The gardening thread

[andysays]

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 compost.
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.

But if you're starting something in a seed tray which you're then going to pot on into small pots a few weeks later, I really don't think you save significantly on space and light and heat, or compost, and you do end up spending significantly more time. I don't use artificial light or heat, BTW, I just sow seeds in 3" pots, germinate them on a table in a sunny window, and after a few weeks or so put them in a cold frame to grow on and harden off. Hopefully by the time they've filled the pot and are ready to plant out, I'm ready to do that. It may not be the "best" method, but it works well enough for me

I've heard a little about plugs and air-pruning, and that may be something to investigate, although that will leave me with 100s of 3" pots I have no further use for.

 

[gentlegreen]

Then you'll have them for next year - and the decades that follow.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

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

I certainly will in the future.

 

[Manter]

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?

That red bleeding heart is lovely. I have conventional pink and a stunning pure white one.

Slug resistant flowers.... Where for? Dry/wet/sun/shade?

 

[Dooby]

I bought two twisted willows, ten quid each a couple weeks ago. One at the back seems fine, one at the front on public display, well I guess people are wondering why I bothered planting a dead tree. Almost instantly. I blame the way the roots were savagely cut to fit in the pot, and I had to cut some of them trying to get the damn plastic pot off with aviator snips. Gutted. And can't be arsed getting another, so it's a front yard that looks straight out the Addams family for me again..

 

[gentlegreen]

I think I've killed my one brugmansia cutting by disturbing the first roots.
I was amazed when it rooted at all.

 

[gentlegreen]

Oh yes, and square pots too.
You can get fifteen 7cm / quarter litre pots in a tray.
It doesn't seem to make repotting that much more difficult.

 

[Callie]

That red bleeding heart is lovely. I have conventional pink and a stunning pure white one.

Slug resistant flowers.... Where for? Dry/wet/sun/shade?

Its a sort of raised bed thing along the fence which is runs parallel to the side of the house, theres a big big big old rose in there and a big old fuschia and a few other bits and bobs that have died or survived with varying success. The slugs/snails arent interested in the lavender. Its fairly shaded along there and I think its fairly dry...though youd think slugs and snails wouldnt be keen on that slimey gits!

I have got some aliums in in another section but they bulbs only went in this year.

I need a pet hedgehog

 

[gentlegreen]

Apparently they shouldn't eat too many slugs or they get parasites.

 

[Callie]

you just had to go and ruin my dreams didnt you? surely a parasite infested hedgehog is like gettiing multiple pets in one?

 

[gentlegreen]

They're contrary animals too.
I had one last year got his head wedged in a tahini jar, but he wouldn't touch it when I poured some out for him.
I suppose he could have been going after a slug in there...

 

[clicker]

I was sitting in the garden one night last week, it was about 10pm ish and dark...a 'thing' scurried in front of me, about three feet from my feet. I thought it was a really slow rat at first, but the cats looked it's way but never moved towards it ( they must have had previous experience of a tussle) , it made it's shuffly way to a leafy border and i shone my phone on it to get a look, and whaddya know - my first hedgehog! Haven't seen a live one since i was a kid, hoping it eats it's weight in slugs .

 

[Treacle Toes]

I have potatoes! I also have tomato plants some of which I will be giving to my neighbour who gave me the potatoes. The tomato plants are already doing well on a good friend's allotment.

This seriously gives me joy as I have had so many other things to do out there I was getting anxious about being able to grow any veg at all this year.

 

[ringo]

I've killed another banana plant. Help me keep the next one alive.

I've had two now. I wanted a hardy banana plant to grow in the house, wondering if the problem is that I bought hardy outdoor species and they don't like being in houses?

The first two were Musa banju. The first didn't get enough light where I put it and died. The second I gave loads of light. As one leaf grew another would die, always having one live stem. I thought it was going brown so gave it more water and it died in two days, so now I know I was over watering it!

I have just bought another, this one a Musa Basjoo, (Japanese banana), which fits in with my idea of only having Chinese & Japanese plants in my back garden. I would like to grow it for a while indoors, then when it's too big plant it out in the back garden.

Tips please on how not to dead it up.

 

[gentlegreen]

All bananas should be outdoors during the summer - in fact so should most house plants probably.
I had fun with a non-hardy Dwarf Cavendish one year.
I've grown Basjoo and Sikkimensis - Basjoo is the hardy one - mine survived for years - got to be taller than me - until the winter of 2009/2010 cut it down to the ground.

Maximum light, steady re-potting, careful watering.
It's really going to be in suspended animation indoors - unless you have a conservatory.

Were you repotting and/or feeding the one that died ?
The leaves dying was probably the plant desperately recycling nutrients.

