The gardening thread

[gentlegreen]

Sometimes plants become a pest in certain climates or if it escapes ...
It seems to be related to grapes and therefore the Virginia creeper which covers a lot of sins but is probably actually eating my house...

But the ampelopsis berries on Youtube look amazing !

 

[BoatieBird]

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?

Echinops?

 

[gentlegreen]

.

 

[gentlegreen]

Echinops?

Or even cardoon.
But then there would be the decision of whether to eat them.

 

[Ron Merlin]

or there's "Voodoo"

View attachment 51860

Thanks gentlegreen, that's one of my hanging baskets sorted It looks great.

 

[gentlegreen]

It does look the business.
A shame we don't all live near each other - it's difficult to buy a single one of those...

 

[Leafster]

It does look the business.
A shame we don't all live near each other - it's difficult to buy a single one of those...

I was just thinking the same! I have at least one Voodoo growing in the garden and once it's started growing properly after it's early spring hair cut I could have taken cuttings.

 

[geminisnake]

Callie and I did some gardening at the weekend. It was fun, even though I have a vicious double scratch on my arm and a bruise under my left boob! Not sure how that happened! I only noticed it the next day.

 

[Callie]

cats

 

[gentlegreen]

I was just thinking the same! I have at least one Voodoo growing in the garden and once it's started growing properly after it's early spring hair cut I could have taken cuttings.

I may order a "giant fuchsia" collection from Suttons and give the 4 frilly ones away ....

Meanwhile, my hanging baskets have arrived and they're HUGE
I did try holding part of a wok up against my arbor and it looked OK

 

[Leafster]

I may order a "giant fuchsia" collection from Suttons and give the 4 frilly ones away ....

Meanwhile, my hanging baskets have arrived and they're HUGE
I did try holding part of a wok up against my arbor and it looked OK

My local nursery does "thumb pots" of fuchsias and other plants for £1.50 or 5 for a fiver (or they did last year). You can pick and choose which ones you want. If you have a nursery doing something similar you could easily carry them on your bike. They grow pretty quickly too.

 

[gentlegreen]

My local nursery does "thumb pots" of fuchsias and other plants for £1.50 or 5 for a fiver (or they did last year). You can pick and choose which ones you want. If you have a nursery doing something similar you could easily carry them on your bike. They grow pretty quickly too.

I may use it as an excuse for a cycle ride to my nearest big garden centre - there's actually a specialist Fuchsia nursery near Bristol, but it's the wrong end of town - almost on the way to where I work - and they're claiming "voodoo" is a bush variety ...


Perhaps I'll see if I can come up with an interesting circular ride...

 

[gentlegreen]

Partly for the perverseness, I potted up a rosebay willow herb yesterday.
I hadn't anticipated its being a rhizomatous plant - which explains why it's popping up through the gravel bed of my greenhouse. I nurtured one last year, but it was in a less than perfect place - it will be interesting to see how this one will do in a 15 litre bucket of good compost.



It has something of the nature of verbena bonariensis about it - mauve flowers you can see through... I'm making sure I have a goodly quantity of those this year - I've repotted some tatty specimens and have seed sown. (I resisted nicking some self-sown seedlings from a flowerbed at work)

I moved another pot to a display area which contains self-sown forget-me-nots - and a dandelion.
There's a bonus geum urbanum in there too.

I'm at peace with my weeds.

I'm aiming to come up with something quite slick this year and "tidying up" so much is a bit stressful.
Yesterday I tried to clean up the dead flowering stalks on the anemones in my front garden only to find loads of them already in use by spiders.

 

[Purdie]

All this talking of fuschias makes me want to drive to the 'local' specialist but got no cash so will have to do without. Local in my case is an afternoon trip, probably 100km there and back. But I have been busy raking the dead moss out of the grass. Been putting that off for years and it was getting very squidgy to walk on.
Mr. Purdie got next week off and he is sorting out the growth along the fence. A mixture of bindweed, ground elder, stinging nettles and an old snowberry that has been annoying me for a few years now and odds and sods of bits of fence that previous tenants have slapped on. When he gets to the end it's the big one cause the elder tree is coming down. Played with the idea of planting bamboo but decided against it cause it don't really fit with the trees I do want to keep. Thinking of Garrya elliptica, it's low maintenance, fits the space, can take the cold winters bla bla bla. And it would fit in nice with what is there
We were lucky really. Last year the waterboard installed some pipes in the landlords' wood and ripped everything next to our fence up and afterwards they re-seeded it. Now we have a bufferzone of grass before the wilderness that is his woods starts. Which is why the fence bit never got done before. It was a lost cause.
Might plant some cucumbers tomorrow and sow some wildflower mixture. That probably will end up being eaten by the birds. Got some carrots and onions too.
Thought I had removed the dahlia corms last year but obviously not all as some have started to grow. I'm seriously considering planting the onions in the gaps. The veggie box has borage in the middle bit now and will plant it with herbs this year.
Did prune some of the roses and we're ripping out the old climber to put two new ones. Something stands me by that I shouldn't plant roses in the same spot but bought them at Aldi for 2 Euro each so not the end of the world if they don't live. Also bought a pink Magnolia whip for 2 Euro, no idea where to put it again, man I am hopeless But I have decided where to put the small leaved rhododendron so that is something I suppose and also found a place for a Deutzia that has been in a pot too long. All in all not a bad few weeks in the garden.

 

[Manter]

i've got green tulips!

 

[gentlegreen]

 

[Callie]

4 bags of 'pruned' holly, ivy and spikey fucker bush (pyracantha) have been delivered to the dump after missing their closing time yesterday...probably 4 more to take later today I reckon. I have a blister on my right middle finger but I did enjoy all the mini loping.

