The gardening thread

[Idaho]

If you put a ripe tomato in each pot, it will make the others ripen faster. A banana might work too - but I'm not sure.

 

[RubyToogood]

I took the plunge yesterday and picked all my pears (Josephine de Malines) as things were starting to peck at them etc. This is a variety which ripens in store and you're supposed to store them in a cool place. I could put them in the meter cupboard, but if I do that I will probably never look at them again as it's difficult to get into and full of spiders. Last time I had any I stored them in the fridge which worked well, but I don't think I really have room now, and the bottom of my fridge has a tendency to freeze.

Any suggestions? I haven't got boxes and boxes of them, it's about a heaped colander full.

 

[gentlegreen]

wayward bob I think you're growing these ?

Paul Stamets says not to eat them more than 3 days in a row ...

 

[Roadkill]

If you put a ripe tomato in each pot, it will make the others ripen faster. A banana might work too - but I'm not sure.

I didn't know that - thanks! Tbh I might not actually do it though: I've so many to use up I don't really want them to ripen any more quickly!

 

[campanula]

Rechargeable MINI Lithium Chainsaw

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OMG - I don't usually fall for this sort of stuff...but I find I am looking at this with some glee. I have a reciprocating saw I sometimes use but it weighs a ton...and I mostly rely on my Silky pull saws. Please, someone, slap me and tell me this is a terrible idea...as my finger is hovering over 'buy', all sense having fled.

 

[Idaho]

Expensive!

Only £50 on Amazon:

4 Inch The Mini Electric Chainsaw, Strong Power Ever Battery-Powered Wood Cutter Rechargeable, 550W Power, 5M/S Speed: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home

Great prices on your favourite Home brands, and free delivery on eligible orders.

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[Artaxerxes]

Get behind me satans

 

[two sheds]

Am tempted by the mini chainsaw. I've always avoided them because I like having the number of arms and legs that I have, though.

 

[gentlegreen]

It's like the advert that's been on Youtube recently for a battery-powered lopper.
I don't believe it for a moment.
You would definitely want a branded one where you could be sure of being able to service the thing.

 

[campanula]

It's like the advert that's been on Youtube recently for a battery-powered lopper.
I don't believe it for a moment.

Yeah, I also recall some very spendy battery secateurs. Thing is though, I bought a whole load of Metabo tools, all run off battery and I am a total convert...even the chopsaw is run off a battery. I have been much slacker about converting my gardening tools though - either petrol-driven...or Japanese hand-tools such as Silky pull-saws and Hayauchi loppers/Niwaki shears.
I have the onerous job of pruning 60+ huge roses...and a decent mini-chainsaw would be just the ticket (my 565 is a beast).

 

[iona]

Work ("work" ) today

 

[gentlegreen]

4th October :-



17th October :-

And the miscanthuses are joining the pampas ...

 

[campanula]

Notice – F.R. Jones & Son

www.frjonesandson.co.uk

My birthday present! yay! A couple of days early. Can hardly wait. I also got a yellow painted rocking chair so I can sit on my deck and scowl. Sadly, a catapult doesn't really have the same sort of cachet a shotgun would but hey ho...attitude will make up for it as O can manage a furious, feminist, proletarian witch/crone/hag.

 

[two sheds]

Do like it when you learn something just before you go out and do something you wouldn't have done if you'd learned something a couple of days earlier.

From the Bird Table (with article on low numbers of dunnocks this year ) "A helping hand for butterflies: Let ivy grow around the base of your trees up to around .8 m high so that they can create an invaluable habitat for our overwintering butterflies.

Also means I'm not going to have to pull out the ivy roots

 

[gentlegreen]

It's going to be nippy tonight so I made the effort to haul my brugs into my unheated greenhouse.
Three of them had put on a decent amount of growth since recovering from their mite attacks and even had quite a few teeny flower buds ...

 

[iona]

Some questions, in no particular order:

Can someone recommend a pruning saw? Preferably a folding one coz I'll be taking it on public transport and people tend to get funny when you start pulling out bladed weapons gardening tools in the search for your train ticket

Should I be less brutal cutting back a lavender hedge than if it hadn't been left this late?

