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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: The green blade re-riseth (gardening thread anew)
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daisymay
St Elmo's Fire
# 1480
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Posted
Quite different from all of you growing veg this year - I've been too busy to look after my plants and plant beans.
BUT, I've pruned my Lavinia (pink sweet-smelling rose) down and new little growth is happening - I also planted two bits I cut off and they are producing new little bits of growth no roots yet - but just seem to be drinking the water (I'm keeping the earth wet) in the little pots, growing up and not down. How long will it take before they take on new life?
The pure white lilies have been beautiful, surviving and blossoming despite the hail stones.
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London
Flickr fotos
Posts: 11224 | From: London - originally Dundee, Blairgowrie etc... | Registered: Oct 2001
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
M: LOL I've sung the praises of "Dragon Langerie" (not to be confused with Dragon Lingerie, which one might find at one of those dark little stores on seedier blocks of town) here before...they're delicious flat snap beans, chartreuse in color with purple streaks, and the plants are very tough -- forgiving of gardener neglect, animal attack and the vagaries of weather. Some people suggest only eating them fresh because they don't think they hold up well to freezing, but I love them.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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mrs whibley
Shipmate
# 4798
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Posted
Thanks all for your cuke advice.
Lamb Chopped - they definitely look like your first picture rather than the second. The cukes are growing at an amazing speed at the moment - I have just fed the plant with some tomato food.
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I long for a faith that is gloriously treacherous - Mike Yaconelli
Posts: 942 | From: North Lincolnshire | Registered: Aug 2003
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Laurie17
Shipmate
# 14889
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Posted
I am getting more and more leaves bursting out along the length of my ficus elasticus. I am so delighted.
[ 14. July 2009, 20:15: Message edited by: Laurie17 ]
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when thee touched my heart
I were undone like dropped blossom
Daw'r ffordd yn glir yn araf deg.
Posts: 659 | From: off hand | Registered: Jun 2009
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Exciting news...we now have a resident lizard hanging out on the landscaping stone next to the garden. This is exciting because lizards are a rare creature in Michigan -- we only have two resident species, and neither is plentiful; my father, who was a farmer, only saw one in the wild perhaps twice in his life. This particular lizard -- a six-lined racerunner, a little thing maybe 5 or 6 inches from snout to tail-tip, likes sunning next to the stone around the garage foundation; if startled it will scoot under the siding. Today DP reported that the lizard took a tour of the garage interior and took a drink from the dog's water dish before heading back outside. I'm proposing we name our little neighbor Bill, in honor of Alice in Wonderland.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Good news: The squash plants, and one of the cucumbers, are filled with lovely yellow blossoms, which are especially beautiful surrounded by my red-blossomed bush runner beans. And the other snap beans are beginning to blossom as well.
More good news: The unseasonably cool weather is good for my late-planted lettuce.
Bad news: Bill the lizard became an hors d'oeurve for Gertie the dog, who, after chasing him around the garage, happily snorked him up before DP could stop her.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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Laurie17
Shipmate
# 14889
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Posted
my rubber plant is grwing and growing. I'm so glad.
got a pygmy water lily so delicate -opens in the sunlight
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when thee touched my heart
I were undone like dropped blossom
Daw'r ffordd yn glir yn araf deg.
Posts: 659 | From: off hand | Registered: Jun 2009
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mrs whibley
Shipmate
# 4798
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Posted
We've eaten two of our own cucumbers (in sandwiches with white bread, salt and pepper). They were delicious!
Mr Whibley has harvested some beetroot and is hoping to make borscht.
Posts: 942 | From: North Lincolnshire | Registered: Aug 2003
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
As I sit at the computer, with the back door open, I can hear The Mighty Oak™ behind our house dropping zillions of baby acorns every time the wind picks up. This is kind of sad. We had such a late spring with late frosts that the oak's acorn production is screwed up. This will not be good for the squirrels this coming winter.
quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
Bad news: Bill the lizard became an hors d'oeurve for Gertie the dog, who, after chasing him around the garage, happily snorked him up before DP could stop her.
![[Votive]](graemlins/votive.gif)
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Laurie17
Shipmate
# 14889
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Posted
Best wishes for this project and for al's health and well-being.
I think, given your space, a mixed planting could be lovely including all the plants you mention --and maybe a few others. I don't know what does well in Ohio.
