. Everything else in the garden seems to be going well. There are lots of flowers in bloom. Daffodils Daffodils transplanted earlier this year. Edgeworthia Crysantha Forsythia

Sunrise          06:12          Sunset 18:46 Another good dry start to the day. I went this morning to see Fergus up at Clandeboye. When I returned not the I finished putting the glazing rubbers onto the  aluminium frames.  Alison and I started to glaze the new greenhouse. We had the  glass from Gary so we cleaned each pane before setting them into place. We got 5 panes in before stopping for lunch. After lunch the rain came on and stopped production. I went into the potting shed and prepared 20 pots for taking Chrysanthemum cuttings. Our first Tulip was in flower this morning, A bicolour pink and yellow.

  Sunrise      06:14          Sunset          18.44 A sunny start to today. Rain had come down overnight. I picked up Jayden and we started on the greenhouse. When I was bringing him we called at the Landscape Centre outside Newtownards and got 8 bags of small stones. These were spread on top of the filling inside the greenhouse. We now have a reasonable floor to walk on. Next we moved the built greenhouse frame and carried it over the pond and placed it onto the prepared base. It fitted well. We secured the greenhouse to the frame before stopping for lunch. Jay had to go to Tech so nothing more at the Greenhouse today. I did some more work in the potting shed recovering Scented Pelargoniums. I watered the green house and checked everything was doing OK.