Thread: Back to the garden Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Or nearly. I'm currently nursing the tail end of a cold I'd never met before, so it's taking forever to give up and go away.

There is a corner in my garden I had allocated to spring stuff, as it gets shaded later by the forsythia, and is, anyway, in on the northern side of a fence. It had primroses in it, I had moved some crocuses there from what is now the veggie part of the garden, and I have put in Solomon's Seal, Lily of the Valley, and other bulbs added last year. The Solomon's Seal has been managing well. The crocuses are just leaves (though others from the same batch, elsewhere, are fine.) The primroses have vanished. The new bulbs have popped up a bit, but the whole area looks bare.

Close examination makes it look as if it has been trodden on, though not by anything that leaves footprints. A self sown fern has a squashed middle. One of the bulbs looks trodden as well.

It is below a holder on the fence for jars of bird specific peanut butter, and a nesting box which has drawn the attention of some great tits. I have seen ground feeding birds around, but there is no evidence of beaks disturbing the soil.

I have put over part of the area a wire basket intended for wardrobes which I got from someone about the throw it away at the dump, and put containers (bulbs, primulas) on it so it looks better, and may allow the things underneath to have a chance to get going. (I suspect the pigeons, but haven't caught them at it.)

I'm rather cross about the primroses, as I had transplanted them from the last place where they had been self sown in the lawn, and getting hold of more may be problematic.

I'm hoping to be able to get out and work properly some time this week. I've got to get potatoes in for Friday! I'm not sure whether to go for bags, pots or the actual ground this year. I had to get rid of all the bags last year with the pests I shouldn't have had.
 

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Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :
 
Your garden sounds wonderful, Penny! Feel better soon.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I have obviously written too much about what I look forward to and not enough about what it is like at the moment.

One of our local builders described it at one point as being - long pause - "a country garden". And he didn't mean a cottage one. He meant one in the process of becoming, with aspects of allotment architecture (things being upcycled into other things) but not realised yet.

But, really good thing. I am now playing host to a thrush. They have been on the threatened list, like sparrows, and I haven't seen one for probably decades. And it's picking up nesting materials, though I don't know where it's going.
 

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Posted by Doone (# 18470) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
I have obviously written too much about what I look forward to and not enough about what it is like at the moment.

One of our local builders described it at one point as being - long pause - "a country garden". And he didn't mean a cottage one. He meant one in the process of becoming, with aspects of allotment architecture (things being upcycled into other things) but not realised yet.

But, really good thing. I am now playing host to a thrush. They have been on the threatened list, like sparrows, and I haven't seen one for probably decades. And it's picking up nesting materials, though I don't know where it's going.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
I have obviously written too much about what I look forward to and not enough about what it is like at the moment.

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quote:

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Originally posted by passer:

The other problem for my box-nesters is tree bees. They have requisitioned two of my four boxes for the last couple of years.

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Same here
 

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Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by passer:
The other problem for my box-nesters is tree bees. They have requisitioned two of my four boxes for the last couple of years.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:

quote:

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Originally posted by passer:
The other problem for my box-nesters is tree bees. They have requisitioned two of my four boxes for the last couple of years.

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You're blaming Tree Bee?

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Sadly so. She may seem quiet and unassuming on here, but in the wild she and her kin have been rapidly moving north for the last fifteen years or so, another European migrant stealthily taking over thousands of des. res. and depriving our British Residents of their rightful errr... rights, or something! One of my colonies was in turn taken over by wax moths, somewhat ironically!

On the positive side, my comfrey and cotoneaster have never had so many flowers, and the veg have done uncommonly well also.
 

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Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
After reading Mel Bartholomew book, Square Foot Gardening I blocked off my garden into small one foot plots with some old boards I had laying around. It has worked wonders for me. I do one or two squares of work at a time. I have the energy to weed, plant and care for one or two squares and can easily do my whole garden in a week. I have mixed flowers with herbs and vegetables. As there are only two of us these little one foot squares work just fine. The only problem is I did not mark the squares and have two or three I am unsure what I planted. I admit for the rest of the yard as of last year I have a young man come twice a month to take care of it. At 77 I decided to just do what I enjoy.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
How wise, GI. Our TV gardening expert, Monty Don,stated last week that the ground was too cold to do anything yet, so with his gracious permission I'm just enjoying the birds.

[ 21. March 2016, 06:54: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Moo:
I am toying with the idea of planting some peppermint and basil. There are rabbits in my yard; would they leave the herbs alone?

Moo

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Originally posted by jedijudy:
Boogie, I love peonies! Good luck with them. One of my dear childhood memories was watching my mother tend her gardens and how glorious the peonies were.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
If your climate is good for peonies (or if you select cultivars that suit your weather) they can be glorious.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:

I am pleased to report that my hydrangeas did not die over the winter.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:

I am a fan of extravagant bloom.

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Me too!
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
I've just come in from a satisfying two hours in the garden digging up dandelions. I haven't got a chance of eradicating them - dandelions and all the rose tribe seem to be indigenous to my area - but my philosophy is that a single dandelion removed means one dandelion fewer to spread seed all over the garden.

Our London Clay soil is definitely still much too cold for planting. The first few annual weeds are showing in the beds which get full sun but my potato bed is showing no signs of life at all. So I won't be planting my potatoes on Good Friday.

Time for a nice cup of tea after all the hard work pulling up roots.
 

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Posted by amber. (# 11142) on :
 
Waving to all. Long time since I've been around on gardening threads.
Our poor garden has suffered from the rain. And, indeed, from me not giving it enough attention. The bottom half near the stream is now mostly deep puddles, and the top half requires extensive waving of shears and other implements. I would claim that we have a lawn, but it seems to be mostly moss.
Glad to learn of Monty Don's fine advice to sit indoors and contemplate it all, instead
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Hi Amber. Good to see you.

Trouble is, I expect Mr Don can garden when he likes: the rest of us have to hope for a combination of weather and time and a chance to get to the garden centre. On which subject - bijou moanette: time was there were stores, or parts of them, selling plants and horticultural requisites within walking distance. All gone. Now it's either whatever some supermarkets decide to briefly feature in their Seasonal range, or the full-on motorised expedition to some sprawling campus where you have to fight your way through the coffee shops and country outfitters to actually find a few packets of seeds and a bag of mulch.

[ 22. March 2016, 10:48: Message edited by: Firenze ]
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I've given up my allotment and am taking an indefinite break from gardening, mud-encrusted boots, slugs, a car boot full of sacks of grass and bindweed, allotment theft, tomato blight, etc.

I'll miss the fresh rhubarb and lavender but not the other things.
 

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Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:

I'll miss the fresh rhubarb and lavender but not the other things.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Boogie:
A nice pot of lavender somewhere maybe?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Firenze:
...time was there were stores, or parts of them, selling plants and horticultural requisites within walking distance. All gone. Now it's either whatever some supermarkets decide to briefly feature in their Seasonal range, or the full-on motorised expedition to some sprawling campus where you have to fight your way through the coffee shops and country outfitters to actually find a few packets of seeds and a bag of mulch.

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Very true. We have quite a number of pretty good garden centres/nurseries round about, both of the mostly plant and the combined home décor/café kind. None of them are easy to get to in anything but a car, often involving a 4 bus round trip. Not fun with anything bulky, although in compensation they're a pretty good source of cake.

Not much gardening being done here, but the spring bulbs all look pretty good. We have a sea of mini daffs.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Whilst sitting in the GP's waiting room, I came across Alan Titmarsh on roses - (sadly, only in the Express magazine.) I now feel enthused about getting more rose bushes and letting loose with my supply of organic compost, straight from the horse's - ass and well-rotted over a couple of years.
 

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Posted by Offeiriad (# 14031) on :
 
Firenze, support your local nurseries where they still exist, but Scotland has some of the finest online rare plant nurseries in the world - I even buy from Scottish nurseries here in France!
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Offeiriad:
Scotland has some of the finest online rare plant nurseries in the world

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I'm sure: we have two apple trees (Hawthornden and Lemon Queen) got from a chap in Perthshire who cultivates rare Scottish varieties. My moan is more that, when a month or so ago, I wanted some hyacinth bulbs, there was nowhere in my normal orbit where I could just roll up and buy them.

It's not rare plants I want, just ordinary ones.
 

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Posted by Nicodemia (# 4756) on :
 
One of our local garden centres (we have 5 within a 20 min drive!) had me seething on Monday. Twice a year, on birthdays, we go there, join up with family, and have a nice lunch, followed by a mooch round the centre. To my horror, this year it has completely changed all its departments round! There is now a VERY long walk to the restaurant, past hideously expensive patio furniture, some pretty hideous anyway, through seed potatoes, gardening implements etc. Not good for the disabled. The entrance was once full of delicious edibles, artisan this and that, and things you never see anywhere else. Easy to buy, especially if you are hungry. Now its next to the restaurant, so you come out, full of now rather ordinary food, and the last thing you want to look at is food!

And all the lovely and very buy-able knick knacks, toiletries have disappeared. I'm sure they are somewhere, but I couldn't find them!

Its so boring now. I wrote and told them I wouldn't be going again. So there!

On the flowery front, I have some gorgeous early tulips in a pot, bright orange with yellow streaks, which cheer up the view from the kitchen window no end! I love having patio pots, but the rain, rain, rain seems to have done for one pot of tulips!

Daffodils in garden doing fine however. Been out while soil is softish waging war on buttercup, but I can never win!
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Something has been digging little scrapes into my raised beds. I clearly haven't got rid of the rats. (Have holes for hedgehogs - not flipping likely?)
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Scrofula! Great hairy stacks of arse gravy!

First the allotment was way too sticky to to anything on, so came home, to find that the hedge trimmer won't start, there's so much plastic on it I have a bastard of a time finding anywhere to earth the plug to see if it sparks, and I'm far from convnced that fuel is getting to the cylinder anyway.

