Gardenman

Please see my post in ED issues re collection point for clothes, food, blankets & toys going to Greece for refugees Thanks Nigel SE228JX

Please see my post in ED general issues Nigel SE228JX

I am taking my van down to Lesbos in Greece for Christmas to help the thousands of refugees from Syria who are stuck in the country, as the borders are closed to them. I am hoping to load the van full, so I need a church or a hall where people can take the goods, toys, blankets,non perishable foods, & I can load them from there. I only have a small flat! As soon as this is done, I will update if you wish to make a contribution of any kind. If you wish to make a donation, I will set up an account for this. I have approached some charities to help, but have not received a reply! I am paying for the trip myself & would welcome someone, a volunteer to map read & help when we get down there. Any questions? Give me a call Nigel 07961888253 Sunderland Court SE22 8JX

I have just had my van sign written by Ben at Design & Print, 94 Kirkdale Sydenham. He did a great job & we are very pleased at the outcome. He also does shop signs, graphic design, window graphics, T shirts, business cards, flyers & websites, some of which, we will be using him for shortly. A nice guy with reasonable prices & good service. Watch out for our blue van with the Japanese symbols on the doors!!! 😃 Nigel Exterior Design Gardens 07961888253 Sunderland Court Lordship Lane

Hey Tetley. Thanks for the recommendation. Very kind. No turf war horizontal. I usually recommend on my gardening tips that all customers get at least 3 quotes, so as to get a good idea of price & lots of ideas. Nigel 07961888253

Thanks Tima. Yes, I saw the program last night. It was very encouraging. I am always looking for alternative healing to conventional medicines.

Hi. I have been suffering from type 2 diabetes for some time & have had some success with diet, but really need some good advice & a diet plan as my energy levels get low & I'm slacking & my team are accusing me of not putting in the effort😮. So please message me if your are a nutritionist or can recommend one Thanks Nigel 07961888253

Just a reminder, that we have not received any requests for the free days gardening for your neighbours if they are old, infirm,or disabled. We don't have too much work coming in at the moment & I need to keep my guys in work. So please give me a call if you think we can help. But as said only if your neighbours want this. Nigel

I would like to recommend Simon Orchard too. We have built a few of Simons designs for his customers. The designs have been very coherent & communication between him, the customer & ourselves has worked well. He has an eye for detail & his designs have set us interesting challenges & at the same time been a delight to work on & bring delight to ourselves & ourselves. Nigel Exterior Design Gardens

I can't believe I forgot to bore you about tidying the leaves off your borders & lawns. Trees are very clever & take all the toxins out of our air & then drop them beneath them to prevent anything growing around them. The consequence is your lawn & plants get poisoned!! So, get your rakes & blowers out regularly & make some nice compost. I'll be round to check!!

