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Source: (consider it) Thread: Blooming hard work. The gardening thread
Huia
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As gardening matters are choking discussion elsewhere (like a virulent bindweed) I took a hint and decided to start a thread.

So fellow gardeners, I'm planting bulbs for next spring. I watered them in but am never sure how much ongoing watering they need. I don't want them to rot through overwatering, but the weather here is fairly dry.

Any helpful advice?

Huia.

[ 31. May 2015, 01:57: Message edited by: Huia ]

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Penny S
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My gardening is on hold at the moment as I am awaiting the installation of cable for TV, broadband and phone. Long ago, I severed the ducting of what was believed to be a defunct arrangement in this area because it passed across what was to be my veggie patch only 3 inches under the surface. I can't use the beds along the edge until they've been, and I can't build garden features or raise the raised beds where they might be going to do stuff. So I have potatoes in bags, onions in bags, tomatoes in pots, everything moveable. And will have to do everything in a rush when they've been. I should be expecting them tomorrow, but I am not holding my breath. and I may have misread the paperwork.

I have a few bulbs to transfer from pots in another part of the garden, but they won't need much watering - rain will be enough, so I'm afraid I can't help with that.

[ 31. May 2015, 13:01: Message edited by: Penny S ]

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no prophet's flag is set so...

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Don't know what your winters are like. With our's we plant bulbs after the first hard frost, and then cover the grown witha couple of inches of mulch. Taking the mulch off only when we are certain frost risk is mostly over. Tulips can stand a degree of two if you cover them in the spring. Ours just started blooming last week.

We planted our own garden, flowers and also our community plot on Mon and Tues last, only to have -2°C overnight on Thurs. Damn! The murphy's law of prairie gardens. No sooner plant and Jack visits. We're supposed to get 100 days frost free they say each year. We watered everything heavily and covered the herbs. It looks like we are okay. Here's hoping. I saw some very sad tomato plants at the community garden.

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Lamb Chopped
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What kind of soil do you have? If it's heavy clay, you will need to worry more about the possible rot thing than with any other kind of dirt.

Me, I'd treat them like potted plants--water when you notice the ground looks really dry. Otherwise leave alone.

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Penny S
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I got the date wrong, there's another month before the disruption. I'm going to have to put the bean plants in bags as well, with the canes poking up from the sides. That's a layer of shredded paper, stuff chopped off the brassicas with the green manure stuff (forgetmeknots mostly), a layer from the compost heap, bought compost above that and then the beans I bought from the country market. I don't know how that will work. I usually have a small trench with compost in it along by the fence. Where the cable may go.
I can't use the tomato grow house by the fence, but might use my small one to put the pots in until they need moving, if they do. That's on top of the old cable end.
The cable route has to be along the part of the garden that gets most direct sunlight. Of course.

[ 31. May 2015, 22:17: Message edited by: Penny S ]

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Brenda Clough
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I think it will be important to state where you are, roughly, so that people know the climate.

I live in the mid-Atlantic US, and am a Darwinian gardener. I keep on buying plants and sticking them in. When they die, I buy different ones. This policy steadily pursued gets you a garden full of plants that survive -- everything else is dead. Every now and then I try something that didn't make it before. I am proud to report that after several failures the sage did not die, and is thriving. Also the foxgloves have condescended to reseed and reproduce.

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Firenze

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After a cold, damp May, everything is both lush and slow. So everything established is roaring into leaf/flower, but the newly planted veg and flowers are struggling.
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ArachnidinElmet
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You're not wrong. Parsley and mint are triffid-like, but my stunted runner beans look like they need a hug and a hot water bottle.

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Huia
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Thanks for the advice on bulbs - minimal watering and fingers crossed.

I am going to plant silver beet in my flower garden as the vege garden needs more work than I have time for at present. I've chosen a cultivar called "Bright Lights" where the ribs of different plants vary from the usual white through a kind of orange to red. It should be Ok if I put a frost cloth over it when necessary.