Ah well, got some other stuff done instead...

AG
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I've given up my allotment. It's not the same as having your own garden. I never felt the same way about it since someone targeted it last year and kept helping themselves to my stuff, and then my plants.

Someone else can have that pleasure and wrestle with the grass, bindweed, slugs, cabbage flies, blight, periodic floods and sharp-eyed intruders with carrier bags.
 

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Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
I started clearing the rubble from the prospective peony bed today

(Plus a large Canadian Canoe, which has had to find a new home!)
 

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Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
A week of raining has stopped so I took a walk to the garden.
Peas are up along with potatoes, chard, chives, parsley, and cardoon. Also up and doing well are a whole bunch of weeds. I know what I will be doing next week. I usually do not plant a garden until May but decided to plant seeds last fall and cover up chives and parsley with straw and it worked.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Neighbour's buddleia down. My plastic grow house tipped over. Fence looking wobbly. Wind still strong.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
The gale has blown down one of my sprouting broccoli plants, so it looks like broccoli for lunch.

Everything else looks fine but I haven't actually been outside yet the wind is still so strong.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
My strawberry plant stack of three metal baskets is in the hole I tried to dig for the water tank and which is intended to grow watercress. It all disappeared last year, seedlings and rooted stems from Waitrose, all at once. The little crawlers can't rasp away the hairy bittercress, oh no, not good enough for them.

This year, it will be planted in gravel with poultry grit on top, and inter-planted with said hairy bittercress.

The USB lead from the camera in the bird box had been pulled askew by the honeysuckle, which had been pulled out of position by the old washing line support, which is supposed to be leaning against the cupboard, waiting to be found a useful re-use. Probably fixing the growhouse more securely.

One good thing. The wire pergola overgrown with Albertine rose, which had fallen in every previous strong wind in the winter, is still standing, supported by a wire coat-hanger round the gate post, though it does seem to have loosened a metal bracket which was supposed to add to the wire.

Memo to self. Take some stuff to the dry-cleaners. I have only one hanger left.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Glad to hear the Albertine pergola is still standing, Penny S. Albertine is a glorious rose.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
This is the rose from the porch over my grandparents' house. My mother used to take cuttings of it, and the honeysuckle that grew with it whenever we moved, but in the last move, when she was ill, she didn't manage to do it.

And then, I happened to go past the house, and saw the originals were still there, so I wrote to the occupants and was invited to go and take cuttings again. I had to go again for the honeysuckle, but both are now doing fine, and I also have a choysia which the lady there gave me as well. They must have moved in straight after my grandparents. The honeysuckle is one with paired flowers, which I have seen growing wild about Sussex and Kent, but which is not native. I also have the native one with the big pink clusters which my parents had in their last home.

I have a problem with Grandad's mints, though. They didn't do well at my last place, and I thought I had lost one altogether (and again, couldn't go back to get clones). They don't do well in pots, either, but if I put them in the ground here, they go bananas.

I have quite a few cloned things with histories, and some not cloned but the same variety of things we grew up with.

Sadly, I have lost the dark red cowslip Mum had found somewhere, and her horseshoe trefoil, and the corydalis. I had two goes at the cowslip, which since primroses and primulas do well I am puzzled by, and I can't find a supplier anywhere, except in huge nursery quantities. The others should be fairly easy to get hold of, being of the weed type of thing! I think they got overgrown by the inherited London Pride.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
The FSB has been and dug up about a third of the garden, couch grass and all, bless him.

I am thinking though, that with average temperatures still in single figures, I have a little time before planting season. Any recommendations for ground coverers and self-seeding stalwarts?
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
The daylily leaves are well up -- they do well n my area and spread readily. No blooms until June or so, of course. But the tender leaves are a favorite with deer, so i went out today and sprayed them with stinky deer repellent. This usually elicits an immediate thunderstorm.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 

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Originally posted by Firenze:
Any recommendations for ground coverers and self-seeding stalwarts?

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Nasturtiums will take over the earth, for a season, and come back year after year. Rather like Starwars.

I have a healthy clump of primulas in a border and noticed yesterday, courtesy of the wind which gave the first opportunity this year to dry my washing OUTSIDE, that there was a procession of baby primulas which had seeded themselves across the grass in a line heading for the midday sun. I was reminded of the Israelites in the deserts, except that their path must have been spiral in order to have made it last for 40 years.

 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
You really don't want vinca, do you?
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Cleome will selfseed forever and ever and ever, provided you either leave the dead flower stalks in place at the end of the year, or at least give them a good shake before discarding them. They will pop up in spring everywhere, though they prefer sidewalk and driveway cracks above all.

Feverfew and catmint also selfseed everywhere, and are easily pulled out where you don't want them. Unlike a lot of things.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Vinca has already crept in from next door.

Funny thing about nasturtiums - every year I sow seeds in a little strip between the brick wall and some paving, which is the kind of poor soil they are supposed to like. And usually they come up - and one year they boiled over and went racing down the borders. But they never self seed. I have tried them in other places, but to no avail.

It's like the conundrum of the bindweed, which thrives. But plant its cultivated cousin, Morning Glory - and zilch.
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
You could use herbs as ground cover. Mint is notorious for taking over and comes in lots of varieties. Thymes and sages are good ground cover plants, and come in a range of pretty colours. Both are perennial or self seeding. Oregano is supposed to work, but I've never managed to grow it. Alpine strawberries can form perennial ground cover which doesn't spread, or ordinary strawberries allowed to spread. I'm not sure about c(h)amomile, because it's supposed to work to create lawns, but I've never tried.

Bay trees, rosemary, angelica and/or fennel could add height. Just don't plant rue - it might add height but other plants don't like it.

There's a variegated vinca which is prettier and (marginally) less invasive.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
There's a ground hugging hypericum used in parks, and variegated ivies (to cut down the thuggishness). Also varieties of lamium.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I'm a Darwinian gardener. I plant things, and they die. If they don't die, they stay. I plant new things in the bare spots. This policy, carried over several years, fills the garden with violently-thriving and aggressively healthy plants in a disorderly pattern. For me nasturtiums and cleome do not come back -- climate and soil are surely to blame. Lamb's ears and perennial geranium are nearly weeds, and after several attempts foxglove will reseed. Also after a few shots at it the sage finally consented to live and spread, and has now taken over a large area.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Don't let vinca in, unless you want it forever. Stripping it out again is painful, nearly impossible, and does a number on your skin with some sort of plant chemical.

As for morning glory, in my experience the way to get this is to get a packet of seeds and toss them out the window (or similar). The more care you give them, the less chance of them sticking around. One exception is soaking--if you soak them for a day, you can probably get by without the St. Louis rains.

I'm talking about the vines (ipomoea) not the bush (convolvulus tricolor etc.)
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
You could use herbs as ground cover. Mint is notorious for taking over

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Tell me about it. Besides that and the lemon verbena, I have an edgy relationship with the strawberries, crowfoot geranium and ragged robin - I don't mind some, but they do tend to strangle everything else.
 

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Posted by Nicodemia (# 4756) on :
 
I quite like ragged robin! But I actually bought, paid good money for, a Euphorbia, which would take over the garden given even the fraction of a chance. It creeps under the ground with really tough roots, and pops up everywhere. But it does look pretty in the spring!
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
We had lovely weather today and I've had a good time mowing the lawn. I'm still not convinced the soil is warm enough for me to plant the potatoes, but the sprouting broccoli is sprouting magnificently. This is the first time I've tried growing it and it's definitely worth all the bother and effort required to keep pigeons and caterpillars away in the summer.

The forsythia is very late flowering around here. Has anyone else noticed this?
 

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Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
The local grocery store is selling large tomato plants. Mind you we can get frost and even snow in these parts until May, but it is tempting on this bright sun shining day. Avert your eye Look away from the plants.
 

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Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
I am about to yield to temptation and order fifteen hyacinth bulbs. I planted ten two years ago, and I have decided I would like another row behind them. I will order five white, five blue, and five dark red. I only have space for nine; I plan to force three and see if my daughter would like the other three.

Moo
 

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Posted by ThunderBunk (# 15579) on :
 
Hyacinths originate from the foul marshes of hell and breathe Satan's own stench over the world.

Just so you know.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
The large Dutch ones, I agree. Grape hyacinth have wonderful charm however. And they spread readily.
 

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Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
If your climate is good for peonies (or if you select cultivars that suit your weather) they can be glorious. But they come and go too soon.
I am pleased to report that my hydrangeas did not die over the winter. I am a fan of extravagant bloom.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Grape hyacinth have wonderful charm however. And they spread readily.

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Sandemaniac has threatened murder if I ever plant any. Having seen one at the edge of the parental Knotweed's garden coming up through the tarmac where the council had resurfaced the pavement, I can see his point... (plus I know how few were originally sown in that border compared to how many came up a couple of years later, think 1:10 ratio )
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
But the blue, the blue! How can you resist it?
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I have grape hyacinth interplanted with late daffodils, a very pretty effect. Alas, they are not spreading as thickly and fast as I would like -- my son occasionally drives over the spot which does not help. I must get a photo while the spot is at its best.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by jacobsen:
But the blue, the blue! How can you resist it?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Boogie:
Creeping Jenny makes great ground cover and is very easy indeed to remove from the places you don't want it.

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But needs it done a lot.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
<slow drumbeat> Today could be the day for hoeing the dug bit and putting down the grass seed.

Though it would be nice if there were a little sunshine and maybe a temperature creep into double figures.

