The gardening thread

[gentlegreen]

I'm already thinking about what to replace the large clump of Spanish bluebells in the front garden for next spring - plus I now have a border at the back.
I just wish I could cope with the fragrance of hyacinths - they would give a good muscular shot of blue.

Monty Don thinks "one bowl in a room is sufficient".

For me, one bowl would be too much even if you lived in in a baronial hall.
One bulb is enough so long as it's several gardens away.



I do want fragrance though.

 

[Treacle Toes]

So much of what I am doing isn't the fun, planting and growing part...it's more shifting, landscaping, prepping and planning. Today I simply had to see it as a free workout...think lunges, twists, bicep curls, squats etc...

The builders kindly left me sand and bricks for my bbq project...however my OCD took one look at this scene and screamed

It is better now, tidy and accessible. My bum cheeks and thighs are hurting in the right places too!

 

[gentlegreen]

Flipping heck !

I'm afraid my gardening is 90 percent "inspiration" and 10 percent perspiration.
Though it shows .

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In my seed-raising cabinet, I've started pricking things out - thankfully not on a huge scale this time around.
At the moment I have 50 watts of lighting keeping them happy - plus the 180 watt tube heater (on a thermostat) that raises the temperature a bit overnight.
I average a compost temp of16 degrees C during the day and 20 at night (which is in effect "day" in there)
Once all the seeds have germinated, I'll be able to lower the temperature.

The teeny tobacco seedlings at the back are destined to cover a lot of ground that's currently empty.
I will have enough nicotiana sylvestris for a field !
(I only need about 12 plants !)
The nicotiana affinis are pretty big plants too...



I'll probably want all those night scented stocks though - they were straggly and weedy things when I grew them before - and I plan to have a whole trough of them outside my window.
I'm not sure I can live with a plastic trough from the cheap shop - and they're too small in any case - so I'll probably have to get my hammer and saw out and make one from planks.

 

[clicker]

Bought two of these...to go against a green fence and support the evergreen fragrant climbers I am yet to decide on...aldi had massive healthy clematis for £5.99 but i just know they'll sneer and die


They'll be upright in reality i hope.

 

[Callie]

I spent sunday afternoon and monday removing bags and bags of ivy, spikey git bush, holly and ground elder. I have cleared what feelslike a huge patch of ground now but will have to take time to properly clear the ground elder

I also now have good access to the hugh pile of crap at the back of the garden. I have no idea whats in there apart from defunct, collapsed chicken coops but its going to take a few days of mopving sorting and shipping to the dump. Hopefully we will have some dry weather in the coming weeks.

I got some nice new plants - a purple and white lavender

a red bleedin'art

and some more veggies (cucumber, squash, onions and extra pansies with cute faces as they were reduced to match some of the ones planted last year that are doing well

Anyone know of any good slug/snail resistant flowering plants?

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Had two trays of seedlings not work out this year. They came up fine, but then just sat there and didn't develop. Two months later they're still a spindly stalk and two starter leaves. Two other trays worked ok. As far as I can tell it must be the soil I used. I used regular garden soil for the ones that grew and Miracle Grow seed starter for the ones that didn't. A bit disappointed in that.

If anyone has any ideas on the cause other than the soil, I'd love to hear suggestions.

 

[gentlegreen]

Anyone know of any good slug/snail resistant flowering plants?

I genuinely love gorse.
When I've been heading down to Devon or Cornwall, for me it means I'm nearly at the seaside.

 

[clicker]

i love that lavender gg...i have a yellow senecio and if your pink one is similar, the silvery leaves are lovely all year around.

 

[gentlegreen]

i have a yellow senecio and if your pink one is similar, the silvery leaves are lovely all year around.

I think mine is a variety that's all about the flowers..
My current garden is unlikely ever to have permanently-planted things - plants are mostly in 15 litre buckets and are only moved into view when they have enough to offer.
Six more years is the plan - by which time everything I want to keep needs to fit into as small a removal van as possible.

 

[gentlegreen]

The slugs are emerging.
And as usual, the French marigolds I potted up last week are proving particularly irresistible.
And I have to be careful how I deal with them because I don't know if I have a hedgehog...

 

[Ron Merlin]

I'd love a hedgehog but the cat might have other ideas.

Vaseline on the side of the pot seems to protect mine. No snail or slug slime on the tub with vaseline, with pristine marigolds; 2 dead marigolds in the one without. Worth a go I reckon.

 

[gentlegreen]

I was thinking about that last night - but then I thought "yuck" .. but now I'm thinking it will make up for me never getting around to using the expensive Body Shop handcream I bought....
And that idea is just perfect for my mostly-containerised garden.

I'll need to get a huge pot of it.

 

[Ron Merlin]

Mine's on order! I've got 40 marigold plugs to protect here, and I can't be prowling with a half-brick all the time.