I'm in Christchurch NZ, so we are just going into winter. We have a temperate climate with maybe 3 or 4 days of snow. Minimum temperature
is usually about -5c

Huia

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marzipan
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currently we're still in a flat with no outside space, so I'm mostly just planning things, but we have a little strawberry plant that my friend gave to me in anticipation of our moving house. We went away for the weekend and came back to a very sad and thirsty strawberry - hopefully it will recover as it's perked up a bit overnight after some watering (some of the leaves are still all wilted though)
And of course, if we'd left it outside, it would have got plenty of water but might have blown away (seems to have been very stormy here on the weekend)

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Penny S
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I'm in Kent, on the dry side of Britain, with clay soil derived from and on top of chalk, so alkaline rather than acid.
I looked to see what weeds do well in the garden - numbers of species of geraniums (not pelargoniums) and hairy bittercress. So I'm growing geraniums and cruciferae - hence the brassicas and the watercress bed.

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Nenya
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The recent sunny spells and rain showers are bringing my wildflower seedling on a treat! They are in the patch where I tried vegetables unsuccessfully last year. [Big Grin] I have also poked some pelargoniums (pelargonia?) into some gaps in the flower beds and bought a rosemary, marjoram and thyme for a dry sunny bed. Then this week a friend gave me a rooted rosemary cutting so I need to find somewhere to put that.

I must also see to my tubs but need Mr Nen's help to empty them. I am not sure what to do with the spent compost and woe betide me if I put it in the wrong place. [Biased]

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jacobsen

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quote:
Originally posted by Nenya:

I must also see to my tubs but need Mr Nen's help to empty them. I am not sure what to do with the spent compost and woe betide me if I put it in the wrong place. [Biased]

Can't spent compost be used as mulch?

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Penny S
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Or dug in to raise the amount of humus, or used as a layer in a lasagne bed. Or put in the compost heap. I layer it on the veggie beds with added gromore fertiliser. I'm hoping that the worms will pull it down and bring up some of the clay nearer the surface. So far the only beastie to do anything useful like that has been a rat!

Here's one link with advice. Old potting compost

[ 06. June 2015, 20:49: Message edited by: Penny S ]

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Penny S
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More links
Gardeners world

Another site

Gardeners Alive

[ 06. June 2015, 21:09: Message edited by: Penny S ]

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Nenya
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Thank you for the suggestions and the helpful links. We are on heavy clay soil so I expect it would appreciate the spent compost, but in a past year I had to treat the tubs for vine weevil. Could that still be a problem and is it advisable to put it on the garden?

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The Intrepid Mrs S
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I have to post this somewhere, so if it's the wrong thread I'm sorry - but here goes.

We had another morning working in the churchyard, I was weeding and Mr S and the team were moving the bonfire site (so I came away with three or four bags of wood ash!) The site had to be moved because someone complained it was too near their ancestor's grave (the bonfire's been there for years, to my certain knowledge, which goes to show how much care they've been taking of his grave!) So, the team spent all morning moving the bonfire, watched by Concerned Relatives, so it wouldn't impinge on the grave.

When we went back this afternoon for some compost guess what - Concerned Relatives had begun heaping dead grass and flowers from the grave back on the old bonfire site! I shall need to make some more signs - 'NOTHING TO BE LEFT HERE' or 'NOT IN USE' - the graveyard is festooned already! [Help]

Somewhere in Hell, I think it was Pyx-e advised any new ordinands to run from any church with an active graveyard [Eek!] [Eek!] and my advice is, never become a churchwarden [Ultra confused]

Mrs. S, shaking her head in disbelief (and rubbing her back)

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Sandemaniac
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quote:
Originally posted by Nenya:
but in a past year I had to treat the tubs for vine weevil. Could that still be a problem and is it advisable to put it on the garden?

