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The gardening thread

I've done crazy things in the past.
I can remember sowing rows of tomatoes in a margarine tub at work and then cycling home - somehow not ending up with a tangled mess ... I once had a small bubbler tank in the office raising spider plants - the fluorescent light provoked discussion :D

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I'm upping my game in the sprouting stakes .

1. going back to my roots with a jar - this always worked very well for me so I'm trying it again for big sprouts.
And I'm evaluating my stash of beans to see which of them are worth sprouting for shoots - otherwise I will cook them up as they are...

injars.jpg

2. Since it's salad I want at the moment rather than stir-fry ingredients I'm going to the dark side and growing more traditional tall sprouts that can be separated from the roots - as well as getting a second harvest sometimes - depending on how much light they get at the end - so partially-sprouted seeds are plonked in a perforated tray with water underneath and they find their own way through ...

newrootything.jpg

3. The sunflower seeds I got at the pet shop years ago seem to be reasonably viable - I will probably use compost with those ...
sunflowersprouts.jpg

4. The peas less-so. I transferred the better ones to some compost in the hope of a few sprouts ...

peadirt.jpg
 
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gentlegreen said:
I've done crazy things in the past.
I can remember sowing rows of tomatoes in a margarine tub at work and then cycling home - somehow not ending up with a tangled mess ... I once had a small bubbler tank in the office raising spider plants - the fluorescent light provoked discussion :D

---------------------------

I'm upping my game in the sprouting stakes .

1. going back to my roots with a jar - this always worked very well for me so I'm trying it again for big sprouts.
And I'm evaluating my stash of beans to see which of them are worth sprouting for shoots - otherwise I will cook them up as they are...

View attachment 315352

2. Since it's salad I want at the moment rather than stir-fry ingredients I'm going to the dark side and growing more traditional tall sprouts that can be separated from the roots - as well as getting a second harvest sometimes - depending on how much light they get at the end - so partially-sprouted seeds are plonked in a perforated tray with water underneath and they find their own way through ...

View attachment 315354

3. The sunflower seeds I got at the pet shop years ago seem to be reasonably viable - I will probably use compost with those ...
View attachment 315355

4. The peas less-so. I transferred the better ones to some compost in the hope of a few sprouts ...

View attachment 315356
Click to expand...
This is fabulous.
 
Johnny Vodka said:
Does anyone use these for growing salad veg? I have basic troughs already, but fancy these raised ones instead. Do the plastic lids turn them into greenhouse-y type things or are the lids just for keeping pests out?

View attachment 313490
Click to expand...

I am getting three of these in super XXL size delivered this week (with lids). Bought a couple of cyclamen plants today, having been inspired by Gardener's World the other week. (I know they are almost done flowering for the season, but looking forward to additional winter colour in the future.) Also bought some dwarf broad bean and chive seeds...
 
I noticed today that for once Aldi's mixed salad had a generous amount of watercress in it, so I'm definitely going to start a batch of cuttings off.
I gave up last time because it seemed to demand the ability to sprawl and self-root and I couldn't get it together to build an ebb and flow gravel hydro in the bathroom - but I've seen lots of people make it work in a Kratky passive arrangement.
Once I've mastered the hydro nutes I will definitely have another go at making it work indoors - certainly during the winter.
I was farting around in the garden and found I do have some square section downspout as well as the sewer pipe - so once I find my heat gun to seal the ends, all I need then is a 50mm hole saw and a pool noodle - or the netpots I bought last time I tried hydro ...

So a bunch of cuttings are in a jar with an airstone and should be good to go within a week ...

brsaladcress.png bubbler.jpg

And I made a start at turfing the miscanthus out of my builder's tubs with a view to growing some veggies in them.
I may start off some Gardener's Delight toms to put in one of them.
If the garden is still not lawnified by the end of the year I'll plant kale and purple sprouting direct into the ground ...

The miscanthus roots are spectacular given I only potted them up last year on a whim.
I hope I manage to have some compost left by the time I've fully extracted them as I only have one bag of Aldi's nasty stuff...

miscanpots.jpg
 
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TopCat said:
I’m digging the vegetable garden and still plastic comes to the surface. Ten years of digging and removing it to little avail.
Click to expand...
I have that problem with chalk here. It still irritates me when I watch any gardening programme and they're digging a hole for a plant and the soil is almost perfect. Try that in my garden and, whatever implement you use, it hits something just under the surface. :mad:

All my forks have bent tines. :(
 
TopCat said:
I’m digging the vegetable garden and still plastic comes to the surface. Ten years of digging and removing it to little avail.
Click to expand...
A shame there's no recycling path for hard plastics - I'm clearing the house and garden after nearly 40 years and disposed of bin-loads last year ... or expanded polystyrene come to that - and without a car, I had to send my hoard of compost bags to landfill too ...
 
I was using the compost bags for putting the rubbish. I have a few now I must start that again.

Eta and yep re hard plastics. Strange that engineering plastics which are the only sort I really approve of can't seem to be recycled.
 
I installed a hal-barrel for a little pond - where, Pita, the solitary goldfish can decamp for the summer, with a new companion. Have to sort out a solar filter/pump but have some hesperantha and ranunculus to plant up.. Finally split thr alstroemerias - a truly spectacular clump which flower all year! Called Etna, they really are a voluptuous red. I also hacked back the pelargoniums I am teetering on the edge of another rabbit-hole here, with species pelargoniums on a rapid increase. So far, my modest collection is around a dozen...but some of them (such as P.capitatum, P tomentosum) grow huge (over 2m) while fortunately, my favourites (p.ardens, p.sidoides, P Deerwood Lavender Lass) reach a more mannerly 60cm or so. I love these fragrant-leaved plants...and bring a few indoors for the winter.