You'll need to wash your hands about three times to get the stuff off afterwards though

 

[andysays]

Anyone know of any good slug/snail resistant flowering plants?

Alliums (onion family). Lots of them have great flowerheads.

 

[andysays]

Had two trays of seedlings not work out this year. They came up fine, but then just sat there and didn't develop. Two months later they're still a spindly stalk and two starter leaves. Two other trays worked ok. As far as I can tell it must be the soil I used. I used regular garden soil for the ones that grew and Miracle Grow seed starter for the ones that didn't. A bit disappointed in that.

If anyone has any ideas on the cause other than the soil, I'd love to hear suggestions.

Do you mean you used seed compost?

If so, that will be the problem - it only has enough nutrients for a few weeks, so you need to pot on with proper compost once the seedlings have developed their two starters leaves

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Do you mean you used seed compost?

If so, that will be the problem - it only has enough nutrients for a few weeks, so you need to pot on with proper compost once the seedlings have developed their two starters leaves

If I understand you correctly, yes. It was a soil mix for starting seeds. I'd have thought it would at least develop more than the two "first leaves" before I'd have to transplant it.

Thanks for the info. I don't think I'll be using it again.

 

[gentlegreen]

Yes, it should get them a bit further along than if you were sprouting mung beans in water...
I bought too much the other year so am using it for most things this year - except I mix in chicken poo pellets too.

 

[Mumbles274]

Does this count as gardening?

 

[gentlegreen]

Does this count as gardening?

Gardening would be meaningless without it.

 

[gentlegreen]

Actually I only just thought, I'm currently pricking my seedlings out into more of the same - I'll have to keep an eye on them ...

 

[Ron Merlin]

Does this count as gardening?

Certainly! You're planning

 

[tufty79]

Do you mean you used seed compost?

If so, that will be the problem - it only has enough nutrients for a few weeks, so you need to pot on with proper compost once the seedlings have developed their two starters leaves

cheers for that - explains a lot

 

[Treacle Toes]

cheers for that - explains a lot

How is your money plant tufty79 ?

 

[andysays]

If I understand you correctly, yes. It was a soil mix for starting seeds. I'd have thought it would at least develop more than the two "first leaves" before I'd have to transplant it.

Thanks for the info. I don't think I'll be using it again.

I've never been sure what the point of seed compost is, TBH.

Maybe I'm just lazy, but I want to be able to sow a seed in a pot, then leave it there until the plant is planted in its final place, whether that's in the ground or in a container. Can't be doing with repeated potting on.

I normally just use some sort of "general purpose" compost for everything.

 

[andysays]

cheers for that - explains a lot

Happy to help - better luck next time

 

[gentlegreen]

I've never been sure what the point of seed compost is, TBH.

Maybe I'm just lazy, but I want to be able to sow a seed in a pot, then leave it there until the plant is planted in its final place, whether that's in the ground or in a container. Can't be doing with repeated potting on.

I normally just use some sort of "general purpose" compost for everything.

B&Q MP - you don't need fertiliser all the time you're potting on.
But potting on is important for loads of reasons.

 

[andysays]

B&Q MP - you don't need fertiliser all the time you're potting on.
But potting on is important for loads of reasons.

For instance? I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I am generally too lazy to do it, and most of the time my plants (I'm talking mostly about plants I start at home in pots and then plant out on my allotment) seem to be perfectly happy without it.

 

[gentlegreen]

First of all it's about economy of space and light and heat - and I figured that out long before I learned the other reasons.

Secondly you're plonking a small root system into masses of cold wet oxygen-poor compost.
The watering and allowing to dry process is important for gas cycling.
In containers it's best to build up the plant's root system yourself - perhaps better than nature.

And then we get onto using plugs instead of pots and air-pruning.

 

[gentlegreen]

I sometimes even look forward to it.

 

[Manter]

I'm seeking advice about hedges please. It's for out the front of a terraced house and to be used as a screen to give the lounge some privacy. 2 years ago I bought at great expense lavender bushes that were meant to grow tall and smell good but didn't and over a year died. So how do I go about buying a non fancy hedge and planting it please?

Only just seen this, may be too late- choisya is good. Looks lovely, grows fast, smells lemon-y, and has white flowers in early summer.

And it's not faffy to plant- buy small ish plants (2ft is big- mine were 6 inches last summer and are now all 2-3ft, they'd be bigger except my twatty builders dumped bags of sand on them) dig a hole twice the size of the pot, stick in compost, plant, water well. Leave 3 ft between plants. Make sure they get water in the first year, in September prune any that have got leggy ( sometimes you end up with one branch that gets a bit over excited and shoots out at a random angle), then ignore them apart from a prune as they grow to shape them.