The gardening thread

[gentlegreen]

I'm trying to rationalise using a hanging basket.
I need a shot of tropical colour to spice up my only moderately exotic passion flower arbor / beach hut.
I'll have to put in plumbing if I do.

I suppose I could think of it as a clump of epiphytes clinging to a tree.

Perhaps I should carve up the trunk of my dead £100 tree fern and wrap that front support pillar to look more like a tree...

 

[gentlegreen]

I've shifted my cordyline over to the sunny side to balance the tree fern, but am now stuck with what to put in its place.
It's probably going to have to be some hardy ferns - though one of my brugmansias is likely to be so tall this year since it's starting growth at nearly 6 feet, that might actually do well there and frame the fern.
I'll probably get some ferns anyway - I always meant to have some on the left by the fence.

You can see I'm getting the wall ready to receive the hop below it.
If all goes well, that's going to be super-vigorous this year as it's now planted in the ground and will have more than enough vigour to cover the fence.



Apologies for weird photograph - it's a still from my ancient security camera.

 

[gentlegreen]

I was in town today so bought lilly corms - two types of brightly-coloured ones and loads of lovely perfumed star-gazers which I suppose I ought to plant up at weekly intervals to get continuity.
I also bought some crocosmia corms and some bright red trailing begonias for my hanging basket experiment...

.. plus some orange violas to follow-on from the crocuses.

I realised today that with the cordyline on the right, I can't actually see through to my floral focal point, so I've decided to bring some colour to this side of the fern so I can appreciate it from the house - the conditions are probably spot on for the potted bulbs at least ...

 

[gentlegreen]

I got my remaining hop plants in the ground and also the miscanthus - which was seriously tub-bound and needed major hacking. I have lots of rhizome sitting in a bucket-pot to see if I get any new plants.

Since the few tomato and pepper plants I will be growing this year will be in the border soil, I have over a dozen spare bucket-pots** to plant up week by week with lily bulbs etc.

** shiny black buckets with drainage holes drilled in them.

 

[Manter]

Spent part of today in the garden doing boring stuff- namely digging holes for fence posts- but the finished side is really starting to come into it's own. It's only the second year, so pretty good that so much stuff has taken off. Though I have clematis wilt :-( not sure what to do about it

 

[Purdie]

I have a daily visitor and no idea what to make of it. It taps on the window and then flies up and does that for a good 15 minutes at least. So I thought maybe it is asking for food so I went out and scattered seed in the usual places but he still came back after that. Pretty sure he does it every morning. Both Mr. Purdie and Purdie Jnr. have seen and heard it too now.

 

[Leafster]

I have bluetits do similar things - they sit on the balcony rail outside the window and appear to be looking at the brickwork around the window.

I think they're looking for nesting sites. There's a vent for the central heating just to one side of the window and they've been known to get in the vent and then I have to rescue them from the boiler cupboard.

 

[Purdie]

Nextdoor has a nesting box. I don't because the cat is an excellent tree climber and there is plenty of safer places to build nests than in my garden.
What I do have is a jackdaw nest in my roof You can hear the young ones chirping in little Purdie's bedroom (later in the year). We tried to evict them but they weren't having it and found others ways in. Not too bothered by them as we rent and it is not our house


The make a right mess with all the twigs that don't make it into the nest (or fall out again)

 

[gentlegreen]

The only bird activity I have is two pairs of enormous wood pigeons.
I feed them via two mesh bowls on a pole, but they waste a hell of a lot so I have germinating grains everywhere - including in amongst the foliage of my cordyline.

I sort of deliberately bought a sack of somewhat cruddy birdseed in Aldi, knowing it would only be wood pigeons that would benefit, but I have mixed feelings about them.
A couple of times recently I've thought I could actually learn to love them if they were feral parakeets.

 

[Leafster]

You mean like this?



They're always flying over my garden but this was one of the rare occasions they stopped off for a feed.

I think we're derailing the thread.

 

[gentlegreen]

Since the weather is a bit pants, I finally got around to sowing some things today - I have a heated propagator indoors.
Tomatoes and peppers... I bought a single Gardener's Delight plant for 99p on Thursday, but have sown some more - cherry tomatoes are all I eat in that line at the moment.

But I also sowed some alicante and some pointy peppers - because I had the seeds.
The latter will mean I need to get my cooking facilities well-enough organised so I can use my wok.
Though I suppose I could get good at roasting things or making pizza.

I have also sown some verbena bonariensis - I only have a couple of straggly plants in buckets - some heliotrope, French marigolds and night-scented stock.

My two kinds of tobacco (the highly-scented alata and the triffid-like sylvestris) haven't come up after 7 days so I'll order some more from Chiltern seeds - along with a fast-growing datura metaloides "Belle Blanche" - since it doesn't look like my single brugmansia cutting is going to deliver.
I've cleared some space in the front garden specially and chucked in a couple of bags of Aldi's peat-free - hopefully the worms will do their magic over the next couple of months.

The nicotiana sylvestris is in place of some of my huge quantity of pink anemones, the datura will be an excuse to dig up a clump of Spanish bluebells, and the nicotiana alata will be going where I currently have 25p bargain daffodils - next year I'm determined to have wallflowers instead because of the fragrance.

There will also be vast quantities of nicotiana alata out the back - especially since my neighbours smoke and use stinky washing powder and bathroom products.

 

[gentlegreen]

I have a couple of spots in my sub-tropical-type garden where I can use a hit of tropical red or orange at height, but I'm not keen on hanging baskets per se and am looking more for the effect of "epiphytes in the canopy". (my "canopy" is passionflower in one case and Virginia creeper in the other)
Anyway, this looks like the thing - 30 or 40cm diameter.
Hopefully I should be able to break up the manufactured look of the things with moss and stuff.
I have some bright red trailing begonia corms starting off in the greenhouse and I think the second one will definitely have to be a fuchsia of some sort - and I probably ought to find some sort of bromeliad-type things too.

