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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Glory heere, Diggers all: gardening 2012
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
I have a question about peonies
I bought three a year ago and planted them. One of them has come up with lots of foliage and no buds. The other two have buds and enough leaves to get on with, but they are not like the budless one.
Can anyone tell me what's going on and whether I should do anything?
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
Sorry, Zappa, it's all spoken for. If it hasn't been eaten already.
![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505
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Posted
Yes our rhubarb is growing well too, despite the cool spring, summer and now autumn. I have no idea how it will survive the winter.
But WHAT shall I do with the bucketloads of huge feijoas we are harvesting? (Feijoas are a pineapple guava, the only guava which tolerates frost).
A while back a neighbour knocked on our door and said "Did you know there is water running out of your front yard, through my yard, and pooling in the driveway of the next one?" Upon investigation we found some unknown person must have come on to our property for a drink, turned the hose on, and left it running. Our front yard (which slopes) has lots of plum trees in it, a large hedge, and 3 big feijoa bushes. Usually only one of them fruits. Normally, these are about the size of green olives. But 28,000 litres of water running through them means all the bushes are producing fruit the size of duck eggs.
We are now inundated in a different way - what shall we do with them? Not many people know about or even like their peculiar taste. So I can really only give them away a few at a time. ![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.
Posts: 7080 | From: Canberra Australia | Registered: Oct 2005
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
Do they make good jelly?
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505
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Posted
I found a fig & feijoa jam recipe - though we are not big jam eaters.
TP discovered on-line a method for freezing them, so we will attempt this. I suspect they would be lovely frozen, as they have a slightly grainy texture, like sorbet. They have a tangy refreshing taste, so it might work very well. Stay tuned!
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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.
Posts: 7080 | From: Canberra Australia | Registered: Oct 2005
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Banner Lady:
I found a fig & feijoa jam recipe - though we are not big jam eaters.
TP discovered on-line a method for freezing them, so we will attempt this. I suspect they would be lovely frozen, as they have a slightly grainy texture, like sorbet. They have a tangy refreshing taste, so it might work very well. Stay tuned!
Make the jam, get some of the small rubberseal, clip down jars and keep them for the church fete or similar. Add a pretty computer generated label and they should sell well. Lemon butter is the first to sell at St Docs, apparently and the small jars are appreciated. I've seen them in the local dollar shops or equivalent, quite cheap.
Your rhubarb should be OK and come back to life in spring if the frost seems to kill it.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
Rhubarb, or at least the cultivars I'm familiar with, is quite cold-hardy. I can't think of any time I've seen rhubarb pie featured in the southern US, but in the north, it's a springtime/early summer specialty. If it grows in Montana (which was the first place anyone in my family had ever run across the stuff), it'll survive any winter you'll get.
As for fejoas . . . looking them up on Wikipedia suggests fejoa vodka. Even if fruit-flavored vodkas/liqueurs aren't your thing, it should preserve them quite nicely.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
The post-tree fall works in the garden continue - we are now heading into the fifth week of a five-day job. To be fair, much of the delay has been down to the awful weather: yesterday or today was supposed to be turf laying, but the forecast was for a second Flood. Perversely, it's turned out warm and sunny. So I've been out and lugged about 40 paving slabs into position to delineate where is going to be veg, where lawn, where decorative planting. So whereas this morning, I had a muddy desolation, I now have a muddy desolation with scattered stones and lots of footprints.
I am quite getting into the idea of having a bed of combined flowers and herbs.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
So far autumn here has been more lke a colder version of summer,which is very welcome as summer was abysmal.
In March I took cuttings of some miniature and polyantha roses, and yesterday I saw roots sprouting through the peat pots ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif) I have potted 6 and still have hopes for another 10, but as I have muddled them I will have to wait until they flower in October to know which is which, although leaf size will sort out the polys (Cecile Brunner and Pearl d'Or).
The mizuma is a tiny forest, but the silverbeet is being a bit slow.
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
My baby tomatoes are popping up nicely -- I have about 10 varieties.