What's the best way to make a base for a shed / greenhouse without using concrete (allotment site, currently got a well dodgy paving-slab-and-fuck-knows-what-else base under the old shed and grass over the rest of the area), and how difficult will it be to not fuck up?

Ta

 

[Callie]

iona I think lavender is a bit like rosemary and won't grow back if you are brutal/cut too far into old wood??!

Can you take cuttings (? too late) in an attempt to have back up plants if it does?

 

[Hearse Pileup]

I post most of my gardening stuff on Mastodon, I am about to harvest the last of the tomatillos and chillies from my garded before winter really kicks in. I have some purple sprouting brocolli seedlings on the go, but aside from that I really need to get some winter plants in the ground!

Tomatillo Bush a month or two ago:

Some of the picked fruit:

 

[campanula]

iona
Don't do the lavender now - wait till next spring for a cut as far back into last season's wood without going into old wood. I like the Silky Fox range of pullsaws. Felco is nor a leader in pullsaw choices (surprisingly) but Bahco are not bad.
Personally, I like a paving slab (laid on sand) base for a shed but sleepers are a possibility cos they are raised off the ground. On a windy site, anchirage can be an issue but there is always so much stuff in my shed, it wouldn't move in a hurricane (although the roof might). Pallets are not really durable enough but yeah, the main issue is to ensure the timber does not lie next to the ground. If you do use sleepers or any raised base, you will have rats and/or woodmice underneath.
eta re.lavender. You can safely cut off the flowering stems but avoid the leafy bits till next year.

 

[campanula]

Finally, got (nearly) all the bulbs in the ground. I did foist a few on offspring. Just got to lift and transplant the wallflowers. Dahlias and Cosmos still flowering insanely and a few of the (late summer germinated) hardy annuals have had a late go-round...which is a tad annoying as they were meant to wait till next May.

 

[andysays]

Some questions, in no particular order:

Can someone recommend a pruning saw? Preferably a folding one coz I'll be taking it on public transport and people tend to get funny when you start pulling out bladed weapons gardening tools in the search for your train ticket

Should I be less brutal cutting back a lavender hedge than if it hadn't been left this late?

What's the best way to make a base for a shed / greenhouse without using concrete (allotment site, currently got a well dodgy paving-slab-and-fuck-knows-what-else base under the old shed and grass over the rest of the area), and how difficult will it be to not fuck up?

Ta

Re the shed base, if you can get hold of enough hardcore (old bricks, broken paving slabs etc), you can make a former out of old scaffold boards or similar, fill with hardcore then compact and level it.

Also easier to make the base a little bigger than the foot print of your shed.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Finally, got (nearly) all the bulbs in the ground. I did foist a few on offspring. Just got to lift and transplant the wallflowers. Dahlias and Cosmos still flowering insanely and a few of the (late summer germinated) hardy annuals have had a late go-round...which is a tad annoying as they were meant to wait till next May.

We had a fine crop of late nasturtiums up until last week's frost.

Looks like lockdown 2 has emptied a few sites of seeds sadly so I'll have to rummage around to see what I can find if I want flowers. Trying to avoid the big boys like Thompson and Morgan.

 

[iona]

iona I think lavender is a bit like rosemary and won't grow back if you are brutal/cut too far into old wood??!

Can you take cuttings (? too late) in an attempt to have back up plants if it does?

Don't do the lavender now - wait till next spring for a cut as far back into last season's wood without going into old wood.

Yeah I know how far I would've cut back a month or two ago but it's someone else's lavender that they haven't got round to doing, hence wondering if I could still do it now without killing it!

Any silky saw in particular campanula? Was looking at them anyway but the amount of choice just confuses me (won't buy Felco secateurs for the same reason )

 

[campanula]

I don't love folding saws tbh, iona and use a Gomtaro myself. However, it also depends what you will be using it for. I have never really got on with curved blades, and prefer a straight one. I do my pruning in quite narrow spaces and find accuracy is more important than whacking through the wood. My son, who does a whole lot more tree pruning and orchard work than I do, swears that a good curved blade allows for a much better arm movement, is less tiring and very fast. Being idle, anything which cannot be easily cut with ratchet loppers calls for a power tool, imo...but again, son swears he can prune a tree faster with a lelescopic polesaw than someone arsing about climbing around with chainsaws. Horses for courses, really. I checked the Silky website (mine is very old) and thought I would probably go for a Gomboy 240 blade for everyday pruning (shrubs, roses, fruit bushes...the sort of stuff I mostly do.