This year I have finally planted two of my thirsty plants directly in the ground - one of them will get the greenhouse run-off, but my garden still has a lot of containers - albeit 15 litre buckets ...
Capillary tubing is a definite option, but I wonder what people's experience is of water gels etc ?
And will these baskets need watering on a daily basis ?

 

[Manter]

Water gels are, ime, utterly useless. Tried in Spain, expensive joke.

As for daily watering, depends on what sort if a summer we have. I would set up a trickle tube system, ideally on a timer, and override it if there are wet or dry periods.

 

[gentlegreen]

I just ordered some pure white sweet pea seeds called "Royal Wedding".
I'm not even sure I know what sweet peas smell like, but hopefully it'll all blend in - and I'm short of daytime scents.
One of my brugs is a bit OTT and I keep it further down the garden.

 

[Purdie]

Sweet peas smell lovely and make good cut flowers too. Had them last year for the first time and will definitly sow them again this year.
We decimated an old plum tree, it's multi-trunked and will try growing the sweet peas up there this year and I might get some straighter stems for cutflowers. Last year they were at the base of a climbing rose but couldn't reach the height they needed which was 6 foot. The ones I planted along the fence got lost behind the sunflowers. Wasn't gonna do sunflowers this year but little purdie just been given a whole packet so I suppose we will . It's the clearing up at the end but I suppose the birds love them.
It's too early too sow much,, night temperatures just are too cold still. Hoping to get some cucumber and carrots in this week. No idea where the cucumber will go and for the carrots I still need to fill up the raised bed. Got the soil but that need sieving first.
Sweet woodruff is coming along nice too and my yellow azalea has lots of suckers of which some might even flower this year. I hope so. Here's some blossoms

 

[Purdie]

The only bird activity I have is two pairs of enormous wood pigeons.
I feed them via two mesh bowls on a pole, but they waste a hell of a lot so I have germinating grains everywhere - including in amongst the foliage of my cordyline.

I sort of deliberately bought a sack of somewhat cruddy birdseed in Aldi, knowing it would only be wood pigeons that would benefit, but I have mixed feelings about them.
A couple of times recently I've thought I could actually learn to love them if they were feral parakeets.

Wood pigeons are ugly things. Saying that I have a pair of them too and have fed them cracked corn before which is really cheap and it don't tend to germinate like bird food does.

 

[gentlegreen]

I noticed that my wood pigeons are very plump and healthy compared to the ones further out of town - even though my feeding of them is sporadic - when they first started visiting my garden, I thought "Easter dinner" - even though I'm basically a vegan.

Spoiler: Youtube video

I fed a robin in the bike shed this morning
(I carry a small bag of seed in my pannier for such occasions)

 

[gentlegreen]

£25 on hanging baskets !
Philosophically I paid £25 for one of my brugmansias and this allows me to grow two new plants - and I'll have 5 or 6 more years in my present home.
"All" I have to do now is choose a trailing fuchsia from the huge range available ...



Possibly this one ...

 

[gentlegreen]

or there's "Voodoo"

 

[Manter]

I have voodoo in the back- it's stunning. Really long flowering too. In fact last year had a slight issue that it didn't stop flowering till November and I was them worried about cutting it back in case we had frosts !

 

[Manter]

I have a gap in my semi herbaceous border. It's towards the back and needs something tall and thin to fill it... In blue, purple, mauve or dark pink.

Not foxgloves as the cat tries to eat them and poison itself. Not Alium as I already have lots . Any suggestions?

 

[gentlegreen]

I have voodoo in the back- it's stunning. Really long flowering too. In fact last year had a slight issue that it didn't stop flowering till November and I was them worried about cutting it back in case we had frosts !

Is it properly trailing ?

 

[gentlegreen]

I have a gap in my semi herbaceous border. It's towards the back and needs something tall and thin to fill it... In blue, purple, mauve or dark pink.

Not foxgloves as the cat tries to eat them and poison itself. Not Alium as I already have lots . Any suggestions?

I think echiums are in the same plant family - is it sunny or shady, dry or moist ?

EDIT:- no, it's related to borage.

 

[gentlegreen]

Otherwise there's the good old delphinium.

 

[Manter]

Is it properly trailing ?

Mine is at the front of a bed (I inherited it) and I have it growing up through a cage and then trailing down- so it trails about 4 foot!

 

[Manter]

I think echiums are in the same plant family - is it sunny or shady, dry or moist ?

EDIT:- no, it's related to borage.

Sunny, relatively dry but v good soil. ( I have spent a lot of time and compost on it!)

 

[gentlegreen]

Mine is at the front of a bed (I inherited it) and I have it growing up through a cage and then trailing down- so it trails about 4 foot!

Sounds spot on.
Basically it's to make up for the rather unimpressive blooms of my passionflower which it will be growing next to.

 

[Manter]

Otherwise there's the good old delphinium.

Like both those suggestions- thankyou!!

 

[Manter]

Sounds spot on.
Basically it's to make up for the rather unimpressive blooms of my passionflower which it will be growing next to.

It is very, very beautiful. It was one of the plants I rescued from weeds and poor positioning in this place. Was very pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be so lovely.

My passionflower is crap too

 

[Manter]

Anyone grown a porcelain vine? I have been given a cutting, thinking of letting it scramble through the branches of the foul leyllandii at the back that I want rid of but is shielding us from being very overlooked . But some websites say evil pest