 

[tufty79]

How is your money plant tufty79 ?

it lives!



in other plants-i've-managed-not-to-kill news, my purple podded peas seem to be getting on fine with my rosemary, and my courgettes are doing ok I think...


got a few broccolis doing alright in pots out the back, and need to put some pepper seedlings in bigger pots.

i need to sort out my bit of flowerbed as well - it's gone well jungle

 

[ringo]

All bananas should be outdoors during the summer - in fact so should most house plants probably.
I had fun with a non-hardy Dwarf Cavendish one year.
I've grown Basjoo and Sikkimensis - Basjoo is the hardy one - mine survived for years - got to be taller than me - until the winter of 2009/2010 cut it down to the ground.

Maximum light, steady re-potting, careful watering.
It's really going to be in suspended animation indoors - unless you have a conservatory.

Were you repotting and/or feeding the one that died ?
The leaves dying was probably the plant desperately recycling nutrients.

OK, I'll put it out in the summer and repot now and then. I only had the last one a month. Put it in a bigger (terracotta) pot when I bought it and that was it.
Not sure how the nutrients bit works. Do you mean I should have fed it or given it more sun?

 

[gentlegreen]

Light, water, food have to be in balance - no good having too much of one and too little of another.

Outdoors in the ground in bright sunlight you would dig in manure and chicken poop and the thing will grow like a triffid. (or soluble fertiliser)

Indoors the best you can do is gradually repot in increasingly large pots of multipurpose compost which has sufficient nutes.
I would go for plastic myself - makes it easier to judge when it needs watering.
Look for roots appearing at the drainage holes, then add a week or two before potting on - at which point you'll see if it actually needs doing.

 

[Treacle Toes]

it lives!

View attachment 53100

Yay! It comes from good stock Keep the soil damp but not too wet.

 

[gentlegreen]

Thankfully the Arctic weather didn't appear.
I cut my last daffodil flower down yesterday - one that had probably had its naughty bits chewed off by a slug - it outlived the others by a couple of days.
I've wondered a few times about spraying lily flowers with hair-spray to stop them getting pollinated ...

 

[gentlegreen]

Sweetpeagate it is then.

By which I mean the view from the house framed by a 5 foot tower (plus the height of the tub = 6 feet) of white sweet peas either side.
Given they face each other - north-south - in a small courtyard it will be interesting to see if they get out of balance.
Given one of them is only being properly potted up a couple of weeks after the first and there are fewer plants, it may work out well.
They'll both be facing south initially - until the nicotianas get planted out and take the sunniest position - I will have the option of rotation and flipping - but they're bloody heavy.

Repetition is, after all, an important feature in most artforms ...
The way my begonias are failing to sprout, the trailing fuchsias may also end up in stereo -

...and I'm looking at a bare fence and some spare hop plants - and wondering how high I dare take the strings / canes .. but it's north-facing and there will be a row of giant tobacco plants shading it even more...

 

[brogdale]

I do love it when the peonies come out...anyone else got any?

 

[clicker]

I fear it's fatal. His sax playing days sre over. I do hope nobody here is uncharitable enough to sneer at a very dead gnome.

 

[gentlegreen]

I'd have thought araldite would fix him.

 

[Treacle Toes]

gentlegreen The bamboo arrived safely, survived the journey and is looking okay. Thanks again!

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm sure you'll do better than me with placement and containment
Mine seems happy to march into the corner where I should have planted it in the first place - except the way is blocked by a huge heap of rotting bamboo foliage - it's turning into lovely leaf-mould though - but it will need sieving.

 

[gentlegreen]

I got plenty of exercise today - managed to find a sensible home at the end of the garden for a lot of left-over soil and tired compost and I relocated my two spare hops - one at the wild end of the garden to cover an uninspiring fence, and the second, experimentally against the neighbour's fence - even though there's going to be a regiment of giant tobacco plants in front of it in a couple of months' time - I'm hoping it will set a precedent for having it running even higher - given that it's the neighbours' north side and privacy is in short supply in terraced houses.

I also tidied-up behind and to the right of the tree fern with ornamental bark..
So from my bench I now have a view of a fanned hop either side.

 

[gentlegreen]

This was where I used to have my 7 foot banana - a sort of jungle garden.
The other hop has gone in behind where the water barrel currently is - to hopefully cover that fence
It won't be the full "tres hermanas" because there really isn't room for corn - but there will be climbing beans and squashes.

 

[gentlegreen]

My two rather poorly wallflowers came up magenta - and I still have yellow flowers on my primula, so I have added extra formality.
Another key element of my formal plan - the sweet peas - are stalling for some reason.

 

[Purdie]

View attachment 53336

I fear it's fatal. His sax playing days sre over. I do hope nobody here is uncharitable enough to sneer at a very dead gnome.

There is a glue that is used by builders, have to wait for Mr.Purdie to come home from work to tell you what it is called though. He mentioned he would use it to glue the tiles back on the wall that cames off after we removed the ivy.