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when thee touched my heart
I were undone like dropped blossom
Daw'r ffordd yn glir yn araf deg.
Posts: 659 | From: off hand | Registered: Jun 2009
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
We visited this Edenic spot when we were on Islay this past week. It looks even better than in those photos, since more has been planted.
Meanwhile, my own couple of square yards has gone into a sort of Darwinian overdrive. The sweetcorn - which were never in with much of chance - have been obliterated by rampaging runner beans; the artichokes have grown by several feet, and the courgettes are positively surging. I must remember, when I plant again, that veggies need so much more space than flowers.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Here in Michigan we're experiencing The Summer That Wasn't -- days and days where it barely tops the 70 degrees Fahrenheit mark. My garden is healthy, but the plants that need some extended hot summer weather -- tomatoes, peppers, melons -- aren't flourishing; they're maintaining; lots of flowers but very slow fruiting. I hope they'll catch up next month (where did the summer go?) Meanwhile the cool-weather crops are enjoying their respite -- my savoy cabbages, which were planted much later than recommended, are growing by leaps and bounds, as is the chard and lettuce.
When I look around at the farmers in our area, though, I feel some real empathy with them as they angst about the health of their crops, which -- unlike my modest backyard garden -- are crucial to their livelihoods. It puts things into perspective.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
As we were promised a very hot summer this year, we took the chance to plant some aubergines. Yeah, thanks, I think the summer was two weeks in June. Normal service and rain has now been resumed.
But I don't know if that two weeks brought everything on early. We've been overrun with runner beans for a couple of weeks now (usually think of them as August) and our blackberries (which I usually think of as an autumn thing) are beginning to come ripe. Is anyone else (s.e. England) finding things particularly early this year?
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by M.:
As we were promised a very hot summer this year, we took the chance to plant some aubergines. Yeah, thanks, I think the summer was two weeks in June. Normal service and rain has now been resumed.
You've been in the wrong part of the country.
Here, a couple of dozen miles NE of London, it was hot and dry for weeks. A couple of tomatoes set, and then all their flowers shrivelled up in the hot dry winds. I was watering the veg beds for two hours every other morning just to maintain the plants. Seeds planted directly in the ground failed to germinate, or died between one watering and the promise of rain.
We are getting rain now, but hardly "normal service'. A day of torrential downpour (hail on Thursday!) between a couple of days of drying wind and/or hot sun. The next crop of tomato flowers are setting, but without enough time to ripen before the blight arrives with the wetter weather.
The flower garden looks like September, all the summer flowers are over, or nearly. The japanese anemones and cyclamen hederifolium are coming into flower.
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Talk about books -any books- on our rejuvenatedforum http://www.bookgrouponline.com/index.php?
Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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jackanapes
Shipmate
# 12374
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by M.:
As we were promised a very hot summer this year, we took the chance to plant some aubergines. Yeah, thanks, I think the summer was two weeks in June. Normal service and rain has now been resumed.
But I don't know if that two weeks brought everything on early. We've been overrun with runner beans for a couple of weeks now (usually think of them as August) and our blackberries (which I usually think of as an autumn thing) are beginning to come ripe. Is anyone else (s.e. England) finding things particularly early this year?
M.
Yes, lots of stuff is cropping earlier than expected - tomatoes and blackberries among them. It could be all done by the end of August at this rate.
Posts: 468 | From: The bottom of my heart | Registered: Feb 2007
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Laurie17
Shipmate
# 14889
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Posted
I have followed up the cyclamen hederifolium on Google. And this has led me to eading of other companionable plantings.
Including the wonderful colcichum - or should that colchicum ?!
Thanks !
[ 27. July 2009, 11:19: Message edited by: Laurie17 ]
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when thee touched my heart
I were undone like dropped blossom
Daw'r ffordd yn glir yn araf deg.
Posts: 659 | From: off hand | Registered: Jun 2009
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Another question from a non-gardener (that is why I live in a second floor flat).
The question is simply put. How do I stop my mother from leaving the host out once she has watered?
The reason is that she has fallen over said hose, after she left it out, once too often already! We are grateful she only cut her hand rather nastily, the possibility of the accident being much worse were all too apparent to us (eighty year olds falling down garden stairs is not a good idea).
The snag is that she suffers from mild dementia so creating new disciplines is going to be hard. I mean hard not impossible as she has learnt to do Soduku in the last couple of years. The garden is small.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
How do I stop my mother from leaving the host out once she has watered?