Two science experiments this year are growing potatoes and melons in containers. I've seen numerous YouTube videos about growing 'taters in actual garbage cans, but they looked so ghetto that I instead found some very inexpensive, several-gallon plastic planters that I'm going to drill with drainage holes and plant with a few Irish Cobblers. Melons are a very iffy crop here in Michigan, but while perusing an heirloom-variety seed catalog I found a white-fleshed variety from the former USSR called Collective Farm Woman that is supposed to be super-tasty and able to ripen during short northern summers. I'm also debating whether to get an heirloom variety called Jenny Lind that also gets high marks for taste and is reasonably early. These I'm going to plant in patio containers that I'm covering (tastefully) with black plastic.
Another vegetable I've never had good luck with here are carrots. I'm seriously thinking of trying those in a container, like a deep utility bucket. Has anyone ever tried this? I'm not sure whether the opportunity cost is worth the effort...but supermarket carrots just don't taste like garden carrots.
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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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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
Another vegetable I've never had good luck with here are carrots. I'm seriously thinking of trying those in a container, like a deep utility bucket. Has anyone ever tried this?
I tried this once in the shared-house dwelling days of my youth, before I had a garden of my own. My carrots came out very strange shapes. Someone told me the compost must have been too rich for them, so if you're going to try container growing I suggest using ordinary garden earth rather than compost in the containers.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
Another vegetable I've never had good luck with here are carrots. I'm seriously thinking of trying those in a container, like a deep utility bucket. Has anyone ever tried this? I'm not sure whether the opportunity cost is worth the effort...but supermarket carrots just don't taste like garden carrots.
I grow carrots in large buckets (sometimes known as "muck buckets") and this works really well as long as the compost that you use is not too rich, which is when you tend to get forked or weird carrots. I usually use the soil that I grew last year's container-grown tomatoes in, before finally putting it over the ground. Sow the carrot seed not too thinly, then thin out as the seedlings get large enough. You can get some tasty baby carrots as well as good straight long ones.
A similar approach to parsnips works well for me - use a pole (I use an old broom handle) to make a hole around 8" deep, fill it with compost and sow about 3 seeds on the top of that. When the seedlings are large enough, pinch out all but the strongest one (pulling disturbs the roots of the remaining parsnip) and you should get a lovely long tasty parsnip.
I don't seem to be able to grow beetroot, although all my growing neighbours can. So I shall be trying a similar approach with that - make a shallow trench & fill with compost, then sow the seeds into the compost.
One experiment this year is to grow squash in the compost bin that I filled with last year's green waste - the heat and nutrients should be ideal.
The other experiment was to have been growing by the moon cycles, and I'm sort of following that but to be honest I seem to be doing whatever I can when the time & weather permits (as usual).
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
Things are very slow here - must have been cold while we were away as even the weeds, bar a few poppies, haven't grown! My mangetout have started well, but the beetroot are very slow. All the winter sown alliums - garlic, onions, and elephant garlic - are going nicely, though.
I grow my carrots in lengths of drainpipe - they tend to fang terribly in our soil, and the carrot fly love them. Same method as for parsnips given above (I grow my show parsnips in bigger drainpipes, but they seem to like my soil, and grow fat and long, while ten yards away my neighbour grows ones that look like Paul the psychic octopus!), and I get straight carrots and much, much less of the dread fly. 12" lengths should be adequate for stump rooted types, but if you want to grow St Valery or the like for showing I'd double that.
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
We got very healthy but culinarily "iffy" volunteer squash in our compost pile last year, so this year for kicks and giggles I'm going to deliberately plant a few seeds in it just to see what happens. What was interesting to me was that our normally voracious local deer left the lush compost-pile squash plants alone; the same vine, planted say in our annual bed, would have been history before it ever got its first flower. (Our cutflower experience is that the deer love them some sunflowers -- they ALWAYS top off at least a few -- but seem to leave a lot of other annuals alone. But if you try to include a runner bean in the flower patch, they will seek out and defoliate it.)
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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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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
LC: if it's not too late, try growing some Bhut Jolokia chiles. That'll learn them deer to eat yer veggies! ![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Ferdzy
Shipmate
# 8702
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Posted
*stomps in*
Fecking SN*W for the next 2 days!