Given the speed at which vine weevil grubs move, if you rake it out thinly the birds will almost certainly deal with any remaining before you can say "Jack Robinson".

AG

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L'organist
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Deep joy - NOT.

We have a colony of solitary (sometimes called false masonry) bees between the garden wall and a brick outbuilding.

This morning they have decided to do their version of swarming: cue next door neighbour (via the police!) demanding that they be eradicated because they're putting her grandchildren at risk.

I've explained to the local constabulary that they rarely sting, are unlikely to go flying into the neighbour's garden and, in any case, her grandchildren don't live with her but 150 miles away and should, in any case, be at school.

Have now had (on tape, fortunately) abusive 'phone call from neighbour demanding that I get the bees eradicated or she will 'take you to court and make sure you're punished for your selfish behaviour'.

Don't you just love these people?

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Sioni Sais
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I'm no gardener but just how long should one of these ready-to-apply weedkillers, described as killing the whole plant to the roots, take to kill the plants? Do they need a couple of applications as a mattr of routine?

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Ariel
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It should say on the label. I've had some that claim to work within 24 hours, but you have to pretty much drench the offending plant(s) to get it to work, not just give it a light spray and hope for the best.
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Penny S
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I'm building up to the fourth dose on some ash seedlings in the hedge outside.
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Sioni Sais
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I've tracked down some reviews of the product I'm using (Roundup) and they are mixed. Guess I'll have to give it another go.

If I have no joy I shall have to burn them off.

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Brenda Clough
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Be very careful not to get it on any plant you want to keep.
Have you considered the newspaper method? Thick layers of newspaper on everything you want to die.

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L'organist
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What exactly are you trying to kill?

IME brambles and woody weeds need roughly 4 times the concentration recommended - and in the summer I apply in the evening so it doesn't evaporate.

I've also learned to keep a spare pair of shoes near where I'm killing and put them on to walk back to the shed and house - nothing like footprints across a lawn!

In the case of stump killer, I've used 4 bottles so far on one stump and its still sending up suckers...

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Ariel
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quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
I've tracked down some reviews of the product I'm using (Roundup) and they are mixed. Guess I'll have to give it another go.

If I have no joy I shall have to burn them off.

I assume this is something you can't dig out?
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Sioni Sais
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The weeds are no more than light ground cover. I expect the problem is my inexperience so I'll give it another go. We have a patio with cracks that need seeing to, so I'll give that a go tonight too. I have remembered that dry evenings are the best time to apply weedkiller.

Thanks for the warning about spare shoes!

eta: Ariel: digging out means bending down!

[ 11. June 2015, 14:31: Message edited by: Sioni Sais ]

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Lamb Chopped
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I've seen straight vinegar work decently on weeds in pavement cracks.

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Matt Black

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Anyone got any advice re honeysuckle that seems to be refusing to thrive? We planted it a couple of months back against our eastern boundary wall with the recommended compost and take care to water it either every day or every other day; however, like the parable of the sower, it sprang up rapidly but the topmost leaves and shoots are now withering and I am concerned that this will spread to the lower leaves.

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Lamb Chopped
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Judging by ours, the best thing to do if you want it to thrive is to take a lawn-mower to it.

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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

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Brenda Clough
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There is the cultivated honeysuckle, and the weed form. The weeds are well-nigh ineradicable. I believe the tamed form is more temperamental. If you want the weed, they are in bloom now and are easy to find in abandoned lots/public areas/trails.

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Lamb Chopped
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I'm afraid the weed form was brought here as a cultivated import! It then turned invasive. It's not so much that something's been tamed, I think, but rather that some things that behave decently in certain places turn into utter thugs when they reach their version of paradise.

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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
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Matt Black

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Ours was bought from a garden centre although there's plenty of the wild stuff growing locally not too far distant from us.

