The gardening thread

[BoatieBird]

Sigh - allium envy (white rot on plot). Can just about manage leeks and Japanese spring onions.

These are going in the garden, where we've had excellent results with shallots in the past.
We had an allotment for a couple of years, but handed it back last year (I don't know what we were thinking tbh, our garden is plenty big enough and we just didn't have the time). Shallots and garlic did really badly on there, maybe that was the problem?

 

[wayward bob]

Still, pomegranates and citrus

my orange tree has barely survived its poor winter quarters (loft) combined with a hefty scale issue. looking forward to it being able to go back out. at least then i won't have to fret about its wellbeing every night...

<heads off down pomegranate rabbithole>

 

[Leafster]

i don't have much in the way of conifers (which appears to the the apex of japanese formal bonsai), but one is a sawara false cypress. the one fact about which i know is that you can't rely on them backbudding. peter chan was happily hacking away with no such concerns, am torn...

One of the things I was surprised about when I watched his videos was just how roughly he attacked his plants. I'd always thought of bonsai as being more genteel and refined.

 

[wayward bob]

slugs eat my alliums. but am heartened to see chives at least pushing out for all they're worth again

 

[wayward bob]

One of the things I was surprised about when I watched his videos was just how rough he was attacking his plants. I'd always thought of bonsai as being more genteel and refined.

have you seen what they do to "yamadori" with a power drill at kaizen bonsai?

 

[campanula]

These are going in the garden, where we've had excellent results with shallots in the past.
We had an allotment for a couple of years, but handed it back last year (I don't know what we were thinking tbh, our garden is plenty big enough and we just didn't have the time). Shallots and garlic did really badly on there, maybe that was the problem?

Quite likely. It has been on my plot for 16 years and needs at least 7 years of NO alliums, across the whole site to get on top of it. Naturally, people persist in growing it every year so alliums, along with raspberries and blackcurrants are some of the things it isn't worth growing on publicly shared sites...because there will always be someone who carries on harbouring pests and disease. Did yours start off OK but fail to thrive and had no storage longevity? White rot is really prevalent on allotments cos it is spread by spores. I watched it take over the whole site over 3 seasons, from its epicentre, 2 plots away from mine. Non bulbing onions are just about OK.

 

[wayward bob]

speaking of harbouring disease i'm a bit hopeless for my little olive tree. olive spot appears to be fungal/humidity related, something we're always going to suffer with. next door has an olive tree that's big enough to happily shed a year's worth of leaves without problem, but mines is tiny. have had success defoliating spotty leaves in the past, but it seems out of energy. not expecting it to come back this year...

 

[ringo]

Have you watched any of Peter Chan's Youtube videos? I've watched a few and it surprises me just how quickly he can get decent looking results from his source plants.

Herons Bonsai

Herons Bonsai, based in Newchapel in the UK and founded by Dawn and Peter Chan in 1986, is Britain's premier Bonsai nursery. On its extensive seven and half ...

www.youtube.com

No, bonsai doesn't grab me to quite the sme extent, but I have some links for some Niwaki videos I need to get round to watching.

 

[BoatieBird]

Quite likely. It has been on my plot for 16 years and needs at least 7 years of NO alliums, across the whole site to get on top of it. Naturally, people persist in growing it every year so alliums, along with raspberries and blackcurrants are some of the things it isn't worth growing on publicly shared sites...because there will always be someone who carries on harbouring pests and disease. Did yours start off OK but fail to thrive and had no storage longevity? White rot is really prevalent on allotments cos it is spread by spores. I watched it take over the whole site over 3 seasons, from its epicentre, 2 plots away from mine. Non bulbing onions are just about OK.

Yes!
I'm more than happy to stick with the garden for fruit and veg growing from now on.

 

[campanula]

while i'm massively envious of those that have more space, i get happier with my postage-stamp plot every year tbf.

Yep, I have a tiny little courtyard thing at home which I love beyond reason - it is enclosed by high brick walls and I can keep agaves, cymbidiums and my (growing) collection of SA geophytes outside all year. I have an allotment and a wood so I am basically in garden heaven. Although I don't 'garden' as such in the wood.
Any plant indoors is destined for death. Even in the fishtank ones are iffy.
I am at the opposite end of the country from you, Bob...with appropriately different conditions. Moss is unheard of (apart from in terrible lawns) but gravel/dry gardens are all the rage.

 

[iona]

Some kind of winter-induced temporary insanity made me start planting tomato seeds (and mustard etc seeds from the kitchen spice drawer / tiny bits of sedum knocked off onto plant shop shelves / anything else even vaguely growable tbh) at the very start of the month. Toms are some dwarf variety that's meant to do ok in pots indoors, fingers crossed... Not entirely sure what I'll do with any fruit seedlings that make it to saplings mind so suggestions welcome for other edible stuff I can actually grow indoors.

 

[RubyToogood]

Yeah, it's depressing wayward bob . If plants do not get a resting period (dormancy), they cannot sustain the efforts required to set and grow fruit (or flowering). Birches are already being affected by this and will soon be a largely Scottish species. In truth, stone fruits such as plums and cherries are a lot more affected than apples but it really isn't the warming causing the problem but lack of sustained cold.

Still, pomegranates and citrus

I've been wondering about this as I'm (at least in my head) re-making my garden. The apples and pears I planted 25 years ago are probably coming to the end of their lives as they were on pretty dwarfing rootstocks, so I need to do some succession planning, at least one fruit tree. But who knows what climatic conditions it'll have to deal with? I'm not interested in citrus trees or olives and it doesn't get full sun all day anyway. Will probably just go for an apple - Laxton's Fortune has done me well. My pear trees have not really yielded much.