*stomps out*
Posts: 252 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Oct 2004
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
Went to the far end of the yard to get some compost. Top of the compost pile is covered, I mean covered with pumpkin vines. Last fall right after Halloween I had just thrown the guts of the Jack-0-lantern on the top of the pile. Guess I will not have to buy any pumpkins come next fall. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505
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Posted
I spent half an hour yesterday retrieving feijoas from the mulch under the bushes. After some discussion about what to do with ANOTHER three bucketloads of the things, TP took to lightly stewing them with green apples (which are very cheap at the moment). Upon investigation this morning, we noticed that cooked feijoas must thicken as they cool. And this opens a whole new realm of possibilities. I am now treating them like you would mashed banana. I have just used up an unwanted loaf of linseed bread which someone left in our fridge to make a bread pudding. It contains sultanas, apples, 2 cups of feijoa mash and I put it in the oven after drizzling the top of the pud with butter and honey. TP likes a good stodgy pudding that's not too sweet. (Though sultanas are mandatory.) I'm hoping that the feijoa pulp moisture will be absorbed by the linseed and sultanas.
On the 'net there are recipes for feijoa muffins, which I must try, and also feijoa jelly, sorbet and chutney. We are not big chutney or jam eaters so I'm hoping that the muffins and puddings work okay. The weather is getting cooler with snowfalls already happening in the mountains nearby. Gardening now is mostly clearing away stuff to be ready for winter transplanting jobs.
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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.
Posts: 7080 | From: Canberra Australia | Registered: Oct 2005
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Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505
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Posted
And reporting back to say apple and feijoa bread pudding is definitely a winner. TP is on his second helping already, which is a relief.
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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.
Posts: 7080 | From: Canberra Australia | Registered: Oct 2005
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
I have two old dry ponds in my yard, There are rubber linings in them but they hold little water. My neighbor asked if I had any use for a large pile of sand he has left from a project. IDEA! I am thinking I could make a bog garden. I think I am half way there. Does anyone one the ship have experience with a bog garden? I am open for any advice.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
Bog gardens, with carnivorous plants and everything, are not something to be undertaken lightly. Unless you're in South Carolina or the Gulf coast, where such lovelies are native, it's going to go nowhere. Have a look around here before you set your heart on anything; the more I read, the more I realized I wasn't going to be able to grow those lovely Sarracenia leucophylla after all.
[ 25. April 2012, 00:04: Message edited by: AristonAstuanax ]
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Ferdzy
Shipmate
# 8702
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Posted
I see no one has replied to Moo about the peonies, so I will have a go at it.
It may simply be related to the variety of peony. I've noted that some of my herbacious hybrid peonies behave noticeably differently than the lactiflora clones. Some come up earlier, some come up later.
That's assuming that all three are different peonies. However if they are the same one, then it may have to do with how deeply they are planted. Peonies are a bit fussy about depth, and may not bloom well if not planted at the proper depth. (I believe that's with the top of the crown 2" down.)
Posts: 252 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Oct 2004
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
After procrastinating for several days I finally got to serious planting in the garden -- snap peas, broad beans and some red leaf lettuce. We've had many very warm (70 or so Fahrenheit) days that have made me equivocate about even attempting spring veggies, but when I started digging around in the garden I realized that the soil itself is still rather cold. And for the last two days the weather has been true April weather for Michigan.
Still haven't planted my potatoes (Irish Cobbler this year); just not feeling the right potato mojo outside.;-)
[ 25. April 2012, 01:09: Message edited by: LutheranChik ]
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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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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Banner Lady:
On the 'net there are recipes for feijoa muffins, which I must try, and also feijoa jelly, sorbet and chutney. We are not big chutney or jam eaters so I'm hoping that the muffins and puddings work okay
I'm not big on jams, either, so I usually bottle excess fruit in Kilner jars (or the equivalent - glass jars with rubber sealing rings). I find bottling fruit puree works a treat, so maybe you could bottle feijoa puree and have some more puddings and muffins during the winter? I usually bottle apple puree, blackberry puree and plum puree.
p.s. we're currently having a monsoon season in London.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
In reply to question on bog gardens,
Aristan Astuanax posted quote:
Bog gardens, with carnivorous plants
![[Eek!]](eek.gif) I was thinking more along the line of nice green water loving plans and cat tails and a frog or two. Not something that would be eating bugs or frogs or such.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Graven Image:
In reply to question on bog gardens,
Aristan Astuanax posted quote:
Bog gardens, with carnivorous plants
I was thinking more along the line of nice green water loving plans and cat tails and a frog or two. Not something that would be eating bugs or frogs or such.