Talking of grass, I was surprised yesterday, on going to large local garden centre, to find they didn't stock lawnmowers, which seem to me a fairly basic bit of kit. Online it is then. Hover, lightweight, nothing fancy.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
After yesterday's failings todayu was very busy, and we have got a shedload done. The yellow stuff that isn't Hypericum has been hacked to the ground, opening up a big space that I didn't realise was there, dug said space as best the Leylandii roots would allow, and a Buddleia has gone in next to it. I realise that this is trouble, but the intention (see you in Hell...) is that thay will be hacked to the vground every year, so lots of fresh shoots for flowers butterfiles etc. I've got rid of two rather miserable Euonymus bushes and moved a gorgeous ice-white hollyhock and a peony (colour unknown - it just sprouted!)into their places. I've mowed the postage stamp, got some spuds in bbags planted, and have got almost everything sorted on my to do list other than get some guttering on the greenhouse. I've even bought three 220L olive drums to turn into water butts, just need to install taps and a diverter.

All that and cricket nets too - my body is not so muych telling me "Enough!" as "AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHJEEEEESSSSSSSUUUUSSSSSYOUBASTARDIT HURTSDON'TMAKEMEDOANYMORE!"

Owwwww.....

AG
 

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Posted by Landlubber (# 11055) on :
 
please. I am having to learn all my husband's garden jobs in a hurry. I grow veg and shrubs; he has always minded the fruit and the grass. I have beaten the mower into submission but the raspberry canes have beaten me. I have never liked them and this is their revenge. Mr Ll had them double cropping. I am not going to have the time to cope with this (or the inclination to get scratched twice). In any case, I did not have time to cut them back this February. So if I let them all do their own thing this year and cut them all back next February, can I rescue them? (Digging them out is not an option; he's already mad at having to let me take things over.)
 

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Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :
 
I never learn. We bought about 40/50 different veg plants, planted them with great enthusiasm, went away for a week, came back, all gone.

Must remember, slug pellets, slug pellets, slug pellets. Start again.
 

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Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Landlubber:
please. I am having to learn all my husband's garden jobs in a hurry. I grow veg and shrubs; he has always minded the fruit and the grass. I have beaten the mower into submission but the raspberry canes have beaten me. I have never liked them and this is their revenge. Mr Ll had them double cropping. I am not going to have the time to cope with this (or the inclination to get scratched twice). In any case, I did not have time to cut them back this February. So if I let them all do their own thing this year and cut them all back next February, can I rescue them? (Digging them out is not an option; he's already mad at having to let me take things over.)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
I hate slug pellets with a passion because of the damage they do to wildlife. The active ingredient is poisonous to all wildlife. Toads, frogs, thrushes, blackbirds and hedgehogs are all killed by eating poisoned slugs and snails.

Which left me in a quandary when I had a vegetable plot and my very helpful neighbours put them down for me around my bean plants. (While I was wandering home to find eggshells)

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quote:

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I have beaten the mower into submission but the raspberry canes have beaten me. I have never liked them and this is their revenge. Mr Ll had them double cropping. I am not going to have the time to cope with this (or the inclination to get scratched twice). In any case, I did not have time to cut them back this February. So if I let them all do their own thing this year and cut them all back next February, can I rescue them?

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Don't worry, they should be fine. You probably won't get the maximum crop this year but it won't have done them any harm.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Came home after a week away. My self-seeded primulas are still marching in full flower towards the midday sun, and I've discovered even more patches of self-seeded violets in blossom. AND we've had two days of clear skies and sunshine.

On the other hand, maybe that's it till next year
 

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Posted by Landlubber (# 11055) on :
 
Thank you for the reassurances re raspberries. (Yes, they are spreading. One of the reasons I'm against them is that they have turned up in one of my veg beds.)

Hurrah for self-seeded colour, jacobsen.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
My raspberries are determined to take over the gooseberry bed. Sneaky devils! But the fruit is so delicious I'm more than prepared to put up with their little ways.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Today, despite the sleety snow which melted e'er it touched the earth, I spent a good half hour removing the dead bits of plants, e.g. last year's fennel, the remains of dead annuals in the planters, and the dead branches which the winter storms throw over the hedge from the trees in the park into my garden. It all looks much neater, but my hands were frozen and my denims soaked to the knee. Still, the spring flowers are no longer overshadowed by the mess.
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
I chose a similarly sleety morning today to divide and move some coreopsis into its new place in my in-the-works xeric perennial bed. My mother-in-law gave the plant to us a few years ago when she had her garden re-done, and I just tossed it in a random hidden spot along the property line, to see what it would do. Despite quite a bit of neglect, it seems to have thrived in our clay soil and year-round dry conditions, so I think it earned a place of honor.

The bed is going along the street on the (east facing) front of my house, in a spot where the grass hasn't ever really taken. (I think it used to be a driveway.) It's a 9 foot by 9 foot spot, which I intend to fill with mass-ish plantings of coreopsis, flowering sedum, and ornamental grass, with bulbs to fill in the bare spots in the spring. The eventual objective is to remove as much lawn and sprinkler line as possible, in hopes of cutting down on water use. I figure if I go 81 square feet at a time, it should keep me entertained for quite a few years.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I have raspberry bushes from which I have never harvested a berry. I think my lot is too shady for them.
I did move the solomon's seal a mere six feet away, over to the other side of the driveway. It had been a meek and downtrodden plant on the one side, languishing like a Victorian maiden. Over on the other, it is revealed to be a Goliath, striding across the bed like a colossus. And extremely handsome.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:

quote:

---

I have raspberry bushes from which I have never harvested a berry. I think my lot is too shady for them.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
In the UK raspberries do best in Scotland.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:

quote:

---

I have raspberry bushes from which I have never harvested a berry. I think my lot is too shady for them.

---

I would have guessed Washington DC is too warm a climate for raspberries. I associate them with cold winters. In the UK raspberries do best in Scotland.

---

The best wild raspberry patches I know grow at around 9000 feet in the mountains, meaning the bushes are currently still buried in snow- so yes, you might say cold winters.

Nonetheless, I believe that you can find cultivators that are suited to warmer climates, although you will still need to give them lots of sun, from what I have read, to get berries.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Well, I spent so much time digging yesterday, desperately trying to catch up now that I can't get to the plot on weekday evenings, that I buggered myself up - to the point where I had to have a mid-afternoon nap today because I was stumbling around like a drunk I was so knackered. I have parts of my body that I didn't even know I had until they started to hurt...

On the other hand, it's finally warm enough for seeds to get going, and even the Knotweed is showing signs (eg putting up her sweet pea wigwam, and pricking stuff out) of being converted to the Church of Gardening. Result!

I have also been enormously satisfied today by four inches in my butt. I've never had a water butt before, so was most chuffed to find that the piping I'd rigged up to the greenhouse gutters is doing its job. I've now got to sort out the ones on the house downpipes in the interests of using free water for watering. I've got three of these babies for considerably less than the cost of buying a purpose-made water butt, and just need to get the bits together to connect them up. They'll also help hide our back gate from the road so I'm not worried that they are butt ugly (sorry). Hopefully will give me plenty of water (no doubt a drought will start the day I get them set up...).

AG
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
A lovely day in the garden today. The main crop potatoes are just showing their first leaves above ground. My three new tomato plants are looking very happy in their pots, the raspberry canes are about a foot high and the gooseberries are forming on the bushes.

It looks as though spring is finally here at last.
 

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Posted by Landlubber (# 11055) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
...
We had a glorious day here yesterday and I had a good time mowing the lawn. Third cut, so it's now starting to lose its wintertime clumpiness. Then I started attacking the dandelions but eventually gave up and just sat enjoying the sunshine.

---

You shamed me into it. I did the second cut yesterday. Even more shaming, I have not touched the edges at all. Soon. After I've done all the jobs I enjoy more. Doing the edges ranks with tying in the raspberry canes in my book.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Today I did my tomato, aubergine, bean and courgette pots, and as many pots of bedding plants as were not still using up the last of the flowering bulbs. There will be in time a search and destroy campaign against the dandelions, but I did sit with my tea and a book and just enjoy the garden and the weather. After all, that's why we put in all that work, isn't it?

[ 08. May 2016, 18:16: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
The dandelions you will always have with you; but sunshine you will not always have with you.

(Or words to that effect…………..)
 

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Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :
 
The little plastic tent greenhouse I acquired from my mother-in-law is looking increasingly handy. There are seeds putting up green shoots all over the place and I'm ready for any late frosts with a well-protected paraffin heater. I have only one living tomato plant having got too enthusiastic too early, but there are chilli plants and flowers sprouting. The maximum temperature in there was 47 degrees yesterday. Perhaps I need to open the door in the morning to let the temperature down a bit.

Cattyish, another Darwinian gardener.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
My weeding arms is uncommonly sore - and covered in scratches from a particularly belligerent hedge.

Vast tracts of border remain unweeded - shortly to be joined by the ex-vegetable patch where the grass seed is making poor headway against the long established buttercup, wild strawberry, dandelion, dock, bindweed, chickweed, weedweed etc etc
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
One should have never ending garden tasks, just to remind oneself that nature will always win in the end. My friends in the South have stories about their father's annual attempts to take out the kudzu in the back 40 with anything from concentrated roundup to diesel fuel.

My nemesis that will surely outlive me is a nasty patch of Tree of Heaven, an invasive East Asian tree that sends out shoots, sprays seeds everywhere, and regenerates from pruning at an alarming rate. The things grow through asphalt, and have a distinct and unpleasant smell that will stick to your hands for a day after you attack them. There are (no kidding) a number of them around the city of Hiroshima that survived the bomb.
 

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Posted by Landlubber (# 11055) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
The dandelions you will always have with you; but sunshine you will not always have with you.

(Or words to that effect…………..)

---

We did not. It rained all day today. Did you summon it up to prove yourself right?
 

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Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
I've been planting up my containers today. This year my theme is white, purple and pink.

