Thread: Green Shoots: gardening thread, 2013 Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Welcome to your newly planted gardening thread for the coming year!

Ariel
Heaven Host
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
If things carry on as they are I'm thinking of growing rice...
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Steady on! We're in the middle of an official drought, you know.

Possibly the wettest drought on record, but still.
 

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Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :
 
our garden is usually waterlogged.....all the gardens along here suffer the same affliction.

the dampness i can live with, it's the liverwort that's slowly driving me nutz. it's like a rash, all over the place.

ideas?
 

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Posted by Kyzyl (# 374) on :
 
The way 2013 is going, I won't even see grass nor garden until, oh, April.
 

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Posted by Traveller (# 1943) on :
 
Our lawn has a nasty crop of mole hills. It is so wet out there, I nearly feel sorry for the moles.
 

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Posted by FooloftheShip (# 15579) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Traveller:
Our lawn has a nasty crop of mole hills. It is so wet out there, I nearly feel sorry for the moles.

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quote:

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Originally posted by FooloftheShip:

quote:

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Originally posted by Traveller:
Our lawn has a nasty crop of mole hills. It is so wet out there, I nearly feel sorry for the moles.

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It's when you see bubbles or snorkels emerging from the top that you can really feel for them.

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But you'll probably still want to put a cork in the top of the snorkel.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
Things are growing, here! I think all my Phalaenopsis orchids have flower spikes! One has four of them! Hopefully the Cattleyas and Dendrobiums will think about putting out new shoots, soon.

And...I have tomatoes!! I believe I counted ten, all but one on the largest plant. I'm hoping they last until they're fully ripe. The nine are a black heirloom tomato. I've never eaten a black tomato, and am really looking forward to tasting the thing! The other is a pink and white striped heirloom. It's only shooter marble sized right now.

The dill is of a size to use, and so is the mint. There is a teeny-tiny pepper on a little pepper plant.

It's very exciting at the Jedi Temple! We will hope that there are no freezes this winter. So far, so good!
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
Back at the allotment this weekend - apparently someone has dropped out and they didn't have the full complement of numbers anyway, so the 2.5 plots which were originally going to be divided up into 10 quarter plots are likely to be divided up into a smaller number of bigger plots. So we'd better get planning our veggies

It really is a massive job clearing the site, as it's really not been looked after. I keep telling myself how much easier it will be next year as we won't have to do all this again!
 

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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
First really good session in the garden for 2013. Mainly clearing out fallen leaves from the borders and lawn, but also pruning hydrangeas, checking on overwintering plants in the cold frames (one rather confused geum has decided to produce a flower) and planting some sweet pea seeds (indoors).

Rather disappointed that so few of the snowdrop bulbs I planted last spring seem to be doing anything, but I think I am not alone in this. Also wondering what is putting holes in the leaves of my brassicas. I don't think it is slugs, as slug pellets and copper tape around the raised beds should be giving them a decent amount of protection.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
I've definitely got slugs eating my brassicas. I've been catching them at it. Hopefully colder weather this week will stop the little so-and-sos and I can pick some sprouts without holes in their sides. We're expecting a frost tonight and maybe snow tomorrow.

I'm very pleased with my leeks. I hadn't tried them before and wasn't sure if I could cope with the earthing-up, but they've turned out really well. A definite must for this year!

I was out today spreading compost on the raspberry bed and around the gooseberry bushes. The mild weather means lots of weeds have sprouted but the soil's too wet for me to pull or hoe them. The bottom of the garden is no longer flooded but still distinctly soggy.
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Daffodils! Proper, ordinary daffodils, in the ground in our garden, fully in flower!
 

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Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :
 
Me and a couple of my uni friends have found a really lovely house to share next year, with a very generous garden for a student house (long and narrow like most terraced houses' gardens in the UK). My family are keen gardeners and I would like to try out my own green fingers! What can you plant (preferably in pots) from September onwards that's difficult to kill?

We would like to attract wildlife too (we will be putting out bird feeders, nesting boxes etc) - I know lavender and various herbs attract bees, but what would attract birds that's not a tree or large shrub? I'm not sure if we'll be allowed to dig up any of the turf so we'll probably stick to pots.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
One thing you can plant in autumn is spring bulbs - snowdrops, crocus, narcissi, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips. As those begin to fade, you can get he cheap summer bedding plants - lobelia, Busy Lizzie, geranium, begonia, French marigold etc. I don't have much flowerbed, so I plant up a lot of pots and tubs.

If you have any really scrotty bits of ground, scatter nasturtiums: I have a narrow strip between a brick wall and some paving - dry, full of bits of mortar, it can barely support weeds - but nasturtiums love it.

Also, if you have a large tub/bin/plasticy-fabric bags, you can grow potatoes (worth it for the taste). And herbs, of course.
 

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Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :
 
Thanks! You can eat nasturtiums too (leaves and flowers).
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
They also serve as a kind of organic pest control, attracting stuff that would otherwise go for the veg. But their own edibility is rather lowered by the black fly coating.
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Thanks! You can eat nasturtiums too (leaves and flowers).

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Me and a couple of my uni friends have found a really lovely house to share next year, with a very generous garden for a student house (long and narrow like most terraced houses' gardens in the UK). My family are keen gardeners and I would like to try out my own green fingers! What can you plant (preferably in pots) from September onwards that's difficult to kill?

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There is a great deal that can be gown in containers, and Firenze's suggestion of bulbs to provide colour through to early summer is a very good one.

As it is a student house, one question to think about is whether you will be there in high summer when many things are in flower. Even if you are, it would still be a good idea to plant things that will be attractive through the winter months, as this will be be your first experience of the garden, so evergreens are worth looking at.

Skimmia might be a good choice. They needn't grow too large, provide year-round interest and if you get at least one male and one female variety you should get berries on the female that birds might appreciate (there is one variety, Reevesiana, which is self-fertile).

The main winter colour in my garden is a winter-flowering heather (I don't know exactly what variety as it was here when I bought the house). As well as providing a lovely patch of pink right through the winter it also supplies food for insects at a time when there isn't much else around. It's astonishing how a sunny day in winter will produce bees searching out anything in flower.

Both skimmia and heaths will appreciate acidic conditions, but this shouldn't be a problem in a container with some ericaceous compost (easier than in the open ground, anyway).
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Looks as though my gardening for a few days will be limited to getting in a savoy and a swede before they vanish under the snow!

Mind you, if it does freeze like a rock by weekend and I can still find the thing, I might get some digging in - just turn the spits over while the surface is hard enough to walk on, and let the frost break it up.

The slowly thaw out myself, afterwards...

AG
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
The garden is now completely snow-free, and I have been for a stroll round to see how it fares. Much has been happening under that frosty blanket!
The snowdrops are up, and teasing me with that little tip of white they show for a couple of weeks before the flowers open, and there are a few winter aconite in bloom. Some cyclamen coum are open, and there are a few red swellings peeping above the ground in the rhubarb patch.

The Kilmarnock Willow that blew over last autumn, and was replanted with more hope than confidence, has buds on it, so maybe we are in luck there.

I thought we'd lost the tree peony, as the flower and leaf clusters all wilted and slowly died just before flowering last year, but there are lots of new buds and young leaves on it, so maybe it was the drought (of last winter and the early spring, and much of the previous year). It's certainly had a good soaking since then.

The clematis I should have pruned at the beginning of the month were already showing green shoots at eye level, so I got out the shears and cut them down to about 9" (should be ground level, but that's just inviting the slugs to eat their fill).
By the time I'd done that, and cut off the really dead bits of the tree peony it had started to rain, so it's back indoors to start planning what will go where in the veg plot (yes, I know I'm late with that, too )
 

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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
The snow has gone and the rain has returned, so it doesn't look as though I will get to plant the dogwood I bought yesterday to fill a bit of a gap in the hedge (Cornus alba 'Elegantissima').

The snowdrops have just started to open and, joy of joy, the first few flowers of the Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' have opened. It isn't the easiest of plants to grow, and hasn't looked very happy in the year since I bought it. But I do have flowers and, as they provide possible the finest fragrance of any garden plant, I am very pleased.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Half my allotment was under water when I went round on Sunday (which was quite useful as a heads-up to what to plant where: rice and water-chestnuts on that side if this keeps up) but I did manage to get some more weeding and digging done. And a very happy browse through seed packets in the supermarket to decide on what to plant in the next few weeks.

If anyone had told me as a child that one day I'd be standing there in a sort of semi-rapturous haze holding a packet of seeds for curly kale, a vegetable I loathed as a child, I think I'd have screamed in horror. But O the joy of the prospect of red onions, a row of beetroot, the first shoots of spinach, the vigour of runner beans and those beautiful scarlet flowers...
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
The garden is now completely snow-free, and I have been for a stroll round to see how it fares. Much has been happening under that frosty blanket!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:
Half my allotment was under water when I went round on Sunday (which was quite useful as a heads-up to what to plant where: rice and water-chestnuts on that side if this keeps up)

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Yep. looks as though mine may be about to flood for the third time since the end of November. Ho hum. Still, won't need to water for a while...

AG
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
As wet and windy day succeeds cold and sodden one after icy and snowy one, the mere thought of going out the back door, let alone doing anything in the garden seems a fantastical one.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
We are having the unusual blessing of rain today. So far I've gotten over half an inch. My little plants enjoy God's water much more than the stuff I give them from the garden hose.

One tomato plant has had lovely little blossoms, but no fruit. One plant had one tomato. The third has had a couple of dozen fruits! That has made me a happy girl!

The dill is lovely, and very tasty in various dishes (ooo! I hear more rain!) but the peppers are still small and the blossom buds never open. I suppose they will want to be in pots, if I get a chance to transplant them.

The mint and lemon balm are potted, and they are very happy! I'd never had mint before that shot out runners with a myriad plants on each. Therefore, mint tea is a regular treat, now!

Oh, and the Phalaenopsis are opening! One will be quite spectacular!
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Mild and sunny, so I ventured out....

The border I got done before winter is showing a surprising amount of bulb action already. But the other borders - and the veg half of the garden - daunting. Very.

I found the only way to tackle it was to plonk down a garden stool and then just pay attention to the couple of square feet I could reach while sitting on it. In the course of 3 hours or so, I managed to work round about a fifth of the area, clearing dead vegetation, weeding and forking over the soil. Encouraging discoveries, like snowdrops and daffodils coming up, and the rhubarb looking pretty with gold leaves.
 

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Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
When I was a child there was a shrub in our yard which my mother called a japonica. I would love to find one like it. Unfortunately, there are many different shrubs called japonica, since it means Japanese.

This was a low shrub which was much bigger horizontally than vertically. It may have had thorns. It had pink flowers in the spring, and in the fall it had tiny fruits that looked like apples. The fruit had a wonderful spicy, citrusy smell.

Can anyone identify this for me?

Moo
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Sounds like a Chaenomeles japonica or Japanese quince to me.

There are a lot of different ones though!
 

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Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :
 
We've just had 3 consecutive dry days

Even though a cold wind was blowing off the moor we went out and dug over some soil over . Still soggy but a definite whiff of improvement is in the air.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
I've just come in from mowing the lawn. I can't ever remember mowing in February before, but the grass was about 6 inches high and getting wetter every time it rained. After 3 days with no rain it was actually just about dry enough for the mower so I went for it.

My rhubarb is also just starting to sprout with bright pink stalks and little curly yellow leaves poking up out of the soil. Some of the roses are starting to bud. I hope the plants don't get started too soon because we get frosts here right up until the middle of May.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Apologies for the double post. I messed up.


[Fixed]

[ 17. February 2013, 20:05: Message edited by: Firenze ]
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
I spent a useful couple of hours pulling up some of the couch grass from the border in front of the house. I can never make a very good job of it, as it roots underneath the iris tubers there - and my attempts don't do the new shoots on the iris much good.

It would be better done at the end of the year, but there is so much else that needs doing then, and the gap between summer and winter gets shorter each year. We practically have no autumn nowadays, so I'm always playing catch-up with the seasonal jobs.
 

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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
I seem to have lots more croci than last year, giving a lovely splash of colour. And a couple of weekends of good weather to get out means that I've caught up with a lot of preparation work. All the roses are pruned, most of the beds and borders tidied, some slow-germinating seeds sown, some over-wintering plants potted up and I've even got the first of the potatoes planted - in a cold frame.

Now I just want spring to hurry up and get sprung!
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
At long last I can feel I've started! It's still pretty swampy - one low spot on my second half-plot is still glistening, it's so close to the water level - but I've cleared out three of my raised beds, and am starting to think about what will be next to clear out. The plan for next weekend is to knock up a temporary cold frame, as our garden is so overshadowed nothing in it ever really gets going. Now I just need to get some seeds in...

AG
 

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Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by jedijudy:

The dill is lovely, and very tasty in various dishes

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quote:

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Originally posted by Porridge:
What's your secret for growing dill?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Moo:
When I was a child there was a shrub in our yard which my mother called a japonica. I would love to find one like it. Unfortunately, there are many different shrubs called japonica, since it means Japanese.

This was a low shrub which was much bigger horizontally than vertically. It may have had thorns. It had pink flowers in the spring, and in the fall it had tiny fruits that looked like apples. The fruit had a wonderful spicy, citrusy smell.

Can anyone identify this for me?


Moo

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quote:

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Originally posted by Gill H:
Yes, quince. My music teacher had a bush exactly as you describe.

Quince jelly is a Spanish tradition with cheese, and is lovely.

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quote:

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Originally posted by jedijudy:

quote:

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Originally posted by Porridge:
What's your secret for growing dill?

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Wow. I'm surprised that anything can grow in the marl that we laughingly call soil in these parts. Perhaps the dill likes the extra calcium?

When I was little, my mom grew gorgeous dill plants in PA. So, I don't think it's a question of planting zones.

There are two large heads on the plant, now! I may have to use them in a crock of pickles!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Porridge:
So apparently my problem is trying to grow it in rich soil?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Porridge:
So apparently my problem is trying to grow it in rich soil?

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quote:

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Originally posted by ken:
Anyone know where I can buy one of those claw-on-a-stick things that street sweepers sometimes use to pick up litter?

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This sort of thing?

If you are going to do anything else down there eg plant stuff - I can recommend one of those stout little folding stool/ kneeler things. I've discovered you can do a lot of gardening sitting down.

[ 19. February 2013, 16:14: Message edited by: Firenze ]
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Yes one of those. There must be a shop that selsl them I gues I just have to ask in one.

(As I live on my own and have a job I'm not really in a position to buy things online that are too big to fit through the letterbox and too cheap to make it worthwhilel taking a day off work)
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
B&Q stock them.

