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The gardening thread

After the round of (hopefully) killing spanish bluebells I've weeded out just about all the cleavers I can find over the last few days :). Little fuckers grow in drifts if you ignore them :mad: even more satisfying than ivy to pull out though, long strands with pathetically tiny little fucking roots that come out when you pull them. Just in time really because they're flowering now. If I'd left them any longer the dog would soon be coming in covered with green bobbles.

Next round of weeding is a general one to pull out as much of the remaining ivy, brambles, rosebay willowherb, cow parsley (yes I know umbellifers are lovely but if they seed they just take over) and plantains (ditto) as I can get. Hopefully after that I'll get to pot on some of the seedlings.
 
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I reckon I know roughly where everything will be going in my veg garden.
I don't know if the shady north-facing side will be any use for much - but the winter squash should at least produce attractive foliage ...
I'm not even sure about the peas - I even bought carrot seed ...

Watching two foxes visit my garden this morning, I reckon all it will take is to screw a 3x2 to the corner fence posts and string wires across - and if I use wire and not cord, they won't chew through it and it will be ready for electrification if needed.




cropplan3.jpg
 
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Unexpectedly, the pound shop around the corner had 0.4mm galvanised wire so let battle commence.
The two end fenceposts will be extended upwards with some treated 3x2 I had. I will trim them to size once I've worked out how many runs / how high they need to be - chances are not very.
The idea is for the foxes to realise they can't get into the garden any more - so no risk of them injuring themselves coming back the other way.
I will weave in some zigzags and perhaps plastic netting so they know the wire is there.
If they somehow get around it, I will then work on electrifying it.
Hopefully I will be helping my neighbours with their fox problems at the same time.

Also today when the rain stops I need to get the tomatoes planted in the ground and things like ricinuses planted up in 15 litre buckets.
I've decided to plant all my mirabilis into two larger containers I have - perhaps 4 plants in each and maybe move them around once their colours are revealed. I only recently noticed these are available as tubers...
The snapdragons should do well in smaller pots ...
I also pricked out a load of helichrysums (strawflowers) yesterday and I will probably do the same - hopefully I will notice places where I can plant them in the ground ...if the bronze fennels get up to a decent size I will probably plant some amongst the verbena bonariensis to fill them out at the bottom.

I also picked up a foodsaver which I will cover in foil and drill holes in the top, make plugs from pipe insulation and start rooting my veggie seedlings for the hydro... - I have ordered some some suitable airstones - plus some fishing floats which I hope will serve as level indicators for the porch hydro tanks ...

I've decided to cut the back garden NFT unit down to 6 feet - one fence panel and have tucked the tank behind the runner beans - and I'm tilting it towards the west and will hopefully have room under it for the peppers I'm raising ...
 
Bloody Amazon taking the piss ...

So when I meshed the front of the house I paid £9.99 for 1.67 x 10 metres ...
Thinking I needed more I click "buy again" and it's twice the price.
I google outside Amazon and I find a seller on amazon Prime selling 2 packs of 1.67 x 5 metres for £4.99 so I ordered two lots.
So I've just ordered another 20 metres for what I originally paid for 10 ...
I may well use some of it for the back garden as well as covering the rest of the house ....

EDIT:- and I just found 100 metres for £25 ! arse ...

so I paid 11p a metre for the first 10 metres
5.5 p a metre for the second 20 metres
The bulk roll is 2.5 p a metre.

I shall know next time I need some.
It's 6 inch mesh though so no use for fruit cages and the like ...
 
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Today I planted 9 Gardener's Delight tomatoes in the back garden - I settled for 15 inch spacing ...
Should the pointy peppers inspire me with confidence later on, maybe I will plant some in front of the tomatoes - hopefully the toms will benefit from the head start and will still do alright ... though half of those will (hopefully) be competing for sunlight with leafy greens in the NFT unit ... I'll see how I feel when they're of a size for planting ... but by getting lots of tomatoes in the ground I should be guaranteed sufficient for my needs one way or another :)

tomsplanted.jpg


And I have an embarrassment of spider babies to give away - produced from my old front door baskets.
I stuck anything not obviously dead in damp grit.
I will have to try to incorporate them into my front garden scheme ...

spiderbabies.jpg
 
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two sheds said:
After the round of (hopefully) killing spanish bluebells I've weeded out just about all the cleavers I can find over the last few days :). Little fuckers grow in drifts if you ignore them :mad: even more satisfying than ivy to pull out though, long strands with pathetically tiny little fucking roots that come out when you pull them. Just in time really because they're flowering now. If I'd left them any longer the dog would soon be coming in covered with green bobbles.

