The gardening thread

[Artaxerxes]

Probably a bunch of kale and a single tenacious purple sprouting broccoli at my plot, other than that everything gets covered over by end of December with maybe a bit of poop and cardboard and then I'll uncover for a week or two end of Feb or March and then cover again. In the meantime everything gets sown and lives on windowsill or cold frame until it's ready to go in April or May.

I do the rotating, I intend to do a lot of peas this year.

 

[campanula]

I do the rotating

I always rotated my potatoes but no longer bother with beans, peas, alliums (when I grew them) tomatoes, curcubits or umbellifers like carrots. Charles Dowding has been growing some potatoes in the same bed for a few years now...and given the number of volunteers which pop up all over the place (which I duly keep and harvest) I am going to be less fussy about where the potatoes go. Alan Chadwick (of tomato growing) and Robinsons (onions) have permanent beds and I really like growing perennials (artichokes, fruit, asparagus, I do move stuff around a lot but completely fail to follow those recommended sequences of sowing...or manage to remember where I planted things any further back than the previous 6months or so.
I had the shittest fruit year EVER last year - totally tragic - this will be remedied!
Also, ramping up the July flowers with a lot more bulbs. It's possible vegetables might not be grown at all this year.

 

[two sheds]

I am wanting to stick a tree down the end of the garden mainly to act as a block from the neighbours behind.. Does anyone know anthing that would fit the bill.. Needs to probably have max height of 6m , but the sooner it gets there the better..

Has anyone suggested leylandii?

 

[campanula]

Has anyone suggested leylandii?

Nooooooo. There is a house opposite my youngest's which has a teeny front garden...well a bike space really...which has a dozen leylandii planted, a foot apart. (this is the circumference of the space...around 4ft by 10ft) At the moment, they are a slender 5 foot. I will be watching (with glee).

There are some much better evergreens though. Thuja plicata, Tsuga heterophylla, cryptomeria japonica, various cedars (deodara, libani, atlas), and, not to be scorned, the ilex (holly) family.

 

[two sheds]

when I moved here there were a good 20 of the fuckers about 12 m from the house, clearly "lets have a fast growing hedge here".... "shall we cut them back now?" "nah fuck it they'll be ok". They completely shaded the house.

 

[Leafster]

I pIcked a bunch of parsley (there's always heaps of that) and yep, there were a couple of lettuce-y things I ignored. I don't love to cook, get terribly bored with vegetables (and, as a northern peasant, don't much like them. I do grow some, just to keep the moaners on my site at bay (and love my potatoes) but really, I treat the whole plot as a sort of changeable nursery where I can indulge a series of flowery obsessions (which can vary from year to year). I did grow a LOT of fruit, when my offspring were younger but over time, the space has dwindled as shrubs and perennials have taken over, so most annuals (edibles and flowers) have to be shoehorned in amongst the paeonies, asters, salvias. and especially the roses. A quarter of one of the plots just looks like grass (my wildflower meadow). I love it...and a lot of flowers have colonised most parts of the site...but it is often an unruly mess.
I wouldn't have invited any of my customers to visit, when I did more paid work..and I have become a lot more relaxed about weeds since having a wood.

I've only got the top bit of my garden for fruit and veg (about 6m x 8m) but that bit also contains a shed, three compost bins, a concrete base from another shed and some paving so I'm still trying to work out how to maximise the growing space. I'm slowly removing the paving and have a large raised bed on the concrete base. I'm not aiming to be self-sufficient in fruit and veg but I'd like to have a good supply of stuff for as much of the year as possible. Yesterday, I picked some cabbage tops (I left the stalks in so they've regrown) and some kale to go with dinner.

 

[campanula]

when I moved here there were a good 20 of the fuckers about 12 m from the house,

Sigh, I have a row of these to deal with too (a customer). They have not been pruned for 4 years so I am going to have to erect a couple of scaff towers (they are 16m high) and top and thin the fuckers this spring. I can handle the cutting (with my eldest helping)...it is the mountain of arisings bothering me. Will have to hire a bloody great Timberwolf too. I thought I had retired from this rufty-tufty sort of stuff

 

[two sheds]

You can't hire someone in to do it and dispose?

