Does anyone know anything about gardening?

I would suggest one medium effort move tho. Plant snowdrops before seeding.

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disregard

This might be an obvious question but I can't work it out. What's the warmest temperature that you can still get a plant killing frost at, and how much will a mini greenhouse reduce this to? As in can it be 0 outside but still no danger to plants in a mini greenhouse?

I have just stuck some sweet pea and digitalis seeds in a mini greenhouse in my quite sheltered urban garden. Hoping they will be fine from now on - I read something about sowing them early meaning that they'll be hardier than if you sowed them later or indoors, they get a bit spoilt that way...

on lawns
heres one i did last year
a good dig, a good riddle, a good tamp down, a good rake to get the tilth nice and fine, a good stomp, a good rake and a good seed

got nice and lush last summer,, regularly mown, deep green healthy grass, but i may have got the wrong grass and it ended up a bit sparse late autumn and winter

a little top up this spring should get it looking great again, with the help of a tub of chicken manure put down just before a heavy rain

oops i might get found out due to the dicksonia that this isn't all last year, have actually laid the lawn three times in the last 15 years seeded each time, i think i have mixed up two different re seeds in the pictures above

my garden doesn't always look like shit !

This my lawn currently. It’s been mown this week on a high setting followed by a weed and feed. I’ll continue to mow it weekly and in about 4 weeks I’ll scarify it. Followed by overseeding it. I like the grass to be super spongy so will probably put about 3 - 5 kg of seed on it. Then water as and when

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Most frost damage is caused by frost physically forming on tender new growth. A mini greenhouse will raise the temperature of the soil higher than that of the surrounding area, hopefully enough to prevent freezing overnight. It will also largely prevent any frost forming directly on foliage. In short, a mini greenhouse will give your plants a better chance.

The likelihood of a plant flourishing is apparently inverse to the care you lavish on it, this is why plants you don't want will self-seed and prosper. The second you remove the mini greenhouse, all your plants will be battered by the frost that wasn't predicted, or dug up by next doors' cat.

A note on seeding lawns: the seed providers are in the business of selling seeds, sow at about 25% of the levels they suggest. A 25kg bag of seed will cover an acre. This is what farmers do, the meadows of Olde England have yet to entirely disappear.

dicksonia

dickisonia,
ftfy.

I seeded a lawn this time last year and used the cheapo Wilko Shady Area Grass Seed and it came up lovely, there's no rye grass in it, just blue grass or something, really lush and soft grass:

Does anyone have experience with a no till vegetable garden? I used the search but no results.

I have a (warm climate) succulent outside in a gap in the paving that has survived 3 years, it gets a cheap plastic cloche over it in the winter. Checked it yesterday, seems fine despite snow around the cloche a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks hoefla and Colin you are telling me what I want to hear

The second apple tree pruned today

Before...

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And after

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Some experience from the agricultural side. I'm assuming that you won't use glyphosate to kill weeds so you'll need lots of mulch. Compaction is the biggest issue from my experience. I think you'd need to use raised beds to avoid this.

https://charlesdowding.co.uk/

This guy has all the answers for no dig gardening/veg growing.

Thanks for the link.. Really interesting.

Went on a course there a few years ago, was a great day out and really interesting too. His growing space is spectacular. The no dig works well for us, and is easier on the back too which is nice!

contact your local garden/allotment society. Someone will have it off you

Progress on preparing a wider concrete base for my larger greenhouse.

I've now prepared the wooden shuttering ready for mixing and pouring the concrete.

Pic 1 - I've added some existing blocks to fill up some of the space and will pour the mix over these. The 2 x 2 slabs at north and south (with spare wood and drill on them) are sitting on top of the shuttering to prevent it moving

Pic 2 - the bubble isn't perfectly level in fact it's sloping up but all I'm doing is ensuring that the shuttering is taller than the existing base all the way around so that I don't get any overflow. The wooden wedge at the bottom is to push out a slight bow as the wood I used has got a bit wet and slightly warped

Pic 3 - The plan is to fill up to the first step and then lay three 2 x 2 slabs (resting against the trees in the background) on the upper step hanging across the newly filled gap and pour more mix over those. I've also placed a couple of 2 x 2 on the east of the shuttering to prevent any bowing from the weight of concrete mix when added

Next step is to head off to Wickes or Homebase to pick up some cement and ballast.

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Looks fine to me, your local builders merchant will be cheaper than DIY stores for materials.

On the apple tree pruning: greatly improved from how it was, but in the future you should prune the leaders to an outwards facing bud. You will just about be ok if you do so now, I would normally prune in Dec/Jan.

Is that shuttering stiff enough to stop it bowing out when the concrete goes in?

I hope so! That's why I've supported it with the 4 spare slabs. Those mofo's weigh a ton. I struggle to lift one at a time.

cheers and noted re the pruning