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The gardening thread

Recycling success!

During lockdown I cleared an area of my garden were nothing has ever grown that well and had got full of weeds. It was a circle about 4m in diameter with steps up to it that I'd made out of bricks and pebbles that had never been very good or safe I had always wanted to make a path or just pave over the whole area - but I couldn't ever justify spending hundreds of pounds on stone or materials. Never mind pay anyone to do it

I've nearly got it weed free now and was wondering all summer what I could afford to do with it before it gets in a weedy state again.

I'm really happy because a neighbour down my street had a huge stack of patio stones, big oblong pale stones in different sizes. I asked and he was about to pay to send them to landfill! about 30square metres! more than enough for a circle plus steps plus some for a path, stepping stones and perhaps I can make some seats out of the bigger ones, hooray!

Me and the grllf have dragged about a third of them down the street making use of the wheelie bins. We'll have another bash at it and move more tomorrow. It's going to be quite hard to drag them all through the flat and out to the top of the garden. Just need a ton or so of sharp sand now!

Anyone got any tips on laying paving?
 
Hope it's gone ok today. No real tips on laying paving here apart from what you're likely aware of: flatten the ground out with spirit levels and things and make sure the earth has leveled out by leaving it for a while (is what I'd do anyway).

I have hops :) I have a good 50 hops but don't know what to do with them :( I tried making beer one time but I have nowhere near the right temperature control using a rayburn.

I also have grapes :) I have a good couple of hundred grapes but they're each the size of a small pea :( I'm not quite sure how to crush them so as to get rid of the pips but I shall work on this.
 
Quick question about tomatoes. My plants are starting to look scraggy now, but there are still quite a lot of tomatoes on them. Are they going to be okay left to ripen on the vines for another week or two, or would I be better off harvesting the lot and trying to ripen them on the windowsill?
 
Roadkill said:
Quick question about tomatoes. My plants are starting to look scraggy now, but there are still quite a lot of tomatoes on them. Are they going to be okay left to ripen on the vines for another week or two, or would I be better off harvesting the lot and trying to ripen them on the windowsill?
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I would trim off all the dead and dying looking branches. And leave it going for another week. The big danger is blight, which shows as black and brown patches. If the fruit gets these it goes brown and wrinky.
 
I've got loads of germander speedwell in the garden, is lovely in April/May amongst the grass under the apple tree. It's strayed into the flower beds though and I want to tidy them up a bit. So I looked up how to spread the seeds and the first few sites were all about 'how to eradicate this troublesome weed' :mad: until I got to Germander speedwell | The Wildlife Trusts - flowers apparently good for solitary bees :).

1601291395887.png

So I've decided I'll pull them where I don't want them and spread the plants out in the grass where I do, and hopefully the seeds will just fall off and grow.
 
End of summer (I cut my 'meadow' at the allotment) but the beginning of the gardening year (imo). I have seeds germinating in the greenhouse, bulbs to be planted, plants to be lifted and split, loads of stuff waiting to go in the ground.. but ordering my sweetpeas is one of my favourite seasonal jobs. For a very small outlay of time, effort, space and £££, you get to proffer bunches of sweetpeas to everyone. ..because the more you pick, the more they grow. I got mine from Roger Parsons, but have also bought from Kings, Eagle Sweet Peas, Owl Acre, Matthewmans, The English Sweet Pea company...there sre a lot of better options than T&M or Mr.Fothergills
 
lovely ideal, will have a look tonight :)

I've just been out weeding and discovered how good bugle is as ground cover. Lots of weeds covering them but they've been spreading quietly underneath and in really good condition.
 
two sheds said:
I also have grapes :) I have a good couple of hundred grapes but they're each the size of a small pea :( I'm not quite sure how to crush them so as to get rid of the pips but I shall work on this.
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If you're still wondering, this year this worked well for me. Put grapes in large vessel of some sort. Mash with potato masher. Strain through a colander and squish down. This won't get rid of all the pips but it whittles the mass down a bit. Then put the resulting juice through a sieve.

You can squeeze the pulp (pomace) out a bit more with your hands into the sieve/colander. Personally I added a bit of water to the pomace and repressed it because the juice was quite intense.

The result is cloudy and sediment will settle out. I like cloudy because I'm drinking it as juice. Winemakers may feel differently I guess.

When I get bored of drinking it, I put the rest in plastic bottles, squeeze a bit of the air out and freeze.

I only discovered this year that the crystals which form when you chill the juice are potassium bitartrate, aka cream of tartar. You get these little crunchy crystals at the bottom of the glass. Winemakers may deliberately chill the juice and then filter to get rid of the crystals. Again, I quite like them.
 