So far we have lavender, nemesis, petunias and violas
 

---

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
Nemesia

(Auto correct )
 

---

Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
One should have never ending garden tasks, just to remind oneself that nature will always win in the end. My friends in the South have stories about their father's annual attempts to take out the kudzu in the back 40 with anything from concentrated roundup to diesel fuel.

My nemesis that will surely outlive me is a nasty patch of Tree of Heaven, an invasive East Asian tree that sends out shoots, sprays seeds everywhere, and regenerates from pruning at an alarming rate. The things grow through asphalt, and have a distinct and unpleasant smell that will stick to your hands for a day after you attack them. There are (no kidding) a number of them around the city of Hiroshima that survived the bomb.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Landlubber:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
The dandelions you will always have with you; but sunshine you will not always have with you.

(Or words to that effect…………..) [Devil]

---

We did not. It rained all day today. Did you summon it up to prove yourself right?

---

Who, me????? (looks around and up at sky)
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Does anyone know anything about Monkey Puzzle trees? Ours, which is around 15 feet high, is looking very sad. The ends of all the branches are drooping, and the whole thing is turning brown. Google is not being helpful. I know they prefer free draining soil, which ours isn't, but it has been fine until the last year.

We've had them before at other houses, and they've always been completely trouble-free.
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by quetzalcoatl:
Quite a lot in London for some reason, I suppose they were thought to be exotic. One of the fastest growing trees, also, I think, up to 6 feet a year. They are handsome.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Good gosh. How tall can they ultimately get in London?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Good heavens. There is one in the Enid Haupt garden behind the Smithsonian Castle in downtown Washington DC, but it is not much taller than I am.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Landlubber:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
The dandelions you will always have with you; but sunshine you will not always have with you.

(Or words to that effect…………..) [Devil]

---

We did not. It rained all day today. Did you summon it up to prove yourself right?

---

Who, me????? (looks around and up at sky)

---

quote:

---

And what is more, Chamois, the snails came out in force and chomped my courgette and aubergine plantlets which I only put in on Sunday! Any more of this tinkering with the weather, and it's garden hoses at dawn.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
The vegetable bed is ready, any real risk of frost is gone and a nice drop of rain is forecast for tomorrow night. So it's decision time. Courgettes or runner beans? I haven't got space to grow both……….

What to do???

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
I have actually seen a number of places suggesting that the trellised beans over summer squash strategy is a winner.

Bonus, the bean roots may fix nitrogen in the soil, which will be promptly put to use by the heavy feeding squash.

(In North America, you often hear maize, beans, and squash called the "three sisters," as they were the traditional food crops of the Indians. They reportedly all work well together.)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
...Possibly the only thing more satisfying than a really roraing bonfire is digging by its light, and throwing all your twitch roots onto it. BURN YOU BASTARDS BURN! Do excuse me - I don't know what came over me there...

AG

---

Oh I do!

 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Hee hee!

Popped back this afternoon for some asparagus (forgot the knife last night and, thus far, it isn't heaving it down), to find that the whole lot has burnt right out - just ash left that I can dig straight in.

Perfect all round!

AG
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
A word to the wise. Trying to fit a tap to a 220l barrel is a PITA - I had to climb in and, as a result, my shoulders are quite hideously scratched and painful. Not funny.

AG
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
Just about finished the two garden boxes. In past years, I have focused on mass food production, with mixed results. This year, I thought I would diversify. Two tomato plants, a few rows of cucumbers, eight squares of basil, and the rest mixed easy to grow flowers- cosmos, French marigolds, and zinnias. Together with the pots from last week, it should be a pollinator's paradise back there. Hopefully this results in more tomatoes, and a home made floral crown for a local statue of Our Lady for the assumption.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Hee hee!

Popped back this afternoon for some asparagus (forgot the knife last night and, thus far, it isn't heaving it down), to find that the whole lot has burnt right out - just ash left that I can dig straight in.

Perfect all round!

AG

---

Aren't you supposed to slake it first? (Not sure about technical term.) Let it lie about wet for a bit so it doesn't "burn" things. Put it in the compost for a while? I think I heard this mentioned on 'Gardeners' Question Time' just the other week.
 

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Posted by ThunderBunk (# 15579) on :
 
Took a day off for some pottering.

Went to the garden centre this morning, and acquired a new fern and some heucheras for my mostly shady and extremely dry back garden - or a border therein.

Spent a lot of the time since weeding about three square metres - another one or two to go before planting can really start. The amount of bindweed root I have removed is amazing - unless of course you have the stuff yourself, in which case you'd probably find yourself measuring the time it will take to recover in milliseconds.

Quite a satisfying occupation, though I don't think my knees are hugely fond. Another cue to lose some weight and get fit.....
 

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Posted by ThunderBunk (# 15579) on :
 
....and another few miles of bindweed root gone and a fern and a heuchera in, fed and watered.

More gardening than I've done in rather too long....


 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Some bright-eyed marketing type where I work decided that a grand way to promote membership would be to hand out packets of seeds with our company logo on. They are forget-me-not, cynoglossum blue, and each packet has perhaps a dozen seeds in them. We have enough packets for an army, far too many. So I took a couple dozen home and scattered them lavishly over a few selected flower beds. It has rained steadily for the past few days, and I am charmed to report that the seeds seem to be coming up! If I get =one= flowering plant out of all this I will be content.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Just wait.

That's all.

You'll get them this year.

And next year.

And next year.

There's a reason for the name.
 

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Posted by Celtic Knotweed (# 13008) on :
 
I have had forget-me-nots out-compete the mint in one pot a few years ago

There are some growing round the edge of the parking gravel, but I know that I can keep an eye on them there (famous last words...)

[edit for speling]

[ 24. May 2016, 11:18: Message edited by: Celtic Knotweed ]
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
We have far more than our fair share of slugs, deer, groundhogs and other garden foes -- I have given up trying to grow anything from seed. So we may hope that these guys can endure.
 

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Posted by Smudgie (# 2716) on :
 
I am a reluctant gardener, though I do rather love it on the rare occasion that I do get out there with the secateurs and it suddenly looks more like a place of leisure than a scene from Jumanji. Why it is, though, that you always end up doing more than you planned and then regretting it rather than pacing yourself and working in a series of manageable chunks?

My garden was a tip when I moved in and is full of really tenacious weeds that even weedkiller, weed-suppressing-matting and a healthy layer of gravel has been unable to overcome. Anyone with any suggestions, bearing in mind that my stamina is limited and my budget even more so?

I have today bought two tiny jasmine plants for 50p each. By tiny I mean tiny. Obviously they have two chances... but I'm wondering whether they'd have the best chance of survival if I keep them indoors until they're a bit more substantial or whether I should plant them in a bigger pot outdoors. I'm assuming jasmine is happy in a pot, as long as the pot is big enough? There's nothing special I should be doing for it, is there?
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Tiny is relative to the size of pot they came in. If it was less than 10cm (4 inches) across, I'd keep them indoors until they look as if a larger pot would suit them. Only Hercules could strangle serpents in his cradle.
 

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Posted by Smudgie (# 2716) on :
 
The pot is about 2 inches across. The little plants (three flowers!) look too big for the pot so I think they'll need to move on somewhere....
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Today I finally got around to weeding one of the flower beds. Under the rampant forget-me-knots I found an OAK seedling.

We have oak trees in the neighbourhood (the oak tree is the official symbol of this county and you can find them practically everywhere) but none anywhere near enough to my garden to drop acorns.

Sodding squirrels.
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
The local Tesco's plant display has some bulb boxes and I really wonder who put them together. The blue box contains anemones, hyacinths and grape hyacinths according to the picture on the front, no noticeable warning about grape hyacinths taking over, and similar odd selections.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Cheap weed control: newspapers. Get a whole bunch of them, black and white pages only (no color inserts or stapled sections). Layer them over the area you want to exterminate the weeds from. There is no thickness too thick for this; three inches of solid newsprint would be very acceptable. Interleave the sheets so that there are no gaps and it's a solid mass. It'll look terrible. If you don't care, weight the papers down with bricks or stones. If you do care, add a load of bark chips or mulch to hide the entire thing. The newspaper will mat down into a solid impenetrable mass through which no weed can grow. Then they will gradually break down and decay. When this has happened most of the way, rake away the unrotted bits and plant. Everything beneath the papers will be dead.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Or you can top up with compost or soil and grow things on top, as you will have effectively made a lasagna bed.

I have put down ground elder successfully using brown cardboard, but it has somehow found its way to another raised bed.
 

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Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :
 
I am cautiously prepared to say that our allotment looks brilliant. Everything is growing, blooming, going like the clappers. Californian poppies out now, delightful. Blackberries growing like the beanstalk. Flower sprouts ditto. Lovage, strawberries, rocket, irises, angelica, go, go, go. Slugs have gone into purdah.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
No, slugs simply execute a réculer pour mieux sauter*


*This is a false retreat in order the better to attack. Again.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
As of an hour or so ago, I have a grand total of four water butts, one on the greenhouse, three on the end of the house all linked up together. The scratches on my shoulders from cclimbing in and out to do the taps are healing nicely too.

Now I just need some rain to fill them...

AG
 

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Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jacobsen:
No, slugs simply execute a réculer pour mieux sauter*


*This is a false retreat in order the better to attack. Again.

---

True, but during the reculer phase, those tiny little flower sproutlets have become big beasts, who say fuck off to slugs, well, in the main.
 

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Posted by Fredegund (# 17952) on :
 
Angelica???????????????????
Have you any idea what that can do? Ours is halfway up the garage wall and destroying the herb bed. It's flowering - if you can call those hideous things flowers. I let it just to see what they were like, and wish I hadn't. And His Nibbs wants to crystallise some, so I can't take the scythe to it.

 

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Posted by Celtic Knotweed (# 13008) on :
 
Angelica!!! Fredegund you may wish to remove the flower heads before the seeds can get out. It's on the (very short) list of plants that will not get planted by us because it takes over. Can't recall right now if the root spreads as well, but I suspect it does.