Well that's no fun! If you don't have at least something in any given garden that'll scare the neighbors, you're not doing it right.
Meh, I guess a cyprus or willow next to some horsetails would be nice.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
Ariston Astuanat posted quote:
Well that's no fun! If you don't have at least something in any given garden that'll scare the neighbors, you're not doing it right.
Oh there is plenty to scare them in the herb garden, and the lot is rimmed in oleander.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
Maybe I need some carnivorous plants....... something is nibbling at my brassicas - pah! Going by where the nibble holes are (and by the mesh I put over/around the plants) I think it's an insect rather than a rodent. Hopefully it's not too late to get sprouts (at least) sprouting because they are such a good winter crop.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
The fight back begins.
After weeks of watching the rain fall on an area of mud that, with a few strands of barbed wire and a puff of mustard gas, could go on as the Ypres Salient, took advantage of sunny morning. There is a large amount of litter in the soil - twigs, roots, chipped wood, sawdust, scraps of vegetation, stray gravel etc. Every operation has to be preceded and accompanied by picking over and raking to get rid of the worst of it.
However, managed to plant a couple of drills of Orla (which is a lovely, cream-coloured potato). I'd salvaged a couple of shrubs and a clump of rhubarb, and I've replanted those. Plus I started redeploying a lot of old bricks to create a bit of contour interest in the banked soil at the far end of the garden.
Went to the garden centre after lunch and got a new Pieris japonica to replace an ailing one, plus pots of lavender, marjoram, rosemary and golden thyme. And seeds of nasturtium, calendula and poached-egg plant - these are all for planting in the vicinity of the herbs and veggies, as a form of not so much pest control, as pest distraction.
Anyway, all of that is to go in over the weekend, assuming it doesn't start raining again.
[ 27. April 2012, 17:21: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
Go for it, Firenze!
I hate to say it, but I think it IS going to start raining again, Still, the rain should help all those new pot-grown plants get established.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
The weather here has been awful, gardeningwise -- premature heat followed by frigid cold (now finally moderating a bit today), not nearly enough rain -- but the rescued wildflowers we bought at a conservancy's wild plant sale last year are doing wonderfully well. These plants are rescued by volunteers from building sites, highway construction, etc. and are taken care of by university botany student volunteers. I have some trilliums, yellow violets, trout lilies, foam flowers -- all the beautiful flowers of a healthy Michigan mixed hardwood forest. Love them. (The brass ring at these sales are ladies' slippers, a hardy northern orchid, that are in great demand for shade gardens but are a bit touchy to grow, at least I'm told. They're an endangered species as well. They're out of my budget range, and I also don't think I have a spot in the garden that would appeal to their special needs.)
The first bedding plants have made an appearance at local farm markets, but because of the weather they're mostly limited to pansies and violas. Right now I'm actually enjoying our wild (or feral, more accurately) violets, which are all over the lawn in the front yard. Our bees are active so early -- only to be thwarted by inconsistent weather! -- I'm happy for any flowers I see that they enjoy.
The vincas are just beginning to bloom. We have one clump of daffodils left, but the othloers have already faded; in fact they'd already done so when we got home from Florida two weeks ago.
I spent one day this week weeding my annual bed; I only got halfway done, but the progress is visible and is spurring me on to get the job done. Our snapdragons survived the winter in that protected spot, so that's one block that I don't have to replant.
The roughest spot in the yard is my herb garden; the mint has invaded the rhubarb (something I knew would happen) and needs taming; it all looks weedy and unkempt and needs some TLC. I'd been hoping that we'd cut down the tree at that corner of the house, which partially shades the bed and sucks moisture away from it at an alarming rate; but our yard guy forgot all about it this winter, and at this point, with the birds returning and all, we don't want to disturb it until wintertime. It's not a pretty tree and it serves no landscaping purpose.