Whilst I'm here, I may say that my garden remodel has been a spectacular success. The garden is lovely and looks as though it's been like this for years, plus I've had loads of veg. I've been out there pretty much every day either loafing or pottering. I still need to sort the far end out a bit and have a major onslaught on rodent visitors but it's been fab and the timing couldn't have been better.
 
campanula said:
End of summer (I cut my 'meadow' at the allotment) but the beginning of the gardening year (imo). I have seeds germinating in the greenhouse, bulbs to be planted, plants to be lifted and split, loads of stuff waiting to go in the ground.. but ordering my sweetpeas is one of my favourite seasonal jobs. For a very small outlay of time, effort, space and £££, you get to proffer bunches of sweetpeas to everyone. ..because the more you pick, the more they grow. I got mine from Roger Parsons, but have also bought from Kings, Eagle Sweet Peas, Owl Acre, Matthewmans, The English Sweet Pea company...there sre a lot of better options than T&M or Mr.Fothergills
Click to expand...

ordered from English Sweet Pea company ta :) smelly ones for really good prices and free delivery over £6.50 :thumbs: I just have to work out how to grow them this year I've only had a few flowers on the ones I've done so far.
 
two sheds said:
ordered from English Sweet Pea company ta :) smelly ones for really good prices and free delivery over £6.50 :thumbs: I just have to work out how to grow them this year I've only had a few flowers on the ones I've done so far.
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I sow 5 or 6 seeds in each 5inch/litre pot. You don't need to soak or scarify them, just pop the seeds in some potting mix - no need to be fussy - I like loam based John Innes mix but any reasonably draining mix will do. They can live outside but cover the pots as mice love pea seeds - I often use the netting from when I buy a bag of lemons.... There is a really popular method in the US using milk jugs. Use a 4pint bottle, cut so the top and bottom half so they are still connected, fill the bottom with soil then tape the milk jugs back together. Don't put the bottle top on and make holes in the bottom of the jugs for drainage. They act like little mini-cloches, keeping the seedlings safe all winter. They will germinate in around 28 days and can be left to grow away. Some people nip out the first shoot so side shoots develop (I cba) Look up 'winter sowing' and the 'milk jug method.' Handy if you don't have a greenhouse or coldframe. Sweet peas are perfectly hardy.
 
friendofdorothy said:
Recycling success!
... It's going to be quite hard to drag them all through the flat and out to the top of the garden. ...
Click to expand...

We looked quite odd dragging our wheelie bins of heavy stone up and down the street! I managed to drag all the bricks and the smaller stones through the flat on my own. Two of us shifted the rest of them through today. Discovered we could use a bit of old wood and very long cardboard box that was littering the street like a slide to get the bigger stones down the 4 steps we have at the front, then used the frame of my shopping wheelie trolley to wheel them one at a time through tothe back door. Success!
 
campanula said:
I sow 5 or 6 seeds in each 5inch/litre pot. You don't need to soak or scarify them, just pop the seeds in some potting mix - no need to be fussy - I like loam based John Innes mix but any reasonably draining mix will do. They can live outside but cover the pots as mice love pea seeds - I often use the netting from when I buy a bag of lemons.... There is a really popular method in the US using milk jugs. Use a 4pint bottle, cut so the top and bottom half so they are still connected, fill the bottom with soil then tape the milk jugs back together. Don't put the bottle top on and make holes in the bottom of the jugs for drainage. They act like little mini-cloches, keeping the seedlings safe all winter. They will germinate in around 28 days and can be left to grow away. Some people nip out the first shoot so side shoots develop (I cba) Look up 'winter sowing' and the 'milk jug method.' Handy if you don't have a greenhouse or coldframe. Sweet peas are perfectly hardy.
Click to expand...

ooh I can plant them now? :)

I'd think of keeping them in the conservatory over winter - as you say mice the little fuckers love pea seeds

instructions saved to my 'campanula.odt' document :)
 
campanula said:
I sow 5 or 6 seeds in each 5inch/litre pot. You don't need to soak or scarify them, just pop the seeds in some potting mix - no need to be fussy - I like loam based John Innes mix but any reasonably draining mix will do. They can live outside but cover the pots as mice love pea seeds - I often use the netting from when I buy a bag of lemons.... There is a really popular method in the US using milk jugs. Use a 4pint bottle, cut so the top and bottom half so they are still connected, fill the bottom with soil then tape the milk jugs back together. Don't put the bottle top on and make holes in the bottom of the jugs for drainage. They act like little mini-cloches, keeping the seedlings safe all winter. They will germinate in around 28 days and can be left to grow away. Some people nip out the first shoot so side shoots develop (I cba) Look up 'winter sowing' and the 'milk jug method.' Handy if you don't have a greenhouse or coldframe. Sweet peas are perfectly hardy.
Click to expand...
do they grow flowers through the winter or is this just to get the seedlings ready for next spring? I bough a dozen small sweetpea plants in the summer but only one survived (I was trying to grow them in pots and it was very hot and dry) it didnt do very well though it is weakly flowering still.
 
