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The gardening thread

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Super-annoyingly, having gone to so much effort using man tools and 8 foot levers clearing my bamboo forest, hauling it through the house, sending the stumps off in a skip and giving away hundreds of canes, I discover I'm growing veggies this year and not a lawn and have to go to a lot of trouble to make the handful of canes I kept into bean supports :p
 
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I have reached the very depths of decadence.
I still hope that Aldi gets in some of their horrible compost - which is useable blended in containers - but I have just ordered 120 litres of Clover on Amazon - but I was given a lot of gift voucher credit when I retired in 2020 ...

I have so far carried 20 litres 1.5 miles home on foot, 70 litres on the bus .. I was out shopping today and spotted something interesting and wondered if I could strap two 40 litre bags on my bike ...

So I will be working in the front garden on Friday so I don't miss the delivery - and it will arrive at the right time to go into the porch grow system I have to invent ... I plan to have compost as well as hydro - in case the cascading hydro nasturtiums end up as salad with no flowers as I only have "grow" nutes and I don't know what to add to improve on that - but also because I want to grow some purslane in there and am not sure how that would take to hydro - being a succulent plant ...
 
clicker said:
View attachment 320442View attachment 320443
Can't remember the name of the purple in the middle....it was literally a scrap last autumn/winter.
I've got a feeling the lushness in front of it is a weed.
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Bowles' mauve wallflower I think - or some other cabbagey thing.

As for the plant in front. Hopefully it will flower soon - maybe some sort of poppy ?
 
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mrsfran said:
I had a tree surgeon come round and give me a quote to remove some fruit trees from my plot. I do feel sad to get rid of trees, but in 3 years I've had about 1 edible plum and zero edible apples. I'm going to free up the space for a nature pond.
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My self-sown peach has to go tomorrow :(
I may have a half-hearted attempt to plant it in a bucket, but I need the space ...
It's amazing how it went from a glorified "weed" to something tree-like in only a couple of years...
 
mrsfran said:
I had a tree surgeon come round and give me a quote to remove some fruit trees from my plot. I do feel sad to get rid of trees, but in 3 years I've had about 1 edible plum and zero edible apples. I'm going to free up the space for a nature pond.
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How old are your fruit trees ? and do you have a suitable pollinator tree nearby ?

I have stuck with self-fertile varieties for that reason - as I'm somewhat isolated - such as a conference pear but I am about to branch out with a few additional things - probably a "victoria" plum. My apples normally do very well, assuming I don't get a late frost ...
The cherry is doing especially well for flowers this year, but if I want to eat the fruit myself, I have to cover it to keep the birds off !
 
I don't know how old they are, I inherited them with the plot. The apple is pretty well established though, I'd say at least 15 years.

I'm keeping the cherry tree, that does brilliantly. Some years the birds get them all but last year I got a monster crop, it was amazing.
 
gentlegreen said:
Bowles' mauve wallflower I think - or some other cabbagey thing.

As for the plant in front. Hopefully it will flower soon - maybe some sort of poppy ?
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Well done yes it was a Bowles. Is the big clump to the left of it, the annual Mercury you mentioned before?
 
My impulse buy sweet peas arrived today - very late starting those so I sandpapered them a bit and am soaking for 24 hours - they sent 230 of them so I've started a lot ... hopefully I will find some suitable spots to plant them ....

I found my PH meter and TDE pen and it looks like I may have to acidify my nutes a bit - though I can't calibrate my PH meter unless I can find distilled water.
I've made a start onpossibly my most silly project of the year - the 4 foot wide hydro salad unit - which somehow has to incorporate a section filled with compost which has to be able to drain safely away from the porch and plywood structure - which I will seal and paint white ... - I plan to use the heavy gauge damp proof polythene I have a lot of...

porchhydro.jpg
 
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clicker said:
Well done yes it was a Bowles. Is the big clump to the left of it, the annual Mercury you mentioned before?
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no - difficult to tell without a close look at those flowers .. some of the foliage in front looks a bit marigold / (calendula)-like ...
 
My Clover compost arrived this morning in boxes !
Probably a good job it was in plain cover... lovely-looking stuff - and then I saw "100% Irish moss peat" :oops:
But also "environmentally friendly" :hmm:
It will be reserved for seed sowing and cuttings and I will get something else for other purposes - probably two bags of "Growmoor" hanging off the back of my bike in Ikea totes and bungees - I need the exercise in any case ...

The peach tree is no more - the more I looked at it, the more tree-like it became - but it was just a weed from where I used to chuck all my kitchen waste ...and a host for every known pest and disease ...