I agree about the stool/kneelers Firenze - especially because they provide handles to help you get up off your knees.

ETA Generic 'you', meaning 'me'!

[ 19. February 2013, 16:34: Message edited by: Drifting Star ]
 

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Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :
 
............ and now the ground is frozen solid

So just sitting indoors watching the birds desperately feeding .

Next week's weather looks set reasonably fair ,(cool and dry), so gardeners and outdoor lovers rejoice.
 

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Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
jedijudy:

quote:

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And...I have tomatoes!! I believe I counted ten, all but one on the largest plant. I'm hoping they last until they're fully ripe. The nine are a black heirloom tomato. I've never eaten a black tomato, and am really looking forward to tasting the thing! The other is a pink and white striped heirloom. It's only shooter marble sized right now.

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I'm planning to grow a few things in pots in my teeny-weeny apartment garden. I'm 58 years old and this is my first stab at outdoor gardening.

The plan is to grow a rose bush for flowers, three pots with Roma tomatoes and yellow squash and Fresno peppers, and two table pots with herbs like rosemary, thyme, dill , oregano, and parsley. During the summer my little canyon-like plot and slab will get about six or seven hours of direct sunlight and 85-110F heat. Am I courting disaster?

(I quoted jedijudy becase she is in a warm clime, although one much damper than SoCal's. And she's sound on tomatoes. Ah! Antique tomatoes! If I can make Romas survive, maybe next year...)

Any suggestions appreciated.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
The good news: I got out to the allotment at the weekend, and had a really good digging session, plus got a cold frame put together.

The bad news: I now ache like I've been beaten up.

The worse news. Bloody fucking couch grass! Argh, die you evil bastard.

AG
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
During the summer my little canyon-like plot and slab will get about six or seven hours of direct sunlight and 85-110F heat. Am I courting disaster?

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Hmmm. In the summer, we run about 90-95 in the daytime, with very high humidity. I would think our situations are different, but the first thing I thought of when reading your post is that you would probably want to make sure that the soil stays moist.

Also, check that the plants are heat tolerant! There are some tomatoes available here that are specific for heat...but they require a lot of water! Also, I think herbs seem to like the heat, as well as some southern roses.

Good luck!
 

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Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :
 
We had reasonable luck with tomatoes in large pots, with a tomato cage wired to the top of each so it could be moved around as needed. They needed a lot of water because the pots tend to dry out quickly and the roots couldn't go down deep enough in the dirt. (That's true of most plants in pots.) After a while you can get a sense of whether it needs water just by the weight of the pot.

Normally we taper off the water after the plant is well established to encourage it to make fruit rather than more leaves, but you'll still need to water it some. Using more potassium and phosphorus in your fertilizer and only a little nitrogen will also encourage a more compact plant.
 

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Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
Got it: water, water, water!

Most people do well with tomatoes, here. But most of the plants are growing in the ground. There's a very tried-and-true nursery near here and the young man seemed to think tomatoes would work out okay in a large pot.

Knock wood.

Thanks!
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
Just a note on the flavor of my black heirloom tomato: it's very sweet, with very little acid. I like it a lot!
 

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Posted by A.Pilgrim (# 15044) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
The worse news. Bloody fucking couch grass! Argh, die you evil bastard.

AG

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One word: glyphosate. Works for me (though if you're strictly organic, I realise that this is not acceptable).

The most pernicious weed in my garden is cuckoo-pint. It has infested the soil round my ancient but very productive gooseberry and redcurrant bushes, and although glyphosate treatment knocks the leaves down each year, the [expletive deleted] things just come up again the following spring!
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Luckily parts of me are inorganic .

Seriously, that's exactly what I use for spot control, but last year was so wet I hardly got a chance and boy, has it taken advantage. Unfortunately our landlords are now the local Greens, and we have some bunnyhuggers on the plots, so we may soon be forced to go completely organic. That will be galling as I've pretty much stuck to organic methods, barring glyphosate for couch grass and fungicide in the vain hope of preventing potato blight which I've kept as weapons of last resort. I've seen copper mines, and I don't trust any copper-based fungicide as a result.

AG
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Ahh yes, it was fun last year, wasn't it - reading those labels telling you only to apply whatever-it-was on a still dry day, and warning you that you'd have to reapply if it rained within 6 hours. Happy days. Not.
 

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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
some of my "Bishops' Children" dahlia seeds have germinated and put on half an inch of growth after just three days. I've given them a nice heated propagator to live in, but even so this seems very keen.

On the other hand, the germination rates for my sweet peas seem poor. The first batch I did in the autumn (from a "free with a magazine" packet) did well, but the second set (bought from a supplier) did poorly and so have the bought-in ones I have sown over the last month - only about a quarter germinating. Some I have just sown, others I have chipped and soaked, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

I thought sweet peas were easy and reliable?
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Anyone ever grown any bonsai?

I have two pots of bonsai compost on the scullery windowsill into which I put (more in hope than expectation) some seeds of a SA flame tree. A week or ago, I added some seeds from a lemon.

In spite of it being a sunny spot (when sun is to be had) nothing doing.
 

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Posted by Martha (# 185) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
Got it: water, water, water!

Most people do well with tomatoes, here. But most of the plants are growing in the ground. There's a very tried-and-true nursery near here and the young man seemed to think tomatoes would work out okay in a large pot.

Knock wood.

Thanks!

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Chapelhead:
On the other hand, the germination rates for my sweet peas seem poor. The first batch I did in the autumn (from a "free with a magazine" packet) did well, but the second set (bought from a supplier) did poorly and so have the bought-in ones I have sown over the last month - only about a quarter germinating. Some I have just sown, others I have chipped and soaked, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

I thought sweet peas were easy and reliable?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Firenze:
Anyone ever grown any bonsai?

I have two pots of bonsai compost on the scullery windowsill into which I put (more in hope than expectation) some seeds of a SA flame tree. A week or ago, I added some seeds from a lemon.

In spite of it being a sunny spot (when sun is to be had) nothing doing.

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I've never tried bonsai but I have tried growing orange seeds and various tree seeds. They took several months to a year to germinate, and some species of tree seed need to be exposed to sub-zero temperatures before they consider getting started.

Bonsai being a Japanese thing, I expect you have to be very patient.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Whereas we had a lemon seed get stuck in the sink drainhole cover and germinate two days later.

Just be sure you have fertile seeds. I know some seeds are infertile from the get-go, something to do with their breeding, so if you're growing seeds you collected rather than purchasing for the purpose, don't be too quick to assume it's your fault if they fail. It may have been doomed from the start. Like trying to breed a mule, only less obvious.

[ 02. March 2013, 01:54: Message edited by: Lamb Chopped ]
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Went round to the allotment this morning and an hour and a half later had managed to dig over half of one of the beds. It's the digging up of grass that's taking the time. But the earth is so much easier to dig now that the ground's dried out - it's actually earth and not bog, and it's the first time since January that I haven't come back covered in mud and looking like The Swamp Thing.

Another two hours next weekend should finish it then on to the fun bit - planting!
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
I did think about going into the garden today, since it was both bright and sunny. But still only max 7C. I've decided, from the amount of facial neuralgia I get just going out for the paper, that it has to be double figures before I spend a couple of hours outdoors.
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
Much as I'd love to get out into the garden I can't cope with the biting wind we've had blowing round here for the last couple of days.
It was fairly calm and bright on Thursday, and a couple of degrees warmer, but wouldn't you know I had other things happening then and couldn't get outside.
Ah well, maybe tomorrow
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
I poked my head out into the garden today, but the biting wind drove me straight back indoors.

It was good for drying the washing, though.

Soon, soon, soon.............
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
The wind dropped here today, and the sun had come out by mid-morning after a pretty frosty start. It was still pretty cold, but I was able to get outside and make a start - wearing six layers of clothing and a thick woolly hat
 

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Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :
 
I've never had a garden. Two days ago I bought a little bean plant and two little tomato plants in little square containers. They've been in my front hall. One is obviously growing. I don't know beans about plants but I suppose the next step is stick them in the ground. After that...?

Oh yes, put some sort of fencing around them so they don't get lawn mowered. A few years ago I bought a small rose bush and stuck it in the ground. A couple weeks later a guy offered to cut my grass, he pulled up and threw away the thorn bush weed. I guess that's why people mark garden areas with little fences or bricks? My parents never did that so I didn't know to do that.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
What sort of bean plant? Some are climbing plants and will need a long bamboo cane to twine around. Others, like broad beans, won't need this. Tomatoes, depending on the species, may also need a shorter bamboo cane to stake them up to when they get bigger, because some tomato plants sprawl, and the weight of the fruit will pull the branches further onto the ground.

Tomatoes will also need regular watering if you're in a dry area.
 

---

Posted by QLib (# 43) on :
 
I've got to move some aconites - they're not terribly happy where they are and I understand that it's good to move them while they're still in leaf, so that all seems quite positive. However, I'm not sure exactly where to put them. I've got some ideas - though advice is welcome, as I love aconites but they don't seem to care much for me - but there's a lot of work to be done in the garden generally and I'd hate them to be accidentally destroyed in a careless moment, so I'm wondering if I can get away with sticking them in a pot and planting them out again later in a permanent home.
 

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Posted by Grammatica (# 13248) on :
 
For warm-weather gardeners, a question: It looks as though I'll have a bumper crop of Surinam cherry this year. They have to be picked before they are ripe, or the fruit flies will get them. Preserves still scare me (yes, I should get over it). Does anyone know a good recipe for Surinam cherry pie filling? I will also take guidance on preserves, in case I do get up the nerve.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
Here are a few recipes, including one for Surinam cherry pie!

My Mom used to make a lot of preserves and jelly from the cherries. Most of the time, she added other seasonal fruits. They had some unique names, like MuCh jelly. It was made of mulberries and Surinam cherries. Very good stuff.
 

---

Posted by Grammatica (# 13248) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jedijudy:
Here are a few recipes, including one for Surinam cherry pie!

My Mom used to make a lot of preserves and jelly from the cherries. Most of the time, she added other seasonal fruits. They had some unique names, like MuCh jelly. It was made of mulberries and Surinam cherries. Very good stuff.

---

Thanks!
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Hello everyone

Wondering how many people got out in the garden today now we've finally had a reasonably warm sunny day in southern England.

I was over at my mum's but hope the weather will last tomorrow. So much to do in the garden I won't know where to start.

So, what's the gardening gossip on the Ship?
 

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Posted by Laxton's Superba (# 228) on :
 
I cut the lawn, tidied the edges of the lawn, and did a bit of weeding and fossicking about in the borders. It was lovely to be out. Plans for this year - grow tomatoes and salad, put in plenty more shrubs, establish an area of lawn in a new spot. This is only my second year in this new garden, so there is lots to do and lots of gaps to fill up.
 

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Posted by daisydaisy (# 12167) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by QLib:
I've got to move some aconites - they're not terribly happy where they are and I understand that it's good to move them while they're still in leaf, so that all seems quite positive. However, I'm not sure exactly where to put them. I've got some ideas - though advice is welcome, as I love aconites but they don't seem to care much for me - but there's a lot of work to be done in the garden generally and I'd hate them to be accidentally destroyed in a careless moment, so I'm wondering if I can get away with sticking them in a pot and planting them out again later in a permanent home.

---

Aconites are a woodland plant, so do you have somewhere that will help them think they are at home? Slightly shady, slightly acidic free draining soil... but away from edible plants, children & curious animals because all parts of it are Very Poisonous.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Not only have I been out on the plot this weekend, I've also successfully dragged the Knotweed out with me! We have dug most vigorously (as a result of which I now walk like John Wayne...), and got probably 80% of what needed digging doing. This is a Good Thing.

Now for some heat and light to make it worth sowing stuff...

AG
 

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Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
Patio scrubbed and pressure washed, patio chairs and tables washed, raised bed cleared out, seeds brought out of storage...

What do I think I'm expecting? - sunshine??
 

---

Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
I was a bit stiff today, too. On Sunday afternoon I mowed the lawn, did the lawn edges in the top half (my garden comes in two separate sections), trimmed one edge of the path and weeded one long bed. It was great to be out.

When I got home this evening I went straight out and trimmed the other edge of the path and scraped the moss off the patio.

It's still much too cold here to plant anything. Three sunny days have brought out a touch of yellow in the forsythia buds but the only things growing are the grass and speedwell - not even shepherd's purse yet and no sign of life from the daisies. I won't be planting until May.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Not only have I been out on the plot this weekend, I've also successfully dragged the Knotweed out with me! We have dug most vigorously (as a result of which I now walk like John Wayne...), and got probably 80% of what needed digging doing. This is a Good Thing.

---

I finished digging mine on Friday. I've been trying to do this since January and I have now DONE IT and planted a row of potatoes. I feel like a proper gardener.

And there's a bag of red onion sets and some King Edward seed potatoes to go in, next time I'm passing. I can hardly believe it's actually starting to take shape after this long.
 

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Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :
 
My little garden is growing! Magic. I have three tomato plants, they are getting bigger every day it seems, two of them have some blossoms. The hot pepper plant came with a lot of buds and already has two peppers growing. I planted two different cucumbers and a cantaloup, the cucumbers are getting huge leaves! I've never seen one grow before so didn't know what to expect. Also planted two strawberries, I guess that was silly, two plants won't give many berries.

Planted them all wrong I guess. Now I read the tomatoes should have been planted deeply enough to cover the first leaves. Oh well. My first garden, there will be mistakes. Should I have planted two of each item and variety for fertilization? I guess I'll find out.
 

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Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :
 
Liverwort....everywhere.

Not just in cracks in paving and across a little bit of the grass, just everywhere.

The garden is shady, with poor drainage. The ground consists of builders-yard rubble doiwn to at least two spade spits + two inches of poor quality soil + one inch of sand + turf = chaos.

The situation has carried on for four or five years now, but this year is The Worst.

Do I go for raised beds?
Or .....what?

And is it true that one can just carry on regardless, even with this foul stuff everywhere?
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Can't tell you about the liverwort, but raised beds are definitely the way to go if your soil is that disastrous. Plus, if you fill them with a mix of compost and garden soil (you can find places that supply this), it'll be a lot easier to keep weeds out of. But you may end up with different weeds (from wherever they made the compost).
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Also planted two strawberries, I guess that was silly, two plants won't give many berries.

---

Strawberries send out runners that take root and become new plants, so I wouldn't worry too much. However, the energy mostly goes into the runners, and away from fruit (and if not checked they'll take over as much of the garden as they can), so you might want to snip off some of the runners from time to time to encourage more fruit.