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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)

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Roseofsharon
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quote:
Originally posted by Matt Black:
Anyone got any advice re honeysuckle that seems to be refusing to thrive? <snip> the topmost leaves and shoots are now withering

i wonder if it is suffering from a bad attack of aphids?
we had a honeysuckle that was a target plant for blackfly for several years, and that usually started with the topmost shoots.
unfortunately it got so bad we had to get rid of the honeysuckle in the end.

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Penny S
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quote:
Originally posted by Matt Black:
Anyone got any advice re honeysuckle that seems to be refusing to thrive? We planted it a couple of months back against our eastern boundary wall with the recommended compost and take care to water it either every day or every other day; however, like the parable of the sower, it sprang up rapidly but the topmost leaves and shoots are now withering and I am concerned that this will spread to the lower leaves.

What sort of soil lies beneath the compost? Mine loves Clay-with-Flints and needs regular cutting back. Its roots are in shade. This is the second picture down here
Periclymum and was grown from a plant which hadn't done very well in a tub at my parents' home in the Cotswolds. It was very slow taking off, and I was worried I would lose it.
I have another, grown from a self sown plant from the house which used to belong to my grandparents, and which I have seen in hedgerows. This is the nearest to it. =honeysuckle&filters[primary]=images&sort=1&o=107]The other one It is growing quite happily in a tub of compost, though I haven't seen flowers yet. It is in the north-eat of the garden and does get sun. There are holes in the base of the tub to allow the roots to get out and make a root run in th every shallow soil underneath. I think it will need a little longer to get properly established. How long have you had yours?

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L'organist
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The best weedkiller I've found for a patio (crazy-paving path actually) is SALT: apply liberally and it will kill dandelions, daisies, etc, etc, etc.

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Lamb Chopped
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... though salt will kill basically anything, and it stays in the soil, so don't use around other, "good" plants.

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Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

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Penny S
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Interestingly, after the east coast floods in 1953, a number of farms in Kent received compensation for the harm done by the sea water. The land recovered much sooner than expected. Mind you, major crops of the area were varieties of brassicas, and being derived from coastal plants. they might have been better able to cope.
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North East Quine

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I have a new encouragement to dig the garden - a blackbird, which is happy to come within three feet of me. It sits on the corner of our shed, sings a few notes and then, if I turn a bit of soil over, flies down to fossick away for worms. [Yipee]
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Firenze

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quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
... though salt will kill basically anything, and it stays in the soil, so don't use around other, "good" plants.

Indeed. There was a reason why you sowed the place thereof with salt.

I am reconciled to digging out the cracks in the paving. Occasionally it throws up a clump of something pretty.

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Sioni Sais
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We've had rain this afternoon and evening so weeding is postponed.

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Penny S
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# 14768

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I wonder about the salting of the North by the Normans. How did they get enough of the stuff to make any difference? I would think the slaughter of people might have more to do with the low values shown in Domesday. They would have needed huge amounts of salt, which would have to have been got by evaporation of brines - if from Cheshire wells, using an enormous number of trees, if from the sea, ditto if in England. If imported from places where the sun was used to evaporate the seawater, an immense logistics programme would have been involved, ships, barrels, wagons, draught oxen. I can't see it myself.
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The Intrepid Mrs S
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# 17002

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Strawberries just beginning to ripen [Yipee] and the salad leaves are edible. The raspberries will be next - I love raspberries, you don't have to kneel down to pick them and for some reason the birds don't eat them. Too full of strawberries, no doubt [Mad]

Mrs. S, greedy gardener

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Brenda Clough
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# 18061

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Here in the Mid-Atlantic of the US the season is far in advance of yours. We have had the last of the strawberries. Finally we are at the brink of the tomato and corn season, surely the glory of the year around here. From here it is a long delicious plunge into the fruits of summer (blueberries, blackberries!) which does not end until the shortening days end the corn (September) and the frosts nail the tomatoes.

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Ariel
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# 58

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I've got a strawberry plant somewhere in a pot in the allotment. It had two leaves last time I looked. It's had two leaves for the past 12 months. I could plant it out but then it would run all over the place.