I'm pondering what to do with the little shady garden nook by our front steps because it's also where a downspout tends to spew rainwater toward a nearby tree in a way that is eroding the soil. This tree is also an unlovely tree that we'd like to have removed because it's too close to the roof; it's part of a group we want to remove entirely, I think, planting a redbud tree and maybe an evergreen in the general area. I keep reading about "rain gardens" that divert/absorb downspout water in creative ways, but I just can't quite imagine how I'd do such a thing in that spot.
The east side of our house, which only has two smallish windows, is in deep shade much of the day, too much so to plant with foundation plants. The former owners have landscaping stones all around, which we covered in bark mulch...it's probably the most creative challenge in terms of adding any kind of plants; not only is light a problem, but any plants would have to be in planters and I just can't find any that don't look tacky. There's also a spout from our sump pump that periodically spouts water onto the lawn. I can't yet visualize a solution to the ugliness of this strip; I think ferns and hostas might at least soften the line of the foundation mulch.
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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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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
I found the lilac in bloom this morning. Someone planted it under two large maple trees so I often miss it. I would move it as it grows tall and very think searching for light but I am afraid it is to big and moving it would do it in. So I will just pick the one or two blooms it has each year, and enjoy them in the house.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Graven Image:
I found the lilac in bloom this morning. Someone planted it under two large maple trees so I often miss it. I would move it as it grows tall and very think searching for light but I am afraid it is to big and moving it would do it in. So I will just pick the one or two blooms it has each year, and enjoy them in the house.
Lilac in the house? My grandmother would have had a fit - that was one of the things supposed to be terribly unlucky to have indoors.
![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
Lilac in the house? My grandmother would have had a fit - that was one of the things supposed to be terribly unlucky to have indoors.
My mother said the same. Neither lilac nor may blossom were to be brought into the house, even for a minute.
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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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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
Graven Image enjoys her lilac and carnations on the kitchen table, but keeps looking upward just in case the roof should fall in. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Today was a bit archaeological. I spent several hours trundling bricks from one end of the garden to the other, and using them to create a split-level bed across the back. However, when I started to dig a hole to install the Pieris, I found a buried paving slab. Dug that out, and decided that with all this masonry-hoicking, I was fairly tired, and would just put in a few herbs before stopping for the day. Started to dig out a space for the lavender, found a layer of weed-suppressant membrane and under that another sodding paving stone.
As it looks to run under the bees' nest by the wall, I've left it and turned it into A Feature.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
, I found a buried paving slab.
We found one of those once.
It was massive, and when we managed to shift it we found a well underneath it.
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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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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
Lilac in the house? My grandmother would have had a fit - that was one of the things supposed to be terribly unlucky to have indoors.
My mother said the same. Neither lilac nor may blossom were to be brought into the house, even for a minute.
For my mother it was broom - very unlucky.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
Lilac in the house? My grandmother would have had a fit - that was one of the things supposed to be terribly unlucky to have indoors.
My mother said the same. Neither lilac nor may blossom were to be brought into the house, even for a minute.
For my mother, the unlucky part was when indoor lilac bouquets would give her severe sinus headaches or migraine.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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The Intrepid Mrs S
Shipmate
# 17002
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Posted
I understand (can't remember where I saw it) that may blossom smells like dead human flesh and that's why it's unlucky to bring it indoors.
Mrs. S, contemplating planting a rice paddy
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Don't get your knickers in a twist over your advancing age. It achieves nothing and makes you walk funny.
Prayer should be our first recourse, not our last resort
'Lord, please give us patience. NOW!'
Posts: 1464 | From: Neither here nor there | Registered: Mar 2012
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Whereas now that I would actually welcome some rain (to water the newly laid turf), the skies will turn to iron.
That's the basic repairs done. It now only remains for me to do a couple of months worth of gardening in the next week, and we're all caught up.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
I kill orchids. Not intentionally, of course. Some live for ten years before they get crunchy and die.
One almost dead one (only eleven months in my possession) bravely sent out a blossom shoot! And bloomed! So, I brought it indoors to enjoy the miracle of it.
*sigh* The orchid is not happy indoors. It is letting me know its displeasure of my maltreatment of it.
Can't win.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
Well, the Death Peppers have arrived, and have been planted. Okay, only one is *really* The Pepper of Death (the Bhut Jolokia), while the others are, for the most part, some combination of Weird and Tasty (especially my fish peppers and aji omnicolors), but that Jolokia makes up for the rest being edible.