You can also pot some of the runners to make new little plants which you can give to people, or grow in a large tub.
 

---

Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
We've finally had some mild weather and my rhubarb is growing. Rhubarb crumble this Sunday!
 

---

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
Rhubarb, that is something to look forward to. I will check ours out over the weekend.
 

---

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :
 
Have been doing "proper gardening" (for the first time, really) recently! This is the first spring that Mrs. TQT and I have been in our house, so we have been "making" a garden. Have now got:

- Crocuses and tulips in a north-facing border (was a bit late planting these but they seem to have come up anyway; unfortunately the snowdrops didn't)

- Peas and radishes in the ground, and I stuck some old supermarket potatoes in pots to see what would happen

- Windowsill and slightly rickety inherited greenhouse containing various cheap/improvised propagating trays and pots with radishes/spring onions/courgettes/tomatoes/peppers/basil/chives.

- Rosemary in a pot

- A few strawberries in a border next to the greenhouse

- Pushing the boat out we have gone for a couple of roses facing south

- And some compost!

The only thing that really seems to be "going for it" at the moment is the radishes but we remain hopeful. Surely it helps if you stare intently at the pots every so often?

Mind you, the thing the garden seems to produce copiously with no problem at all is snails... they are all over the place!
 

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Posted by The Midge (# 2398) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:

- Crocuses and tulips in a north-facing border (was a bit late planting these but they seem to have come up anyway; unfortunately the snowdrops didn't)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:

Mind you, the thing the garden seems to produce copiously with no problem at all is snails... they are all over the place!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Midge:
Snow drops are best planted now- in the green. You can buy bunches of them to put in or carefully lift from a friends garden (never the wild!)

---

I'm afraid the 'best in the green' idea is actually a bit of a myth, but they will move OK now if you are careful to minimise damage to roots and (especially) stems. For boring botanical reasons, snowdrop (Galanthus) bulbs are unusually prone to this kind of damage.

[ 17. April 2013, 16:12: Message edited by: Oferyas ]
 

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Posted by daisydaisy (# 12167) on :
 
Today I feel the growing season has begun because I managed to dig a trench for potatoes and plant them. I'm trying Sarpo Mira because they are billed as being the most blight resistant variety.
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Yes - I finally managed to get to the allotment earlier this week and put in another row of spuds (King Edwards this time), one of red onions and a row of beetroot.

My allotment had seemed dauntingly large at first, even though it's only a half plot, but now that I've started planting, I've realized how much space you need to allocate between plants and rows so it looks as if there won't be a problem filling the extra space.

[ 19. April 2013, 05:21: Message edited by: Ariel ]
 

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Posted by The Intrepid Mrs S (# 17002) on :
 
I said to Mr. S the other evening that instead of 'speed dating' I was trying 'speed gardening' - rushing out into the garden as soon as I get home, and planting potatoes (Charlotte - mmmmmmmm ) in the bags I had previously prepared with home grown compost. That is SO much easier than trenches, as you just tip the whole boiling lot on to the bed at the end of the growing season and pick the crop out from the compost. Then the compost is just spread on the rest of the plot - sure as hell beats putting the tines of your fork through your precious spuds, and then missing half of them anyway

Also the new asparagus spears are just appearing, ready to be topped off with more compost - and I sowed some Chantenay carrot seeds in one big pot (keeps the carrot fly off) and some coriander in another. We LOVE coriander

The dwarf French bean seeds in pots in the conservatory are coming up, not the courgettes yet, but they won't be long now. The potager (pretentious? moi?) now looks like a vegetable garden and not a howling wasteland.

The Happy Mrs. S, mouth watering in anticipation


 

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Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
We're about to put some earlies out in bags too last weekend we dug and planted a veg patch with our 8 year old, he'd been growing the seedlings on his windowsill. This weekend we'll be sorting out the potatoes, and getting a grow bag for some tomatoes and well as sowing some tumbler toms.
I weeded and refreshed our strawberry patch last week as well and planted up some flowers in patio pots and a hanging basket. Need to get some summer bulbs out if the weather improves.
 

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Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :
 
I have a more modest garden that consists of a box on the window sill. I have planted tulips in it (the black ones) that I got in the Netherlands and am ridiculously excited to discover that they aren't defective and have started working.

I now have seven out of ten shoots of varying sizes from barely visible to about an inch.

Small things

(wishes she had a real garden)
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I'm trying Sarpo Mira because they are billed as being the most blight resistant variety.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Also planted two strawberries, I guess that was silly, two plants won't give many berries.

---

Strawberries send out runners that take root and become new plants, so I wouldn't worry too much.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Intrepid Mrs S:
I said to Mr. S the other evening that instead of 'speed dating' I was trying 'speed gardening' - rushing out into the garden as soon as I get home, and planting potatoes (Charlotte - mmmmmmmm ) in the bags I had previously prepared with home grown compost. That is SO much easier than trenches, as you just tip the whole boiling lot on to the bed at the end of the growing season and pick the crop out from the compost. Then the compost is just spread on the rest of the plot - sure as hell beats putting the tines of your fork through your precious spuds, and then missing half of them anyway

---

Sounds like a good idea. I was going to have a go at vegetables for the first time this year and potatoes are on the list as possibles.

Monty Don got his potatoes in the ground on Gardeners' World last night.

Nen - aspiring vegetable grower.
 

---

Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
I have sown some more seeds (3 types of beans, aubergine, squash, courgette and another lot of brussels) so hopefully they will come to something later. I also sowed another lot of quinoa - of the ones I sowed last month, only two germinated and then we forgot to water them this week . At least I can sow throughout April so all is (hopefully) not lost.

We really need to get our potatoes (which have been chitting for a while now) in the ground, but we still haven't sorted out the fencing round the allotment. This was meant to be a joint effort with one of the other plotholders getting quotes and all the rest of it, then we were all going to arrange to come together and actually put it all up, but they seem to have gone a bit quiet. I have sent a gentle reminder but seem to be the only one who is nagging.

Oh well. In the meantime there's still lots of digging to be done, so we'll try and get down there tomorrow to get on with that. And in the meantime maybe I'll put the spuds in pots so they can have a head start - what is the collective wisdom on moving/transplanting potatoes once they're planted?
 

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Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
A very productive afternoon, dh planted up the tomatoes and potatoes and set about doing some tidying, playing with fire and making mulch in the chopper. I planted out bulbs and lavender and a dahlia, then cleared and weeded a new flower bed and planted that with bulbs, and did some pruning and clearing. My aim next week is to tidy my overgrown flower beds in small chunks, weeding metre square patches at a time and mulching them.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nenya:

Monty Don got his potatoes in the ground on Gardeners' World last night.

---

Phwoar.
 

---

Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :
 
My first garden, all new and mysterious. The tomatoes are putting out lots of tiny blossoms and are beginning to form some tiny green tomatoes, which makes me start wondering what critters are going to want to get at the tomatoes before I do, and how to prevent them.

The cucumbers, two different kinds, one of them is putting out tendrils, I had no idea cucumbers are a vine! Had to go buy something for it to climb. The other is not putting out tendrils, not sure what I'm supposed to do for it, just let it spread out along the ground? The cantaloup surprised me with a tendril today, so I guess I have to find something for it to climb, and I guess that needs to be something sturdy.

So much to learn. I got one strawberry, I was going to wait one more day for perfect ripeness but something ate it.
 

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Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :
 
The garden looks pretty good right now. With my bad hip and knees I've had someone do the work and he's ocde so the weeding is immaculate.
The frilly Kale madel it all the way through the winter to form a lovely interim collage with the snow crocuses. Now they've turned in to masses of yellow flowers that go nicely with the brave show of tulips.

Saturday, I had the garden helper pull a square of turf where it burns out every August and put in some plugs of a new bluegrass that is supposed to stay under 3 inches and grow roots that are several feet long. We shall see.

It's finally sunny without continuous rain which makes it pleasant to sit out and admire the scenery. Now for the usual crisis of what understudies to bring in for when the tulip extravaganza fades.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
I'm thinking about planting potatoes this weekend. It may still be a bit early, because we get frosts here right into the middle of May.

On the other hand, I want to give them the best chance of not being dug up by the foxes. The bigger the fox cubs grow, the more they go in for serious digging, so that calls for early planting. Unfortunately this year the vixen has dug her den under my next door neighbour's derelict garden shed which means the cubs are coming out into the open air right in the middle of my potato patch.

Not much I can do, except keep an eye out and re-plant any spuds I see dug up.

Flipping foxes. We hates them, precious.
 

---

Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nenya:

Monty Don got his potatoes in the ground on Gardeners' World last night.

---

Phwoar.

---

Well, if you find that exciting I hope you didn't miss this week's thrilling installment when he donned his waders and started stuffing ladies' tights with barley straw to deal with the blanket weed in his garden pond.

Nen - not that desperate for thrills.
 

---

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
I daren't watch Gardeners' World - too exciting by half. Actually, I don't watch it because of the painful contrast with my own little plot.

I spent another 5 hours today on the vegetable patch. Kept finding feral carrots.

I'm hoping the local organic place will be getting seed potatoes and veggie seeds in this week, and I can actually get something in the ground instead of wrestling couch grass/buttercup/chamomile/ground elder/dandelion/thistle/briar and thumping great chunks of tree root out of it.
 

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Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
Today I weeded part of the main bed in a vain attempt to rid it of Chinese lantern (sounds attractive but is a wildly invasive with rhizomes that just multiply constantly). Likewise the strawberry patch where I have almost eradicated it. I then planted up some astilbe and foxgloves in the boggy area behind the chicken shed.
I am hoping that tomorrow my stronger half will remove some old and sparse bushes from down one side of the garden (to be replaced by more compact ones) and trim our huge laurel trees so that we can reclaim the lawn. Probably more weeding for me though.
 

---

Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:
I daren't watch Gardeners' World - too exciting by half. Actually, I don't watch it because of the painful contrast with my own little plot.

I spent another 5 hours today on the vegetable patch. Kept finding feral carrots.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nenya:
Monty Don got his potatoes in the ground on Gardeners' World last night.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:
Phwoar.

---

quote:

---

Well, if you find that exciting I hope you didn't miss this week's thrilling installment when he donned his waders and started stuffing ladies' tights with barley straw to deal with the blanket weed in his garden pond.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nenya:
Monty Don got his potatoes in the ground on Gardeners' World last night.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:
Phwoar.

---

quote:

---

Well, if you find that exciting I hope you didn't miss this week's thrilling installment when he donned his waders and started stuffing ladies' tights with barley straw to deal with the blanket weed in his garden pond.

---

Ah now Diarmuid Gavin is the man who can bring spice to gardening. He's always worth watching.

---

I can't say he does anything at all for me apart from make me annoyed with what comes over to me as arrogance. I agree about Pippa Greenwood and Bob Flowerdew's names. My feeling is that you can't look at gardening programmes for outdoor crumpet. The Adam of "Countryfile" now...

Back on gardening for a moment, my camellia (new this season) is finally flowering and despite my best efforts throughout the winter (covering it at any danger of frost) the flowers are still brown at the edges.

Nen - in danger of derailing the thread.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Our driveway and associated green bits are looked after by the landlord, who is in the UK for a few days of the year, so it gets a bit ratty. I was absolutely delighted last night to see a small group of oriental tourists taking photos on their phones of a big clump of muscari and forget-me-not by the road!

In other news, my celeriac has finally sprouted - it's slow old stuff. Now if only the brassicas would follow its lead, hey're being very slack this year.

AG
 

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Posted by The Midge (# 2398) on :
 
How many Shipmates are going to get like adam and Eve before the fall and take part in World Naked Gardening Day?
If I work hard getting my own garden up to speed I might take my shirt off, but the thought of grubbing up stinging nettles and brambles in the biff is a bit too radical for me.
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
I did remove a few layers as the day warmed up, but it never got hot enough for that amount of disrobing
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
Classic Denver spring weather means that it is not only a bit chilly for that here, but I would risk a huge sunburn.

I hit the local heirloom tomato sale this morning. Who knew tomato fan-boys were so serious? After two hours in line, I finally got my hands on three plants. A few more weeks until they can go outside, but I have a nice sunny window where the seedlings should be happy until then. Scored a Stupice, a Black Krim, and an Aunt Ruby's German Green.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I don't think the Nude Gardening would go down too well on our allotments. Besides, at least half the plot holders are old boys of about 65-80 something.

Lost the plants I'd put in earlier this week, thanks to night-time temperatures - the weather forecast had said it wasn't going below freezing but it must have done. So will be buying a replacement courgette, aubergine and tomato plants next week. The rhubarb that was already there is flourishing, though - I guess it would be ok to start picking some of it soon.

[ 04. May 2013, 19:17: Message edited by: Ariel ]
 

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Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :
 
We don't plant tomatoes out until the ground temperature is up to 55F / 13C, regardless of the air temperature. Below that temperature the micro-organisms that provide critical nutrients in the soil are not active and the plants won't thrive, even if protected from frost.
 

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Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
Lost the plants I'd put in earlier this week, thanks to night-time temperatures - the weather forecast had said it wasn't going below freezing but it must have done.

---

I'm afraid that must be the case - I coddled my camellia through any night when they said there would be frost and still all her flowers have gone brown.

We attacked a lot of weeds in the garden yesterday and have some membrane to put down over the patches where we're trying to kill the couch grass. The plan is for one bit to be shingled and on the other to start digging compost into it ready for vegetables next year. For this year we're going to try a few vegetables in tubs to see if the area is suitable with the light etc.

Nen - knows nothing about vegetable cultivation.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
After two days of concerted effort the veg half of the garden is one third planted (potatoes and peas), one third cleared and semi-dug and one third gone native. The lawn needs raking and aerating, what is laughingly referred to as the borders need to be weeded and planted and just about everything needs to be pruned, trimmed or just plain chopped down.
 

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Posted by Grammatica (# 13248) on :
 
I pulled up the leeks Saturday. Looking forward to summertime vichyssoise!

Lettuce, arugula, and mesclun green are almost done; I'm letting them bolt, hoping to save seeds. Mesclun greens are so easy to grow and so rewarding, I can't believe I never tried them before.

Green beans and eggplants are starting to produce. Peas, not so much. I never seem to be able to grow them in Central Florida.
 

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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
Well, the crab-apple blossom has come and gone in a week, rather than the three weeks it would usually be around - another victim of the very late spring. The purple-sprouting broccoli is finally providing a crop, and the cauliflowers look as though they might actually yield some curds. But the cabbages are showing no signs of hearting up.

The ends of the frosts in southern England means that at last some of the plants being kept under cover can be planted out, or at least left out overnight.