And this from someone who is happy to let most things grow. Personally I'll just buy the candied stuff if I want it.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I think the roots are like carrots and such like, swollen taproots saving energy for next year's flinging of seeds about - mine hasn't spread either way.

And CK, you'll be lucky to find the candied stuff. I have a small stash from Julian Graves, who went bust. Thinking I had used it all up, I went round various outlets, to find none. The ubiquitous Dr Oetker has bought up Supercook, who bought up the original supplier, and, as he has with other products, discontinued it.

It appears to be available online, from France.

[ 26. May 2016, 13:07: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Originally posted by Curiosity Killed …

quote:

---

The local Tesco's plant display has some bulb boxes and I really wonder who put them together. The blue box contains anemones, hyacinths and grape hyacinths according to the picture on the front, no noticeable warning about grape hyacinths taking over, and similar odd selections.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Penny S:
And CK, you'll be lucky to find the candied stuff.

---

quote:

---

A word to the wise. Trying to fit a tap to a 220l barrel is a PITA - I had to climb in and, as a result, my shoulders are quite hideously scratched and painful. Not funny.

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFkXmhnT5Jo

We have had the joy of a brand new garden to plan, and agreeing what to plant. One year later and we have garden paths, a pond and a raised flower bed. The garden is modest so I have restricted the veg to 3 tomato plants and 4 strawberries for this year. I did buy a courgette plant that succumbed to the cold. I was considerably less upset when I realised that I had actually purchased a cucumber ( if all else fails read the label).

Slugs have been a major issue, but fortunately a braver member of the household has volunteered to be the sluggard and dispose of the beasts, mainly into beer traps - we purchased 4 and improvised additional traps as 4 was nowhere near sufficient, even for our modest plot.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
All the rain we're having has made my clay soil nice and soft. Yesterday I had another good go at pulling up the roots of dandelions and creeping buttercup.

My courgette seedlings have sprouted but are sitting shivering in the cold north wind. I feel l should be fitting the poor things with scarves and wooly hats.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I planted sunflower seeds early, in pots. All but one died (slugs or chipmunks). But the farm market guy assured me that June is not too late. So I got more seeds and this time will plant them in the ground. We'll do it the Darwinian way -- plant a whole lot and hope that a few survive. I have to go out of town in a couple weeks and will come back to see what has happened.
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
Good luck with the sunflowers. The Queen of Bashan doesn't like them, but at some point before our daughter is older, I want to plant monster sunflowers so that she will remember the time we grew flowers that were five times her height.

This evening, I planted some mint in a spot that was otherwise a prime location for the tree of heaven. Any wagers on what wins? (This could turn into an interesting gardener's bloodsport: two invasive plants enter, only one leaves!)
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
My money's on the mint.
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
They might form an unholy alliance...
 

---

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
If you do decide to grow sunflowers, this is a very nice variety.

Moo
 

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Posted by Daffodil (# 13164) on :
 
Og King of Bashan

quote:

---

only one leaves!

---

Intentional or unintentional pun?
 

---

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Drifting Star:
They might form an unholy alliance...

---

Like this perhaps?
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Definitely! Strangely enough, I've had that song as an earworm for the past 10 days...
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I planted a good two dozen seeds. If I get one sunflower out of it I will count it a triumph. The slugs and voles are severe.
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Don't know if it counts as gardening, but I'm half-way through re-painting the fence and shed in a tasteful design of mainly very pale blue with black accents. We got into the habit of having something striking when the children were small so I'm left with having to do a neat and tidy job. End result is pleasing on the eye but leaves me moving with all the grace of a crabbed nonagenarian.
 

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Posted by daisydaisy (# 12167) on :
 
In anticipation of harvesting raspberries, gooseberries, pears etc I am wondering about bottling (or "canning") rather than freezing. As the largest pan I have only holds maybe 2 kilner jars I am wondering about using the oven instead, but don't know if I can use the clip-top kilner jars in the oven and have instead to find and use the screw-top type.

Any suggestions? (I am aware of the need to regulate temperature & sugar to avoid the risk of botulism)
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
There's also tipping them into a bottle and adding sugar and supermarket gin or vodka.

I did that last year and it is definitely going to happen again this year if the traumatised raspberry canes produce anything.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Fruit vinegars are very nice -- you can drink them, or use them in dressings.
 

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Posted by daisydaisy (# 12167) on :
 
I agree with both of you - gin/vodka and vinegars are great and are a regular. I'd like to be able to use the actual fruit on cereal, in pies etc, just as I do from the freezer.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:
There's also tipping them into a bottle and adding sugar and supermarket gin or vodka.

I did that last year and it is definitely going to happen again this year if the traumatised raspberry canes produce anything.

---

quote:

---

In anticipation of harvesting raspberries, gooseberries, pears etc I am wondering about bottling (or "canning") rather than freezing. As the largest pan I have only holds maybe 2 kilner jars I am wondering about using the oven instead, but don't know if I can use the clip-top kilner jars in the oven and have instead to find and use the screw-top type.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
No problem, I bottle fruit from my garden every summer and I always use the oven and clip-top jars (I use Le Parfait brand but I'm sure Kilner would be the same).

---

Thank you so much for providing such detail! I shall be bottling this summer!
 

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Posted by Scots lass (# 2699) on :
 
I'm learning to garden (slowly) as our house has a reasonable sized garden. I've managed to weed some of the beds, husband cuts the grass and I've planted some herbs in pots. But we appear to have a snail invasion. I put down slug pellets by my herbs (I want them to live!) but is there any other good way of preventing them?
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Be careful if you have pets -- slug pellets look a lot like cat or dog kibble. People have spoken of using dishes of beer to bait slugs into drowning, but IMO this is a waste of good beer. If you are not squeamish, handpick them.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I don't mind picking up spiders or even small weta but slugs are ooky. Drown then in cheap beer. Maybe they will die happy.

Huia
 

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Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
IIRC a while back there was talk of using copper to deter slugs. I don't recall any details.

Moo
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
This is what I had in mind. It seems to work up to a point, but I still use the pellets.
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
We've found that copper tape generally works well on pots, but that some slugs are particularly big and determined - we caught one long one a few years ago in the act of shimmying over the tape (so its rear end was below the tape while its head end was above it and heading for the top of the pot and the treasure therein, and its middle was perched out in thin air). We've chosen not to use slug pellets, as although they're effective when ingested by the slugs, they're very bad news when said slugs are then ingested by birds. The price we pay for our conscience though is less veg and salad because the buggers take advantage of our good nature.

At our place (which has a postage stamp-sized garden at the front and a communal, mainly tarmacked drying green at the back), we've this year built a new raised bed to put out the back by our kitchen window (we got a ton of compost delivered recently to fill it) and will try some veg and salad there. We had to give up our allotment last year, and while we won't be able to grow very much, at least we can grow a little bit and show our daughter where food comes from. We have a poly-tunnel/plastic greenhouse thingy which will cover about half the bed, in which we'll grow salad leaves, and the other half this year will be courgettes. I have 5 courgette plants in total, so I'm going to have to find some big pots because I won't be able to get all of them in the raised bed if they all thrive. I've also got a couple of tomato plants in big pots outside and a squash too, plus some chives and a blackcurrant plant salvaged from the allotment. We'll see how quickly the slugs find them (our previous compost bin, now dismantled, was basically a slug maternity hospital).

I'm really looking forward to some stress-free veg growing this year - I loved the allotment, and do miss it, but having to keep an area of land to someone else's standards was a bit stressful, so I really don't miss that aspect of it.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I finally got out to do some serious clearing of the jungle this afternoon, and have put in a very healthy looking courgette plant - Waitrose was selling them WITH FRUIT ALREADY ON THEM! Also a very sad looking ridge cucumber, and some even sadder runner beans - though I have some better ones from the WI market, and have stuck some seeds in as well.

Someone has been investigating those, though, and also the pea succession sowing. I do hope it was not the two dead mice I found floating in a bucket, one a female, the other possibly offspring, being smaller. Why they had got into the bucket, I don't know, as there is a plastic tray near the water storage area deliberately to prevent wee beasties climbing into the tank after water.

I gathered in the greens, which I have steamed in special microwave bags, which, when cool, I will put in the freezer. Not nearly as much there as stuffed the compost bin, though. Still quite a bit to do before it looks presentable out the back, though.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
We've finally had two consecutive days with no rain here, and some of my strawberries have managed to ripen without being nibbled by slugs. The slugs and snails have got most of the crop this year. The snails have been so excited by all the wet weather that they are climbing up the gooseberry bushes and also up the plum trees!

I spent a happy morning making jam from fruit that was only marginally slug-eaten. I figure if it's cooked for long enough before I add the sugar a bit of slug slime won't make any difference
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I now have the problem of the legacy philadelphus. This has a pretty flower habit, with lots of small flowers along the stems, but the scent is awful. I am going to have to shut the windows until it is over. It's not awful like the cat pee smell of flowering currant. It's recognisably a perfume rather than a stink, but it is overpoweringly cloying. Quite unlike normal philadelphus, which has a light scent with top notes, which this lacks.

What I have planned is to replace it gradually with one taken from a cutting from my parents' bush, which is more like the usual scent. Both are currently in flower, but I cannot pick out the usual scent at all, quite drowned out by the other one. Not even when I stick my nose into the flower! Maybe next year, when I have pruned the offending one even harder.

And I can't smell the roses or the honeysuckle either.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:

I spent a happy morning making jam from fruit that was only marginally slug-eaten. I figure if it's cooked for long enough before I add the sugar a bit of slug slime won't make any difference

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Penny S:
It's not awful like the cat pee smell of flowering currant.

---

Odd how perceptions differ. I love the smell of flowering currant, especially the crushed leaves. To me it is bright and green and acidic.

