The gardening thread
- Thread starter ringo
- Start date
BoatieBird
Well-Known Member
I've had many plant bargains from B&Q, mainly because they don't look after their plants properly so they end up selling them off cheap as they look so rough.
Most of the time it's just lack of watering and they bounce back pretty quickly.
Make sure you check out the reduced section!
wayward bob
i ate all your bees
i need to turn the compost and pot up a load of runners if there's a break in the rain...
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Lots of inexpensive gardening stuff in asda. Hose connectors and grass seed plus lots of vegetable seeds. Absolutely fuck all in b and q. Not even crappy herbs in dried out pots. No veg at all.
Got a 50 metre cable reel. I can now reach all the garden with the pressure washer.
The glyphosate I sprayed a month ago has done a good job. All the weeds and grass in the back banks are dead.
I am finding more brick lined beds under the crap. Got a multi layer of rubble and carpet and weeds to deal with. Slash the carpet and rip at it. I want to clear it more and see what’s underneath.
Patch repair on the grass later. There is gentle rain right now which is perfect. I have retreated indoors to put beef brisket shallots and wine in a pot. Slurp.
Got a 50 metre cable reel. I can now reach all the garden with the pressure washer.
The glyphosate I sprayed a month ago has done a good job. All the weeds and grass in the back banks are dead.
I am finding more brick lined beds under the crap. Got a multi layer of rubble and carpet and weeds to deal with. Slash the carpet and rip at it. I want to clear it more and see what’s underneath.
Patch repair on the grass later. There is gentle rain right now which is perfect. I have retreated indoors to put beef brisket shallots and wine in a pot. Slurp.
And there you have it, bimble. So much more than simply liking plants. At least for some of us (most of us), gardening is much more profound than aesthetics. I had no clue, when I planted the pink behemoth which devoured my garden (lavatera) that my whole life was already on the about-turn. Never looked back.
Anyway, that ipomea shoot will be different to the true seed leaves. The first leaves (cotyledons) are energy stores for the little seedling, before root nutrition and photosynthesis can enable the plant to grow away...and are always anomalous (and sometimes surrisingly enormo). I grew moonflower years ago. It is a very, very late bloomer, often only coming into flower in late September/October. Same with the cobaens. These are vigorous(huge) plants so choose the planting position which has the best frost protection...and will be sturdy enough to support 6m of growth (in various directions) - cover a shed in a week kind of thing. I know I amboring on, but do think about doing a course at Capel Manor...the 1 year part-time RHS general certificate was more important and influential than years spent doing my degree and MSW.It made me deal with stuff I would have avoided (such as groundskeeping)...which was actrually fascinating.
I kept the blackcurrants and strawbs, iona, and after increasingly nowty emails, I finally got offered a refund for the apricot - which I now think had been dug out of the fields weeks, if not months ago, and left languishing in storage. Dreadfully packed, too...a bit of a fail all round...even after volunteering to wait another year.
Anyway, that ipomea shoot will be different to the true seed leaves. The first leaves (cotyledons) are energy stores for the little seedling, before root nutrition and photosynthesis can enable the plant to grow away...and are always anomalous (and sometimes surrisingly enormo). I grew moonflower years ago. It is a very, very late bloomer, often only coming into flower in late September/October. Same with the cobaens. These are vigorous(huge) plants so choose the planting position which has the best frost protection...and will be sturdy enough to support 6m of growth (in various directions) - cover a shed in a week kind of thing. I know I amboring on, but do think about doing a course at Capel Manor...the 1 year part-time RHS general certificate was more important and influential than years spent doing my degree and MSW.It made me deal with stuff I would have avoided (such as groundskeeping)...which was actrually fascinating.
I kept the blackcurrants and strawbs, iona, and after increasingly nowty emails, I finally got offered a refund for the apricot - which I now think had been dug out of the fields weeks, if not months ago, and left languishing in storage. Dreadfully packed, too...a bit of a fail all round...even after volunteering to wait another year.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Jealous
. I love mallow. I did well with some annuals last year and am hoping the seeds will take. I love the huge perennial mallows though they're lovely. I've had several goes at growing them with no success, I've put two in in autumn and they've survived so I'm hopeful 
This is supposed to be the year my experimental meadow does it's thing. I started on it 3 years ago, but I spent a spring and summer just creating a clean seed bed (which was nightmarish, on an allotment). I sowed a wildflower and native grass mix (calcareous)I in the autumn. After winter stratifying, the perennials germinated...but I did cheat a bit by adding a few cheerful annuals (like corncockles, coreopsis, cornflowers). I also added some plantlets I had grown in the greenhouse, so year 2 had cowslips, primroses, sweet woodruff, colonising the edges near the paths. The weeding was...intense. This year should see the majority of perennials reaching flowering age ) meadow rue, sanguisorba,eryngiums, pinks, gentian, centaury...O, loads of things. I am practically delerious with a mad mix of excitement and anxiety. Soil coverage is complete so, in theory, it should be more or less self-sustaining (although I need to sow yellow rattle this year). One cut after flowering,then a couple of cuts over winter...but this remains to be seen.