My main garden area at the back is about 20' deep by 50' wide (6m x 15m), mostly paths, lawn, shrubs etc, with some borders that need topping up. I have a smaller area at the front. A quick count-up of plants waiting to be planted out, from dahlias stored over winter to seedlings and plug plants ready to be hardened off, shows I have 680 plants waiting to go out. I think I may have over-ordered.
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Anyone know what sort of small electric power saw would be best for cutting through branches mostly 3-5 cm in diameter (though the thickest is 8 or 9)?
 

---

Posted by Oferyas (# 14031) on :
 
Power saw? A decent hand pruning saw would cut them in 3-4 strokes!
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
When said strokes are administered by a decent hand-pruner!

Also some of the things I want to cut are above my head or at arms length in places where it looks as if I'd have trouble getting any weight behind a normal saw.
 

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Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :
 
Spread all the snow out in front of the house 3 times on Saturday when it was +11. That was the first day I was out in shorts and a t-shirt this year.

Sunday, 05 May. The temp got to 21 C. Wow! Positively tropical! The snow was gone by Sunday noon in the front. In the back of the house, we still have snow in the shade, but much of the yard is now snow and ice free. So our gardening started with a most of the yard rake up of leaves and snow mould. I see buds on the trees, usually a few warm days like this, and we'll have the leaves explode. I did see ants and ladybugs. Let's keep frost coming to kill off any mosquitos though, we have so much standing water from a record snowfall, there are going be gazillions.
 

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Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :
 
A good sharp pruning saw with aggressive teeth is designed for fast cuts in live wood: I regularly use one on branches even 10cm to 15cm because it is easier to carry than any sort of power tool: I can pull it from my pocket and have the branch cut faster than I can run a power cord. (Though there are battery-powered electric types available, they don't fit my pocket as well.) It should cut on both the push and pull strokes, so even working overhead you can apply pressure on the pull stroke. (You usually end up with sawdust in your eyes, of course.)

They don't do nearly as well in dead wood, however, as the teeth try to take too big of a bite. They'll get there, just slower.

Otherwise, when I'm not quite to the point of needing to get out the chain saw (or am cutting roots in the dirt) I use my recipricating saw with a 15 to 25cm "Ugly Blade" on it. There are better brands, and such saws are also available in cordless versions that may be more practical if you are working in a tree or are worrying about cutting the cord by accident. Even the chainsaws are available in corded and cordless electric versions, and if you have a lot of overhead work you might consider one of the chainsaw pole pruners: a chainsaw blade on a pole with the motor and controls at hand level.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Any advice on planting potatoes? I've been told that you mustn't put a new crop in where you had the old one last year, and I read somewhere on the internet that you must wait for no less than six (6) years before planting any more spuds in that spot. I think I've found a patch in the allotment that didn't have potatoes in it previously, but can't be sure, and am wondering about what to do next year. What do you think?
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
How did they do in Ireland - or is that why we had the Blight?

Is there a particular reason?

Given the (literal) upheaval in my garden in the wake of the tree clearing, the soil has been both displaced and mixed with a lot of wood debris. So I'm planting each spud with a spoonful of bonemeal by way of encouragement.
 

---

Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
Any advice on planting potatoes? I've been told that you mustn't put a new crop in where you had the old one last year, and I read somewhere on the internet that you must wait for no less than six (6) years before planting any more spuds in that spot. I think I've found a patch in the allotment that didn't have potatoes in it previously, but can't be sure, and am wondering about what to do next year. What do you think?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chapelhead:
Also, remember that other crops in the same family as potatoes should also be avoided in the same ground, including tomatoes and courgettes.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
He seems to have planted potatoes at varying intervals throughout the plot so it's a bit hard to know where might be safe.

Oh well. I'll know for next year, and there are always growbags.

---

Largely through lack of space, I'm growing most of my potatoes in bags this year - some in 'proper' potato planting bags and some in old compost bags, as described by Monty Don.

Some of these I started in a cold-frame in the middle of March, others in April in a cold-frame (these have caught up with the March-planted ones, which did very little in that cold month) and some in a sheltered spot outside, also in April (these are much smaller). The cold-frame ones have now been moved (carefully!) onto areas of little-used paths so the cold-frame areas can be used for other things. The cold-frame itself has been dismantled (I made it to be removable), so the bags only needed to be moved sideways, without too much lifting.

Following advice from elsewhere, I planted the tubers a bit lower than Monty Don shows - only 2-3 inches from the bottom of the bag. It's hard to say how big the plants are, because they get earthed up, but the top of the stronger plants is probably about two feet above 'ground' level outside the bag.

I tried this with just a couple of bags in a frost-free spot last autumn, with limited success (the dreaded blight), but still managed to have some new potatoes in January. The big downside is that you need a lot of compost - at least a bagful for each bag grown, possibly more because of the way the bag 'rounds out' when stood on its end.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I've tried growbags before and yes, they take an alarming amount of compost. The seed company I bought them from also advise you to plant 5 seed potatoes in each. It works, though the space they're grown in is so much more restricted that they're better for small new potatoes than decent-size baking ones. If I have to go down that route again next time I'd plant just one or two in each bag. I don't mind new potatoes, but much prefer the larger ones if I can get them.

[ 08. May 2013, 07:16: Message edited by: Ariel ]
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Ariel, I wouldn't worry too much about where to plant your potatoes. The problem with planting the same crop (ANY crop) in the same place year after year is that a) pests which like eating that crop will build up, and b) nutrients in the soil which are preferentially absorbed by that crop will get depleted. However, growing the same vegetable twice in the same ground is unlikely to be disastrous. You just don't want to keep on doing it year after year.

Broadly, there are two approaches to dealing with this problem. The commercial, farming solution is to rotate your crops, e.g. plant leeks the year after potatoes, then cabbages the year after that, then potatoes again. Commercial growers choose this option because they need to cultivate and harvest substantial amounts of the crop at the same time. The second approach is nature's way - "simultaneous rotation", which means growing a mix of different crops all over your plot. It sounds as though the previous owner of your allotment practised simultaneous rotation.

If you mix your plants up sufficiently the pests don't build up and the nutrients don't get so depleted, but when spraying, pruning or harvesting you have to go and search for the potatoes among the leeks, carrots etc. Also, you have to think a bit about what you're planting where - you don't want to dig up a sprout plant that's just about to start sprouting because you're trying to harvest the potatoes next to it.

As I have a garden rather than an allotment I like simultaneous rotation because it gives a more informal feel than growing vegetables in tidy rows. I have vegetables and fruit mixed up with my flowers. A few salad onions get stuck in anywhere I have a gap. But my next-door neighbour disapproves - she thinks vegetables should be confined to their own proper half of the garden.
 

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Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :
 
We used to put our garlic in where the potatoes had been simply because we planted garlic in the second week of September, shortly after digging the potatoes, and the beds were empty and well-worked still from the harvest process. That forced the potatoes to go somewhere else the next year.

With a large garden (up to 1/2 acre at one point) we were quite strict with crop rotation, but as both the garden and the time we had to devote to it shrunk were were finally down to just one bed wide enough for two drip hoses, and about the best we could do was to plant the tomatoes and beans at opposite ends each year.
 

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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
It's lovely to see so many things coming on well, but not everything is performing quite as one would wish. Some weeks ago I potted up some dahlia tubers to provide a bench of bishops. York and Oxford were the first to show themselves, and Llandaff and Dover have poked their way into daylight, but no matter how hard I stare at the pots, Canterbury and Leicester don't seem to want to put in an appearance. I'm starting to think that they are less likely to come out because they are Evangelical.

I'm also a little concerned about my apple tree. It's only about four feet tall, and I'm not expecting any real crop this year, but something in the way of fruit would be nice. The problem is that it is a 'family' tree, with James Grieve grafted onto Elstar. The James Grieves has a lot of blossom buds about to burst, but the Elstar has leaves but no flower buds. The idea is that they should cross-pollinate, but it doesn't look like that is likely. My crab-apple tree has already finished flowering, and my neighbour's apple tree is in full blossom, so may also be over by the time my apple tree flowers (it is also about 80 feet and a couple of fences away from my apple). Oh well, perhaps next year.

[ 09. May 2013, 18:18: Message edited by: Chapelhead ]
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Opportunistic planting at the moment. During a sunny if cool morning I managed to get in broad and runner beans and spinach, plus a bit more heavy weeding, before it went first cloudy, then showery, currently teeming.

Currently plan is to hit the garden centre tomorrow to get stuff to put in, hopefully, on Sunday.

At this rate I should be all planted up by, oh, about September.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Recent rain has brought my wild flower lawn (I use the term loosely) to life, with overabundant dandelions. Friends are giving me a lawn mower, the strimmer having lost the will to live. At this rate, a scythe would be more appropriate. As it happens, there was a scythe in the utility room when I moved in. Hooded whiskered old person not in evidence (so far).
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
I HAVE FINISHED THE BLOODY DIGGING!

Sorry... I just had to shout that!

AG
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I thought I had, but it's taken so long that the bit I started with is now overgrown again.

Weedkiller is going to have to be the answer.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I don't have a garden, but last week I participated in a training on agroforestry systems. As part of this course, we spent a field day planting trees (mostly peach palm — Bactris gasipaes). I really enjoyed getting all sweaty and dirty, and it's always a wonderful thing to plant trees.
 

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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
Strong winds are blowing
the blossom from the apple.
Now the lawn is pink.
 

---

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
The weather has been so weird that I now boast a border that looks like one of those improbable flowery birthday cards; in flower at the moment:

snowdrops, dwarf tulips, single daffodils
violas, bluebells, scented geranium
2 hellebores, hybrid cornflower, violets
climbing rose, thrift, plum blossom
forget-me-not, and a peony is about to bloom.

The grass (can't dignify with term lawn) is a sea of moss and daisies.
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
The weather is indeed weird. Apparently we're getting frost tonight, so I suppose I'll have to go round to the allotment and cover the replacement tomato plants up, or else risk buying a third lot to put in. Is there no end to this cold spell?
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Yes, the house is heaving with trays of stuff that just wouldn't germinate outside (though I've finally found the dwarf beans - six inches high and icy white in the boiler cupboard!).

I just hope the fungus growing on the organic slug pellets in the brassicas is not nasty, as it's like a white carpet... but I daren't not keep them, it's taken so much effort to get the little sods to grow this spring!

AG
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
We seem to be finally and fully out of it. We have a few nights that will see a few hours in the high 40s coming up, but I can go out in shorts and sandals to water the garden in the morning. The tomatoes have been hardening off for five days now, and they should be ready to plant by Friday evening.

In the mean time, the radishes and broccoli rabe that I got started a week and a half a go are going strong, and the beats, arugula, and lettuce seem to be catching up. Here's hoping I can get something out of them before they bolt.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
My carrot seeds have finally sprouted. I planted them over a month ago when we had a few warm days and I was deceived into thinking spring had arrived.

I finally planted the potatoes last weekend but I put them in good and deep, so I'm not worried about frost. We've also got very strong winds here which stop the frost lying.
 

---

Posted by daisydaisy (# 12167) on :
 
I've yet to sow carrot seeds - it still feels too much like March. But I really need to get them in by the end of the weekend if they are to have a hope of producing a crop.
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Went round to the allotment yesterday evening and there are potatoes and onions coming up. It worked.

Covered up the tomato plants with some polythene bags to guard against overnight frost. One of the plants even has little flowers on, which is very encouraging.
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Isn't that just the best feeling? I earthed my spuds up last night (oo-er, missus!), and I'm very glad I did as there was a touch of frost on the pantiles in the morning.

I am now approaching the dread stage where everything needs to be planted out at once, and I'm away for two weekends

AG
 

---

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Yet another year when I didn't plant any seeds at all. But friends gave me a lawn mower, so I did cut the grass. Garden now looks much tidier, and the spring blossom, including my apple tree, looks luverly. I'm away for most of the next ten days, so the grass will need doing all over again when I get back. Beheaded as much of my healthy dandelion crop as possible, not that it will do much good...
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
@ jacobsen
What you need for dandelions is SALT: Apply salt carefully to the central crown and then let it do its work; it will be absorbed down into the root to kill off plant.

Easier done on crazy-paving than in lawns but, if anxious about your grass, put a little anti-frost fleece around the base of the dandelion, under the leaves.
 

---

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :
 
Planted two tomatoes, a chilli and a courgette plant last week. All have nw been chomped to death :-(
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Ouch. What by?
 

---

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :
 
Most by slugs or snails - or so I assume from the slime trails, though the managed to demolish the entire plants not just the leaves.

The first tom to go though was I think first struck through by something else - oval hole on the stem.

I'm going to Chelsea Flower Show tomorrow (free ticket, yay, yay and thrice yay - my first time going) so will see if there are any stands there that can sell me slug'n'snail protection. I'm thinking bell cloches. And/or non-nasty chemical slug destroyers. And then I'll buy some more small plants and try again. It's freezing here so can't imagine it's going to make much difference to be leaving it so late.
 

---

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Have finally scarified the grass ('lawn' would be too generous) so with a bit of luck may end up with something better looking than heretofore...
 

---

Posted by listener (# 15770) on :
 
I'm a beginner with just a few containers, a radish grew in one, a larger pot may have some scorzonera (oyster plant) if the squirrels don't dig them out first. Sunflowers are a great encouragement for a novice, they grow fast.
 

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Posted by Squirrel (# 3040) on :
 
Are there any other fern fans on the Ship? My garden suffers from a lack of direct sun, as well as a sometimes lazy owner. Ferns to the rescue! I've got Japanese Painted, Autumn, Deer and Ostrich Ferns in the ground, and recently recently rescued a Rabbit's Foot and a Bird's Nest from the clutches of the incompetent staff at my local Home Depot. These two are staying in pots, so I can take them inside when it gets cold.

Any suggestions for other easy-to-car-for ferns? I live in the New York City area.
 

---

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Grrrrrr hisssss fuckety fuck fuck fuck... excuse me. My lilac (my baby, my darling darling lilac!) has got phytoplasma and there is no cure.[weeps] Just like the roses a few feet over, which developed a very similar disease. Just like the pine tree a few feet further on, which had to be taken out for something similar. Just like... well, I HOPE not just like the brand new cherry tree, which is planted in the midst of all this death and destruction.

It's my own bloody fault, for getting uppity about our organic planting stuff. Not that chemicals would solve THIS problem ...

[goes away to weep in a corner]
 

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Posted by Jenn. (# 5239) on :
 
I'm new to gardening, never having had a garden before. About a month ago I took advantage of a dry day and went into our garden and collected all the junk which had collected against the fence. All looked fine, if a little bare.