One of my favourite perfumes is Diptyque L'Ombre dans l'Eau, just because it smells of currants and roses.
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Another vote in favour of the scent of flowering currant here - and I loathe and detest the smell of cat pee, so I'm very thankful that I don't see any similarity! I do occasionally pick up a hint of it in some strong jasmine-type scents though.
 

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Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
First year of trying to grow potatoes in several large buckets. First harvest of new potatoes today. How easy it was to turn over bucket pick up potatoes, Lunch. I plan on doing this again.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I tried the dish of beer to kill slugs; within 24 hours I had a dead frog in the dish. Never again.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Tell yourself it died happy.

I had rather less earth/compost than I needed for the two planters of potatoes, so they only got filled to about halfway. Nevertheless the foliage is spilling out over the top. I just hope there's equivalent activity going on at root level.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Today I bought a tomato plant with green tomatoes already on it! Cheating all round.

Too hot at the moment to do any gardening though. I'll have to wait till the shadow moves round a bit.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
The tomato plants in my porch are almost 5ft high, but all leaves and no sign of any tomatoes. I have three small flowers and that is it.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Too much compost? You might try to shock them into production by cutting back on water.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I've cleared another raised bed, upon which I had been throwing weeds and prunings from the other side of the garden because it was on the way to the compost bins, and started to fill the second bin. I have fixed plastic trellis instead of pea sticks on the pea bed - won't stand up to a strong wind, I fear, and planted alliums - leeks, spring onions and onion sets in the cleared bed.

Doesn't sound much like that, but it took nearly an hour, and I couldn't listen to the radio - every time I turned on it was someone I couldn't bear to hear. I usually have earmuffs with the radio in, so as not to disturb the neighbours.

Yesterday my neighbour cleared his motorbike collection from his garden. Somehow I missed them when viewing the place - he'd put them there because the person whose barn he was renting wanted it back. The removal men were delighted by them - 'Look, there's an old Post Office one - haven't seen one of them for years!' They've been there for some years now, and suddenly the lot, except for one under a cover, have gone. I thought he was planning to restore them and sell them on, but they hadn't had any work done on them. So he's either found somewhere to store them, or the man who came yesterday with a yellow van has bought them as they are. He has plans to replace the fence, and said he wasn't going to do it until the autumn - which has implications for my side. I don't have anything fixed to it that can't be moved by then, but there are immoveable things close to it.

[ 24. June 2016, 18:40: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Hail today. That's weather, not a greeting.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I was out when it did that, and missed it. Or it missed me! We found it lurking in the light lee of hedges and walls close by the local church. None in my garden though, nor evidence of plants being hit by it.
 

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Posted by Tree Bee (# 4033) on :
 
Daughter Erin and her husband moved into a house a mile away from us two and a half years ago.
The previous owners were our age and keen gardeners. The borders were over full of beautiful plants.
Erin has no interest in her garden and her husband has an insect phobia so we have been tending this beautiful garden as we can't bear to watch it go wild.
Today I bought 2 garden gnomes which I will place in the borders . I wonder how long it will take them to be spotted.
 

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Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
something has eaten the roots of my violas!
 

---

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Penny S:
I was out when it did that, and missed it. Or it missed me! We found it lurking in the light lee of hedges and walls close by the local church. None in my garden though, nor evidence of plants being hit by it.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Boogie:
something has eaten the roots of my violas!

---

I've found out what it was - vine weevils!

I've ordered some stuff to eradicate them.
 

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Posted by Tree Bee (# 4033) on :
 
Gnomes now in place in daughter Erin's back garden. Red hat is near to the house, in a semi obscured position. Yellow hat is on the othe side of the garden, well hidden until you are halfway down. Now to wait...
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I am starting to have high hopes for my garden this summer. Beloved Goddaughter is at the teen stage of sighing and rolling her eyes at me BUT she is skint and wants new clothes and I am willing to pay her to help me in the garden. So long as I am paying her she is pleasant and chatty AND the garden is getting weeded and trimmed. I can no longer take her to a cafe for a hot chocolate as she is too embarrassed to be see with me in public, but today for the cost of a trip to a cafe we cut the grass and weeded two flowerbeds. I think this is a win/win situation.
 

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Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
Amid our 100 day growing season. We now have lettuce and kale. Small but very nice. The beets and carrot tops are about 4" high. Tomatoes are flowering. The cherry tree has little cherries starting to form. An early year for us. Last frost was in April, usually it is at the end of May.

But the really exiting news is the burr oak I planted from an acorn brought from Winnipeg 5 years ago to honour my mother's death 6 years ago (as of end of July) actually looks like a tree this year. It is now almost 6 feet tall and loads of wee little acorns. It could have babies! -- oaks are rare as can be here as we are in Zone 1b to 2a (means winter temps of around -45°C (-50°F) are usual for a while in winter.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by North East Quine:
I am starting to have high hopes for my garden this summer. Beloved Goddaughter is at the teen stage of sighing and rolling her eyes at me BUT she is skint and wants new clothes and I am willing to pay her to help me in the garden. So long as I am paying her she is pleasant and chatty AND the garden is getting weeded and trimmed. I can no longer take her to a cafe for a hot chocolate as she is too embarrassed to be see with me in public, but today for the cost of a trip to a cafe we cut the grass and weeded two flowerbeds. I think this is a win/win situation.

---

Okay, now I know what to do about my son, maybe! (embarrassing them is fun)
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
I need a new hedge trimmer. The problem is, I'm not very strong and I rapidly get tired lifting a heavy machine. Can anyone advise me on what's best to buy?

I have a privet hedge at the front of the house and a rather lovely (but long!) blackthorn hedge down one side of the back garden. Both need regular trimming.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
This year, for the first time, I have tried growing tomatoes in my porch. I planted three; two Gardener's Delight and one Beefmaster. Previously we grew tomatoes in the greenhouse, but the greenhouse was badly damaged in a storm and we removed it last year.

The plants have grown vigorously and rapidly and are now all over 5ft 6in; the tallest is over 6ft. BUT, so far I have four flowers, and a number of tiny buds. Why are they taking so long to fruit? I don't recall our greenhouse tomato plants being quite so vigorous; but they cropped well.

If I'm patient does this bode well for a bumper crop in September?
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Sounds like they're over-fertilized (can't remember which nutrient in excess produces tons of leaves and no fruit). Consider no more fertilizing but otherwise keep on as you're doing. If you've simply planted them in a paradisiacal spot (by their reckoning!) you may be stuck.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I'm not fertilising them. I was going to start giving them tomato food once the tomatoes started appearing. They're planted in my own compost, whereas in previous years they've been in gro-bags.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
In pure compost? Because you may have some mighty good stuff there.
 

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Posted by geroff (# 3882) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
I need a new hedge trimmer. The problem is, I'm not very strong and I rapidly get tired lifting a heavy machine. Can anyone advise me on what's best to buy?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tree Bee:
Gnomes now in place in daughter Erin's back garden. Red hat is near to the house, in a semi obscured position. Yellow hat is on the othe side of the garden, well hidden until you are halfway down. Now to wait...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by North East Quine:
I'm not fertilising them. I was going to start giving them tomato food once the tomatoes started appearing. They're planted in my own compost, whereas in previous years they've been in gro-bags.

---

It still could be an excess nitrogen issue, depending on the contents of the compost pile. (That's as far as my plant biology knowledge goes- nitrogen promotes leaf and stem growth). Mine won't set flowers if it gets too hot, but I suspect that it rarely reaches those temps where you are.

My zinnias are finally beginning to open. I have a garden box in which I have arranged a carpet of zinnias around a tomato plant and a few basil plants. In a few weeks, it should be stunning.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
I understand you can buy fertilizers specifically designed to push flowers/fruit rather than leaves. Might be worth a try. I think your tomatoes are having TOO good a time!

ETA the best performing vine I knew was growing between the cracks in the concrete surround of a chlorinated pool. Can't get much more adverse than that.

[ 07. July 2016, 23:51: Message edited by: Lamb Chopped ]
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
The compost heap is mostly kitchen waste; peelings, egg shells, tea leaves, plus the inside of toilet rolls to add a bit of air space, and some garden waste. Also, given the interest the neighbour's cat takes in it, I suspect mouse droppings. We have two compost bins; we use one, then let it compost down while we fill the second. We have a separate green cone for cooked food waste. And we use coffee grounds to deter snails (not very successfully) so they don't go in the compost.
 

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Posted by Tree Bee (# 4033) on :
 
Gnomes have been spotted. Daughter Erin is most amused and asked if they'd always been there.
Satisfied! End of topic.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Waitrose supermarkets now offer free coffee, which has led them to acquire a lot of coffee grounds. At first, they sent these to anaerobic digester, but then hit on the wheeze of offering them to gardeners for composting or slug deterring. Except that, in their magazine, printed in grey ink up the page close to the spine, so it was hard to find, even when directed that there was something linked to an asterisk, they had the warning that regulations meant that the grounds could not be used to deal with pests. (Possibly post Brexit that won't apply.)

I turn up with a bag, and check the bin. It is usually empty. One day, the partner emptied the coffee machine in front of me, and took the grounds directly to the bin, instead of the usual process of putting it behind the counter. I took my coffee, went to the bin, and found it empty again. I told the partner, because this seemed funny, and they gave me the entire bag from behind the counter!

I now suspect that someone living close by is watching through a telescope and rushes over when they see something put in - I have only ever seen one other person taking the grounds. Very odd. I operate on the principle of leaving enough for others.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
If you live in the US Starbucks will also give you coffee grounds for garden use.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
I just came in from feeding/watering my orchids. My left hand fingers felt something sticky. There was a leech on a finger! Gross.
 

