Although nearly all my garden is in pots, I do have 2 raised beds...one of which has developed a particularly dodgy bit where plants tend to snivel and slowly die...the latest being my lovely Amistad salvia, a parahebe and a hardy geranium - all tough plants. Obviously, I need to get in there and investigate (this is the third year of soil dysfunction)...but just before I rebuilt the beds on top of an existing one,, I buried a cat (Loki). I find myself feeling dread at the prospect of unearthing its poor skeleton, and have been avoiding getting on with the task. True, I have something of a thing for bones...but not usually those of beloved pets.
The gardening thread
- Thread starter ringo
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Leafster
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I'm having similar problems with patches of my garden campanula . I put it down to the late spring and then the lack of rain and heat but I can't be sure. I have several salvia Amistad which survived the winter but none of them are the size they should be - one of them is still less than 20cm high! I know I had vine weevils attack the heucheras and I treated that part of the garden with nematodes but bits of the lavender hedge in another part of the garden kept keeling over. I checked the soil and there was no sign of infestation. The roots of the dead lavender weren't as well developed as they should be though. I talked the plantswoman at the local nursery and showed her photos and all she could think of was that the ground was too dry, even for lavender! Just to be sure, it treated the area with nematodes and have been keeping it watered, and so far, no more have died.
I guess I haven't been here long enough to understand how the soil in all parts of my chalky/flinty/builders rubble strewn/terraced garden behaves under different weather conditions so that might be part of my problem. It is disheartening to see things I've planted over the last couple of years dying and not knowing exactly why.
I can understand your reluctance to go digging where you've buried a pet. My neighbour has been in her house about 30 years and has buried various dogs and cats and wouldn't move as she's worried new owners will disturb their remains.
I guess I haven't been here long enough to understand how the soil in all parts of my chalky/flinty/builders rubble strewn/terraced garden behaves under different weather conditions so that might be part of my problem. It is disheartening to see things I've planted over the last couple of years dying and not knowing exactly why.
I can understand your reluctance to go digging where you've buried a pet. My neighbour has been in her house about 30 years and has buried various dogs and cats and wouldn't move as she's worried new owners will disturb their remains.
Amistad had survived the winter and was slowly pitting out new growth when it started to die back, so I was in a quandary as I do water the garden every day - I have to with pots - but in this one troubling patch, it seemed to make no difference. There is nothing for it but to investigate so I am off to the garden centre today to buy some more John Innes, grit, and Maxicrop (it is seed starting time for next years verbascums, sweet william, wallflowers and sedums)...and will probably buy a couple of emergency plants to fill the gap (penstemons, maybe - always reliable).
I am looking into setting up a fogging system for cuttings...but the cheapest is over £240 (need solenoid, timer, wet leaf sensor and fogging heads. But otoh, I need to take hundreds of cuttings of lavender, perovskia, escallonia, santolina, rosemary and so on...for the open and sunny western edge of the wood.
Growing from seed is easy but slow whereas I struggle with cuttings...at least if I want to do more than a handful...but I truly think this is the only way to go. So it will be a straight choice between using the garden budget for bulbs and hedging...or setting up a system to grow my own.
I am looking into setting up a fogging system for cuttings...but the cheapest is over £240 (need solenoid, timer, wet leaf sensor and fogging heads. But otoh, I need to take hundreds of cuttings of lavender, perovskia, escallonia, santolina, rosemary and so on...for the open and sunny western edge of the wood.
Growing from seed is easy but slow whereas I struggle with cuttings...at least if I want to do more than a handful...but I truly think this is the only way to go. So it will be a straight choice between using the garden budget for bulbs and hedging...or setting up a system to grow my own.