Is this a theological/liturgical question? ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
As to the actual problem, do you think your mother could learn to use one of these?
Laurie17, if you are considering planting colchicum do be aware that they are very toxic, and have no antidote
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Talk about books -any books- on our rejuvenatedforum http://www.bookgrouponline.com/index.php?
Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Laurie17
Shipmate
# 14889
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
Is this a theological/liturgical question?
one of these?
Nice one ! I noticed but couldnt think of good enough riposte !
Laurie17, if you are considering planting colchicum do be aware that they are very toxic, and have no antidote
Thanks for this. did you mean, poisonous of the ground and bad effect on other plants ? Or need to avoid on fingers ?
thanks a lot
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when thee touched my heart
I were undone like dropped blossom
Daw'r ffordd yn glir yn araf deg.
Posts: 659 | From: off hand | Registered: Jun 2009
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Laurie17:
did you mean, poisonous of the ground and bad effect on other plants ? Or need to avoid on fingers ?
From this website: quote:
All parts of the plant are deadly poisonous. The toxic effects appear slowly and gradually within 3 to 6 hours. These are nausea, excessive vomiting and bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, weak arrhythmic pulse, low body temperature, shortage of breath and, eventually, death...
... Colchicin pre-treatment of seeds leads to numerous mutations of plants and is used for selective purposes in agriculture.
Having said that, it was already growing in my garden when we moved here 30+ years ago. We have treated it with suitable care and none of us have died from it yet, even after transplanting it a couple of times. Nor have I noticed any particularly deleterious effects on nearby plants.
Forewarned is forearmed.
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Talk about books -any books- on our rejuvenatedforum http://www.bookgrouponline.com/index.php?
Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
How do I stop my mother from leaving the host out once she has watered?
Is this a theological/liturgical question?
As to the actual problem, do you think your mother could learn to use one of these?
Mind tiredness I think must have been at play, yes I do mean HOSE. It already has a reel onto which it is wound she just could not be bothered rewinding it! Maybe an automatic would solve that.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
As her garden is small might you be able to get a bit Heath-Robinson-ish? Maybe have the hose going above head height (a washing line post?) and dangling from somewhere both safe and handy for the spots that she waters.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Colchicum is deadly if eaten and a damn foolish thing to play herbalist with (as some self-medicaters have discovered to their cost). I couldn't find anything about merely touching them being a problem, but I certainly would not advise making a tea or face mask or something out of them. Enjoy the flowers and that's enough. Oh, and keep them away from kids and animals.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Zappa
Ship's Wake
# 8433
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Posted
I grew up in a wonderful wild garden with Colchicum autumnale (naked ladies) scattered everwhere, with many other highly toxic plants (rhododendrums, daphne, oleander, the latter even mentioned in a James Bond novel in a garden of death scene). I never felt any compulsion to handle, let alone eat them, so I guess that's why I'm still here.
But you know: different strokes, different folks. For a while.
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and mayhap this too: http://broken-moments.blogspot.co.nz/
Posts: 18917 | From: "Central" is all they call it | Registered: Sep 2004
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Laurie17
Shipmate
# 14889
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Posted
Thanks for the information about them.
I had no idea they was deadly. And have quite often bought a couple and place on the mantel-piece to witness the spectacle of them blooming without benefit of pot or growing medium !
May be my handling of them led to no ill effects because I knew nothing of the dangers ! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
The stall that sells em never said nothing abaat it either...
[ 29. July 2009, 07:37: Message edited by: Laurie17 ]
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when thee touched my heart
I were undone like dropped blossom
Daw'r ffordd yn glir yn araf deg.
Posts: 659 | From: off hand | Registered: Jun 2009
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I harvested our first ever courgette. Diced, flash fried, and tossed over the salmon rissotto, it was delicious.