 

[andysays]

Sigh, I have a row of these to deal with too (a customer). They have not been pruned for 4 years so I am going to have to erect a couple of scaff towers (they are 16m high) and top and thin the fuckers this spring. I can handle the cutting (with my eldest helping)...it is the mountain of arisings bothering me. Will have to hire a bloody great Timberwolf too. I thought I had retired from this rufty-tufty sort of stuff

I've always sad the best thing about leylandii is the smell they give off when you put them through a chipper

 

[20Bees]

Glyphosate (RoundUp) will certainly do the business...but will need at least 2 or 3 applications..and timing is of the essence. One in spring, when the first flush of growth is fully underway. One in autumn, just as the plant starts to draw back into the root system and again, the following spring to catch seedlings and regrowth. The problem with dealing with many weeds lies in the reservoir of seeds, collected in the soil. Any disturbance (from new shoots, hoeing or digging) exposes the seeds to light, where they will germinate again. And, of course, your difficulties are compounded by the presence of growing plants you do not wish to be killed by a herbicide. It is possible to get rid of nettles, but will require a fairly sustained effort and management using a heavy duty, light-stopping mulch (cardboard is my material of choice) and some carefully directed herbicides (I use a broadleaf one called Grazon Pro). Those yellow roots do not have a terrible grip on the soil ...it is possible to get rid by sustained digging...but again, not a quick fix.

I am honestly astonished what £200 of RoundIp might be. I pay around £50 for 5 litres of professional glyphosate (480)....which is enough for a couple of years of use. There are ways to enable rapid uptake of the herbicide...such as trampling on the nettles to break the cellular structure. Can give you details of stockists and costs if you like

Thanks, I think I’ll stick to digging and pulling what I can get to in that corner, when the ground is less wet. I’m not keen to spray glyphosate near the fruit bushes, but could do with something effective against brambles elsewhere - someone I worked for got the Roundup Biactive for me long ago. The guy who did our paddock maintenance used Grazon on docks I think, I should have tried to snaffle some. Yes please, if you’d PM stockists that would be great.

Has anyone suggested leylandii?

I’ve a leylandii hedge way higher than the house. Will never now afford to get it removed. Should’ve thrown money at it long ago, always planned to do it next year... and the year after...

 

[two sheds]

I'd imagine they burn quite well given enough petrol - WOOF

 

[20Bees]

I'd imagine they burn quite well given enough petrol - WOOF

Just a teeny bit too close to the house... when I’m wheeled out of here and a developer bulldozes it, they can pull the conifers out

 

[two sheds]

Mine were on the south side of the house so had to go. A neighbour has seven or eight along his hedge and in the high winds a couple of years ago one came down - was the perfect height (about 60 ft) to whip their neighbour's roof gutter off without removing any tiles

 

[two sheds]

lovely day today after it stopped being fucking freezing - neighbour came round and helped me cut hedge 1 back just have to cut back hedge 2 and dispose of cuttings now

 

[iona]

Plot is a swamp. Unblocked the drainage ditch and pipe that was helpfully buried inside a blackthorn hedge so hopefully ground'll be a bit drier by next week even if it keeps raining. I was going to order a shed today though

 

[Artaxerxes]

Plot is a swamp. Unblocked the drainage ditch and pipe that was helpfully buried inside a blackthorn hedge so hopefully ground'll be a bit drier by next week even if it keeps raining. I was going to order a shed today though

Mine isn't going to dry out for months, everywhere around here is just saturated especially the allotments. We've had so much rain these last few months and Feb is supposed to be damp as well.

 

[iona]

Mine isn't going to dry out for months, everywhere around here is just saturated especially the allotments. We've had so much rain these last few months and Feb is supposed to be damp as well.

Whole site's on a slight slope and there was a mini tsunami when I dug the mud out from the drainage pipe so hoping mine will soon just be soggy rather than actually underwater in places...

 

[Ms Ordinary]

What is this?
How do I look after it?
Should I bring it inside?

(Its off a rose bush I trimmed back in December, its been lying outside under a pile of twigs & stalks since then)

 

[wayward bob]

What is this?
How do I look after it?
Should I bring it inside?

my money is on rose no, not inside.

do you want another one of the rose bush that you trimmed it off?

 

[Ms Ordinary]

Yes, it seemed to be doing nicely outside, so I left it sitting in some water in the dip of a housebrick.