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Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :
 
Erk! Not my favourite creatures. At Wollombi out in the bush we could see them after heavy rain, just wriggling on the ground. When we lived in bushy area on Sydney's North Shore, we had a big garden with lots of shrubs, trees and leaf litter. I looked down after rainwhile I was standing on front covered porch which was up a dozen stairs. There was one on the tiles. I read they can sense a difference of 0.001 degrees in temperature and move towards the heat as that means food.

Judy, if it bit you, clean it well and take care. ExMr L used to get leech bites infected in an hour or so after the time the sucker latched on.

[ 09. July 2016, 22:27: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
Thank goodness it didn't attach. Double gross. It was just lying limply on my finger. One good flick, and it was gone. I feel like my watering can should be lifted with heavy garden gloves from now on!

[tangent] We have swales at the sides of our roads that fill up in monsoon rains. Kids love to splash and play in them. There are many, many leeches in that water. [/tangent]
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
According to information found in a children's book by E.Nesbit, put salt on a leech and it will unplug itself from you. But I won't be looking for a leech to establish that this works.
 

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Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :
 
Well known fact down here, Jacobsen.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Today is the day for dead-heading my climbing rose. Long handled shears required. Also trying to corral it onto trellisses and above the sitting room window rather than across it. I may be gone some time.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
After considerable dead-heading and chopping, and half a bin of rose bits, I got close enough to the house wall to put up trellisses. Even managed to train the longest stem over the living room window. Should now have more light. Also two small vases of blossom from the recalcitrant stems which wanted to head for the street and drew blood. There is still a lot of self-willed climber, but the effect is much neater. Well, relatively.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I am sure you had heavy gardening gloves!
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jacobsen:
I may be gone some time.

---

Yes, I made a foray into the wilderness of passionflower vines. You know these can grow up to fifteen feet long? And self-seed themselves every three inches all over our border?

We could have anything hiding in there.
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I am sure you had heavy gardening gloves!

---

quote:

---

What I needed was full body armour - those thorns are vicious.

---

quote:

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
The vegetable bed is ready, any real risk of frost is gone and a nice drop of rain is forecast for tomorrow night. So it's decision time. Courgettes or runner beans? I haven't got space to grow both……….

What to do???

---

Both.In the same space/ pot(s). Only one will survive, and it will be exciting to find out which. Or, as courgettes spread, and beans grow up their tripods, maybe both would survive. A win-win situation.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
The beans are pathetic. Only half of them even attempted to sprout, and the three that have sprouted are about 6 inches high. By now they ought to be up at the top of their poles.

My neighbour's beans are doing badly this year, too. It's been dark and cool.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by quetzalcoatl:
....
Anybody an expert on Jerusalem artichokes, as ours have not appeared this year? Maybe I need to dig them all up and replant.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Globe artichokes seem to produce more and smaller globes, then nothing worth eating as they run out of steam.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by daisydaisy:

quote:

---

Originally posted by quetzalcoatl:
....
Anybody an expert on Jerusalem artichokes, as ours have not appeared this year? Maybe I need to dig them all up and replant.

---

Wow I'm impressed. I'm no expert, but I have yet to find a way to get rid of them.

---

quote:

---

Blossom end rot on the courgettes.

And I looked out this morning to see that the bowl of the birdbath had fallen off the plinth. A very large bird unbalanced it? The night visiting cat? A completely unnoticed earth tremor?

---

Oh dear!

In my garden the bird bath culprit would be a young fox. Yesterday I saw two of them trying to catch the bees on the lavender hedge, and smashing up the hedge in the process. I hope they succeed
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
No fox access - and the fewmets, spraint, scat, (whatever the appropriate term in venery I have failed to pick up from T H White is) was definitely not fox.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
If it were a tremor, it would definitely not be unnoticed. Damage such as you describe would rate at least a 5 on the European Macroseismic Scale.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Quite! Something similar happened before, cracking a much thicker and heavier bowl, and I never believed that could have been done naturally. There was a teenage boy next door. Not possible now.

Meanwhile, turning out stuff I got from my Dad's kitchen, I have found some old ground pepper and some curry powder, and I think I will apply them to any bare soil up the garden. Probably not enough smell left, of course.
 

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Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :
 
Bugger the raspberries, then. I'll have to eat cake.
 

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Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
Letting the veggie garden dry up. Not worth the water in this long hot summer in the 3 digits. I will replant in the early fall. Using water allowance on trees and shrubs. I have moved a few herbs into pots and have them on the porch where they get afternoon shade and wetting them down with dish pan water. You would think I would learn that spring and fall gardens are the way to go in my part of the world.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I've been out and torn off and stamped on the clusters of Large White eggs on the cabbage.

And spotted a frog. Last week I found a toad as well. Good guys to have around, but I need more to deal with the slugs.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
As of yesterday, I have a weed wand - a butane powered torch for killing weeds "without chemicals" - ha ha - by scorching them. I dunno whether it's done any good yet as they takea couple of days to wilt, but it's dangerously good fun!

AG
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I am indoors, not properly up because of late night, and watching the continuous stream of Large Whites visiting my last plant supplying greens.

Big Butterfly Watch! Ha!

And something big has been breaking off parts of leaves, as well. Not slugs and snails. I shall have to give up trying to get another couple of heads out of it, and bring it in.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
My garden is too lush, too fertile, too fecund, but not for the stuff I want.

The Virginia Creeper is attempting to get back across the pond- it has reclaimed the space I removed it from a month ago, and then gone on to double the growth. I was going to cut it back again, but it is now raining too hard.

The forsythia has put out a load of vertical stems and is occupying far too much space, and needs heavy pruning. I'm sure it is twice the size it was at the beginning of the year.

The rambling rose which I grew from the rootstock of a neighbour back at my last home has filled the space I pruned a month ago.

The bramble is doing what brambles do, but not as usual after falling over in a gale but bearing too much fruit for me to cut it back yet.

The honeysuckle and the jasmine are on the attack.

The wild and the garden geraniums are doing well, and the willow herb is very happy. As are the two varieties of Lysimachia, and the London Pride.

But the onions are vanishing, the cucumbers making pathetic attempts at not dying and the peas are weakly putting out only one or two flowers in a square metre of raised bed. Despite having fertiliser applied at planting, and a second dose since.

Bah. If it isn't clearing the mess from the cable not-laying, and the repaint, it's doing the weeding and the cutting back again and again and again. I can't get it to a state where all I have to do is gentle maintenance and sit out when it isn't raining.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I have managed to cut back a huge amount of the creeper, which has filled to overflowing one of those plastic canvas sacks for garden stuff, where I will leave it to wilt down a bit before lugging it across the garden to the compost bin. All of it grew over the last month and a bit.

Apart from green manure, what is the point of the stuff? For about five minutes in the autumn, it puts on a display of New England Fall red, which I miss if I'm out at the shops. The rest of the year it's a thug like Russian Vine - but no-one talks about it in the same terms as that plant.
 

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Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :
 
Apparently some people/ folk in a political party in Norway are suggesting that twice a year citizens of Norway could hunt Spanish Slugs. this species is a menace, apparently driving out smaller native slugs.
I think the idea is based on the popularity of Earth Hour...

Q:
Are spanish slugs those darn great brown ones with orange frills?

Coz if so i will happily do whatever needs to be done! They've decimated my sunflowers....beans....peppers ....and are currently chomping their way through a usually resilient and hardy clematis. they've been caught in the act....
 

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Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :
 
On a more calm note, any ideas for encouraging my honeysuckle to flower? Plenty of growth, but as yet only four flowers this year.

But that is a 100% improvement on it's earlier five years........
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
My one with clusters of pinky/cream flowers has taken off very well, feet in the clay, but the one with pairs of cream flowers, in a tub, has only flowered this year after several doing very little, but it seems to have found its feet and is growing well, so I have hopes of next year. Maybe yours is like that?
I was told that honeysuckle needed blood fish and bone meal, as they were very hungry - the one in the clay certainly doesn't need any more. It's going to go vegan. The tub one may get a dose. I'm hoping it has got out through the holes I put in the bottom. Where it is I couldn't dig to put plants in as its a very narrow border, and about nine inches down there is another set of patio flagstones. (Cue suspicious music.) I have assumed that the roots of the jasmine, the dwarf plum and the honeysuckle will go exploring to find suitable soil. The plum has definitely found somewhere good as it doesn't look anything like dwarfed. I'm having to prune it almost as much as the creeper.
 

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Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :
 
Ah.
You could have a major point there. This poor ole thing is in a pot and thinking about it, hasn't been fed...at all...

(hangs head in shame and shuffles off to do exactly that...)
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Pruning eh? I have done something heroic in that line. The beech hedge was getting taller than me, so I set out to reduce it armed only with secaturs and a rusty sickle saw. Every few feet I would clear away the twiggage to reveal a nascent tree trunk.

The piled off cuts are practically tree-sized by themselves.

Tomorrow I must investigate if the vast (and now wilted) foliage on the tubs of potatoes actually betoken the presence of any tubers. Going out to dinner Saturday, and if there is a crop I've promised to bring a giant Dauphinoise.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I am going to prune the Albertine. Again. With a long arm pruner.

Only I'm not going to take the arisings down to the dump. I am going to arrange them over the veggie beds to discourage the phantom scat depositor. Along with some time expired curry powder.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I have pruned the forsythia, but only partly, taking out the lower branches which have grown over my spring bed, filling up all the space almost to ground level, and completely blocking light from the peony the previous owner left for me. It doesn't look as though I have cut much out, but I had a huge pile, and will only be able to fit some of it into the bag to go to the dump. There should be another somewhere, which would cut the trips down.
It has produced a lot of upward growth as well, lots of sky-seeking stems, which, like the ones I've been trimming, will be very soft. I know I'm only supposed to cut out a third each year, but is putting on so much growth that it would take over the garden if I let it.
The cat has been excavating, but not leaving scat. At least, I think it was a cat. The neighbour hasn't seen it, either.
I had to rush out to pick blackberries as the blackbirds have discovered them. And I seem to be the only local supplier of water as all the woodpigeons come down to drink at the tank or the birdbath.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
It's huge, purple, tumescent, and I am inordintaely proud of it.

