The gardening thread

[iona]

Just went into homebase for some vine eyes and accidentallied a shitload of summer bulbs. They're selling them off for half price AND 3 for 2 in case anyone's interested.

 

[gentlegreen]

Sweet pea experts ?
How many sweet peas do you think I should plant ?

This is a somewhat precarious experiment as the garden bed is some distance from the wall - maybe 450mm ...

I see the morning glory as much more amenable to a more challenging path to the wall, so I thought I should plant the sweet peas directly in front of the target area and the morning glories in the middle ...

 

[campanula]

Can I suggest sollya heterphylla, platinumsage . Will think of some others after dinner but this mannerly twiner leaped into my head as it is currently thriving in the garden of my most negligent cistomer by a country mile...therefore stress-tested to a similar level to balcony-life. Certain I can some up with others (such as the rather wonderful trachelospermums).

 

[iona]

... such as the rather wonderful trachelospermums

Ooh, are there some you'd recommend for a more exposed spot then? T. jasminoides & asiaticum both really don't like the wind ime.

 

[gentlegreen]

Ooh, are there some you'd recommend for a more exposed spot then? T. jasminoides & asiaticum both really don't like the wind ime.

Mine thrives on my East-facing wall - and does well even in a container ...

I suppose it is sheltered - there's a forsythia on the north side ...

 

[campanula]

Ah, yep, trachies like a fairly sheltered spot, it's true, but they do seem to do well in a container. Also thinking of some of the honeysuckles...in particular, Crug Farm do a couple of lovely Chinese varieties - l. henryii is the one I have seen. Wondering about holboellia or, something I had a bad craze for a few years ago, schisandra.

 

[Calamity1971]

Oh yes so it is aquilegia! Google says the flowers are edible. Maybe I'll give them a try....



Well this one is doing pretty well by itself (we didn't plant it so it wasn't going to get any help from us!). Can send you some seeds if you like

Ive got tonnes of aquelgia from one initial plant, they self seed quite ferociously.

 

[Calamity1971]

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Check out me teasels

Never grown these before. Nania started a load off in trays and planted them around the garden late on last year because the birds love them. They're a biannual so this year they're going full triffids.
They're amazing plants. They have these fantastic reservoir pools at the base of their leaves that look like mini pond's.

I had a bit of a moan about her sticking them in my bog garden but now I have to admit they look fantastic in amongst the bog plants.

Anyone else grown them?

I let mine self seed last year. This time next year it's going to be a jungle. Pics tomorrow.
I've offered some to customers but nobody likes them?

 

[gentlegreen]

Haven't caught up with this thread for ages... Mainly coz my gardening is in the style of doing fuck all in the garden, just letting it grow. Took a few pics earlier though, loving my jungle

View attachment 322637

you must have a magical microclimate as well as green fingers
What is this plant ?

EDIT :-

searched your previous posts ...

callistemon "bottle brush" ?

EDIT:- I usually manage quite well here in Bristol - except for every several winters we have a proper cold snap.
My "geraniums" made it through this winter with no apparent problems.

 

[StoneRoad]

I let mine self seed last year. This time next year it's going to be a jungle. Pics tomorrow.
I've offered some to customers but nobody likes them?

I like teasels, but haven't had any success this past three of four years.
I suspect those pesky rabbits ate the first year's growth ...

[they are playing merry hell with plants this year, annoyingly - various measures in progress !]

 

[gentlegreen]

I like teasels, but haven't had any success this past three of four years.
I suspect those pesky rabbits ate the first year's growth ...

[they are playing merry hell with plants this year, annoyingly - various measures in progress !]

I'm still struggling to stop myself thinking it's in the compositae like burdock and potentially some sort of artichoke - but apparently it does have inulin in the roots...

 

[smmudge]

This came up last year and couldn't figure out what it was, finally worked out how to Google image search and turns out it's verbascum phoeniceum. I doubt it's self seeded or planted by us, a gift from the previous owners I think. Love it, dark purple flowers that bloom from the bottom and work their way up as the long stem unfurls

 

[gentlegreen]

So many species, so little time

 

[gentlegreen]

Wet Sunday so I planted my hops at the shady end of the garden - though I doubt they'll do much this year in terms of eating the neighbour's shed this year and made a start at planting nasturtiums at most fence posts - yesterday I stapled sting fans there and in the middle...
Hopefully I will have some slightly more shade-tolerant plants to intersperse ...