I worry about the potatoes though. They show no sign of flowering, and the leaves are besmottered with brownish spots.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
Congratulations on your first courgette! May it be the first of many
Your potatoes might still be OK, maybe not a bountiful harvest - one of my mini-plots (i.e. bags) of potatoes didn't flower and the slugs ate the leaves, but I still had sufficient for about 10 servings.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
My plans for this afternoon were to go to the allotment to harvest and weed, so it amused me today when the reading (John 6v 24-35) included
quote:
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
It didn't change my plans and now I'll be looking for a recipe to use the first fennel that I've ever grown.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
I have a question about runner beans, which aren't widely grown here in the Upper Midwest. Inspired by my readings on companion planting, I planted a packet of "Dwarf Bees" -- bush scarlet runners -- around my squash plants. They look fabulous, especially against the yellow of the squash blossoms. Like many other places in the world, we are having a hard time maintaining viable both wild and domestic honeybee colonies, but I've noticed bumblebees and other pollinators active in both plants. But the beans don't seem to be setting on in a consistent manner -- I have one bean that's about the length of a little finger, but just a very few other, embryonic, beans, despite lots of blossoms. Is this typical? I wonder because with regular snap beans it seems as if the beans develop all at once, in waves, necessitating almost daily pickings to keep up. It would seem that one would need to plant an entire garden plot of the "Scarlet Bees" in order to harvest a decent crop of them at one time!
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
..... But the beans don't seem to be setting on in a consistent manner -- I have one bean that's about the length of a little finger, but just a very few other, embryonic, beans, despite lots of blossoms. Is this typical?
I think it could be typical - it certainly doesn't surprise me. I have about 8, maybe 10, runner bean plants (Kelvedon Wonder, I think) and all of them have beans at a variety of stages on them - from flowers through tiny beans to rather long ones that suddenly grew in the last 4 or 5 days.
quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
..... It would seem that one would need to plant an entire garden plot of the "Scarlet Bees" in order to harvest a decent crop of them at one time!
I find the number of plants that I have is enough for me to be able to feed myself and pass a few on but not feel that I have a glut of beans. Unlike my neighbour who has far, far more plants than I do and is begging people to take the beans from him (he says that later on in the season he adopts a strategy of leaving them on a doorstep and running!)
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Help!
Our back garden is only 18 feet deep. The house is east facing, so for half the day most of the back garden is in shade from the house.
At the bottom of the garden we have an old wall, just over 4 feet high. On the other side is a neighbours large garden. Its soil level is a couple of feet higher than ours, so we can see it quite well. Our view from the rooms at the back of the house is pleasant. The rooms at the back are dark in the mornings, but bright in the afternoons.
Today, said neighbour came and said he is about to put up a wooden fence on his side of the wall. The fence will be almost 6ft high on his side, so we will have an almost 8ft high boundary on ours.
I'm worried this will block light from our garden, and from the rooms at the back of the house.
On the other hand, it occurs to me that we might be able to grow stuff on an 8ft high east facing fence. If I attached lots of hanging baskets to it, would I be able to grow stuff that currently doesn't grow because of lack of sun? Strawberries, say? Or those tumbler cherry tomatoes?
How would other people feel about the prospect of an 8ft fence at the bottom of a shallow garden? Should I plead with him not to do it, or start planning how to utilise it?
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Has he specified what sort of fence? Solid, or the sort with palings?
In my case, it's trees. Despite being south-facing, the back half of our garden sees practically no sun, because of our own large cherry, and the neighbouring elder, birch, leylandii, and assorted large, busy shrubs. I'm working on putting in shrubs such as spotted laurel and pieris, and clumps of grow-anywheres like monbreesia.
Even the sunny half gets shaded in the afternoon by a next-door's particularly militant buddleia.
So, if you can't persuade your neighbour to a lower/lighter fence, you may just have to go for a garden which is a little cavern of green.
[ 03. August 2009, 17:41: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
The sort with palings, but the palings are quite close together, so the amount of light getting through will be negligible.
For some odd reason, our front garden is bigger than the back, so I've got space to grow decorative stuff at the front. Our ideal for the back garden would be mainly veg, and drying clothes - at the moment we've got about 1/3 under veg and tatties and 1/3 drying area. If I could grow edible stuff up the fence, that would be good.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Re the palings: it can make a difference to the appearance, even if not the growing conditions. I oftimes sit watching the stray gleams of evening sun that manage to find a way through the canopy dappling the back of the garden.
If you do end up heavily shaded, I would be interested in which veggies and how they prosper. I am beginning to establish a plot, and, if extended, it will have to be in the direction of the shade.
It's good you have space at the front which is potentially more recreational (though I realised sitting out in your front garden is deeply un-Scottish).
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
We never sit out in the front garden. If I am out in the front, say, weeding, or cutting the grass, I have to stop every three minutes or so to reply politely to passers-by saying "it's a grand night for it" or "you're as well getting that done - there'll be rain the morn's morn" or "they're a bugger, they dandelions" I can't begin to imagine what passers by would do if they saw someone just sitting in their front garden.