Have borrowed a hedge trimmer for the front garden, will try to do straight lines and have spent all my pocketmoney on petunias and snapdragons for the garden.

have some cat mint seeds to plant and some sweet pea which might be a bit late.

raaaa

 

[Manter]

4 bags of 'pruned' holly, ivy and spikey fucker bush (pyracantha) have been delivered to the dump after missing their closing time yesterday...probably 4 more to take later today I reckon. I have a blister on my right middle finger but I did enjoy all the mini loping.

Have borrowed a hedge trimmer for the front garden, will try to do straight lines and have spent all my pocketmoney on petunias and snapdragons for the garden.

have some cat mint seeds to plant and some sweet pea which might be a bit late.

raaaa

Straight lines. Fix some string to some garden canes to make yourself a guide. Really helps

 

[gentlegreen]

Talking of string and straight lines ....
I just demonstrated my OCD in tying up my hop strings up next door's extension - though how I managed to have it in my head there were 8 strings and not 9, I haven't a clue.
I probably ought to use better cord so I don't have to re-do it every year
Thankfully I was able to move the stake and re-tie the strings without much trouble.
It's all a bit academic because in a month or two it will be a solid wall of hops - but the geometry has its place and time...
More than once I've thought there must be some sort of geometrical formula one could apply to correct for the usual viewing perspective.

Anyway, this year is the first time it's got its feet into solid ground - well almost - I dug down until it got a bit clayey, chucked in some rubble and filled the pit with used compost and top soil from elsewhere and copious chicken poo pellets.
Mostly it will be proper watering that will make the difference.

 

[Mumbles274]

Just read through the thread

Was out in my little garden this morning attempting to deal with blanket weed problem in my pond. Involved a bit of wading.. bloody freezing, still not sure I have the feeling back in my feet. Most of the worst of it is removed ready for a treatment to kill off the rest.. hopefully it will sort it out. Lots of froggies scaring the shit out of me every time they moved and touched my feet I don't have a problem with frogs, there just seems to be an instinctive reaction to something brushing your feet underwater

Also did a little bit of tidying of some plants and pulled a couple of weeds.. is looking nice out there.. everything getting ready to burst into a crazy growing phase

 

[gentlegreen]

and some sweet pea which might be a bit late.

My seeds only arrived yesterday - not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them - probably start a few of them off in my indoor propagating facility where I can give them bottom heat, but where space is precious- perhaps all of them, one by one, then steadily move them out to the greenhouse.
I suspect some will end up in one of my enormous builder's tubs near the house along with night-scented stocks and probably some nicotianas - and perhaps I'll try some at the end of the garden along with some runner beans for cutting - though my bamboo is making that bit rather shady now.

 

[Mumbles274]

I know you like pics

 

[Manter]

Mumbles274 one of the endless catalogues I get sent had a page of environmentally friendly solutions for ponds- ceramic beads, mud balls and the like. The pond next door is full of sludge and mosquito larvae, so I was going to chuck an 'em mud ball' in, with some aquaplancton. Do you have any experience of them- do they work?

 

[gentlegreen]

This has reminded me I really need to fit a pond in somewhere.
I used to have a builder's tub - primarily to grow ornamentals plants in - but useless for wildlife - though years ago I once saw a toad climbing up to use it..

 

[Manter]

Forgot the photo of the catalogue page!

For context, the house is rented out, I know the owner and he doesn't care what I do but won't spend any money or time on it himself

 

[Mumbles274]

found a few before pics. first one was when I was still with my girl's mum and they lived here full time.







and prior to starting work

 

[Mumbles274]

Mumbles274 one of the endless catalogues I get sent had a page of environmentally friendly solutions for ponds- ceramic beads, mud balls and the like. The pond next door is full of sludge and mosquito larvae, so I was going to chuck an 'em mud ball' in, with some aquaplancton. Do you have any experience of them- do they work?

no, looks interesting. The blanket weed remedy I have is a bacterial one, also might get some straw which helps too

 

[gentlegreen]

I suppose it's early days yet, but I'd have thought seed should last a few years in my unheated house.
But nothing has come up yet from my old stock of seeds after between 1 and 2 weeks - even under near-perfect conditions, so I re-ordered from Chiltern and have just sown most things again -

nicotiana sylvestris (smelly tall tobacco)
nicotiana affinis (highly smelly tobacco)
night scented stock
verbena bonariensis - trendy see-through floral screen as favoured by Christopher Lloyd.
heliotrope - hopefully I will be able to mass enough of those together in a sunny spot to appreciate the aroma.

Plus some new ones :-
amaranthus cordatus - (Love Lies bleeding ) - not smelly at all, but impressive in appearance.
sweet peas - smelly.

I'm also trying Datura metel 'Belle Blanche' - ("devil's trumpet" )
It should work nicely near the front door in place of the Spanish bluebells and hopefully will stink up the place nicely as well as being delightfully toxic.

Another day or two and I may have to go out for more tomato and pepper seeds.

 

[Treacle Toes]

Hello thread...I have missed you!

A lot has happened here lately....Wall has been rebuilt, tree surgeons have de-ivyed the back trees and lifted the canopy over the middle allotment area, a truck load of wood chip arrived, I dug up more paving stones, moved a ton of compost, have been building patios, spreading woodchip love...weeding and clearing and creating!

I am knackered and aching but so very happy and feeling inspired!

Some pics from the last month:

I still have enough wood chip to finish in the back and do the front gardens. I have done one side already but the other will have to wait until they collect the skip which is in my way!

The kindly builders left me enough bricks, sand and cement to build a large brick barbeque, so that is what I will do next!

 

[Callie]

wow! I have serious garden envy lets hope the weather holds to make use of the bbq when its there :/