It's raining - thankfully (though I suspect I will be out with slug pellets and a torch later ...

So more pricking out - 15 nicotianas though I doubt I'll plant all those and sweet peas and 4 kinds of subtropical climbers - those ipomoeas chuck out roots amazingly fast compared to the foliage ...
The sweet peas are horribly spindly so have to go out in the mini greenhouse with the emergency nicotiana remnants and then into the ground ASAP - and so damn fragile - I had a couple of mishaps...

I have at least 15 sweet peas - I suppose I will use maybe 2 x 3 on the front of the house ? and the rest on the shadier back fence ...

I have some capacity under my 60 watts of lighting, so there will be more pricking out to do later.
My power supply should handle my third lamp if needed ...

I'm still feeling my way with the veggies - I have insane amounts of seedlings and nowhere yet to plant them ...

 

[contadino]

I think there's a practical limit to the number of sweet peas a house can accommodate. Last year I did 10 on the trellis round the back and 4 obelisks of 5 canes each at the front.

We got to the point where we had 2 vases of them in each room and still had loads spare.

Oddly I didn't learn from it and sowed 80 of them in autumn, but I gave away all but 18...

 

[gentlegreen]

I think there's a practical limit to the number of sweet peas a house can accommodate. Last year I did 10 on the trellis round the back and 4 obelisks of 5 canes each at the front.

We got to the point where we had 2 vases of them in each room and still had loads spare.

Oddly I didn't learn from it and sowed 80 of them in autumn, but I gave away all but 18...

How high do you think they would go without intervention ?
My windowsill is at roughly 3 metres so I could reach out and pinch them out if they got that tall ...

 

[contadino]

How high do you think they would go without intervention ?
My windowsill is at roughly 3 metres so I could reach out and pinch them out if they got that tall ...

I make the obelisks about 2m tall and the trellis is 2.1m tall. They reach the top and then get pinched out. The variety is called Mamouth so maybe that makes a difference.

 

[Calamity1971]

I let mine self seed last year. This time next year it's going to be a jungle. Pics tomorrow.
I've offered some to customers but nobody likes them?

I think I may need to thin them out

 

[contadino]

How high do you think they would go without intervention ?
My windowsill is at roughly 3 metres so I could reach out and pinch them out if they got that tall ...

I should add that I sow them in early October and normally pinch them out 3 times before they get planted out in April. The pinching out means that I get 3 or 4 good shoots which climb. If you're growing this late for this year I don't know how they'll behave.

 

[contadino]

How high do you think they would go without intervention ?
My windowsill is at roughly 3 metres so I could reach out and pinch them out if they got that tall ...

If you don't pick them, they'll go to seed and stop growing pretty quickly. They'll unlikely reach 2m if just left to their own devices.

 

[gentlegreen]

If you don't pick them, they'll go to seed and stop growing pretty quickly. They'll unlikely reach 2m if just left to their own devices.

I'll have to see if I can plan for a "maintenance corridor" then - as it happens, I probably still want to slot different plants in and out
They're only one of the things on my whole-house trellis ...

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Today I attached my "climbing frame" to the shroom pit. There's a passion flower in the frame. Was going to add a morning glory, but might leave it a week or two and bring them on more inside, seeing as this is Scotland. They're already a nice size given the seeds were planted only 10 days ago.

That's pretty much all my "setting up" done for the year - I now have loads of weeding to get on top of.

 

[gentlegreen]

View attachment 322776

IBy the leafshape, I was going to say "Pearly Gates", but mine don't have dark leaf veins ...

 

[Johnny Vodka]

IBy the leafshape, I was going to say "Pearly Gates", but mine don't have dark leaf veins ...

Heavenly Blue if you're referring to the Morning Glory. I actually bought the seeds from a supermarket and it was just what they had.

 

[campanula]

box moth has arrived at the allotment (mugged my garden buxus last year). I am giving up on box now, and advising my customers to do the same, since no-one wants to be spraying lethally unspecific pesticide every coupla weeks...surely. Having similar problems with rosemary beetle (which seems fond of lavender too). Selecting alternatives has to be a better long-term solution for pest control...so I am propagating a shedload of shrubby salvias as a potential border filler underneath a very lovely evergreen magnolia. First sweet pea blooms just starting, along with geums, blue flax, perennial wallflowers and campanulas. Just at that untidy time of year when spring bulb foliage looks sordid but must be endured for a week or so more before I can strim the fuckers. Hoping to set up my mister in the greenhouse so I can REALLY do softwood cuttings.
And again, where are my thunbergia seedlings. They took so long to get going last year that I had (measly) blooms at Xmas. Same with cobaens but didn't even manage a bloom (although I did overwinter one so it might surprise me this year..