I'll be putting out the tomato plant on my next visit. It was a cute little thing in a pot when I bought it, so I kept it in my flat for a bit but now it's a leggy monster with its first flowers. Time to give it the stake treatment.

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daisydaisy
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# 12167

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My accidental strawberry patches are doing well - yesterday I used some of them to make gooseberry (from the freezer - some 2 yrs old) and strawberry jam - yum

I might have mis-timed a week away - now it's warmer and drier it's a scary time to not be watering. I think most will survive, and I've asked a neighbour to sprinkle water on the beetroots in exchange for free access to the strawberries.

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Penny S
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# 14768

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I found my yellow corydalis plant which I brought from my parents' place has not done the usual weedlike thing, and was on its last legs under some London Pride and Creeping Jenny, and transplanted it into a better position - it had a good amount of root, fortunately.
The last little bit of one of my grandfather's mints seems to have taken to pot growing successfully. The lot in the last pot totally vanished over winter, and it would be a great shame to lose it. It is a spearmint type, from its perfume. I found a few leaves popping up from the ground near where it had originally grown. The other mint is much more vigorous. I had to put both of them in pots because they really love my clay soil and were plotting to take over the garden.
The Albertine rose from my grandparents' home is flourishing over the back gate. I grew it from a cutting, and it, too, is loving the clay. I gave it a bit of blood, fish and bone meal last year. It looks as if it will outgrow its Virginia Creeper neighbour, a legacy from the last owner.
The rambler rose I grew from cuttings from a neighbour's root stock at my last place is flourishing as well. It is covered with clusters of small off-white single blooms with a sweet musky scent. Intergrowing with it is a honeysuckle from my parents' place which arrived in a tub, in which it had never flowered to my knowledge. It is just coming into flower, and the two of them are covering the fence along the south of my garden.
On the north side the legacy philadelphus is coming into flower, covered with small white flowers in the way forsythia flowers. It has an unfortunate version of the philadelphus scent, lacking the usual top notes and rather cloying. It fills the garden and the house when the windows are open. Eventually, the one next door to it, grown from a cutting from my parents' garden will take over. It won't be as pretty, but the scent will be better.
There are a few raspberries in pots at the top of the garden, and I think there are a few fruits there. I have some strawberries in small pots I bought from a local L'Arche community, and should get one dish of the fruit from them. I threw out the last lot of plants last year, as taught by Mum, and am slowly replacing them. Two lots in hanging baskets from Waitrose have added to them today.
I have started to cut back the purple sprouting broccoli, though I am leaving the stems just in case the roots might like to give me some leaves. The courgettes and cucumbers are looking pathetic. Runner beans and onions are in potato sacks, so I can move them when the TV cable people arrive. The potatoes all need more compost again.

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Heavenly Anarchist
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# 13313

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Some of my strawberries are also just beginning to ripen, though the alpine ones they share a bed with have been giving us their tiny berries for a while now. The planters with their herbs and viola are looking great and my hanging fuschia are in flower. My huge, heavenly scented rose (la reine Victoire, I think) is putting on a great show near the henhouse.
Peas and salad are looking good, but the runners have mostly been eaten by slugs [Roll Eyes]

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Sandemaniac
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# 12829

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Got a whole load of stuff finally planted out last night - the combination of cold nights and dry weather has held everything back so badly. Still a lot to do before we go away on holiday, and I have a horrible feeling an awful lot won't make it if we don't have rain soon...

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

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Ariel
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# 58

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Portable gardens, that's the answer. I don't know why anyone hasn't thought of this before. With a portable garden, you can pop out and water it any time you want, if the view from your hotel room is horrible you've got an alternative, and you have an instant lawn to picnic on.

Slightly less facetiously, I'll have to take the tomato plant around to the allotment today or tomorrow. Cute is turning increasingly into a triffid.

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