wayward bob
i ate all your bees
i fell through my deckchair the other day 
turns out there's a reason you don't just keep using the mouldy sling that's been out all winter 
can't believe quite how lost i feel without it. have a replacement on the way, but it'll be days before it arrives. /fwp
on the up side, mr b noticed as he's taken to sitting out in it when we're all doing his head in of an evening. couldn't persuade anyone to step foot in the garden last year so i'm making progress
my good garden news is the orange tree has a second flush of new leaves/blossom through, tomatoes are alarmingly prolific and starting to go yellow, hydrangeas in blousy bloom out the front (pink, despite my efforts to make them blue) and slugs don't eat wild strawberries \o/
turns out there's a reason you don't just keep using the mouldy sling that's been out all winter can't believe quite how lost i feel without it. have a replacement on the way, but it'll be days before it arrives. /fwpon the up side, mr b noticed as he's taken to sitting out in it when we're all doing his head in of an evening. couldn't persuade anyone to step foot in the garden last year so i'm making progress
my good garden news is the orange tree has a second flush of new leaves/blossom through, tomatoes are alarmingly prolific and starting to go yellow, hydrangeas in blousy bloom out the front (pink, despite my efforts to make them blue) and slugs don't eat wild strawberries \o/
wayward bob
i ate all your bees
mine taste of fuck all but it's the first year ever it's not been "no strawberries" so onwards and upwards
but it's the first year ever it's not been "no strawberries" so onwards and upwards Ah, that's a shame - mine are surprisingly sweet and even aromatic...with fruits on long stalks, making it easy to pick. Baby blackbirds polished off the main strawberry bed (along with the first cherries) and I had to grub out my blackcurrants so this year has been sparse for fruit. On the positive side, I have not been breaking my back, picking for hours and have not missed the annual toiling and sweating over preserving pans, so silver linings.
Came back from nursery feeling ridiculously virtuous having resisted all the many plants on offer, settling for the utterly bread and butter perovskia (Russian sage) to fill the gap left by my dead salvia. Numerous verbascum seeds (4 types) arrived today from Seedaholic (one of my fave vendors), along with wallflower, sweet william and foxglove seeds...and some pricey sedum seeds (15,000 of them, occupying half a teaspoon) for green roof growing (which I won't be doing).
Have been agonising over bulb catalogues.
Came back from nursery feeling ridiculously virtuous having resisted all the many plants on offer, settling for the utterly bread and butter perovskia (Russian sage) to fill the gap left by my dead salvia. Numerous verbascum seeds (4 types) arrived today from Seedaholic (one of my fave vendors), along with wallflower, sweet william and foxglove seeds...and some pricey sedum seeds (15,000 of them, occupying half a teaspoon) for green roof growing (which I won't be doing).
Have been agonising over bulb catalogues.
The drought has been hell on my plants. Geums, primula, asters, phlox, hardy geranium and even a gorgeous baptisia are a sad crispy mess. Sweetpeas look grim and many veggies are really gasping.There are plants which are coping but still, many bits of the plot look dismal...and the wood looks worse, but
So I cheered myself up by escaping to next year (which, in horticulture, will always be better). Sowed the latest seed order, and getting down to working out an irrigation set up so I can take a shitload of cuttings for my new xeriscape patch on the edge of the wood. This summer has been a testing time...but salvias, various SA daisies, lavender, catanache, dianthus, cistus, penstemon, eryngium, platycodon, and many grasses have laughed at the weather, even in my awful, sandy soil...so going all out with no water planting since it is semi-arid east anglia.
So I cheered myself up by escaping to next year (which, in horticulture, will always be better). Sowed the latest seed order, and getting down to working out an irrigation set up so I can take a shitload of cuttings for my new xeriscape patch on the edge of the wood. This summer has been a testing time...but salvias, various SA daisies, lavender, catanache, dianthus, cistus, penstemon, eryngium, platycodon, and many grasses have laughed at the weather, even in my awful, sandy soil...so going all out with no water planting since it is semi-arid east anglia.
MrSki
Who am I to say you're wrong
Presumably you are feeding them with ericaceous food & have the same in compost? Otherwise try sticking any old rusty iron you have just below the soil. Old iron nails etc. I expect you know this already. Sorry.
Erm no. Iron oxide is insoluble in water and will not affect the colour of hydrangeas. You can buy a blueing compound (ferric sulphate...which makes aluminium available to the plant)...but the effects are short lasting and usually just turn the pink to a dingy greyish mauve.
D-i-L bought a deep purple hydrangea...which is now an unspeakable brownish/greyish non colour. It had previously been treated with a blueing agent but I haven't bothered: it looks grim in my alkaline soil.
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MrSki
Who am I to say you're wrong
I stand corrected.You certainly know your onions.
Ah, gardening is very vulnerable to magical thinking...it's that whole looking ahead thing, leading us into wild optimism and delusion. Suffer from it myself (helplessly hoping).
Mumbles274
running from law and the press and the parents
moonsi til
worked it out now!
I have chillis. I’m so chuffed! And Sunflowers doing well, next year will plant all into ground.
I was astonished to see a bloom on the magnolia and wondered if being close to death (drought) had encouraged some desperate blooming.
I am not growing ANY vegetables on the allotment next year - the whole plot is going to become nursery beds for project woodland meadow edge. I can only plant in autumn because no irrigation...but I lose over 70% of seedlings, attempting to keep them alive in 3inch pots all summer...so finally going to go full on nursery style, making in-ground stock beds...and build a cutting bench/ misting system instead of spring bulbs with my garden budget.