Yesterday we went out to mow the lawn. Covering a huge patch of the garden was a weed, about 6 inches tall, root network under the whole lawn as far as i can work out, leaves up to 2-3 inches, no variation in colour. Thriving around the fence and the trees (shady spots). Came up almost overnight. We strimmed quite a bit of it but there are dozens (or more) stalks and some small plants.

What is it? Do I have any hope of getting rid of it? What do I do (other than pulling up as much of the root network as I can)?
 

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Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
Re Yangtze's slug and snail post upthread. We've tried most things over the years, none of which really work. Hungry ducks are supposed to be good, we haven't tried those.

A cousin of Macarius told us that she and her husband had once searched the internet for ways of keeping slugs down. Eventually, they found a Buddhist website that basically said 'give up and use slug pellets' (this was a chat, so I don't know any more details).

Someone at work told me that porage oats are supposed to work - I think the slugs/snails still die an horrific death but birds eating them don't get poisoned. I intend to try it this year.

In other news, our local garden centre has been selling grafted veg plants - tomatoes, peppers and aubergines grafted onto a tomato stock (yes, I know tomatoes aren't veg) - very vigorous. We have a number of tomatoes coming already and the aubergine is in flower. I've never seen this before, has anyone come across it?

M.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Any recommendations for relatively inexpensive cordless grass trimmers that would cope with the grass around the edge of allotments, including long grass?

Looking at the various ones on sale, minimum charging time seems to be 3-5 hours for which you get c. 15 minutes actual working time, which seems like a rip-off.

And no, I can't borrow a sheep.
 

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
Any recommendations for relatively inexpensive cordless grass trimmers that would cope with the grass around the edge of allotments, including long grass?

Looking at the various ones on sale, minimum charging time seems to be 3-5 hours for which you get c. 15 minutes actual working time, which seems like a rip-off.

And no, I can't borrow a sheep.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Grrrrrr hisssss fuckety fuck fuck fuck... excuse me. My lilac (my baby, my darling darling lilac!) has got phytoplasma and there is no cure.[weeps] Just like the roses a few feet over, which developed a very similar disease. Just like the pine tree a few feet further on, which had to be taken out for something similar. Just like... well, I HOPE not just like the brand new cherry tree, which is planted in the midst of all this death and destruction.

It's my own bloody fault, for getting uppity about our organic planting stuff. Not that chemicals would solve THIS problem ...

[goes away to weep in a corner]

---

(((Lamb Chopped))). Losing beloved plants is no fun (an un/helpful and supposedly professional gardener once 'weeded' out my saxifrage and chopped down a clematis: I was not amused).

I'm not familiar with the disease. Is it in the soil, are you able to plant another? or would it effect any replacements?
 

---

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Nobody's sure, really--some think there's an insect vector but it isn't proven. I doon't know if it's just coincidence or not, but a very similar problem called rosette disease attacked some roses nearby and we were told never to plant roses there again. But I've seen nothing to say the two diseases are one and the same--but it's suggestive.
 

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Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :
 
I came back from Chelsea with nematodes which have now been applied and hopefully will eat all the slugs from the inside out. Or whatever it is they do.

In some Chelsea inspired activity - helped by the sunny weather - I went to Colombia Road flower market and picked up a few plants, including replacement courgettes. And then back to the Turkish music shop which oddly also sells tomato and chilli plants. Spent Monday tidying up garden, sowing various seeds in various places and wrapping copper tape round the newly bought plants in their pots. Won't risk planting them till they're a bit bigger.

Also got very tangled attempting to fix netting over soft fruit.
 

---

Posted by Anna B (# 1439) on :
 
I figured out finally that I could outwit the deer in our neighborhood by planting in containers close to the house! Got several window boxes full of lovely herbs and lettuces going. They're enjoying the cool wet weather. So ha ha on the deer
 

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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
Dear bluebells,

You've very lovely, but I want to get on with summer planting now, and you are the teensiest bit in the way. Next year, could you arrange to do your stuff a bit earlier?

Thanks

Chapelhead
 

---

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Yangtze:

In some Chelsea inspired activity - helped by the sunny weather - I went to Colombia Road flower market and picked up a few plants, including replacement courgettes.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jenn:
Covering a huge patch of the garden was a weed, about 6 inches tall, root network under the whole lawn as far as i can work out, leaves up to 2-3 inches, no variation in colour. Thriving around the fence and the trees (shady spots). Came up almost overnight. We strimmed quite a bit of it but there are dozens (or more) stalks and some small plants.

What is it? Do I have any hope of getting rid of it? What do I do (other than pulling up as much of the root network as I can)?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
Any recommendations for relatively inexpensive cordless grass trimmers that would cope with the grass around the edge of allotments, including long grass?

Looking at the various ones on sale, minimum charging time seems to be 3-5 hours for which you get c. 15 minutes actual working time, which seems like a rip-off.

And no, I can't borrow a sheep.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by TomOfTarsus:
...But between the deer, crows, bunnies, squirrels, slugs and other assorted bugs & pestilences, she despairs of ever getting anything going.

---

It's frustrating to say the least to have your plants nibbledby the wildlife, but nothing is as annoying as the invaders of the two-legged variety who nicked my lettuce the other year (along with half a bag of compost and a newly bought japonica). Bastards .

Re: slug control. I read a book once where the author advocated a tennis racket and a strong overarm serve.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
After a lovely warm week I was so pleased to see yesterday that my courgette seeds had germinated. Today the poor little seedlings are shivering in a biting wind.......

The aquilegia and lupins are in bloom and some of the pansies and snapdragons. Two of my rose bushes are flowering but the others are still in bud. It's just a shame that the cold wind stops me sitting out and enjoying it.
 

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Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :
 
Never post here, and probably won't but I thought you lot would get a good laugh out of these enterprising folk.
 

---

Posted by Ferdzy (# 8702) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Squirrel:
Are there any other fern fans on the Ship? My garden suffers from a lack of direct sun, as well as a sometimes lazy owner. Ferns to the rescue! I've got Japanese Painted, Autumn, Deer and Ostrich Ferns in the ground, and recently recently rescued a Rabbit's Foot and a Bird's Nest from the clutches of the incompetent staff at my local Home Depot. These two are staying in pots, so I can take them inside when it gets cold.

Any suggestions for other easy-to-car-for ferns? I live in the New York City area.

---

quote:

---

I thought you lot would get a good laugh out of these enterprising folk.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Yangtze:
Most by slugs or snails - or so I assume from the slime trails, though the managed to demolish the entire plants not just the leaves.

The first tom to go though was I think first struck through by something else - oval hole on the stem.

I'm going to Chelsea Flower Show tomorrow (free ticket, yay, yay and thrice yay - my first time going) so will see if there are any stands there that can sell me slug'n'snail protection. I'm thinking bell cloches. And/or non-nasty chemical slug destroyers. And then I'll buy some more small plants and try again. It's freezing here so can't imagine it's going to make much difference to be leaving it so late.

---

If you eventually resort to slug pellets one way of avoiding poisoning wildlife is to get a large tile or small paving slab and after scattering the pellets on a small patch of ground put the tile or slab over them, propped up on four small stones so the slab is about half-an-inch above the ground. So when the slugs crawl underneath it and eat the pellets, they die there and the local birds and hedgehogs can't get under the slab to eat the pellets or the poisoned slugs. However, if you have frogs in the garden, they can get under the slab, so this is not a frog-friendly suggestion.

Alternatively, I can vouch for the suggestion by TomofTarsus about bare copper wire deterring slugs - definitely works, and a circle of twisted strands of the stuff round the stem has saved several of my Acer (Japanese Maple) seedlings. (Nothing slugs like more than just-germinated Acer seedlings.) But I guess you'd have to use the wire on plants with a single stem which have all their foliage off the ground.

Two other trapping suggestions: after eating a grapefruit put the halves of skin on the ground one evening like a couple of minature domes, early next morning go out and kill all the slugs found munching away on them. Then there's the traditional beer trap - a container sunk into the ground filled with beer. The slugs start drinking it, get inebriated, fall in and drown. (Well, that's what I've been told. I've never been able to bring myself to serve good beer to slugs when I enjoy drinking it myself. What a waste! )
Angus
 

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Posted by A.Pilgrim (# 15044) on :
 
Sorry for the double post, but I've just noticed Chapelhead's problem:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chapelhead:
I've got a wabbit, a wascally wabbit!

I've never seen one in the garden before, or in the fields around here, but now one has appeared (possible disturbed by some building work locally). And I think it's eating my lettuces.

Wascally, wascally wabbit!

---

Solution: get an air-wifle.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
How can I not post this?

[opera]I killed the Wabbit![/opera]

AG
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chapelhead:
I've got a wabbit, a wascally wabbit!

I've never seen one in the garden before, or in the fields around here, but now one has appeared (possible disturbed by some building work locally). And I think it's eating my lettuces.

Wascally, wascally wabbit!

---

Don't joke! It's not funny.

We have rabbits. The babies are gorgeous, and do very little harm, but the teenagers will eat absolutely anything in their line of sight. Don't believe anyone who says they won't eat geraniums or lavender. They will. They will even eat things that are poisonous to them. They can breed when they're 4 months old, and they can become pregnant a day after giving birth. We expect to see 6 or 8 of them in the back garden several times a day, and 2 or 3 in the front. They have just developed a taste for the bark on my prized standard bay trees - - previously they've only eaten bark when the ground was frozen and covered in snow.

Helpful advice? Hmm. Protect your trees. Brown drainpipe is excellent for saplings. There is one other thing that is showing signs of working - although we only started doing it 3 days ago, so no promises. Bonemeal. Apparently they really don't like it - and, of course, it is organic and good for the garden too. Be generous with it around anything you want them to leave alone. We haven't seen more than 2 or 3 at one time since we put it down, and they have been well away from the main areas that we treated.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Lapin au moutard? (rabbit with mustard)?

As OIC rabbits on our allotments, if we get the little beggars, that's what my plan involves!

AG
 

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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
Having a cat around also keeps bunnies at bay.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
There are foxes, badgers, mice and a fine collection of large, hungry birds on our allotment, plus various visiting dogs that come with their owners, but I don't think there are any rabbits. However, something has taken a decided liking to the curly kale, and there are unlikely to be full-grown plants.
 

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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
I am trying to grow the indigenous American autumn clematis, aka virgin's bower, against our garden shed for the benefit of our honeybees. (The late bloom gives the bees some needed nutrition.) I started with shoots last year. This spring the plants came out bushy and full of tendrils...but now they've both been eaten down to nubbins, and it makes me furious. We have deer in our neighborhood, but I didn't see any tracks near our garden (it's not yet filled with things they like to eat), so I'm suspecting that a rabbit ate the plants. It's not an insect, unless there's a pest that can make a meal of an entire plant in a day or two.
 

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Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
Slugs. Little ones, about an inch long. But- boy can they EAT. I thought marigolds would be immune but they are being stripped and nearly finished off. And petunias are suffering too.

I'm thinking of coating the pots & containers, at least the rims, with something like Vicks. You think that would work? Don't suggest beer in a saucer. I have a terrier. If I caged the saucer, he'd dig til he got to it.
Anything I can do? There's nothing like mashing a slup while you're dead-heading your flowers. Gag
 

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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
Using Copper Sulfate To Repel Slugs

Although if you enjoy or at least tolerate cute little garden snails, it drives them away too.
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by LutheranChik:
Having a cat around also keeps bunnies at bay.

---

Nope. The rabbits cohabit very happily with the cat that visits our garden.
 

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Posted by Rosa Winkel (# 11424) on :
 
I had to read that a few times
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
I'm sure the rabbits would be willing, but I think the cat has higher standards.
 

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 
Sadly I suspect the only really fool-proof slug removal method is old school search and destroy using elbow grease and a torch at dusk. A lot of hard work.
 

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Posted by A.Pilgrim (# 15044) on :
 
In the last few days I've also been engaged in another pest-control exercise on gooseberry sawfly caterpillars - that's these little b****rs. (N.B. The picture is much enlarged from life size, and if you have a phobia of creepy-crawlies, don't click the link!)

They seem to have gone for the gooseberry bushes in a big way this year, whereas in the past it's mostly been the redcurrants (they will eat both). Perhaps it's because we had a nearly frost-free winter this year, and the eggs didn't get killed off, but I must have picked off and killed a couple of hundred of them. And you really have to get to them quickly - a bad infestation can strip an entire branch of all foliage, taking leaves down to just a fan of veins, and if that happens, the whole branch will die. It's quite possible for an unchecked infestation to strip an entire bush, in which case it's bye-bye bush.
Angus
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
We found that a ring of copper foil round the top of a plant pot deterred most slugs - although we did see one giant one which was so determined that it basically jumped over the ring and into the middle of the pot of spinach where it sat happily munching till we found it (the ********). It did put off the worst of them, although it didn't kill them.

We have lots of rabbits at the allotment, but we are hoping that the fencing we put up round the plot is enough to stop them (we buried chicken wire some way below the surface of the ground, so the fence is in effect a good foot or so bigger than it looks). I wasn't able to go this weekend so haven't checked how things are doing, but hopefully there will still be something there when I'm next there.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Yes, I've got a big infestation of gooseberry sawfly, too. The fruit crop is ripening now and I've started to pick fruit so I don't want to spray. I've set myself a target of squashing at least 10 caterpillars per bush every day when I get home from work. So far this has kept the situation under control.

One of the odd things is, the flies are supposed to lay their eggs on leaves at the base of the bush so the caterpillars eat their way upwards. But mine are starting at the top, on the new shoots. Apparently the sawflies in my area haven't read the gardening books.
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jack the Lass:

We have lots of rabbits at the allotment, but we are hoping that the fencing we put up round the plot is enough to stop them (we buried chicken wire some way below the surface of the ground, so the fence is in effect a good foot or so bigger than it looks). I wasn't able to go this weekend so haven't checked how things are doing, but hopefully there will still be something there when I'm next there.

---

I think this is the only reliable way of keeping them out - you need to bury about a foot of wire.

Sadly ours come up the drive as though they were welcome guests. We did have a wire fence around our vegetable garden - actually without even burying any - and they never tried to get under it. Far too many tasty things in the rest of the garden to need to put any effort in.
 

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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
We had a brief but vigorous hailstorm last night...not looking forward to checking my garden today...
 

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Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
Thanks for the anti-slug tips. Where do you get copper foil? It sounds expensive.
 