This late growth of tender plants is a perennial problem for me...but mostly because I hate using heated propagators, which are fairly necessary to get a lot of these plants going while temperatures are still miles too low. While tomatoes always catch up, things like thunbergia, morning glories, crossvine, some New World salvias, really need to get started much earlier, then protected from chilly nights. Probably easier to do on a sunny windowsill, but I have none of them free for starting seedlings. I am really going to either go down a more technical road (which always makes me anxious) or just buy them from a nursery, so they are already a good size by planting time...and even then, day length often delays flowering until the first frosts are almost here. Will be very interested in hearing how you get on with moonflowers, bimble (calynction album). I grew them once but didn't see a flower till November.

I have also had a coleus fail along with yet another (4th or 5th) abortive attempt to grow 'kiss me over the garden gate'...aka persicaria orientalis and annual phlox, which mystifyingly didn't show (these are normally easy annuals). OTOH, had a very successful year of growing the primula family, adding trickier Asiatics (japonica, secundiflora, wilsonii) to my usual cowslips/primula/auricula spree...not that I have any hopes of growing any in my gardens but I have grown them for a customer who has much, much lusher, damper soil than I am ever going to have (especially since I have bullied them into trying out one of my youngest's revolving copper watering sprinkler).

 

[gentlegreen]

Indoors definitely works the magic for the exotics - and there's the added bonus of having a mini garden at eyeball height on the way to and from the bathroom
30 watts a shelf of 3 seed trays - 45 x 7cm pots

Funnily enough it's currently the veggie seedlings that are leaning towards the light - but then I sowed a crazy number of seeds (there were thousands in the packets)

Ipomoea seedlings :-

Pearly Gates - alba - Grandpa Ott
Mina Lobata and a bonus cobaea scandens ...

Mostly Soaked / sown 15 days ago - a few more 8 days

 

[StoneRoad]

Topped up the soil in my spud pots, all volunteers as I had problems last year ... using free mole-hills !

After yesterday's grass cutting and today's weeding, I had a tidy-up of the compost heap and that immediate area.
Followed by using more molehill to fill in a few of the dips in the front "lawn" - a lot more nearly level than it was [was badly undermined by rabbits & other rodents a few years ago].
Spent a bit of time in the greenhouse ... the new "smallest" facility has had to be re-ordered because the delivery firm failed to do their job - after several attempts, and outright lies !
Also had a bit of a general tidy-up, putting things into more sensible places.

After my tea has digested for a while, I may have another spell outside [assuming it isn't too windy].

 

[contadino]

I am really going to either go down a more technical road (which always makes me anxious) or just buy them from a nursery...

All 5 of the local nurseries near me have shut down this year. The 'garden centers' where the café is more of a priority than the plants are still going, but all the little places where you could get a tray of seedlings are shut.

It's been quite the impetus I needed to raise my own seedlings.

ETA: ... which has been okay but I had some gaps in the spectrum. Notably, no brassicas, which I've remedied by sowing Kohl rabi and swapping excess squashes and cucumbers for cauliflowers with other allotmenteers. Still no kale or sprouts but I'd unlikely have space anyway

 

[Calamity1971]

The 'garden centers' where the café is more of a priority than the plants

One by me is the same. The plants are choked with weeds and in need of watering. Used to be a good place before they opened the cafe.

 

[campanula]

There are always fails with germination, contadino - some years as much as 50% if I am truthful (and I always try to be on here). My best years might be around 70% germination, which might be higher if I was a bit more together at hanging on to last years attempts. Many of the bulbs, take a coupla years to get going but are surprisingly reliable, given patience, but I have lost the labels, forgotten about them, stashed the pots somewhere 'safe' and so on, Nonetheless, the satisfaction far outweighs the frustrations so good for you for choosing to grow your own plants.

A few years ago, I had a really noticeable improvement in germination rates and concluded that saving my own seed was what made all the difference. Commercial seeds can be an absolute lottery...whereas I know my seeds are fresh and considerably more viable. It is fair to say that most of my plant fails occur during the first summer of pot life - keeping tiny seedlings alive in July is...difficult. Solution is to grow lots (which I do) as the raising of new plantlets never gets old for me (unlike weeding, watering and pest control).