I am in my usual July limbo, feeling a failure in all 3 of my gardens (made terrible mistake of looking at perfectly posed, lit and expensive gardens in magazines and berating my own messy efforts)...although I did manage to mend the £600 brushcutter (new starter recoil spring and Utube videos)
I am not growing ANY vegetables on the allotment next year - the whole plot is going to become nursery beds for project woodland meadow edge. I can only plant in autumn because no irrigation...but I lose over 70% of seedlings, attempting to keep them alive in 3inch pots all summer...so finally going to go full on nursery style, making in-ground stock beds...and build a cutting bench/ misting system instead of spring bulbs with my garden budget.
I am in my usual July limbo, feeling a failure in all 3 of my gardens (made terrible mistake of looking at perfectly posed, lit and expensive gardens in magazines and berating my own messy efforts)...although I did manage to mend the £600 brushcutter (new starter recoil spring and Utube videos)
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
I was actually going to come on here and ask you about this. Next doors magnolia also has flowers, but otherwise looks very healthy.
Noticed a fair few wisterias having another go round and also, amazingly, a Lady Banks rose...so I am going to assume that the plants are keyed into to a certain level of daylight, heat, humidity...and not leap to the worst conclusion (which tends not to pertain for woodies anyway). Have been worried cos mine is (still) in its (too small) pot, along with a large lilac (both were pressies from the offspring) but I cannot plant till autumn. I might take pity and repot them at least.
Trees will drop leaves...and in extremis, whole limbs. Herbaceous plants will race to set seed if life is getting tricky. Also, now I am thinking about it, it is more likely that the magnolia would abort next years buds, already forming along the stems (the hopeful optimist writes...)
Trees will drop leaves...and in extremis, whole limbs. Herbaceous plants will race to set seed if life is getting tricky. Also, now I am thinking about it, it is more likely that the magnolia would abort next years buds, already forming along the stems (the hopeful optimist writes...)
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smmudge
i know the smudge is true
Trying to sort out my lawn. Does anyone else have a problem with cinquefoil? It grows in abundance round here, I see it everywhere.
This is why I think I'll never get rid of it. Found growing under my lawn, and the patio which I pulled up to get it.
There's basically a sideways tree growing beneath my lawn.
Cinquefoil roots:
This is why I think I'll never get rid of it. Found growing under my lawn, and the patio which I pulled up to get it.
There's basically a sideways tree growing beneath my lawn.
Cinquefoil roots:
eta - soz, Smmudge - confusing you with Mumbles so ignore stuff about ponds - got up at 6am to amend my post!
Yep, it is a nasty bugger - not too dissimilar to creeping buttercup or various lamiums/stachys. You can get rid of it by lifting every rooted node with a daisy grubber but without chemicals, there is no easy way of removing it other than systematic physical destruction. On the plus side, it tends to make a dandelion-like taproot so removal does not mean lifting huge areas of turf - just small holes made by a long necked grubbing tool...so your lawn will not look terrible. And for you, smmudge, the selective herbicide method is fraught, given your nearby pond system.
However, if you wanted it all gone fairly swiftly and easily, rather than spraying, you could use the 'sock of death' method with a broadleaf herbicide such as Paston, Broadshot and Grazon Plus (and I could let you have enough for a litre or so). This will not kill grass, just any turf/pasture weeds. Wiping the foliage with a weedwiper (or glove/sock) to cover as much leaf area as possible - the weedkiller is systemic and will kill the roots, not just top growth. The herbicide does not travel in the soil so a careful application, on a still, dry day, would be fairly risk free.
I think Verdone is available to the public but I cannot testify to its effectiveness (I have largish amounts of agricultural herbicide which cost £80. PM me if you want a few mls.
Yep, it is a nasty bugger - not too dissimilar to creeping buttercup or various lamiums/stachys. You can get rid of it by lifting every rooted node with a daisy grubber but without chemicals, there is no easy way of removing it other than systematic physical destruction. On the plus side, it tends to make a dandelion-like taproot so removal does not mean lifting huge areas of turf - just small holes made by a long necked grubbing tool...so your lawn will not look terrible. And for you, smmudge, the selective herbicide method is fraught, given your nearby pond system.
However, if you wanted it all gone fairly swiftly and easily, rather than spraying, you could use the 'sock of death' method with a broadleaf herbicide such as Paston, Broadshot and Grazon Plus (and I could let you have enough for a litre or so). This will not kill grass, just any turf/pasture weeds. Wiping the foliage with a weedwiper (or glove/sock) to cover as much leaf area as possible - the weedkiller is systemic and will kill the roots, not just top growth. The herbicide does not travel in the soil so a careful application, on a still, dry day, would be fairly risk free.