I had to sacrifice two of my perforated plasterer's tubs today to give my Joe Pye and jasminey thing room to breathe .
 
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Why is it still going down to 1 degrees at night? :(
Everything is getting lanky and pale and looking glum like teenagers kept in the house long after they should’ve been let out. The tiny wildflower plugs I made and did put out (meadow attempt year 3) have all been eaten. Not going brilliantly so far this year :facepalm:
 
bimble said:
Why is it still going down to 1 degrees at night? :(
Everything is getting lanky and pale and looking glum like teenagers kept in the house long after they should’ve been let out.
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If I don't put my brugmansias out soon I will have to fire up a growlight in the downstairs front room and get the neighbours talking :D
 
bimble said:
I had a brainwave the other day. What if (coarse) sandpaper, the round disks of it, with a hole cut out the middies, put down encircling the plants to make the slugs all deterred. Will it work?
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No. They can cross grit and broken glass and razor blades without any trouble, that's what their slime is for. Nematodes do work but are easier to use in smaller areas and this dry weather isn't the best time to apply them.
 
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iona said:
No. They can cross grit and broken glass and razor blades without any trouble, that's what their slime is for. Nematodes do work but are to use in smaller areas and this dry weather isn't the best time to apply them.
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"I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. This is my dream; this is my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor, and surviving." Col Kurtz, Apocalypse Now
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Some more seeds arrived so I have soaking :-

coabaea scandens purple

ipomeoa (morning Glory) "Grandpa Ott" - tempting to wonder if it was named after the (in)famous Jonathon Ott - though I have no intention of ingesting any seeds ...

ipomeoa "pearly gates" - bought by mistake, but they will hopefully compliment the night-opening and scented Ipomoea alba / noctiflora "moonflower" on their way from another supplier.

And my hanging basket fuchsia plugs - potted into decent compost this time so I hope they don't die like last year.

I've potted-on my first four sunflowers which I will put in the front garden where I don't necessarily want them 12 feet tall and blocking out the light from other things ... I hope I'll be ready soon to direct sow the giants in the back garden... I hope to send French beans up them - perhaps purple podded ...

I had to stop myself ordering even more smelly begonias yesterday - I already have too many (hopefully) - but they were very cheap and girly :)
The same supplier also had Charlotte potatoes, but I'm not sure ...
 
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so....

all being well I will have the following climbers ...

nasturtium
Ipomea - 3 varieties plus mina lobata
coabaea scandens

...all of which thrive in full sun so I can't resist ordering canary creeper (another nasturtium) and black-eyed susan ... but hopefully the sweet peas will appreciate a bit of shade ... and there will be runner, French and purple-podded French beans ...

So things as crazy as usual in the OCD seeding area - I was unable to resist replanting all my Gardener's Delight tomatoes - but I will have no trouble giving the excess away.

Ditto the insane number of teeny nicotiana seedlings. All I did this first time was split the clump into 4 and try to spread them about in the pots ...

Oh and I have a similar issue with antirrhinums ...

The purslane is distinctly sulky - doubtless I'm not giving it sufficiently Mediterranean conditions ...

I had better start sowing my kale and other leaf crops ready for my hydroponic installations which are still a little way off finishing - I will need plants with long roots to reach the nutrient film in the NFT system...

... and do I put out my brugmansias yet ?
I suppose with no leaf to scorch with a late frost I should be OK ..

2ndsowingandpricking.jpg

sulkypurslane.jpg
 
I hate staring at bare soil and should have done something about it long ago - so I thought I had better use some green manures .
The first return for my search gave me alfalfa ... and I thought ...
Maybe I could clean it up with hydrogen peroxide and use it as a cheap source for sprouts ...

But then I looked at the price !!

That's more than I pay for "organic" sprouting seeds !!



lucerne.jpg
 
campanula is there anything I could usefully sow now as green manure - pref a legume ...
I'm especially thinking of my squash bed ....

Though I'm also hoping to process a lot of mulch through it ...

I doubt there's much alternative in such a short time to the Growmore I already bought - so perhaps a winter cover crop - though logically since it's the best-lit part of the garden I ought to get in as many winter greens as possible ...

I'm hoping to get peas in soon in the sunnier portion of the main brassica bed - prior to planting PS broccoli later ...
 
I can't believe how idyllic this spring has been. 1st May today ("Fratelli in Lavoro!") Potatoes sowed, peas sowed, tomatoes overrunning the greenhouse, everything chomping at the bit to be planted out, and a weather forecast with the lowest nighttime temperature of 9 degrees for the next 2 weeks.
 
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