Our kale is in semi-shade, and it does very well. It's waist high just now. Neeps (yellow turnips to non-Scots)grow well, too. The tatties have always been fine. And our rhubarb is great -what it lacks in sun, it makes up for in lots of rain. The herb patch does fine, especially the chives, rosemary and parsley. I've tried strawberries in three locations, none successful. Garlic has never worked either - lots of leaves but no bulbs. Last years runner beans came to nothing - they flowered late and then gave up. I'm trying again this year, in a different spot, but they're only flowering now. Peas do ok - I just put a few pods at a time in the fruit bowl, and we snack on them, rather than trying to get a whole crop simultaneously, which I think would be overly ambitious. I grow tomatoes in the greenhouse - we end up with lots of green tomatoes at the end of the season, but we all like green tomato soup, so that's ok.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
We never sit out in the front garden. If I am out in the front, say, weeding, or cutting the grass, I have to stop every three minutes or so to reply politely to passers-by saying "it's a grand night for it" or "you're as well getting that done - there'll be rain the morn's morn" or "they're a bugger, they dandelions" I can't begin to imagine what passers by would do if they saw someone just sitting in their front garden.
Maybe you should be thinking of the 8ft fence at the front...
Thanks for the info on veggies: at the moment my courgettes seem to be bent on world domination, so they will be coming back next year, as will the artichokes. I don't much go for kale or rhubarb as ingredients - Kale & Rhubarb Surprise maybe? Kale Flambe with Rhubarb Jus? There's a Circus idea in there - Your Favourite Chef Does...
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
.... How would other people feel about the prospect of an 8ft fence at the bottom of a shallow garden? Should I plead with him not to do it, or start planning how to utilise it?
What an opportunity of vertical space - you can grow tomatoes in baskets, as well as strawberries, and a climber (veg or decorative) would soften the fence. I've just planted a Thunbergia to give a bit of sunshine yellow on a fence.
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
We never sit out in the front garden. If I am out in the front, say, weeding, or cutting the grass, I have to stop every three minutes or so to reply politely to passers-by saying "it's a grand night for it" or "you're as well getting that done - there'll be rain the morn's morn" or "they're a bugger, they dandelions" I can't begin to imagine what passers by would do if they saw someone just sitting in their front garden.
With my back garden catching the morning sunshine the front is where I get the late afternoon and evening sun and a nice place to sit out but I had the same experience as you until I put a high trellis around the garden (we're not allowed anything solid over 3 feet high, although trellis or vegetation as high as you like is allowed). Even before any plants had grown up & over the trellis people respected that space as private and didn't talk to me. When a neighbour's child was in that space doing some weeding with me her father walked right past when he was looking for her!
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Good point, daisydaisy. It's the perception of a barrier that works.
I remember dining in a restaurant at a table which was quite close to the busy entrance. But they had hung a panel of stained glass, no more than a foot square to the side of the table next the entrance and strange to relate, it actually created a sense of effective separation.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Consider growing some veggies etc. in the front garden as well. If you grow them amongst all the flowers, instead of segregated in a little rectangle by themselves, lots of people won't even realize what they are. Carrots, for example--the leaves are very pretty. Strawberries would make a lovely edging for a flower bed, and everyone assuming you bought the ornamental kind. ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif) We did watermelon amidst the roses. Tomatoes would be harder, but grow them behind something showy (like sunflowers) and chances are no one will ever notice.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Has anyone here ever tried starting a rose cutting under a glass jar? My grandfather, who had a green thumb, was quite good at this, I'm told -- even started a rose plant from a cut flower once, the story goes. He prepped his cutting in some way -- cut the end to be rooted in some special manner -- and then simply stuck it in the soil and put an old jar over the top of the cutting.
I ask because I've been intrigued by stories of "rose rustlers" -- preservationist gardeners who stalk old cemeteries, abandoned homesteads, etc. for old rose varieties that in many cases are endangered -- and can see myself engaged in similar search-and-rescue (once I decide where in the yard to transplant these heirlooms).