I think Verdone is available to the public but I cannot testify to its effectiveness (I have largish amounts of agricultural herbicide which cost £80. PM me if you want a few mls.
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polly
Well-Known Member
My wisteria is having a second half hearted go round in this heat. campanula I'm in East anglia too and it hasn't rained for weeks and weeks. Most pots and beds seem ok, probably partly because my garden is walled so gets lots of shade. The grass is just straw. I came here to say that my canna, which almost died in the winter, has only fucking flowered 
I'm so pleased, don't reckon it will ever happen again so photo for posterity:
I'm so pleased, don't reckon it will ever happen again so photo for posterity:
smmudge
i know the smudge is true
I got some Resolva lawn weedkiller plus as it has mecoprop-P which I read will kill it. Tbh at the moment I'm doing a longer term project called digging up the whole lawn (it's not very big) and sewing grass seeds. As well as cinquefoil, my lawn is mostly dandelions and moss. It's been difficult though as the ground of course is rock solid at the moment, and also around here the ground is just clay.
But hopefully this method will get rid of the majority, then any more that comes through I'll be able to get with a weedkiller. I'll defo look into the ones you've mentioned if the Resolva doesn't work.
And lol getting up at 6am to edit, I feel bad I didn't read it for about a week now lolll!
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
Spotted what looks like a sea beet or kale plant growing out of some beach-type pebbles ... suggesting they may have come off an actual modern beach 
Where I work is considerably far from the sea...
Where I work is considerably far from the sea...
The Resolva will work but will also kill your grass...but if you are going to dig it all up and reseed, this won't matter. If you just want to treat the broadleaf weeds, PM me and I will send you enough stuff to treat the weeds while keeping the grass intact.
Also, glyphosate is also an active ingredient in Resolva...while meciprop-P will deal rapidly with top-growth, the glyphosate will take 2-3 weeks to kill the roots - you will see the weeds going yellow in a couple of weeks...so be patient.
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
Still jungle-bashing ...
I may have mentioned previously that I have invested in new greenhouses. One of those little 4-shelf things, a cheap polycarbonate one which is rather too shaded planted down over the concrete pad that housed an above-ground LPG tank and an Aluminium replacement for the old wood one.
Today, we built up the frames of the 'big' greenhouse. It is on a dwarf wall for foundations, which has had to be re-built. Tomorrow, weather permitting we should be doing the glazing, staging etc and the finishing touches. Sunday maybe light and power ... if so, then Monday will be level the interior and move some tomatoes (currently overcrowded in the polycarb' 'house ...
I may have mentioned previously that I have invested in new greenhouses. One of those little 4-shelf things, a cheap polycarbonate one which is rather too shaded planted down over the concrete pad that housed an above-ground LPG tank and an Aluminium replacement for the old wood one.
Today, we built up the frames of the 'big' greenhouse. It is on a dwarf wall for foundations, which has had to be re-built. Tomorrow, weather permitting we should be doing the glazing, staging etc and the finishing touches. Sunday maybe light and power ... if so, then Monday will be level the interior and move some tomatoes (currently overcrowded in the polycarb' 'house ...
Hedgehogs are often lurking about in gardens...especially since the drought. It doesn't need any special attention...although water and possibly some high protein catfood might help. Hedgehogs can usually defend themselves handily against household cats - the biggest danger comes from traffic. Presumably, if it got in, it can also get out?
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
Definitely water bowl in this weather, and wet catfood or mealworms if your garden is slugfree.
If you want one to set up home, there are plans for hedgehog dens online and a supply of leaves, hay/straw.
They do 'day nests' as well as hibernation nests.
Don't use slug pellets.
e2a - if it is out in the daytime, then it might have a problem, other than having been disturbed.
If you want one to set up home, there are plans for hedgehog dens online and a supply of leaves, hay/straw.
They do 'day nests' as well as hibernation nests.
Don't use slug pellets.
e2a - if it is out in the daytime, then it might have a problem, other than having been disturbed.
davesgcr
Reading books
There is water - (we put some out for the birds) - the area is nice and wet and wild , no slug pellets , and I sprinkled some dry meat based cat food. So thanks all.
Will confer with our helpful neighbours and make some holes in the dodgy fence to give him / her some more roaming space.
"Tiger" our tabby is sensible enough and will probe , but probably keep clear.
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