The auriculas have been split and cleaned out...but again, have had to severely curtail my collection as the annual vine-weevil invasion was heart-breaking...and not just confined to auriculas either. I live in terror of the little shits infesting my little bulb collections or, shudder, the scented leaf pelargoniums. Had to empty a bloody huge pithoi cos the Rozanne geraniums were looking peaky...and sure enough, the nasty little curled cream larvae were scoffing on the roots. Sigh - ordered more spendy nematodes.

Fuck me, the price of fertiliser (for the allotment) has doubled! 25kg of Vitax was over 60 quid!
 
My begonia corms and oriental lily bulbs should be here in a bit -my two existing potted Stargazers are emerging strongly - since I appear to have ordered ten new ones, I wonder if there is mileage in staggering the planting ?
 
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The colours are coming back.
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Love my panic planted daffs, never had posh frilly ones before. Lots didn't come up, they're either upside down or too late planted. Hopefully next year they'll find the air.
campanula you were spot on re the roses....golden showers makes me snigger, the one beginning with Madame C? is romping away and the Indigoletta is sulking, but has one new shoot so its alive, for now.
 
I think your bush is a ruscus aculeatus or butchers broom, pbsmooth. Struggling to see though. Did you notice red berries at any time? If it is a ruscus, they can be hacked back hard with no setbacks. Tough everhbreen plants.
 
Going to get a couple of bug hotels to try and get some Beatles in to fight the slugs this summer.

Want to get some daffodiles for a bit of colour next spring!

May post some pictures later.
 
My neighbour has made a start on the fencing project so today I am wrestling with my 20 year old pampas grass - trying to tear off viable offsets to give away rather than turning it all into compost - and there will still be a lot of that.
Quite tiring after months of inactivity apart from a daily walk in the park ...
EDIT:-
3pm and given up for the day.
Maybe half way through breaking up the monster plant - load of offsets - I suppose if I want to give them away I should probably top and tail them and heel them in somewhere until there are signs of life.
Properly knackered- had to stop several times for a break - I think I'm too tired to go to the park :(
 
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BristolEcho said:
Noob question. Old bag of compost in the shed open. Quite grainy and around couple of years old. Still worth using?
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Maybe not for precious seeds, but it depends on the make.
Aldi's MP in recent years freshly bought has starved mature plants as well as killed seedlings ..
 
TopCat said:
I’m digging the vegetable garden and still plastic comes to the surface. Ten years of digging and removing it to little avail.
Click to expand...
The allotment that I took on a few years ago was the same, plastic, old carpeting and tarpaulin underneath the surface. I’ve one area that’s about 10ft by 8ft that’s been workable, I’ve gone for raised beds everywhere else. 100 onion sets went into one of my big raised beds today which I covered with fleece.
 

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The windy weather during the past five to six months took quite a toll.

The past couple of days I've had several sessions with a rake, clearing off a significant number of twigs from what is pretending to be the grassed area at the back of my house. Basically, I've filled my builder's trug three times so far, as well as picked up several dozen twigs large enough to be called branches. Most of the twigs ended up on the habitat heaps in the "wildwood" & the remains of the beech and oak leaves got heaped up in another pile. [for autumn this year, I'll have a leaf only compost heap set up].
Finally, it was clear enough that I could give the grass a quick trim. I had already trimmed the grass patch at the front of the house. I've had the mower on the highest setting, so I'll need another go over it all in only a few days.
I must say that both areas look quite a bit better for their "haircut" ...

This has been an early stage in a further tidying up phase ...
 
TopCat said:
I’m digging the vegetable garden and still plastic comes to the surface. Ten years of digging and removing it to little avail.
Click to expand...
I was reflecting today that the books are full of advice on what to do with clay, sandy or gravelly soil. Less so if your soil is basically rubble overlaid with a layer of microplastics and topped off with a desperate layer of home made compost consisting mostly of half-rotted bramble prunings. Plus a top dressing of KFC cartons.
campanula said:
I installed a hal-barrel for a little pond - where, Pita, the solitary goldfish can decamp for the summer, with a new companion. Have to sort out a solar filter/pump but have some hesperantha and ranunculus to plant up..
Click to expand...
Did you sink it into the ground? I'd quite like a mini pond.
 
TopCat said:
I’m digging the vegetable garden and still plastic comes to the surface. Ten years of digging and removing it to little avail.
Click to expand...

I have that problem - partly because the previous owners left the place in a bit of a state. [Although I've made quite a mess with the current alterations and some past projects, which I'm still clearing away] but also because one of my housemates hasn't quite got the differences between real rubbish, recycling and composting and keeps dumping plastics on the compost heaps.
 
I've done little bit of grass cutting [basically just lopped off the tips, to tidy up] having picked up a serious amount of twigs blown off the trees by the winter storms ... I previously tidied up around the compost heap, so the clippings went straight on there, and any weeds will do the same.

Also some weeding [there's brave] and looked at the final bit of tree pruning I need to do [not so brave].

Third job - cut out the dead canes and tie in the new ones. Raspberries are OK, but mixed in are some loganberries and those are nearly as bad as rugosas for thorns / prickles / spikes.

Part way through that task I went in for a leak, and whilst I was away, our friendly / neighbourhood red squirrel popped in for a late lunch, s/he was here for just over half an hour, eating mainly pea-nuts and seeds instead of their usual hazel nuts ...
 
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