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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
Stained-glass crafters use it as a base for soldering, so you may be able to find it in a craft shop or specialty glass shop. It can be a little spendy, but presumably you aren't going to be using as much as a stained-glass maker.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
On the principle of getting there before the slugs, I plucked a handful of (still tiny) spinach leaves and added them to my lunchtime salad.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I had a bad infestation of gooseberry sawfly 4 years ago, which wiped out the crop. Each year since I've been more pro-active in removing the caterpillars, but each year the decreasing number of caterpillars have still managed to wipe out the crop. This year - no sawfly! no holey leaves, no evidence of any munching - and no gooseberries. I'm starting to think the bush has been a dud all along, or does it need a non-sawfly recovery year?
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pearl B4 Swine:
Thanks for the anti-slug tips. Where do you get copper foil? It sounds expensive.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by North East Quine:
I had a bad infestation of gooseberry sawfly 4 years ago, which wiped out the crop. Each year since I've been more pro-active in removing the caterpillars, but each year the decreasing number of caterpillars have still managed to wipe out the crop. This year - no sawfly! no holey leaves, no evidence of any munching - and no gooseberries. I'm starting to think the bush has been a dud all along, or does it need a non-sawfly recovery year?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
My runner beans are only 6 inches high

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Well done you.

Runner bean plants bought and planted start of May - died during cold snap.

Replacement bean plants bought and planted end of May - died during cold snap.

Further replacement of runner bean seeds planted start of June - still no sign of life as of Friday evening. Dug one up and found it had rotted.

Refusing to give in on this. More runner bean seeds now started at home this morning. Still no sign of life, 6 hours later. But will I be 4th time lucky?
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
My sweet pea seedlings (bought from the garden centre about a month ago and planted out about two weeks ago) are still only about 12 inches high. Is this normal? (first time I have tried them).
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Abnormal IS the new normal. This year everything is late, but some things are doing really well once they get around to it. Sweet peas do like sunshine though...
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
If my veg plot discovers the power of independent locomotion we're DOOMED. I have never seen things grow so quickly. We've had (for Scotland) a warm and sunny June so far, and latterly some rain. Unless we now have persistent sleet (always possible), there should be bumper pea/bean/potato/spinach crop this year.
 

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Posted by A.Pilgrim (# 15044) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by North East Quine:
I spoke too soon. I do have gooseberries but they're still smaller than pea-sized. So the ctop is late, rather than non-existent. I wonder if they have time to grow to full size and ripen?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by mrs whibley:
I went on a successful quest for Rudbeckia

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:

---

Originally posted by mrs whibley:
I went on a successful quest for Rudbeckia

---

You realise you'll have just swapped a all-purple border for an all-yellow?

I have some which have come under the fence from next door and they are extremely pushy.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by mrs whibley:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:

---

Originally posted by mrs whibley:
I went on a successful quest for Rudbeckia

---

You realise you'll have just swapped a all-purple border for an all-yellow?

I have some which have come under the fence from next door and they are extremely pushy.

---

Well if 4 if them think they can take over 50' of purple aquilegias, purple hardy geraniums and those funny things that look like lambs' ears covered in thistles then good luck to 'em, I say!

---

And I forgot to mention the hostas, the bluebells and the ickle baby lavender I found struggling in the undergrowth. It's almost pathological!
 

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Posted by Grammatica (# 13248) on :
 
Just made vichyssoise with the leeks I grew this spring. It turned out wonderfully.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Yum. I love vichysoisse.

I've just spent a happy weekend bottling gooseberries. I've run out of bottling jars now and the bushes are still loaded with fruit. Never had such a crop before.

The strawberries are over - tasty, but mostly very small because of the poor weather. We've finally got some warm weather and the courgettes are doing well. The runner beans are still only about 6 inches high and just starting to consider climbing up their poles. Pathetic. Really. They should be ashamed of themselves.
 

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Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
I am no gardener but I have been out there two weekends running hacking down a couple of overgrown bushes. We now have a lot more light in our front room and everyone else has more space on the pavement.

That's the kind of "gardener" I am . Next week the holly gets it.
 

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Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :
 
Many thanks for the suggestions I received here last year. This year I have 7 tomato plants in the greenhouse, 5 different varieties ranging in size from 'pygmy' to beefsteak. Oh, and one lemon shaped and coloured one! Most have green fruit on them now, and I'm impatiently waiting for the colour to change so I can munch sun-warmed tomatoes straight of the plants again. Yum!

I didn't plant any potatoes this year, but clearly didn't dig them up very thoroughly last autumn (actually, this spring, IIRC!) since a new row of plants appeared in the same place. I've no idea how they'll do, but figured I might as well leave them since they were already growing well by the time I noticed. (I'll try to be more thorough this year in the harvesting so as to not have them there again next year.) And thanks to liberal applications of slug pellets, my broccoli and cauliflowers are looking as though they might produce food this year. Last year's lot were eaten up completely within about 48 hours, so I'm pleased that it's looking better this time round...

The gooseberries are still looking a bit sad though. Last year they lost all their leaves within a couple of months of us putting them in, and they looked decidedly dead. I didn't get around to taking them out in the autumn though, and was excited to see fresh leaves on them this spring. They do have berries, too, but they don't appear to have grown much if at all in 12 months. Am I being too impatient and expecting unrealistic things?
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Beethoven, if your new gooseberry bushes lost their leaves they wouldn't have had been able to produce much energy for growing. They probably just need a good season this year to get going.

I would spray them to prevent sawfly caterpillar attack, give them a good mulching with compost and water them if the weather is very hot and dry as they are still young plants. A liquid fertiliser feed once a month wouldn't do any harm.

Give them some tender loving care and the chances are they'll get established and do well next year. Gooseberry bushes usually take 2-3 years to come into full fruit.
 

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Posted by AngloCatholicGirl (# 16435) on :
 
I've just moved across the pond to Florida and am struggling with the Florida sun as it has managed to scorch everything in the garden except for the hibiscus and my sunflowers.

Any suggestions for the flower bed at the front of the house (full morning sun till mid-afternoon). I'd like to put in some shrubs or grasses at the back of the bed, for a bit of year round colour and easyish care? (O and to top things off we are near the coast so sandy soil conditions too!)

I am missing my UK garden so any hints/tips gratefully received!
 

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Posted by Grammatica (# 13248) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by AngloCatholicGirl:
I've just moved across the pond to Florida and am struggling with the Florida sun as it has managed to scorch everything in the garden except for the hibiscus and my sunflowers.

Any suggestions for the flower bed at the front of the house (full morning sun till mid-afternoon). I'd like to put in some shrubs or grasses at the back of the bed, for a bit of year round colour and easyish care? (O and to top things off we are near the coast so sandy soil conditions too!)

I am missing my UK garden so any hints/tips gratefully received!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Grammatica:

quote:

---

Originally posted by AngloCatholicGirl:
I've just moved across the pond to Florida and am struggling with the Florida sun as it has managed to scorch everything in the garden except for the hibiscus and my sunflowers.

Any suggestions for the flower bed at the front of the house (full morning sun till mid-afternoon). I'd like to put in some shrubs or grasses at the back of the bed, for a bit of year round colour and easyish care? (O and to top things off we are near the coast so sandy soil conditions too!)

I am missing my UK garden so any hints/tips gratefully received!

---

Where in Florida, AngloCatholicGirl? It makes a real difference.

---

We're near Jacksonville, I did buy a book on Florida natives but it's quite technical and I'm afraid my not very advanced gardening skills have meant I'm just more confused
 

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Posted by Grammatica (# 13248) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by AngloCatholicGirl:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Grammatica:

quote:

---

Originally posted by AngloCatholicGirl:
I've just moved across the pond to Florida and am struggling with the Florida sun as it has managed to scorch everything in the garden except for the hibiscus and my sunflowers.

Any suggestions for the flower bed at the front of the house (full morning sun till mid-afternoon). I'd like to put in some shrubs or grasses at the back of the bed, for a bit of year round colour and easyish care? (O and to top things off we are near the coast so sandy soil conditions too!)

I am missing my UK garden so any hints/tips gratefully received!

---

Where in Florida, AngloCatholicGirl? It makes a real difference.

---

We're near Jacksonville, I did buy a book on Florida natives but it's quite technical and I'm afraid my not very advanced gardening skills have meant I'm just more confused

---

JediJudy is the Florida gardening expert, but I'll try to fill in for her if I can.

So, in Jacksonville, you're in Hardiness Zone 8b and on the coast. That's the first thing to know. You won't be able to grow anything that is damaged or killed by regular frosts.

The next thing to do is to get your soil pH tested. The local Master Gardeners group should be able to do that. They are also a good resource for gardening in general. Check the County government offices for their number.

I'm much further south (in 9b) and in the interior, so I can't give much direct advice. But you might start with this website from the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Science:

Lawn and Garden

The UF IFAS are the best I know for all-around Florida gardening advice. A capable local nursery should be able to help, too. Good luck! It is really different here.
 

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Posted by AngloCatholicGirl (# 16435) on :
 
Many thanks! I have a starting point now and I will definitely hunt down the local garden master group.

Very much appreciate the information and advice

 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
The hot weather has finally got the courgette plants setting fruit.

Does anyone know how to grow straight courgettes? The ones they sell in the shops are always straight, but the ones in my garden are always banana-shaped. What's the secret?
 

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Posted by Garasu (# 17152) on :
 
Condoms?
 

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Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :
 
I picked my first greenhouse cucumber of the year yesterday. Yum! Still no ripe tomatoes, but most of the plants are looking very productive. And there are ickle baby peppers on one of my capsicum plants too
 

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Posted by A.Pilgrim (# 15044) on :
 
Following on from the earlier discussion of gooseberry plants, I've just started picking from the bushes in my garden, and it looks like one of the best crops I've ever had. There are plenty of berries, many of them are enormous - nearly an inch-and-a-half long and a good inch in diameter. The heat and sunshine have ripened them beautifully. I've picked over 7lb and there's at least as much again.

If North East Quine is reading, how are yours doing? Any bigger than the last time you posted?
Angus
 

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Posted by daisydaisy (# 12167) on :
 
I've just finished harvesting from my 2 gooseberry bushes (1 red, 1 green) and it's been the best harvest so far in their 4 year life. Last week I made a glorious sorbet with some of the red ones.
If only the raspberries were as good - I rely on them for winter breakfasts, but the summer ones haven't been as good as previously, probably because I was so unwell when they needed pruning. Hopefully the autumn ones will make up for them - and maybe the blackberries which are looking promising.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
My grapes are ripening quickly! Last year I had a total of six grapes. I think there may be two dozen this year, including a couple on my little $5 vine.

Isn't it exciting to see fruits and veggies that we nurture giving us something for the table?
 

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Posted by daisymay (# 1480) on :
 
And today in London it's to be a bit wet (it was noisy and very wet during the night) and that means not having to wet the trees and flowers etc.
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I've just finished harvesting from my 2 gooseberry bushes (1 red, 1 green) and it's been the best harvest so far in their 4 year life.

---

quote:

---

I have two gooseberry bushes, variety 'Careless' I believe, probably five or six years old. I have put 17lb in the freezer, given about 7lb to a neighbour and cooked a couple of pounds. There's still fruit on the bushes

---

I have three 'Careless" gooseberry bushes and I've also had a bumper crop. I didn't weigh them but I reckon there were probably enough to fill a full-sized bath.

I picked the last fruit at the weekend. In the heatwave they weren't so much ripening on the bushes as cooking.

The very first few fruit on my autumn raspberries have just turned red, but they are rather small. I think they need some rain. We missed out on the last few days' thunderstorms here so I'm still watering every evening.

A nice downpour tonight would make all the difference.......
 

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Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :
 
Would love some suggestions....

We've been growing for some years now what i am told is Achimenes. If i remember, the rhizomes are lifted and dried properly indoors. Then replanted the follwing year. If I forget, they remain in situ and are doing really well

Only i've just looked to see what type of Achimenes is growing up the fence and through the ladies mantle....and ...i am finding nothing even remotely close.

We have NO bell shaped flowers....the flowers are on a long flowering 'stalk' for want of a better word.

Is there anything very similar to an Achimenes rizome....that i may be growing instead!
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I was given one of these a few weeks ago for my desk. It has flowers that grow on a stalk. I can't describe them as bell-shaped but the rest is accurate, i.e. about the rhizomes. Does yours look like this?

I gave mine away to a colleague - I thought the flowers were going to be bluish purple but they came out closer to magenta. They seem to be thriving on another colleague's desk - very large, blue and beautiful, just not on mine. Heat, light and potting soil conditions I suppose.
 

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Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :
 
Nope.

really need to go get the camera don't i....will be back when the battery is charged!
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
I'm in the middle of a courgette glut. They didn't do well last year, so I planted a couple of extra plants this time and now they are growing faster than I can deal with them.
I've made two different types of pickle, and cooked a courgette/tomato/onion stew for the freezer as I can use it as a base for things like pasta sauce in the winter. Unfortunately, having already put 20lb of gooseberries in the freezer this month, as well as a dozen packs of my brother's home-made curry (his present to us for our Ruby Wedding), there isn't much space in there.
I have given some to neighbours, but I don't want to give them away to people who don't really want them and are only accepting them out of politeness.

I've been asked to make a cake for a craft morning at church on Friday, methinks a courgette cake would be a good idea
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
A colleague recently made a lime, courgette and [can’t remember what] else sponge cake which was very nice.

I’ve been making a courgette bake – layers of sliced courgettes intermixed with layers of red onion and sundried tomato/garlic sauce and layers of grated extra mature cheese. Simple, easy and more-ish. Just as well given how prolific my courgette plant is.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Just back after a week away - garden totally unhinged by sudden access of rainfall (which is continuing enthusiastically as I type). Rescued the pea crop - something over 4lbs. I'm just thinking new potato, pea and pancetta salad for lunch.
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
A colleague recently made a lime, courgette and [can’t remember what] else sponge cake which was very nice.

I’ve been making a courgette bake – layers of sliced courgettes intermixed with layers of red onion and sundried tomato/garlic sauce and layers of grated extra mature cheese. Simple, easy and more-ish. Just as well given how prolific my courgette plant is.

---

quote:

---

I'm in the middle of a courgette glut. They didn't do well last year, so I planted a couple of extra plants this time and now they are growing faster than I can deal with them.

---

Me too. My fridge looks as though it's been invaded by an alien life form. But they taste delicious.

The runner beans are finally flowering and I found two tiny baby beans on one today, so maybe next weekend......