Yes, that's right, first aubergine from the greenhouse!

AG
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Gosh, the images your post conjures up.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 


AG
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I think I may be growing record breaking tomatoes!

Container, chosen to fit into my porch: £7.49; 3 tomato plants:£5, plastic caps to stop me poking my eyes out on the bamboo pole supports: £2, screws to hold the string supports: £1.50. Total £15.99.

The tomato plants have reached the porch ceiling and are now growing across it. There are two green marble sized tomatoes so far. Would £8 per tomato constitute a record breaking cost?
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by North East Quine:
The tomato plants have reached the porch ceiling and are now growing across it. There are two green marble sized tomatoes so far. Would £8 per tomato constitute a record breaking cost?

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I think it would certainly qualify.

I've had a look on Google, which wasn't helpful about tomatoes, but it did point out that Harrods have been known to sell cherries for £1.65 each, or £41.16 for a punnet of nearly 300g.

"We sell French Glamour Edoa cherries from a small producer in the Pyrenees with a limited number of trees. They grow in the open and are only available for four weeks in the year. Each cherry is hand-picked at optimal ripeness with direct, same-day distribution into Harrods."

I think you could legitimately claim your tomatoes are from a small producer in Scotland with a limited number of tomato plants that also grow in the open (call them free range, organic, and hand-reared) and are only available for a few days a year. Each tomato is, obviously, lovingly cared for, then hand-picked at optimal ripeness with direct, same-day distribution into a genuine Scottish kitchen.

If yours are heirloom or heritage tomatoes you may be sitting on, or gingerly venturing through your porch under, a small green fortune. See how it goes and then contact a top London department store's food hall with this unique limited edition offer.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Quit feeding the plants, immediately. Cut back on water. This should drive them to go to fruit, instead of stem and leaf.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I'm not feeding them. I planted them in compost from my own compost heap and think it may have been too much for them.

It's just a small porch, four feet by eight feet, and the three rampant tomato plants have taken over.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Yeah, it sounds too rich! Well, you must take photos and explain that the plants are taking over. (Once some pumpkins volunteered in my front yard -- also a compost experiment. I lost the front walk entirely, and thought I would need a machete to get the car out.)
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I took three large bags to the dump with prunings from the Albertine, the bramble, some ivy and the forsythia. These will, with the huge amounts others were taking, get made into 'soil improver' and sold back to us. My stuff is too woody for my compost bins. There will be more forsythia. It has delusions of grandeur and wants to be a tree.

I picked three tomatoes and some blackberries, during which procedure I fell over, but only onto soft stuff, and didn't spill anything. Usually I can reach it while standing on firm ground, but since the wind tore the trellis off the fence and dumped the trained stems, already fully in flower, on their face, it isn't easy. Trying to hoist it back up enough to fruit was not a simple process. It is a viciously prickled plant.
 

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Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :
 
Plenty of blackberries down here Penny, huge clumps . However thay are classed as a noxious weed and need spraying with poison. When we had a place in the bush we and our neighbours had them on our land. January long weekend was our traditional picking time. Protective clothing, long planks of wood to bash them down a bit so we could get in to pick them, billycans to hold them and the snakebite first aid kit, just in case. Snakes happily live in the blackberries as the thorns ward off predators.

Pastures Protection Boards or their equivalents in rural Australian areas police the spraying and landowners can be fined for not spraying.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I can see why they would be regarded as problematic out of the native range. The reproductive habit of sending out loops to root further out is very effective. My plant is on a mission to take over the garden - it would be interesting to see which would win - the bramble or the Virginia Creeper! It takes a lot of training and cutting back. Its adventitious stems are as thick as my thumbs, and they put on several feet a week! I joke that you wouldn't need stop motion filming to see the growth happening.

After the fruiting season, I'm cutting some of the canes right back to ground so I can put the cable conduit in the right place (the fitter threaded it through the plant) and the neighbour can replace his fence. I'll leave a few longer to form the basis of next year's fruiting. And they will be fixed firmly to solid trellis.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Haven't been here for a while, I've been too busy picking fruit. I've got a wonderful crop of raspberries this year. The freezer is full and the family are starting to say that they really don't want any more - which is a first.

The outdoor tomatoes are doing well, the courgettes are catching up after a slow start and it looks as though I may finally get a few runner beans.

The plums on the second tree are starting to ripen. See you all back here when I've dealt with the produce

Happy gardening!
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I've just been out for a very early watering session, as 30 deg C is forecast, and a prune of the forsythia - got the last tall stems down - and the rambler, and the neighbour's ivy. Also a collection of blackberries and a courgette - one succumbed to blossom end rot again, and the one and only peach. Slightly early, but some things looking like beetle larvae had made a start, and a snail had crawled onto it. It's only little - like an apricot. Next year I'm going to put muslin bags round them. And there is one runner bean pod.
Worn me out for the day.

[ 23. August 2016, 07:45: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
I'm at the hack-it-off/down stage, if not quite heading for a flamethrower. The garden is looking neater, but a few days of sun following all that rain seems to have resulted in a near doubling of undergrowth, overgrowth and foliage in general. A second trip to the tip looms.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
(sigh) Four years ago a friend gave me a slip from a fig tree. I planted it in the sunniest spot, and carefully covered it over every winter. It has grown to be taller than I am. Not a fig do I see! Summer is now winding to its close and it is clear that this is going to be yet one more figless year. I am tempted to go all Biblical on it. What should be done?
 

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Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
(sigh) Four years ago a friend gave me a slip from a fig tree. I planted it in the sunniest spot, and carefully covered it over every winter. It has grown to be taller than I am. Not a fig do I see! Summer is now winding to its close and it is clear that this is going to be yet one more figless year. I am tempted to go all Biblical on it. What should be done?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
You may need to be brutal to your fig tree to get it to fruit.

My parents have a fig tree in their garden which didn't fruit until they asked my sister how the Greeks treated their trees; she lived just outside Athens for a while. That tree was pruned, root pruned and confined to a fixed bed to improve the drainage. They decided that painting it blue wasn't something they wanted to do, which is apparently something else that is done in Greece.

Coddling a tree that grows in cracks in walls and on rocky hillsides makes them put on green, not fruit, gives them too much water and/or nitrogen

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I don't have to prune this fig -- Nature does it for me. It dies right down to the ground in the colder winters, and the root is saved only because I cover the base of the plant with oak leaves. Every spring it grows again, and this year it has become taller than I am, in a span of 4 months. But nary a fruit!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Not sure what to do about it. Build a cage, and try to insulate the entire tree over the winter? Count upon global warming to make our winters warmer?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
A friend of mine has urged me to plant garlic. To this end I bought one head, from the local farm market. I will plant the bulblets in a couple weeks.

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I'm hoping to plant garlic this year too. I will leave it later though - I'm not sure where you are, Brenda, but be careful not to plant them too early. What you need is for them to have started off, but not got very far when they get hit by the first frost (this is what makes the individual garlic cloves you plant divide and then form a new bulb of a bunch of individual cloves). Here in Scotland's central belt, despite the reputation for less than tropical weather, we often don't get a decent frost till very late in the year, so I'm not planning on planting much before the end of October.

We ate the first squash harvested from the little plant bought for £1.50 from Lidl a few months ago. It was delicious! The plant has gone mad, produced loads of little squash-lets, although so far only the one we just ate has gone beyond teeny-tiny size. It reminds me of little kids and balloons - when they first try to blow up a balloon it will only go a little way, as they don't yet realise that they need to feel the balloon 'give' and then it will expand really quickly. So far all the squash are like those little kid balloons, and only the one has received enough 'oomph' to expand to any kind of size. I'm still hopeful for some of the others though.

We also spotted a little proto-artichoke today, which was very satisfying. We grew a few artichokes and cardoons from seed, put the little plants that emerged on the allotment, and brought them back with us when we gave up the allotment last year. They've been plonked unceremoniously in a few pots, which they share with some pretty persistent weeds, and haven't shown any signs at all of growth, but not dying either - they've just sat there the same size for the last couple of years doing nothing. So we were delighted to spot the little artichoke heart.

[ 11. September 2016, 19:39: Message edited by: Jack the Lass ]
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
It might be good to thin out the little squashlets, so that the plant's energy can go to maturing the remaining ones.

I had not known that about garlic and frost! Will certainly wait until October -- it's going to be 90 degrees here this week.
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
Yes, I've now chopped off the ends of the runners so that the plant can concentrate on the squash that is already there rather than carry on trying to attach itself to anything and everything in the back court. I've also snapped off the little squashlets which look like they might be heading down the mouldy road, so they don't end up infecting the plant. I spotted another squash today which I think is the best contender so far for the next one to get to eatable size.

I'm just so pleased to get something so pleasantly edible from a cheap unassuming plant from Lidl.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
Brenda, you'd better look up the garlic planting date for your area--mine said 4th of July. Though I think it's hard to go wrong with these at any time.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
My three tomato plants, planted last March in our front porch, have produced eight tomatoes so far. However, they have just produced new flowers. Is there any chance that they might produce more tomatoes at this late stage? The porch is unheated, but frost-free.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Unless it's quite warm I doubt it. But at this point it probably does you no harm to wait and see.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Does it need pollinating with a paintbrush?
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Does anyone have a kumquat? We have ours on our living room windowsill, getting the maximum possible light. It has suffered extensive leaf drop recently, which apparently means that it isn't getting enough light.

The answer may be setting up a light source for it. Has anybody used hydroponic lights?
 

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