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The gardening thread

Its not a bamboo, its some sort of aquatic plant.. Think it might have Japanese in the name.. I'm crap for knowing plant names!
 
BoatieBird said:
What is the right sort of vegetation for a spider plant gentlegreen?
We've just potted up loads of young plants and I'll happily send you one if it's the right kind!
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I think it's a green stripe down the centre of the leaves.

Thanks for the offer, but it gives me the excuse to go to more garden places. :)

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A non-variegated relative is a vegetable in India - and I think the roots are used for bladder problems ...

It's shameful that I haven't had spider plants for years now.
 
gentlegreen said:
I think it's a green stripe down the centre of the leaves.

Thanks for the offer, but it gives me the excuse to go to more garden places. :)

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A non-variegated relative is a vegetable in India - and I think the roots are used for bladder problems ...

It's shameful that I haven't had spider plants for years now.
Click to expand...

We have the wrong sort anyway :p
We bought 1 small spider plant and now we have loads of the bloody things and we're always trying to press them into visitors hands when they leave the house
 
Tomorrow is when I extract my two huge brugmansias from the greenhouse.
It's a good job they're pretty well "two dimensional" - and I thought this time to turn them to be in the same orientation they're going to be in outside so all the new growth is where it should be ... unless I change my mind at the last minute.

Meanwhile for the front garden I have one solitary datura metaloides seedling and a single very slow to sprout cutting on the bathroom window sill ... I hope one of them is going to get its finger out.

I hope the Datura wins the race, because if the neighbours ask, I will be able to insist that they're devil's trumpets and not Angel's trumpets. :D
 
BoatieBird said:
We have the wrong sort anyway :p
We bought 1 small spider plant and now we have loads of the bloody things and we're always trying to press them into visitors hands when they leave the house
Click to expand...
:D

One year when I decided I wanted lots for the garden in a hurry, I set up a "raceway" hydro unit in the office at work (better light and warmth) - an aquarium bubbler and offsets planted through holes in a sheet of polystyrene - it's easy enough to root anyway, but I was managing to root the teeniest bits.

The "wrong" sort looks a bit like arundo donax - which I may well be able to "accommodate" aesthetically one day - it's a must-have plant for the "exotic" garden - and who knows, I may take up the clarinet again and be in need of reeds.
 
Darn,

Parkers haven't even delivered my fuchsias yet and they're making me offers I can't refuse - jasmine, Agapanthus, honeysuckle, clematis ... and moar free white lilies.

At this rate I will end up having to take plants with me to Brittany in 6 years' time and I'm not even sure that's legal.

Let alone having all these new and unfamiliar plants to look after in the meantime.

I was getting a bit fed up with the group bike rides in any case - that was tending to keep me away from the garden - plus the horrible winters of 2008 and 2010 set me back.
 
I got the brugs out of the greenhouse unscathed.

brugsout.jpg

I've attached a line to a post at the end of the garden, so if I think they need it over the next weeks, I'll be able to stretch it to the house and hang some insulation.

The big one at the back has flower buds on it already.
They're both going to need some creative staking and tying to support their canopies.

My one cutting is finally getting going too.

brugcutting.jpg
 
gardenfillingout.jpg

In the foreground are the two solitary wallflowers that survived.
They're all propped up and the petals are all floppy, but I swear I get wafts of perfume 20 feet away in the far corner of my room.

Oh and they're pink- so it's fortuitous I grabbed a pot of magenta daisies a couple of weeks back. :)

The rear brug is pink and also the pampas at the back - so there's a theme...
 
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I had a moment browsing on someone else's TV recently and came across "Grow, Make, Eat: The Great Allotment Challenge". I don't know much about gardening but it was fascinating. There were three pairs into the finals, a pair of women, a married couple (at least I assume) and a pair of men. The gardening was great but I did keep wondering if the male pair were partners, and the female pair also. Shallow me!! :)

Does anyone else watch it?
 
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gentlegreen I am really impressed with what you have done/are doing with your garden. It's tropical looking and really diverse!

In fact, am I the only one who has taken to thinking of gentlegreen as some eccentric explorer/botanist type? :hmm: I can't help myself, I keep imagining him as a character from an early technicolour movie, full safari tans etc :D

A bit like this:

87698725.jpg

:thumbs:
 
I decided to move my black bamboo because in 3 years it has put up 2 culms. I think the FatsiaJaponica has out competed it for water and light. In its new position I can water it with more ease if need be and it has more room to grow

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gentlegreen said:
I caught one episode.
OK if you like the modern TV thing of making people's contrived reactions more important than the plants - and I find judging "perfect" vegetables annoying at the best of times.
All the participants' details are on the BBC website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01wjhcx/profiles
More interesting than the programme itself. :D
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Thanks for that, interesting to read their backgrounds.