In the meantime, anyone for courgettes?
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
My courgettes are only just flowering. OTOH, I've been having fresh peas and broad beans every lunch (and sometimes dinner) for the last week. The runner beans are also in mad tendril/flower mode, so they will probably arrive in sync with some of the potatoes - there are about half a dozen varieties, since they were bought and sprint planted in late April, some of them barely chitting and others with long desperate tendrils.
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
OK, the 'beans with every meal' season has arrived!
In spite of having a far greater number than usual of un-pollinated flowers falling off the vines, I picked about four meals-worth of assorted climbing beans today.
 

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Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :
 
I picked 10 half pints of thornless blackberries yesterday and today. I also had a very tasty apple off the espalier. There are even a few strawberries on one of my pots which survived being moved this year.

One trick with courgette when you're getting overwhelmed is to tempura batter and fry a bunch of the flowers. It's easy to wipe out a generation in a meal and get some breathing space.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I've taken a few courgettes into the office, but yesterday baked some with a spicy lamb filling and a tomato and garlic sauce.

The next thing will be potatoes. Next year I'm going to stagger planting crops so that there should be a steadier flow of things ripening over a period of weeks, rather than all at once. Not much I can do about the courgette plant, as there's only one of it, but it's just about manageable and I'm enjoying it.
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
It looks like I might be about to get a break from courgettes, as the plants are currently covered in male flowers with not a female in sight. The length of the respite depends on whether or not there is a male in bloom when the embryonic females-in-waiting are ready to flower.

No need to panic, 'though - I will still have a few in hand, even when I've cooked up today's chutney recipe.
 

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Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :
 
Years ago I found a recipe for a really simple creamy courgette soup (although it didn't have any cam or milk in it!). Yum!

Having been away for a week, I've come back to find a handful of ripe tomatoes, a couple of over-ripe, tough beans, and an enormous (albeit rather yellow) cucumber. On the brighter side, my cauliflowers have little cauliflowers now visible, and my normal broccoli has yellow-ish florets showing. Nothing on the purple sprouting yet, but I'm optimistic...

Other people's reports of the prolific-ness of their careless gooseberries makes me hopeful that in a few years we'll experience such bounty too.

But my greenhouse this year just doesn't seem as happy as last year. One of my tomatoes (lemon tree) has just a single fruit which doesn't appear to be getting any riper than it was a few weeks ago - even though it's had lots of flowers and the greenhouse door is open most days to help pollinating insects find their way in easily. The cucumber plant has gone rather yellow, leave, fruits and all. I don't know if it's lack of food/water, or something else upsetting it - it's certainly nowhere near as happy as the two I had in the same pot last year...
 

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Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :
 
Courgettes are great grated into bolognese, meatloaf etc to make mince go further.

Re growing your own salad leaves (in the supermarket they're SUCH a rip-off!) - can you grow them all year round if you give them some protection in the winter? What are the best salad leaves for growing in colder weather? They would be grown in a container.
 

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Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Courgettes are great grated into bolognese, meatloaf etc to make mince go further.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:

Re growing your own salad leaves (in the supermarket they're SUCH a rip-off!) - can you grow them all year round if you give them some protection in the winter? What are the best salad leaves for growing in colder weather? They would be grown in a container.

---

My local seed companies sell packets of mesclun mix which will grow leaves in our low light winters after the head lettuce has given up. It gives you a number of varieties in one package which makes for nice contrast in the greens.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Finally, some beans!

But the bad news is - browntail moth caterpillars on my blackthorn hedge. I've had to call the pest control people. That's my holiday budget gone.
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
We went back to the allotment yesterday to find that our beans (which had just started producing in the last couple of weeks) were stripped bare and only a stubby stalk was left. We can't work out what the culprit was - rabbits are unlikely as they left everything else (including the neighbour's beans), and there were no slime trails anywhere. I guess mice are a possibility, or our friend suggested some sort of sawfly (but there's been nothing like that on the plot up to now).

We comforted ourselves by harvesting some monster courgettes. As they are the grenade shaped ones they are perfect for stuffing.
 

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Posted by Rosa Winkel (# 11424) on :
 
As now is by busiest time of year when I'm hardy in Wroclaw, my allotment is having to make do without me. My pregnant wife (when she's not zipping off to the Urals to do a project and the such) is thankfully being helped by friends with watering and some picked some plums from one of our trees.

Anyway, courgettes. A neighbour planted them without asking on our plot (she likes to be 'helpful') and they've largely grown with me doing nowt to them except watering them about four times in six weeks (due to me being away). I returned back after two weeks to see them not only flowering but with courgettes, and now they've already been eaten. Fast growing they are.

I planted green fertiliser in many places (white mustard, phacelia, lubinius, red clover) and some have gone haywire, with some mustard coming up to my thighs, dominating space where other stuff is trying to grow (must remember that next year). My wife told me yesterday that the plot looks as wild as it was when we took it over in May, what with all the green fertilisers, two pumpkins, cucumbers, nasturtiums, courgettes and weeds on the other side, where I've done close to nothing so far.

Should any courgettes be left over when I finally get home on the 27th, I'll try out a recipe written here.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
We went back to the allotment yesterday to find that our beans (which had just started producing in the last couple of weeks) were stripped bare and only a stubby stalk was left. We can't work out what the culprit was

---

Deer can do that. A group of us once surprised one, which burst away from the allotment with a mouthful of runner bean leaves. Though birds can do that as well – something has been eating my kale right down to a stub.
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
I am pretty sure it's not deer on the allotment, but bird damage is a definite possibility, yes. My list of things we're going to need to net next year is getting longer
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Our vine is laden - a change from 2012 when we only had 8 grapes - so am looking forward to a bumper harvest.

Vine itself has oedema but it doesn't seem to affect the fruit...

Plum tree now has every branch propped.

Self-seeded potatoes from previous years are producing a better crop than when originally planted - helps with feeding hoardes of teenagers!
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
We went back to the allotment yesterday to find that our beans (which had just started producing in the last couple of weeks) were stripped bare and only a stubby stalk was left. We can't work out what the culprit was

---

Deer can do that. A group of us once surprised one, which burst away from the allotment with a mouthful of runner bean leaves. Though birds can do that as well – something has been eating my kale right down to a stub.

---

Snails can do it too
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
I've been taking a few turns around the black sapote tree, looking for fruit. They are the same color as the leaves, so pretty hard to spot! Today, I see seven!

Hopefully there are more hiding in plain sight. When I looked Sunday, I'm quite sure I saw two on a branch where I didn't see anything today.

I need to get my mom over here. She sees all kinds of things that I never lay eyes on.
 

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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
We've had a busy summer, so I've neglected the garden in a big way...then I got the flu -- the worst flu I have ever suffered; get your shots, wash your hands and otherwise take care, dear readers -- and then, thanks to my fever, I had another seizure incident that took me out of commission for two weeks. Not whining...just what happened to me.

Anyway, once clothed and in my right mind again I went out to the garden and found, to my horror, that both the veg and the flowers are being taken over by crabgrass -- all except for the tomatoes that I mulched with straw as an experiment. We've also had a fairly dry mid-summer, which stunted many plants. The part of my garden that I had intended to save for fall veg is almost completely overtaken by grass and weeds. The melons that I'd planted in pots with intent to transplant are alive but beyond hope for transplanting/developing melons for the year. I really wanted to cry when I got a good look at everything.

Positive note: Despite being neglected and deprived of water, my bush and pole beans are producing a decent number of beans -- I've picked about a gallon, and walking around today (after spending a few days watering what's left of everything) I see more. I have an OP wax bean whose varietal name escapes me, Roma II bush beans and a pole-bean trio mix that includes heirloom Rattlesnake beans (striped with maroon stripes), Kentucky Wonder and an unknown wax bean...plus a few Empress runner beans. (So my bean pickings are very colorful and textural.) Meanwhile I have a patch of Dragon Langerie bush beans just beginning to develop flowers -- hoping that the deer will overlook these, since we never got around to fencing the veg, and now it's pretty anticlimactic.

Adding to my garden frustrations is a 10-pound lifting limit imposed by my doctor for the next several weeks, plus warnings not to spend a lot of time with my head bent down. As you might imagine, this makes weeding difficult even in a raised bed.

I'm happy about our beans, and I have hope that at least a few of my heirloom tomatoes will fruit before frost, but otherwise I'm already planning for next year. We had someone in our town express interest in cutting down our problem trees this fall, so I'm hoping that next spring the veg garden will get a lot more sun exposure and I'll be able to plant some of the root and leaf veggies that don't do well in our current conditions.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
We had 24 hours heavy rain yesterday, and while I wasn't looking the courgettes turned into marrows.
 

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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
I have two cute Italian lavender eggplant in my container that are about ready to pick and go into some ratatouille. My two neglected jalapeno containers are nonetheless loaded with flowers and peppers this year. My miniature watermelon vine, in a large pot placed in about the warmest spot in our front yard, at the edge of our garage back-up, has maybe three melons the size of large oranges; this was a real experiment, and I'll be very surprised if any of these will be edible by the time the vine starts to wither, but it was worth trying.

Our patio hanging baskets are kaput except for the manybells basket, which is looking tatty at this point but is still blooming steadily.

One big disappointment has been the novelty cherry tomato I got from my food coop, called I think "Indigo Opal"; it has fruit the size of small eggs that are a striking bluish-purple right from the start; the bottom of the fruit are green but turn a grape-y color as the fruit ripens. These are so bland and mealy. The second big disappointment has been my other tomatoes, which I started late this year and just haven't caught up; I know I still have about three weeks of summer and, if I'm lucky , another two weeks of viability for the plants, but at this point I'd be very surprised to get any fruit, even on the early plants like Silvery Fir Tree. Too late started; too shady a garden; not enough love from the gardener. Lesson learned.

And, finally, some minor garden drama. We never got around to putting up our electric fence this year, which meant that we never bothered opening the box containing the electrical plug and wiring. We've been having some of our trees cleared from the edge of the yard to let in more light; a couple of days ago our treecutter was having difficulty with wind, and when he felled one of the smaller trees the top fell at an unexpected angle and managed to catch the post holding the box, knocking the box to the ground...and much to his and our horror scores of angry wasps came pouring out. He was unharmed, but he does have an allergic reaction to bee stings and he hasn't been able to clean up that corner of the garden because of the wasps. Tonight after most of them are back in their unique little nest we're going to spray it with wasp killer; I really dislike using pesticide, but we don't have a choice. So I guess we get a new electrical setup next year. Sigh.
 

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Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :
 
(by the time my camera ...then card....was found, the plant mentioned earlier had stopped, aplogies...)

Hanging Baskets: Has anyone had any joy with common bugle (ajuga reptans) in hanging baskets? Looking at our bugle this year, it did just cross my mind that they OUGHT to work well...........???
 

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Posted by Photo Geek (# 9757) on :
 
I have declared my tomato garden officially dead . Worst year that I can remember. Too wet and too cool. I'm about ready to start seeds for some indoor dwarf cherry tomatoes. I grew two plants under lights last winter and had wonderful little tomatoes at Christmas. I've also been growing leaf lettuce indoors this year with great results.
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
We've not been inundated with tomatoes, but done much better than ever before, and I just picked the first 4 ripe ones! (there are another handful ripening, and some that are still green. Probably around 20 in total). More successfully, I just picked about 2.5kg of blackberries over the road. I can't believe that nobody else seems to pick them - I only go once a week, so there's loads of opportunities for other people walking past to have some, but there always seem to be the same number of blackberries there each time that I left the week before. Not that I'm complaining

We've not been to the allotment for a week, so that's probably another job for tomorrow (forecast is better than today). I'm expecting more giant courgettes and more spinach beet (our two main successes), plus more tatties to dig up. We had to chop the leaves and stalks off the potatoes right down to the ground as there was blight on the allotment - it didn't seem to have affected ours, but we chopped them down as instructed; they said that although the potatoes won't grow much more they should be OK in the ground for a bit.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
No potato blight here (thank goodness) - it's been a very dry summer in southeast England. My potato plants are still going strong with no sign of the foliage dying down yet. I'm giving them another two weeks, then I'll have to chop the tops off so I can harvest them before the frost comes.

The courgettes continue to do well and I'm now sampling the carrots. They're a bit small because of the lack of rain, but very tasty.

This year I experimented with organic control of the gooseberry sawfly caterpillars. Last year I sprayed, and last September the bushes were swarming with caterpillars and completely stripped of their leaves. This year I spent 20 minutes every evening after work picking caterpillars off by hand - and since July I haven't seen a single one and the bushes are still green and thriving. MUCH better than spraying (and cheaper!). The only thing is, I'm not sure I could manage the manual technique in a wet season - sitting on dry grass picking caterpillars by hand is one thing, crouching on wet grass in pouring rain is another.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Lifted all the potatoes last week - about 40lbs. A hot, dry summer seems to give you a lot of small tubers - now and again I would come on a large one, presumably the product of The Day It Rained. They are mostly King Edwards, but quite excessively floury.
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
I've had my best tomato year ever. Maybe because I took more care of them this year, feeding and watering twice a day during the hot spell. They are in fairly small pots so needed constant care. I have had around 12 lb from six plants.

I have picked most of them while still green because I mainly grow them for a friend who makes delicious green tomato pickle to sell for our church!
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
My garden is very confused.
In the last couple of days, whilst out harvesting giant courgettes and basketsful of beans I have been admiring my speedily ripening pumpkins, and new buds and flowers on the ceanothus and clematis montana
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
My rhubarb looks very unhappy. The old leaves have fallen off, new leaves are sprouting but they are wrinkled and turning brown before they reach full size. Does anyone here know what could be wrong?

I've never had trouble with rhubarb before. I hope the plant is going to be OK.
 

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Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :
 
Garden is done. Two nights ago was our first hard frost, -3°C, and we took all the carrots, beets and potatoes out today. Dear little things in our 100 days of no frost. The leaves are falling, snow will be anytime. Which is good for other things, but not for the outdoor garden.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
I've just watched Martha Stewart's video on making hypertufa pots. Martha Stewart Has anyone tried this, and what was the result?
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
I picked the last two grapes on my vine yesterday. The flavor is heavenly! It's a muscadine (Ison) grape, and the flavor is similar to a concord grape, but without the bitterness, and a little sweeter, too.

