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The gardening thread

Artaxerxes said:
I have learned they may not be entirely efficacious after seeing a slug climbing up the netting over my greens merrily, squashing it and finding it squirting a big blue squirt of goo at my face as it breathed its last sluggy breath.

Plus after a week or so they just turn into a blue slime that looks unsafe.
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The little bastards are very mobile - they even climb onto the shed roof. I do frequent sweeps of the garden and got over 30 yesterday afternoon . This continuing damp weather does not help.

I leave the corpses in the beds as a warning to to others. Does not seem to make a difference.
 
O, Nasty, BoatieBird. There has been talk of this in the HPS (Hardy Plant Soc.) You might consider a miticide (I do, for red spider) as these pests tend to stick around, and can devastate the entire plant. Cut off all affected growth and burn, if you can. Although abamectin is expensive, it is possible to buy smaller quantities of stuff like Floramite or Dynamec off Ebay. Supposedly spread by 'enthusiasts' swapping plant material...I live in fucking dread of rose rosette disease making inroads in the UK (seems inevitable tbh).
A few years ago, I had broom gallmite and lost all my cytisus...
 
Thanks campanula, we'll do a brutal prune (and put the bits in the council green bin) and then search out some miticide.

It's in the front garden and I've loved it since we first viewed the house, my late dad was an enthusiastic fuchsia grower and it reminds me of him.
 
That's not really a morning glory Johnny Vodka. It is, to my mind, a much better choice - a perennial convolvulous (c.sabatius) which will return every year and behave itself (unlike the weedy, badly behaved ipomeas). The hypericum will get quite big - give it enough room.
I meant to mention your lovely flowers (from an earlier pic) - the little moroccan toadflaxes and the omphalodes linifolia. Although they are both annuals, you can easily collect seed from the omphalodes (aka navelwort) and the toadflax (linaria maroccana) should self seed for future years. I have both of them too.
 
I've been murdering slugs in the garden a few times a day. Can't do the same at the allotment as I'm not there as much and there is a huge area and lots of hiding places. Consequently the back garden tomatoes and cucumbers are off to a great start. Good vigour and starting to flower and set. Strawberries are cropping well for the first time. Had a couple of poor years.

Allotment is suffering a bit from slugs. They are making major inroads in the beans and courgettes. Main crop spuds are showing bits of blight. Earlies looking better but just not that vigorous. I've got a patch of stray kestrel from last year and they are massive.

Berries are good. A ton of currants and gooseberries. Blueberries just about to start cropping.

Funny year for apple trees. My back garden tree is doing great, but a number of the allotment ones have suffered with aphids.
 
Idaho said:
Berries are good. A ton of currants and gooseberries. Blueberries just about to start cropping.
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I have no luck with gooseberries at all - second attempt with a bush and another victim of sawfly. My blueberries are great as always though.

I wonder how apples will do this year with it being so dry?
 
Johnny Vodka said:
I have no luck with gooseberries at all - second attempt with a bush and another victim of sawfly. My blueberries are great as always though.

I wonder how apples will do this year with it being so dry?
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Apples are fine (it has not been dry - we had a dry spell end of May-ish) but cherries and plums seem to have fucked up this year in the damp and think there was a cold spell after a warm period around same time
 
campanula said:
That's not really a morning glory Johnny Vodka. It is, to my mind, a much better choice - a perennial convolvulous (c.sabatius) which will return every year and behave itself (unlike the weedy, badly behaved ipomeas).
Click to expand...

Thanks for identifying that plant correctly for me. Not sure if I've stuck it in the best spot or given it the best conditions. Might need to look at moving it, though I'm struggling to think of a good place for it.
 
Ah, the 'best place' for me is usually the nearest gap...I never take my own advice. My gardens will never look as though they could be featured in some magazine (not that I read any of them). If you do have an eye for design, shapes and proportion, there are no plants which cannot be moved into a new place. Even a 200 year old oak can be rehomed (with a JCB and a lot of space). I go for overstuffed and falling over...but I couldn't help noticing my battered shins and arms - truly scabby from plant attacks. Enjoy yourself and your flowers, Johnny Vodka
 
campanula said:
Ah, the 'best place' for me is usually the nearest gap...I never take my own advice. My gardens will never look as though they could be featured in some magazine (not that I read any of them). If you do have an eye for design, shapes and proportion, there are no plants which cannot be moved into a new place. Even a 200 year old oak can be rehomed (with a JCB and a lot of space). I go for overstuffed and falling over...but I couldn't help noticing my battered shins and arms - truly scabby from plant attacks. Enjoy yourself and your flowers, Johnny Vodka
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I'm the same - absolutely no long-term planning whatsoever, thus interesting but messy. I dug up some turf for a small wildflower patch, but no seeds germinated, perhaps due to it being too dry. It's a very sunny area, so might create a rockery on some of it for the plant. Also might be a good area for a compost bin - I'm assuming I can just place a compost bin (bottomless) on bare soil?
 
Did you enjoy the kestrel potatoes, Idaho? I have been evangelistic to the level of tediousness. I have grown them every year for 20 odd years...and they remain my all-time best potato. Lifting the first harvest is an event in this household...even more than the first tomatoes or strawberries. In catalogues, they are often described as ideal for exhibiting...while the superb taste and all-round versatility never gets a mention. I grow around 10 kgs of Kestrel seed potatoes , a couple of kilos of Pink Fir or Anya and a lone kilo of something new, just in case I am missing out on another stupendous variety.
 
Those bins are OK if you can upend them a couple of times a year...and it still takes 2 years or so to get decent compost. I have never really got on with them although I know compost enthusiasts who do. Have you got space for an open heap, bounded with pallets or chicken wire? Much easier to aerate (and keep nicely damp) Bare soil is essential though.
I have had much better luck sowing wildflower seeds in the autumn...since quite a few need a chilling period to break dormancy, a spring sowing is really only good for annuals or less hardy perennials.
 
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