 

[RubyToogood]

Meanwhile I got a gardener round last week to help me think through my garden redesign. She had something very all-singing, all-dancing in mind that was going to cost me 10k which is obviously not going to happen. But it was useful in helping me think outside the box.

 

[campanula]

Laxton's Fortune

My all-time favourite apple.

My very best fruit producers are the cherries (I have 2) but are not without problems. They absolutely have to be netted to produce a crop (because every pigeon and blackbird in Cambridge feasts on them) but I get a crop in July (Lapins/Cherokee) and another in August (Sweetheart). Also, I am trialling an apricot this year (supposedly resistant to peach leaf curl). Apples and pears need a partner but plums, cherries and other stone fruit are self-fertile...and then again, there are pluots and other such hybrids as well as some interesting fruits such as Juneberries, aronia, saskatoons etc. The squirrel;s discovered my filberts so suspect bountiful nut harvests are numbered too.

I love my fruit trees for the blossom as much as the crops. My almond is in full bloom now and lights up the whole plot...but produces bizarre fruit - a sort of hybrid between almond and peach which crops softshelled green almonds used in Middle Eastern cooking but not really beloved by me (although I do still eat the small kernels).

I have seen a layout of your garden Ruby - basically sound, well proportioned and accessible. Spend spare cash on decent paths and you are good to go.

 

[Mumbles274]

The frog fuckathon is in full swing. lamb1979's favourite time of year

 

[campanula]

Some kind of winter-induced temporary insanity made me start planting tomato seeds (and mustard etc seeds

I have done mine too. A couple of weeks earlier than usual in case my (oldish) seeds are not viable. They will be fine although there is a bit of a balancing act to keep them cold enough, with plenty of light so they don't get leggy...and even if they do, you can bury them deep - tight up to the cotyledons - they will make roots all along the buried stem.
I ordered some last year - apparently, they are normal sized tomatoes on short plants with very short internodes (spaces between truss formation) and deigned for windowsills. Mine never showed and in the hurly-burly of summer, I forgot about them. Might have try again (from seeds this year) for grand-daughter.

 

[campanula]

so suggestions welcome for other edible stuff I can actually grow indoors.

Try micro-greens - tiny broccoli,pea, radicchio,spinach,beetroot, sorrel etc. grown in trays and eaten a week after germination. Just like cress except tastier

 

[Artaxerxes]

I have done mine too. A couple of weeks earlier than usual in case my (oldish) seeds are not viable. They will be fine although there is a bit of a balancing act to keep them cold enough, with plenty of light so they don't get leggy...and even if they do, you can bury them deep - tight up to the cotyledons - they will make roots all along the buries stem.

I’ve put in some Latah tomatoes from Real Seeds a week or two ago, supposed to be good with the cold but no sign of them yet. Never grown bush tomatoes so should be intersting.

 

[wayward bob]

i got a fantastic crop from my windowbox toms a couple of years back. since been replaced with something (i don't recall what) evergreen so we're not eyeballing next door across the kitchen all winter.

 

[two sheds]

The squirrels discovered my filberts

 

[campanula]

I’ve put in some Latah tomatoes from Real Seeds

Yeah, I grew Latah last year...but they were separate from my usual tomatoe support system and got overlooked and ignored. have sowed some more this year as they are supposed to be excellent bush types. I grew some millefleurs last year too and am doing them again - quite astonishing heads of fruit.

 

[campanula]

Growing celery this year - self-blanching and the green ones which need trenching. I have them next to the designated potato beds so will stretch the soaker hoses around them ( they are as thirsty as spuds). Have dug up the asparagus after beetle fails every bloody year so I now have a decent space for burning the mountains of rose prunings: will srick a table there later in the summer. Got the potatoes so chitting can get started (although not really necessary with second earlies, I do it out of habit). Sweetheart is claiming to be 'in charge' of the veg this year (but have seen no evidence so far, apart from having a carrot argument).

 

[iona]

Try micro-greens - tiny broccoli,pea, radicchio,spinach,beetroot, sorrel etc. grown in trays and eaten a week after germination. Just like cress except tastier

Oh yeah I am, lots of mustard atm but other stuff too. And garlic chives, and some experimental ginger root just coz it was there. Might try some chillis too, and I have loads of garlic I got for free that's starting to sprout so thinking of sticking some of that in a pot somewhere to see what happens.

 

[wayward bob]

i've grown chillis more than happily on a windowsill

 

[Artaxerxes]

Windowsill Tom's have sprouted

No sign of chilli's yet but yeah I've grown a chilli on a windowsill before, just not here, nice chilli's too.

 

[iona]

Moved all the front room plants into the kitchen to rearrange furniture and, uh...

There's quite a lot when you see them like that

 

[wayward bob]

ffs iona mines (outside) is the same but don't have an easy camera for pics

 

[wayward bob]

sunny afternoon, no-one home, bonsai soil just came...

 

[wayward bob]

well that was unexpectedly nerve-wracking and cack-handed

<crosses fingers, cues up another pile of how-to vids>

 

[clicker]

A pot of mini daffodils are happily bobbing away in the sun. The woodpecker is back in a nearby tree doing it's thing. The cat is basking on the shed roof and the fences are still standing. I can feel Spring today.