I'm hoping with some TLC, I'll have a few more dozen of the scrumptious fruits next year.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Well, I couldn't find peat moss in my local B&Q so I used ordinary compost which did contain some peat, bought a bag of perlite, and used quick drying cement powder left over from making the hole for my rotary drier. The internet instructions did say to play around with the recipe! Today the 48 hours initial curing time is up, and it's time to remove the pot from its mould (a plastic mixing bowl) and see if it is a pot or just a heap of crumbles. if nothing else, the process recaptured the pleasure associated with working with plasticene.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Is that the thing where you rub the end product with yoghurt or some such, to encourage lichen growth?
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
I believe so. Will try to separate pot from bowl this evening. Lichen would be good, as would any kind of moss.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Well, the bowl came away from the mould in one piece, though very wet. No wonder it will take another two weeks for it to dry out. I'll post again. Fingers crossed that it doesn't crumble to its constituent parts.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
A must for anyone short of growing space.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Mowed back and front lawns (courtesy titles for weed patches), planted the pots with spring bulbs and winter pansies, and cleared a out the flower bed below my living room window. It now sports three Japanese anemones. they were looking rather discouraged, having spent too long in their pots, the last week or so unwatered. But after planting and generous watering they began to perk up. Apparently they are invasive I hope so! May they do battle with the bindweed and keep it at bay.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
And they look like this
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by jacobsen:
Apparently they are invasive I hope so! May they do battle with the bindweed and keep it at bay.

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Even with a nuclear arsenal I'm not sure that's possible. (Spent some of yesterday yanking great ropes of the stuff off every other plant in the border).
 

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Posted by Adrienne (# 2334) on :
 
A question please for all you proper gardeners, (the which I am not, having only grown a bit of veg in the past). For the first time ever this summer I managed a couple of decent hanging baskets and pots that actually survived and looked nice. So flushed with success I want to plant something in them that will look reasonable through the winter. I don't mind if it's mainly green, and the pots could have bulbs for spring in I suppose. I have a very limited budget, but they cheered me up so much this year just being there, I don't really want to leave them bare. Any suggestions would be very welcome!
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
According to the RHS...

Variegated ivy would be a nice element year round I would think.
 

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Posted by daisydaisy (# 12167) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by jacobsen:
?...It now sports three Japanese anemones.... Apparently they are invasive I hope so! May they do battle with the bindweed and keep it at bay.

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quote:

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Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I suspect they will join forces with bindweed. I hope you like Japanese Anemones because once they get going you've got them for life. I guess on the plus side, if you've got the tall ones it gives the bindweed to climb up.

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That is my experience - I am currently doing half-hearted battle with an entire bed of bindweed-swathed, pink "September Charm" that is trying to expand into the lawn. I originally struggled for a couple of seasons just to get it established in one corner.
It does depend on variety - I have a very well-behaved clump of the white "Honorine Jobert" in another part of the garden.
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
I inherited a garden which boasts the following:

5 types of ivy
mombretia *
day lilies *
everlasting alstromeria *
bindweed
ground elder
wild strawberry
* - ALL with orange flowers

The ivy I've more or less managed to get rid of.

Digging out the day lilies and mombretia is a never-ending task: you can sieve a bed for any remaining pieces and get nothing but still it comes up in the spring; same problem with the alstromeria.

Bindweed and ground elder - its a war ...

The strawberries can, at least, be eaten, but they've managed to spread all over the garden and its getting beyond a joke.

On the other hand, all the "guaranteed" to grow and spread plants that I've had over the years - aquilegia, Japanese anenome, lupins, alchemela molis - have failed despite several attempts. And bulbs just seem to vanish.

I'm getting a bit disheartened
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Tomorrow the two weeks is up, and I see if my home made garden pot hangs together or not....
 

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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
I can't believe that I was able to harvest a final crop of snap beans -- enough for a couple of meals -- from my garden LAST WEEK. That's amazing for Michigan. (Climate change is real.) What is even more amazing is that, despite our not getting our fence up this year for various reasons, the deer left the garden alone. (Bean leaves are a particular favorite of theirs too.)
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Originally posted by L'organist:

quote:

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I'm getting a bit disheartened

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Isn't it odd how gardens have a mind of their own? Like the Rum-Tum-Tugger "They will do as they do do, and there's no doing anything about it". Well, not quite. IME you can do SOMETHING about it but not as much as you might like.

My last garden would NOT grow violets, violas or pansies. Everyone told me they grow everywhere - not in that garden they didn't. In my current garden they grow like weeds. But my current garden WON'T grow lily of the valley.

As a not-too-serious recreational gardener I now try to relax and go with the flow. The trick is to find out what the garden likes to grow that you can also live with (and preferably like). There are always possibilities but it takes some trial and error and peering over fences to see what the neighbours grow.

Good luck with the bindweed and ground elder. I have bindweed persistently creeping in from the uncultivated wilderness garden next door........
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Woe, woe, the pot crumbled. Wrong compost? wrong cement? must try harder, and this time with the right ingredients....
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Harvested my potatoes. Quite a good crop, and not much pest damage.

Time to start the Big Dig!
 

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Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :
 
Can anyone give me some advice about chillies/ Some months ago I bought a plant for a friend who was off work. The plant was lovely, has fruit on it which are turning orange-red, and he's back in work. I was going to give him the plant this week, but the leaves suddenly started to droop and fall off. Can anyone suggest how I might resuirrect this plant?
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Chillis are annual, are they not? Having fruited, it's maybe Mission Accomplished and time to die?
 

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Posted by the famous rachel (# 1258) on :
 
I have, with great excitement, planted a couple of rows of Broad Bean Aquadulce Claudia this month, hoping for an early crop. I'm not sure if I'm going to need to fleece the seedlings or get cloches, or whether I can leave them to it. Anyone got any tips?

Rachel.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
This is half gardening problem, half social dilemma.

Our front garden measures approx 20 feet deep by approx 40 feet wide. In the middle there is a flowering cherry which was well established when we moved in, ten years ago. It must be at least 20 years old, possibly 30. At some point before we moved in it was pollarded, and we've had a couple of the thicker branches thinned out since. But it's still far too big for the garden, and we now have a crack in our front garden wall, caused, I think, by a root.

So I posted on Facebook, asking if anyone local to me could recommend a tree surgeon / gardener to look at it with a view to removing it. And someone has very kindly offered to remove it for free, as a kindness to us.

I don't want someone unqualified / uninsured doing anything to that tree. It's as tall as the house, and I'm worried about a falling branch hitting the roof, dislodging tiles, damaging the guttering etc. Or landing on the already cracked front wall. Or ending up in my next-door neighbours' garden.

How difficult is it to remove a tree from a fairly small garden? Am I being unduly anxious about a well-meaning, but unqualified person doing this. I don't want to hurt his feelings, and if I say no, then pay someone else to do it, he'll be hurt when he sees the tree gone.
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
First you need to check that it hasn't got a TPO (tree preservation order) on it.

The scope of these was widened some while back so that ANY tree with a diameter over 3 inches in a Conservation Area automatically has a TPO.

And that's bad news because (a) you'll have to apply to the council for permission to do anything to the ree; (b) on the whole they don't like people removing trees so they're likely to say pollard again; and (c) to have any hope of getting permission to remove you're going to have to get a report from a tree surgeon, possibly also an engineer to say categorically that the tree is causing damage to the wall.

Good luck.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
It definitely doesn't have a TPO.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Has your offerer form as an urban lumberjack? I have a friend whose hobby this is: it's not something you can do casually - you need an arsenal of chainsaws, plus protective clothing - gloves, goggles, vest, boots etc.

Ask him how he intends to tackle the job. The way my friend took down a conifer in my back garden was to climb it (with proper safety gear) and take it down in sections. The going straight in at the bottom is not how your tackle it in confined spaces.

In short, if he has the proper kit, and can explain how he intends to manage the risks, then I would trust him to handle it.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I'm not aware of him having form as an urban lumberjack. He does enjoy his own garden, but there is nothing larger than blackcurrant bushes in his garden. I would be astonished if he had the proper gear himself, though maybe he's got someone who could lend it.

I estimate the tree being maybe 30ft high at its highest point, On the east side it's only 7 feet away from our (cracked) garden wall, and then the pavement and road on the other side of the wall. Anything falling onto the wall, or into the pavement / road would be bad.

On the south side, it's about 10 foot from another garden wall, with our neighbours' driveway on the other side.

On the west side, it's about 13 foot from our house.

So I assume someone would have to trim the top down by about a max of seven feet first, which would involve them being twenty feet off the ground. And then take it down another seven feet.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
He's also said that if the main problem is the tree root and the crack in the wall, he could just remove the root. Would removing one large root destabilise the tree? I don't want an unstable 30ft tree 13 ft from my house.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I was wondering about that. A large tree will have large roots: you need to be confident that whoever extracts it won't damage your wall any further.

I think you do need professionals on this one, tbh.
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
Even without being in that enclosed a space, getting trees down safely means that sort of chopping down in sections. I've helped remove a Lawsoniana hedge at 20 odd foot with very little around it. That hedge was grown to provide a barrier whilst the slower growing beech hedge took hold. To do that we had to remove the Lawsoniana in sections using ladders, ropes and chain saw, and it entailed heavy duty gloves, protective gear and one or other of us on the other end of the rope to lower the sections safely.

Having also dealt with the results of trees being blown down, they can do the most amazing amount of damage coming down.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Thank you. The consensus agrees with me - this should be done by someone qualified whom we pay to do it.

He's coming round on Tues to discuss the tree; I have until Tuesday to think up a way of refusing his kind offer without hurting his feelings.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Tell him quite frankly that the thought of one of your friends handling this has been giving you nightmares; that you know it's silly of you but you'd never forgive yourself if some terrible accident happened, or even a minor injury; that you know he's good but you can't convince your irrational mind to stop worrying about a dear friend and let you sleep properly; and therefore you've decided to hire a stranger and let him take the risk. The whole thing should be said apologetically and shamefacedly, as a charming confession of weakness on your part. Preferably before Tuesday, when he lays eyes on the tree and turns argumentative.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Thanks, LC. He already knows our tree; he lives a couple of streets away, and walks past our house occasionally, so he knows the size of our garden etc.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Ah heck. Well, in that case have a look at your homeowner's insurance, as I suspect they require professionals or else any claim is void.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
If he talking of taking out a root definitely don't let him near it!

When my 40ft odd cherry blew down, my friend came, sawed it up and took it away. But even he wouldn't tackle the root bole. Roots come with impacted soil and stones and will ruin a chainsaw very quickly (and dangerously). It had to be chewed up with a specialised diamond drill (and you have to pay for the diamonds, so it comes expensive).

Tell him kindly but firmly that you've looked into what's involved, and understand that it needs a level of equipment and expertise only professionals have access to.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
You could say that FB wasn't the only place you'd posted a query on, and you had some answers back (which you have now), the gist of which were that this was likely to be a particularly time-consuming and tricky job, and a potentially dangerous one, and you didn't feel you could reasonably ask him to undertake this. But let him know you're grateful for his kind offer of free help, and for his input and advice (because he will have some when he comes to see the tree).

Meanwhile, tomorrow morning it would be worth ringing some professionals to come round and assess the tree. The appointment doesn't need to be before your friend comes round on Tuesday, but I'd suggest getting a date sorted so you can legitimately tell him that you're getting a second opinion on this.

There remains the small matter of what to do with the chopped-down tree, by the way. If you don't have a use for it, ask if your professionals might be able to dispose of it for you. I imagine your friend might not be able to cart it away as easily for you.

[ 08. December 2013, 14:48: Message edited by: Ariel ]
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Anyone with a wood-burning stove or firebowl would kill for cherry wood. It burns beautifully, with a blue and gold flame and a lovely scent. Don't waste it.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
D, who offered to remove it, said that he had a mate with a van who would take it away. D has a real fire, I think (at least his house has a chimney) and I rather assumed that our tree might keep him in firewood this winter.

But failing that, my FB post resulted in someone with a wood burning stove who would like the wood and can collect.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Plus it is entirely bare of leaves just now, which means less mess to clear up.

We have made two tips to the council tip with its fallen leaves - 16 packed full bin bags plus as much as we thought feasible on the compost. (Another reason I won't be sorry to see it go.)
 

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Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
We had our flowering cherry taken down a year ago. It took three men. One up the tree, with a chainsaw, one guiding proceedings from below, and one cutting the lopped branches into manageable (but still very big) sizes. It was a bigger tree than yours, but we have a very big garden - even so the job took up an enormous amount of room. They took away most of the timber, leaving us a trailer full of smallish branches, but needed a lorry, not a van, plus a shredder for the twiggy stuff. We have still got the stump (couldn't afford to have it ground out and couldn't face the amount of ground that would be disrupted by pulling out) and have to cut off the suckers. We could have used a stump-killing chemical, but it was diseased anyway, and is already rotting from the middle.
Photographs here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53782729@N00/sets/72157638517064175/

[ 09. December 2013, 17:03: Message edited by: Roseofsharon ]
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
This is the thing: taking out a tree isn't really a one-man job. Let us know how it goes, NEQ.
 

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Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :
 
We recently moved into a new house, and one of the first steps was to remove the two largest trees. (The neighbors took down the tree between our driveways about the same time due to problems with the roots.)

I've taken down trees down before. I have climbing gear and a chain saw. I've worked in logging camps. I certainly could do it myself - and I'm really glad that we hired someone else to do it instead.


This was right beside the neighbor's fence by a corner of our house. There was about a 60 degree angle of allowable space for everything to fall into. Yes, I could have trimmed the tree up to about 20' so the branches wouldn't hit anything on the sides, then dropped it out into the lawn and hoped that it didn't take out a corner of the house by mistake. As it was, the professional crew barely missed that corner of our house with the final chunk. But at least they had insurance that would cover the damage if anything went wrong. They also chipped the branches, ground the stump, and hauled all the debris away.

If there is enough space around the base of the tree for stuff to fall onto it makes thing much easier, and in that case a helpful neighbor may be adequate to the task. But once you have to start worrying about removing one branch at a time so it doesn't hit something, and the more constrained the target area, and the ungainly the shape of the tree (for example, if it is already leaning over the house) then the professionals become an increasingly attractive solution.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
D came round looked at the tree and said it would be easy to remove. Likewise the roots. So I concluded he didn't know what he was talking about, and demurred, said I was worried about the roof etc etc, insurance, blah, blah.

He then said that he'd done a lot of tree removal about 14 years ago, and though he's only removed one tree in the last decade, it was a tree belonging to someone I know slightly, and she'd vouch for his tree removal capabilities. Although I only know this person slightly, I know one of her neighbours very well, so I should be able to follow this up easily.

I'm going to get a proper quote from a professional, but I'll also check out D's previous tree-removing credentials.

He is very well meaning, but I really wish he hadn't offered.

Also, another person has expressed an interest in taking the wood away for firewood. There's a lesson here on the power of Facebook - I post a simple request for someone to recommend a tree surgeon, and the word is out - free firewood is in the offing!
 

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