Hope you all had a good summer. We did, we have been the busiest we've ever been & taken on 5 great new staff to help out. So before you put those tools away & lock your patio doors on your gardens, here's that dreadful man to nag you into doing yet more tasks in your garden! But, at least you will have a lovely garden come next spring. I am hearing we are due a hard/cold winter, so don't say I didn't warn you. So off we go: 1. To add some wonderful colour next year, go & spend copious amounts of money on new bulbs & get them planted up while the soil is still warm. There are so many varieties now. Plant them in large clumps for maximum effect. Also plant out winter flowering pansies & my favourites Hellebores ( Christmas roses) I can't bring my self to mention wall flowers, so I won't!!😀 2. Lawns. If there is a lot of moss, scarify with a tine rake really hard, or one of those scarifier if you don't need the exercise! Then aerate every 6 inches ( in old money!) with a fork. Give the lawn its last mow leaving the grass an inch high. Then give the lawn a top dressing of top soil, Autumn feed, light sand ( kiln dried or play sand) & seed. It is also a good time of year to lay new lawns as they wont be too disturbed while your indoors keeping warm for the rest of the winter! 3. Prune climbing roses & tie in well to prevent wind rock. Very noisy 😀😀. Prune shrub roses if they have lost their flowers, or just cut back to the third bud of dead rose buds. Half prune Buddlejahs, Cornus & Laveteras. Collect seeds in a brown bag while your doing this, for planting out in early spring. Trim deciduous hedges lightly to keep their shape over winter & cut back all evergreen hedges & shrubs for the last time this year. Cut back herbaceous perennials. 4. Harvest your Apples, Pears & other fruits. Please give them to your neighbours or favourite gardener if you don't want them, but please don't waste them. They can be used in many ways. All recipes welcome 😋 5. Still with me?? Well done. For your free plants, divide your herbaceous perennials by cutting in half with two spades. Move any tender plants into a shaded area or greenhouse if you have one. If not possible, buy a horticultural fleece to cover them when you know snow or heavy frost is on its way. 6. This is a good time to move or plant trees, shrubs, climbers & hedges because, as said the soil is still warm & there is a good stock of bare root trees & hedges at a more reasonable price at your nursery, if there are any out there that haven't been knocked down for development!!! 7. Put nets over ponds to prevent leaves getting in. Before you do, take out pumps & debris. Give the pump a clean & service & store in a dry place. Take water timers off the taps & store them as well after taking the batteries out. When's he going to stop!!! 8. Turn your compost heap over if you have any strength left! 😴 9. And when you do get indoors reduce watering of indoor plants & plant up some lovely Hyacinths ready for Christmas, a lovely job to do with the kids. Also plant Amaryllis for the new year. Finished at last,but just to say, if any of you have older or disabled neighbours, we are offering as a means of saying thank you for such a great summer of work a days free work in their garden to tidy up & bring their garden back for them to enjoy. Only if they want us to! There will be 3 of us & me or if preferred without me!! To get the work done. Thank you for reading. Happy gardening & as always if you are too busy, too tired, or too rich, then please give your money to any of the well recommended & fabulous gardeners on the forum. Or us! This is a great time of year for larger gardening projects in order to have a beautiful garden for spring. Nigel Exterior Design Gardens Sunderland court Lordship lane SE22 8JX 07961888253

Hi. Please take a look at this months gardening tips on the business section. Great bedtime reading!!!

Where is this to be held & do you have a date yet?

A recommendation for Stevie. He came to the rescue this summer when my yoga practitioner for The Big Calm in Kefalonia had to go home. Stevie stepped in & was amazing, keeping everyone informed & amused whilst offering the most wonderful hot yoga on the beach. He is very personable & I continue to use his class when I can. A really uplifting experience that keeps me fit & very positive

It used to be called 'Scrumping' I posted in my gardening tips, if anyone is unable to make use of their fruits in their garden, please share them with your neighbours or post their availability on here. As a community, its the least we can do to share the delights of our gardens. If not, then resort to scrumping!!!

The expression " Never a lender, nor a borrower be" comes to mind! The European banks have had their boot on the necks of the Greek people, & the Greek government up to now run corruptly by 2 families for the last 30 odd years, were making people unemployed as their main policy to somehow pay back the money borrowed & used by themselves & their non tax paying friends. Something had to give. And Europe, mainly Germany & the banks are scared! But one has to ask; why did they loan the money to a country with a very poor GDP & corrupt system?? Did they seriously think the people would be happy to pay for money they never got to see? Not too different from the UK!!

The other possibility is that it may have been Japanese knotweed. This has to be dealt with by licenced operatives. Which is ridiculous & jobs for the boys. Jap knotweed is not as bad as is made out. If it is, just burn it. If it isn't, please let us know. I'm losing sleep over this!!!!

There's a chance it might be to do with the plastic bags, not what's in them. They can't be composted. If not, you're looking at a jobsworth situation & being privatised, you are the refuse companies customer at the end of the day. Good luck.