I am hoping my Stihl power pruner works out. 2 batteries supposedly gives 50 minutes cutting (which is as much as I want to do in one go). It comes in the shittest case ever, which is a bloody annoyance - I am going to have to make a heavy-duty canvas carrying bag.
Just tidy the lavender up a bit. If the soil is nice and gritty/free draining, you can probably get away with trimming the ends if it has started flopping over and causing splits in the middle...but if soil is likely to get pretty wet, best to leave it till April when you can give it a much better haircut. I did a lot of evergreen pruning by August (santolina, lavender, anthemis, artemisia) but inevitably, gaura, penstemons, osteos and salvia were all looking really good and I couldn't bear to give them the chop so yep, they are going to look quite sordid by late January but will just have to ignore it.

Think lavender cuttings need to be taken much earlier than I get round to it (summer)...which is why it is a not terribly successful endeavour for me. Next year, I intend to get them in May...before the season's flower stems extend and bloom.

 

[iona]

Yeah I'm too cackhanded for power tools to be a good idea

 

[Leafster]

Think lavender cuttings need to be taken much earlier than I get round to it (summer)...which is why it is a not terribly successful endeavour for me. Next year, I intend to get them in May...before the season's flower stems extend and bloom.

I did take a few cuttings one year with limited success - probably left it too late in the season but I don't know whether it's just in my garden but my lavender Hidcote self-seeds everywhere I'm growing it. I've always got more than I need to plant elsewhere.

 

[moonsi til]

I’m stopping with a friend as waiting for house sale to go through. Photos of the gardens from my bedroom window. The right is my friends & left neighbours. My friend grows veg in garden & allotment so we have been treated to lots of veg which has been a real treat.

 

[Duncan2]

I don't actively want to deprive butterflies of winter -shelter (see upthread) but I would like to know if there is some super-efficient method of getting rid of ivy.It pulls down walls (recently one fell on the car) it climbs up to the gutter and blocks the down-spout,it cuts out the light from our windows and-from its strong-hold under our beech hedge- it fans out across the lawn looking horrid and encouraging beds of moss. I would like no very much like to buy something like Weedol from the Range and hit it with that but that would kill the beech hedge which would be a shame.Can't get at it with the lawnmower and if I try pulling it up it just keeps coming out of the ground like some trans-atlantic cable.

 

[two sheds]

If you cut it at 6 ft the rest will die off eventually.

For the rest I find that running a garden fork through ground level and levering it up a bit makes it easy to pull. There's something quite satisfying when pulling ivy - you pull one end and you see the other end move towards you, sometimes 10 foot away (like a cable as you say ).

Eta: i'm not sure how much they actually come back if you pull the root out - and they're a lot fucking easier to pull than brambles

 

[campanula]

I don't actively want to deprive butterflies of winter -shelter (see upthread) but I would like to know if there is some super-efficient method of getting rid of ivy.It pulls down walls (recently one fell on the car) it climbs up to the gutter and blocks the down-spout,it cuts out the light from our windows and-from its strong-hold under our beech hedge- it fans out across the lawn looking horrid and encouraging beds of moss. I would like no very much like to buy something like Weedol from the Range and hit it with that but that would kill the beech hedge which would be a shame.Can't get at it with the lawnmower and if I try pulling it up it just keeps coming out of the ground like some trans-atlantic cable.

I am often asked to remove ivy from walls and fences. I usually cut through the main stem as close to soil level as possible. I then either drill some holes in the crosscut ivy trunk, fill with SBS 'Stump Out' and cover with a black plastic bag and tape. May need another application next spring. I find the herbicide translocates within the ivy trunk and kills the roots without affecting nearby plant growth, leaching into the soil, or affecting wildlife.
I agree with Two sheds - hand-lifting ivy from across a bed or border is quite satisfying. The adventitious roots are never very deep so entire lengths of stem can be lifted...but when old and gnarly growth is covering upright structures, or getting too high into the canopy of trees, I generally do the chop and stumpkiller method.