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Sorry for the double post...but regarding the runner bean discussion, when I went out to the garden this morning I found a grand total of three eating-sized runner beans amid the dozen or so plants that survived our June cold snap. Three. Meanwhile, the other varieties of beans seem to be setting on merrily, in numbers guaranteeing an actual meal's worth of beans at a time. So I'm wondering if, next year, the bulk of the runners should get relocated to the border where they can live the carefree life of annual flowers? Whatever their needs are for setting fruit, I don't seem to be meeting them. (And I'll add that that spot in the garden is bordered by borage and nasturtiums, both of which attract pollinators, so that doesn't appear to be the issue.)
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I'm trying it for the first time right now, and it ain't working. But no doubt I've done a dozen things wrong.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Living in the snowbelt has a lot to do with it, but...sadly...there aren't all that many cemetery and abandoned-homestead roses I've seen around here that I'd want to take cuttings from. Now, the household next to the local post office has lovely old-fashioned cabbage roses that I WOULD gladly snip a cutting from; but I never have a cutting device handy when I have the opportunity to nip a stem.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
But the beans don't seem to be setting on in a consistent manner -- I have one bean that's about the length of a little finger, but just a very few other, embryonic, beans, despite lots of blossoms. Is this typical?
In my experience, yes!
Runner beans do tend to drop a lot of unfertilised blossoms at the start of the season, but once they start cropping properly there is no stopping them. Thanks to the odd weather we've been having I only got to pick the first of my runners today. Just enough for the two of us from about seven plants, but plenty to come. Strangely, my climbing french beans, which are usually way ahead of the runners don't have anything big enough to pick yet.
It will soon be 'beans with every meal' season, but I don't mind that, I love freshly picked beans ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Oh, you do know they like lots of water, don't you? And spraying water over the flowers is supposed to help with setting the beans. (Although that might be for the benefit of the gardener, so that she feels she is doing something to help )
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Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Thank you, RoS. I'm not giving up!
My "Dragon Langerie" beans are just loaded...hooray! They also hold the beans well, so our imminent vacation will not endanger the harvest.
Another success story: My Swiss chard. I've been very gently grazing the plants for salad greens, but I'm more interested in the mature plants.
My "Stupice" tomatoes are just -- just -- beginning to blush. Very exciting. My "Silvery Fir Tree" -- this tomato was so unrecognizeable as such as a seedling; very odd, needly, silver-haired leaves -- the plant I think I'm most emotionally invested in, is loaded with blossoms. And lots of green tomatoes, in various odd shapes and sizes, on my mixed-variety "mystery" plants grown from seed.
And one thumbnail-sized jalapeno.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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Carex
Shipmate
# 9643
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
Now, the household next to the local post office has lovely old-fashioned cabbage roses that I WOULD gladly snip a cutting from; but I never have a cutting device handy when I have the opportunity to nip a stem.
You can get pruners with folding handles to keep in your purse for just such occasions, but I don't like the ones we have because there is no stop to keep your hands from sliding up the handles to the hinge. A small folding knife or a strong pair of scissors will work if nothing else is handy.
Best to also have a few plastic sandwich bags and some paper towels that you can dampen and put in with the wood to keep it from drying out before you get home. Of course you'd hide the clippers in your hand while appearing to admire and perhaps smell the roses, then wander around the corner with the clipping discretely in hand before stowing it in your purse. Sometimes a scarf is a handy accomplice: trying to untangle the hanging end from a bush can provide a number of cuttings.
Who, us? No, we'd never do anything like that.
For propagating the cuttings are dipped in some sort of "Rooting Compound" or "Rooting Hormone" (though I'm sure the Kiwis have a term that provokes less sniggering.) Our favorite is Clonex , but there are a number others that work well. Roses are fairly easy to grow from cuttings, though like most plants they do need attention to keep them from drying out before they establish sufficient roots.
Posts: 1425 | Registered: Jun 2005
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
Could I ask your help, please?
My neighbour has asked me to water her plants while she's on holiday and one of them is looking distinctly unhappy. TBH, it was already a bit yellow round the edges when she gave it to me, but it hasn't got any better in the intervening time...
It's a bourgainvillia (think that's how you spell it) and it's losing leaves. What do they like? What can I do to make it happier?
It absolutely must not die on my watch... ![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Stop watering it, and if there's any standing water in the saucer, get rid of that too. Bougainvillea loves loves LOVES to be neglected in sunny California, where it becomes a house-engulfing weed, and appreciates conditions that approach that. Let the thing dry out totally before you get near it with a watering can again. And stick it in the sun if it isn't there already.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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