(There were a couple of other offcuts with little shoots, they seemed to be the most water-logged ones, so I guess it likes water )

The bush it came off is a big old monster, more like a tree, sends off big 10 foot long shoots in the summer - I guess it would be nice to have a baby one...

I feel it deserves a chance

 

[wayward bob]

do you have room for another big old monster cos if it's vigorous and happily situated it won't stay a baby for long.

i'm watching my orange tree thinking atm it's abandoning an unproductive branch, dropping all the leaves, in favour of the one that points more upwards and is closer to the window. still holding on to one fruit and losing nothing from the favoured branch so i have no worries for its longer term health, as the days get longer it gets closer to going back out where it's happiest

 

[bimble]

What is the world’s easiest My First Vegetable plant?
Tomatoes? potatoes?

Am going to make a little raised bed and can get discouraged easily by failed first attempts so want to choose the most idiot-proof thing to begin with.

There are badgers, but don’t think there’s much I can do about that.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Tomatoes I'd start off indoors if you try those, it's still just a wee bit early for most things but you should be able to start things indoors this month.

Potatoes grow stupidly easily, the challenge is making them stop. Beetroot you can get a load of varieties of. Lettuce is fairly simple to grow as well. From next month you should be able to start beans or peas outside, might need to make cloches out of milk bottles to make sure mice and frost don't get them.

Grow your own fruit, vegetables & herbs / RHS Gardening

Expert tips, advice, profiles and videos from the RHS on what to do when growing your own fruit vegetables and herbs for home, allotment, or containers.

www.rhs.org.uk

 

[Wolveryeti]

What is the world’s easiest My First Vegetable plant?
Tomatoes? potatoes?

Am going to make a little raised bed and can get discouraged easily by failed first attempts so want to choose the most idiot-proof thing to begin with.

There are badgers, but don’t think there’s much I can do about that.

Beetroot would be my choice - raised beds are good for root veg and they are largely left alone by pests and manky diseases.

Tomatos are hard- I lost my entire crop to blight last year. You also have to do a lot of messing around with supports. Potatos are hardier but cheaper than beetroot to buy. They can also get blight.

 

[Leafster]

I'd agree about the tomatoes unless you live in a sunny and dryish part of the country it's easy to get disheartened if they get blight just as they've started cropping.

I've found courgettes easy to grow as long as you keep them watered well in the dry spells. They're rewarding as they grow into massive plants quickly and you'll get loads of courgettes off just one plant.

Another vegetable that keeps on giving, at least in my garden, is chard. Once established it goes on for a long time and you just cut off a few leaves at a time. Go for red or rainbow chard if you want a colourful display in the garden too.

 

[two sheds]

My first crop here was potatoes - just potatoes that I'd had from the shop and cut up with an eye in each piece. They got blight and the tops withered but underground they were all fine.

I've once done spectacularly well with tomatoes, 30 years ago cherry tomatoes in the ground in a conservatory I got dozens of them and they were lovely. Apart from that though I've never done well with them and I don't really bother any more.

Spinach has done well and leafy lettuce. Main problem I have are slugs. Main problems I have are slugs and forgetting about what I'm growing so I come back a week later and things have been eaten or starved of water and wilted. I've decided I like things you can just leave to let do what they want to do with the occasional weeding, and veg don't really do that because I forget - you need to attend to them regularly and do what is recommended.

Also though grow things you actually like, and do what it says on the packet.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Slugs are absolute fuckers and I hate them so much.

 

[two sheds]

The only thing that really works I think is a nightly trawl round picking them off and snipping them or shooting them or something. I've never been bothered enough to do that though. Beer traps do catch lots of them but I wonder whether making the garden smell like a slug brewery actually attracts more.

Copper things and rough things for them to crawl over don't seem to do a lot. Perhaps nematodes but they're a bit expensive and have to be replaced quite often I think. campanula or someone may have magical killing ways.

 

[Idaho]

I don't like using pellets. But the only alternative seems to be gardening for the sake of feeding the bastards.

 

[Artaxerxes]

I don't like using pellets. But the only alternative seems to be gardening for the sake of feeding the bastards.

Worst moment I had with one was squashing it and seeing it explode in a shower of blue slime that damn near hit me in the face.

The slug pellets, they do nothing.