I planted some seeds from a red pepper a couple of weeks ago and they're coming up already :) One of my major triumphs was getting an avocado stone to germinate three or four years ago :thumbs: it got attacked by greenfly so wasn't all that successful but I've got another two on the go at the moment and they look really healthy :)
 
friendofdorothy said:
do they grow flowers through the winter or is this just to get the seedlings ready for next spring? I bough a dozen small sweetpea plants in the summer but only one survived (I was trying to grow them in pots and it was very hot and dry) it didnt do very well though it is weakly flowering still.
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Hardy annuals (such as sweet peas) will grow all winter, putting on root-mass and a small amount of top-growth. When daylight hours increase in spring, it will trigger flowering growth which, after a winter of gently bimbling along, will suddenly burst into vigorous life. An autumn sown annual will flower 2-3 weeks earlier than a spring sown one...but will be 4x the size and floriferousness. An autumn sown cornflower, for example, will reach 4foot tall and about 2 feet wide with hundreds of individual flowers. whereas a spring sown plant will generally have one main stem without the branching growth which a strong root-mass will support. Sweet peas are the same...and yep, you have hit the nail on the head - too dry, too hot. Again, autumn sown plants have a much better root system and will be acclimatised to changeable spring weather.
Of course, you can hedge your bets by doing a spring sowing too...which will flower a bit later and will be more likely to trundle on through the summer without the massive May/June floral climax. Calamity1971 grew some sterling sweetpeas this year - dunno when she sowed them but she had a great show.
 
Ta - yes I do have a muslin bag, I was hoping to save it for other uses though (not quite sure what yet but I know there are some). I have a sieve that should catch the pips and skin, I'll try that first.
 
Received my sweet peas :) I like the English Sweet Pea Company - the peas came in an envelope with cardboard stiffener rather than the normal poppy plastic stuff that has to be thrown out. They say 85% germination because they test them before they're sent out.

They give instructions to put them on damp kitchen towel in a food tub in the airing cupboard which does sound favourite.

But anyway. The reason I came to post was to ask about jumping slugs. Not in the garden but in the house. I sometimes come down in the morning to find a slug trail on a carpet. Not just any slug trail, but one with a beginning and an end and no slug in sight. :eek: This seems to suggest they drop from somewhere, wander round a bit, and then jump to somewhere else. Anyone else know about jumping slugs?​
 
two sheds said:
Received my sweet peas
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Which ones did you get. I tend to go for creams and blues but I usually get Prince of Orange and Erewhon too. The cream ones such as Jilly, Cathy, Cream Egg and High Scent are always fabulously fragrant. Always hard to choose between the grandifloras (which are the most fragrant) and the Spencers which have long stems for picking. I usually get some of each. I just put them in pots in damp soil. I will say they like a deep root run so use a 5inch deep pot. You can get fancy root-trainers but they are spendy.
 
My 20-ish year old slumped-over pink pampas is once again producing flower spikes during a storm, so I don't hold out much hope of enjoying the flowers for very long ..

pinkragsonsticks.jpg
 
campanula said:
Which ones did you get. I tend to go for creams and blues but I usually get Prince of Orange and Erewhon too. The cream ones such as Jilly, Cathy, Cream Egg and High Scent are always fabulously fragrant. Always hard to choose between the grandifloras (which are the most fragrant) and the Spencers which have long stems for picking. I usually get some of each. I just put them in pots in damp soil. I will say they like a deep root run so use a 5inch deep pot. You can get fancy root-trainers but they are spendy.
Click to expand...

Turquoise lagoon, More scent, Cupani original, Parfumiere mix, Albutt blue - generally went for the smelly ones as I recall.
 
two sheds said:
But anyway. The reason I came to post was to ask about jumping slugs. Not in the garden but in the house. I sometimes come down in the morning to find a slug trail on a carpet. Not just any slug trail, but one with a beginning and an end and no slug in sight. :eek: This seems to suggest they drop from somewhere, wander round a bit, and then jump to somewhere else. Anyone else know about jumping slugs?
Click to expand...
I have similar issues indoors - and I marvel at the effort they make for so little return ... there's one (?) that repeatedly leaves trails on the back of my breadboard high on a shelf and I have yet to catch it in the act and re-locate it / them ...
I wonder if slugs will follow others' trails ... doubtless the predatory ones do ...
 
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