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The gardening thread

Fuck, I was just about to mention three-cornered leek! You will never get rid of that without 2 years of spraying (it's in one of my work gardens). And fucking Spanish bluebells. The owners like them but I have badgered them into getting rid. Have creeping buttercup too, but agree, this is not any sort of existential threat. and goosgrass is actually a nice compost addition at a time when I am struggling with enough greenery. Oh, does anyone have that weird little white flowered brassica thing (not jack by the hedge) - it only seems to have made an appearance over the last decade but it's endemic on my plot and I am seeing it about in the city. Name has escaped me,
But on my estate, there is another menace coming along. Hasn't really registered with a lot of people (yet)...but it will, O yes, it surely will. Am talking about the horrendous ailanthus, (mystifyingly known as tree of heaven while having absolutely nothing to recommend it anywhere). Like a buddleja on steroids, I noticed a couple of these but have become glumly aware of the number of walls, buildings, and pavements which are about to go nuclear in the next 3-5 years or so, since they are now everywhere, having inserted themselves into the tiniest of spaces and roaring into superfast growth. Obviously, Have informed the council but they are idiots so...
 
No, not stitchwort. Took me ages to find its name because no-one had seen it...until we all did (on the site) iyswim. Lepidium draba. Another rhizomatous thug.
 
And plantains - my old landlady who was superb - once (well actually many times) said to me "one year's seeding means seven years' weeding" and that's particularly true of plantains. I've (almost) persistently and finally got rid of the little fuckers.

A neighbour really liked them (not quite sure why just the rosette that kills whatever grass is around it and there's no flowers to speak of) and encouraged them in the garden. She then sold the house and has moved on, I keep meaning to ask the new occupants what they feel about them. :)
 
On the other side, I've introduced lesser celendine to bits of the garden - I've been told it's weed-like but I just love it, pretty well the first flower of spring. And I've got loads of forget-me-nots which I wait till they've seeded and spread them round the bottom of the garden and germander speedwell which have such sweet blue flowers and form a haze under the apple tree once the primroses have gone :)
 
Calamity1971 said:
My friend is a retired environment officer and he loathes buddleia. I must confess I have two because I like sitting watching the butterfly's :oops:
Click to expand...
Yes I like Mr Buddle's legacy I have to say. I did have one of the yellow globular ones which I didn't actually like because you had yellow globes for two weeks of the year and then they went brown and looked nasty. I replaced it with a white one from the valley which is sweet.
 
Wordsworth favourite flower lesser celendine. But it's greater carved on his gravestone if my college years remember.
My winter mood lifts when I see it. Oh, and one of my all time fave wildflowers is speedwell.
 
two sheds said:
Yes I like Mr Buddle's legacy I have to say. I did have one of the yellow globular ones which I didn't actually like because you had yellow globes for two weeks of the year and then they went brown and looked nasty. I replaced it with a white one from the valley which is sweet.
Click to expand...
Mine are the lilac ones, my neighbour has the white. I need to get a cutting.
 
two sheds said:
And plantains - my old landlady who was superb - once (well actually many times) said to me "one year's seeding means seven years' weeding" and that's particularly true of plantains. I've (almost) persistently and finally got rid of the little fuckers.

A neighbour really liked them (not quite sure why just the rosette that kills whatever grass is around it and there's no flowers to speak of) and encouraged them in the garden. She then sold the house and has moved on, I keep meaning to ask the new occupants what they feel about them. :)
Click to expand...


Perhaps one day when they run out of broccoli at the supermarket ...
 
With my front garden now a builder's reclamation yard with a fairly slow throughput, I needed cheering up - and doubtless also some of my neighbours - so I've ordered some cascading begonia odorata, some red geraniums to replace the ones lost last winter and some voodoo fuchsias to replace the ones I lost by poor storage...
In my clearing up of the back garden, I found some irrigation hose - so perhaps I'll look after things better this year ...

blockpile2.png
 
Coming up to the most dangerous time of the year for my tiny seedlings. I woke up to find my entire stock of Xanthos cosmos and 2/3 of my larkspur and half of the callistephos had been decapitated and eaten. Luckily, my precious dahlia coccineas (prime snacking for molluscs) have escaped...but alonsoa and dittany have been eaten and albuca is hanging on by a thread. Have ordered more Xanthos seeds (after gasping at prices and measly quantities), I bought seed from Rosie Hardy (Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants) - 3 quid for 45 seeds which is far more generous than T&M, Suttons, Mr.Fothergill etc. When death has breezed in to the greenhouse (without knocking), the only solution (for me) is to sow a shitload more seeds.
June is the last (busy) sowing month for me, until autumn (biennials , winter veg and a last chance saloon on quick blooming tender annuals such as zinnia (mine are still in the packets).

Also today, one of the local youth broke a window in the greenhouse roof. He very apologetic so I had to be gracious and forgiving - although, I like to see the kids playing on the back green. 'No ball games' signs, on one of the few remaining patches of open space, right outside the local primary school, is some authoritarian rubbish imposed by the city council...and has certainly always been ignored by my kids.
 
campanula I've been using Premier Seeds Direct since the veg farm put me on to them. Seem to be good quality - high germination rate, not had anything that was obviously mislabeled or had crossed (unlike certain other suppliers... Mr F :mad:) and lots of stuff comes in massive packs for 99p.
 
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