I have to learn to do photos and upload them on my phone (as both camera and PC have carked) because the plot looks truly lovely but moments for boasting are few and far between.
I have to learn to do photos and upload them on my phone (as both camera and PC have carked) because the plot looks truly lovely but moments for boasting are few and far between.
Me too, two sheds.The tree mallows were always cited as the ideal seaside plant...and yep,it was while living in Brighton that I saw them everywhere. I had a massive mallow craze...which has somewhat persisted. I grow/have grown a lot -from the various abutilons and anisodonteas, through to sphaeralceas...including tender malvaviscus, hibiscus and so on. I have a little clump of the pure white muskmallow (malva moschata) in the meadow and Hollyhocks were one of my gateway plants. I find I get crazes on a certain genus and whomp! straight down the rabbithole.
They can be tricksy to germinate. Have never managed to get callirhoe to germinate (I have grieved for my lost plant and have tried to grow seed for over a decade)...and the malva moschata took ages to get going.I think they have very specific requirements...primarily almost perfect drainage (which I have cos my soil is sand on chalk!).
I don't care for the hardy hibiscus syriacus though. I have Bluebird, which has lovely blooms., which last a day, then die really badly.
They can be tricksy to germinate. Have never managed to get callirhoe to germinate (I have grieved for my lost plant and have tried to grow seed for over a decade)...and the malva moschata took ages to get going.I think they have very specific requirements...primarily almost perfect drainage (which I have cos my soil is sand on chalk!).
I don't care for the hardy hibiscus syriacus though. I have Bluebird, which has lovely blooms., which last a day, then die really badly.
Sorry, just remembered I was going to reply to this but I think I was at work or something at the time.
Definitely
At the moment I'm doing a bit of general garden maintenance work, just the hours/pay I'm allowed under ESA "permitted work". Doing other volunteering at a community allotment and also a small "community supported agriculture" farm set up through the ELC - think this is the kind of thing I'd like to end up doing. I'm waiting to hear back about volunteering up at the new One Garden thing they're doing up at Stanmer, ideally either in the plant nursery or kitchen garden / top fruit, and got my eye on a couple of other places to make enquiries. There's a one year nursery traineeship at Great Dixter I'd love to do.Also kind of thinking about trying to get a little thing set up of selling veg plants for people to grow on. Keep putting off the email I need to send about that because anything even vaguely official or paperworky terrifies me
Another gardener I know might have some work for me later in the year but it would mean registering as self-employed and potentially affect my ESA if I went over permitted hours and aaaargh...I'm doing the RHS level 2 certificate which might be the same thing under a new name?
How tall?
andysays
Love and solidarity
I'm able to 'acquire' old wire mesh tree guards through work. They are perfect for growing taller pea varieties up.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I’m thinking about three foot by five foot.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
I've got a patch of damson trees at the bottom of the garden so not a lot of light. I put some woodland flower seeds in yesterday. Have never really been successful broadcasting seeds straight into the ground but this year the weeds have been cleared and I raked off a half inch of soil, broadcast the seeds with a good bit of watering and raked the soil back again. We shall see
wayward bob
i ate all your bees
i still need to turn the compost. and move my mum's fig tree. and i've not potted anything but i have taken tiny meaningful snips at some of my little trees 
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
I was only thinking a couple of days ago that I could do with more flowers in a strip of ground along the front of the house. With amazing foresight a couple of weeks ago I moved loads of primroses into a raised bed temporarily, and discovered them again yesterday. Just moved them out front
Leafster
.
If you can cover the bags out front, it would be a good idea. You don't want to have to carry compost made even heavier by the rain it's soaked up.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
It’s raining. I have my slippers on now. I get the point though.
andysays
Love and solidarity
Do you need to actually fill the beds right to the top? Even six inches of compost or top soil is enough for most vegetables to grow in, especially if they can root into the existing garden soil underneath.
You can always top them up with more compost next year.
Leafster
.
I learnt from bitter experience just how much extra rain-sodden soil weighs.
You have the advantage of a wheelbarrow which mitigates the problem. I had to carry mine in builders' buckets up several flights of steps * to get the soil where I needed it.* A significant problem with a garden on a slope divided into multiple terraces!
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I’m going to put a waterproof on and get back to it. In a minute.I learnt from bitter experience just how much extra rain-sodden soil weighs.
* A significant problem with a garden on a slope divided into multiple terraces!
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