I don't know about obsession with perfect vegetables but I remember when small entering the local show "whatever you want you made it so let's see it" category, although I have no recollection what I entered!
 
You know you've had a good day in the garden when there is soil in your bra :D :hmm:

I laid patio, cleared rubbish, planted my haul from the secret garden centre, moved some stuff from the nursery bed and trained climbing plants.... Good day that would have been better if I hadn't broken my angle grinder and run out of building sand :facepalm:
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3amujyry.jpg
 
I had quite a busy day - I dug my "vegetable island" to get out the bindweed and made up for disturbing it by forking in the smelly worm goo from the compost bin.
Hopefully it will have settled down by the time I'm ready with the runner beans, courgettes and squashes.

beanpoles.jpg

I planted up my window trough with my rather hungry and straggly stock seedlings - but I think they'll be OK - glorified cabbages really so I planted them deep - they're straggly in growth anyway - weedier than most "weeds" - but punch well above their weight in the fragrance department.

stocksplanted.jpg

Hopefully sorted out my two sweet pea tubs - even though some of them are a bit beaten up, I should still have more shoots than I'll ultimately need - never grown them before so I'll be feeling my way.
The tubs are in a WSW-facing space between my house and next door - with one effectively on a north wall so I'm starting them both off on the sunnier side and expect to have to rotate / swap them about to keep the growth balanced.

sweetpeas.jpg

It's only just dawned on me that I should be able to lift my crocus bulbs soon - thus freeing up three more buckets.
It's a shame I neglected to label them. :facepalm:

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Two of my alliums look like they'll finally give me flowers.
I'm struggling a bit with these pansies - they rock about in the breeze on spindly stalks - I need to find out if I should earth them up a bit...
 
Rutita1 said:
gentlegreen I am really impressed with what you have done/are doing with your garden. It's tropical looking and really diverse!

In fact, am I the only one who has taken to thinking of gentlegreen as some eccentric explorer/botanist type? :hmm: I can't help myself, I keep imagining him as a character from an early technicolour movie, full safari tans etc :D
Click to expand...
You should have seen me hacking through the Bamboo in 2010 after I'd allowed my jungle plants to do what they wanted for about 7 years. I still have a huge stack to process in some way - I'm trying to acquire a lethal old-school guillotine ...

I think I'm motivated this year partly because of the amazingly mild winter, and also because this could be a sort of countdown. If things go to plan, there will only be another 5 gardening years at the most and I'll be learning how to garden with the sea only a few miles away.
Amazingly I'm struggling to find any exotic gardens / gardeners in Brittany - though it has to be said a lot of the areas I'm looking at are full of holiday / retirement homes with low maintenance gardens.
My hope is that the tidyness will spread back towards and then through the house and I'll be on a roll and ready to move when the time comes.
 
My landlord dug out our flowerbeds and tree and laid it all to grass. My only green fingeredness these days is my rescue plant / bonsai project (because I let half of it die back by neglect), a cheese plant that has survived much mistreatment and a couple more...

I used to really enjoy the garden I had back in Essex, would like to have one of my own again.
 
What a shame.
If it's literally all grass, you can't even have pots.
Are you expected to mow the bloody stuff ?
 
WOW you lot! :cool: :thumbs:

I have weeded a bit today and waited for the sun to be off the garden before watering well...apart form that I mostly enjoyed the hammock :facepalm: BUT i was planning, I am always planning! :hmm:
 
My preferred sort of "bindweed".

My passionflower pergola starts in the corner of the greenhouse and then out of the top of the door.
I've only just noticed the huge quantity of young flowering shoots that have formed inside the greenhouse and which I had to tidy up a bit today.
I hope it isn't a bad sign - but the growth outside the greenhouse is also spectacular.
I probably should cut this lot off, but I'm wondering whether there's any way to have passionflowers as cut flowers. :hmm:

passionflowerbindweed.jpg
 
I like mirrors in gardens too. I have a old ornate one at the bottom and then a few small ones tucked into fence panels. I also have 2 glitter balls and a fake Renior!

I was in the garden yestetday doing epic Ivy cutting and have dug out a huge Madusa style root in a area that we hope to grow potatoes in. It was very rewarding work and can't wait to get stuck back in on Wednesday.
 
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