Assuming it survives, of course. Being shipped from New Jersey and transplanted seems to have done a bit of a number on it; while all my others look happy, it seems a little under the weather. Hopefully it'll perk up soon.
Also, in the News Flash department, while liquid fish fertilizer may be amazing stuff for peppers, it reeks to high heaven. I've started burning locally made liturgical incense* whenever I tend the garden just because it reeks to high heaven.
*Holy Transfiguration Monastery's "Bethlehem," in case you're wondering. Four grains on a hot coal and I get enough smoke to fumigate a smallish church or foul-smelling and mosquito-ridden patio garden.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
I found a buried paving slab
Someone in my village found one of those, and he, too, made it into a feature. After a couple of years he decided to get rid of it, dug it up, turned it over and lo! it was an early C19th gravestone. Someone told him to phone me, as apparently I'm the village authority on dug-up garden gravestones (who knew?). It seems to have been only half-finished; either there was a mistake in it, or the person who had commissioned it hadn't paid up.
The Sunday Post got to hear of it and ran a ridiculous story on the "gravestone mystery". ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
I have a question. My house is east facing. A path runs along the front. The path is broad and meets the house wall to half way along, and then narrows, to create a small flower bed running along the front of the rest of the house. This flower bed is only a foot deep, though 15 ft wide. Everything I plant in it dies. Part of the problem may be that the roof overhang shelters it from rain, so it's quite dry. However, I do water it regularly. I have a variety of pots and planters sitting on the broad bit of the path, which are in the same situation re roof overhang, and they do fine. The pots and planters are filled with my own compost, which might help.
What I want is just easy, pretty colour. Ideally I'd like spring bulbs (snowdrops, croci, muscari) to be followed by bedding plants (pansies, alyssum, lobelia etc) However, everything just fails to thrive and then dies. I've had packs of bedding plants which I've planted in various spots, and the only ones which don't thrive (or at least live) are the ones which I've planted in this narrow flowerbed.
Suggestions?
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Today I found a penny dated 1902.
Re the planting: I have a strip of earth between the edge of the patio paving and a brick wall, about 6 ft x 6 in. Every year I plant nasturtiums. They don't just grow, they boil out of the space and wrap themselves round the garden furniture. Last autumn, they took off down the neighbouring flowerbed and must have made about 20 feet before winter frosts intervened.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
North East Quine, Have you thought of flowering herbs? Some are lovely and it is my experience herbs are not so fussy and even I of black thumb can not kill them off.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Today I found a penny dated 1902
Hey - not fair! I only find ha'pennies in my garden.
I've got a couple of dug-up ha'pennies sitting on the kitchen window sill at the moment. Not sure what to do with them. Can't even buy a votive candle with pre-decimal coinage these days.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Steve H
Shipmate
# 17102
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Posted
I've got a full-size, mature apple tree (James Grieve, I think - I must get it properly identified), which, in a good year, gives me a huge harvest. Right now, it's covered in blossom, but it's fully open now, and on the verge of going over, and this inteminable cold, wet weather means there are very few pollinating insects around, so I may get poor fruit set. Rats!
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Hold to Christ, and for the rest, be totally uncommitted.
Herbert Butterfield.
Posts: 439 | From: Hemel Hempstead, Herts | Registered: May 2012
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Steve H
Shipmate
# 17102
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
I found a buried paving slab
Someone in my village found one of those, and he, too, made it into a feature. After a couple of years he decided to get rid of it, dug it up, turned it over and lo! it was an early C19th gravestone. Someone told him to phone me, as apparently I'm the village authority on dug-up garden gravestones (who knew?). It seems to have been only half-finished; either there was a mistake in it, or the person who had commissioned it hadn't paid up.
The Sunday Post got to hear of it and ran a ridiculous story on the "gravestone mystery".
In the days before dwarfing rootstocks, the Victorians used to restrict the growth of fruit trees by planting them on top of a stone slab, to restrict the roots. Gravestone mystery solved?
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Hold to Christ, and for the rest, be totally uncommitted.
Herbert Butterfield.
Posts: 439 | From: Hemel Hempstead, Herts | Registered: May 2012
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
"The March of the Dandelions"
in my garden, now
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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