Next round of weeding is a general one to pull out as much of the remaining ivy, brambles, rosebay willowherb, cow parsley (yes I know umbellifers are lovely but if they seed they just take over) and plantains (ditto) as I can get. Hopefully after that I'll get to pot on some of the seedlings.
Click to expand...
Sticky weed is, I understand from my son and sheilanagig’s old posts, not bad to eat and beneficial for the lymph system. I rather like the shape of it so have left the sprigs I’ve found alone. But I have a short haired dog.
 
iona said:
One of the houses on my road had a ridiculous nasturtium rambling right up through a big rose bush and over the wall into next door's garden last year. This winter's been so mild that it's still going, though it's been cut back a bit and not flowering at the moment. Took this picture last night
View attachment 316738
Click to expand...
State of it now! It goes a good couple feet over the wall into the next garden too.
IMG_20220525_203806.jpg
 
I've fancied a chamomile lawn for ages but have failed miserably getting the seeds to germinate but finally this year I've brought on loads of plants from seeds. They're a couple of inches high now but .... I don't have any space to plant them :( unless I did up bits of my lawn which I'm not sure whether it's a good idea. I don't actually have lawns more overgrown grass areas, should i take off the top layer of 'turf' and put some compost down with the chamomiles? I've got enough for a few square metres.

Answers on a postcard please :)
 
iona said:
State of it now! It goes a good couple feet over the wall into the next garden too.
Click to expand...
It bodes well for my experiments then :)
I've planted a dozen or so plants in my back garden and six on top of my porch with the hope they'll cascade down around my begonias and fuchsias...
Mostly seeds from the solidly red and golden yellow ones in the park, but also some new ones ...
I have so far failed to germinate canary creeper tropaeolum peregrinum ... :p
 
I sowed some more lettuce outside today, and another sprinkle of carrots. Sorted all the empty seed packets into alphabetical order and filed away from those with seeds left for successional sowings - the packets of calabrese and PSB are both empty, but I have absolutely no idea where I’ve sown them. I usually sow brassicas in seed trays but have been lazy and sown everything else direct this year and only the sweetcorn seeds went into loo roll tubes, after chitting. I let my little grandson throw lots of flower seeds around and wonder if he had the broccoli packets too - probably nothing will come of them in that case but it’ll be interesting keeping an eye on what comes up where! Having lost all my brassicas (and all the sacrificial nasturtiums) to flea beetle two years ago they were in a triple-netted fortress last year in their own raised bed and did brilliantly, though it was a pain uncovering them for slug patrol. I’m pretty certain I haven’t sown them direct into that recently cleared bed, but we’ll see. It’s a shallow raised bed on a bit of broken concrete patio and I was going to turn it over to strawberries this year.

The bed where the sweetcorn will go is smothered in poppies, calendula and limanthes. The bed where spinach, peas, carrots and spring onions are, is smothered in self-seeded coriander, which I dislike in cooking but leave for the bees, and aquilegia and phacelia. I’m trying to wiggle out every bindweed shoot in the veg beds but I don’t feel I’m winning. It’s rampant in the lawn, along with buttercups and daisies, dandelions and ground ivy. I like bindweed flowers and they’re pretty on the grass but…
 
pbsmooth said:
Our lawn has gone nuts in May, don't mind the long grass and like the insect life but the weeds are bloody rampant!
Click to expand...
Burn the witch !!

Learn to appreciate your wild flowers :)

Seriously though - which species ?
It's usually not too difficult to help grass out-compete other plants ...
 
On the subject of weeds.
Partly to deter foxes and partly because they're goof plants to have around, I have decided to collect and propagate nettles in the foxy area behind my fence.
It's technically neighbours' gardens, but I've seen no activity from them in decades ...
So I am about to break the law and steal plants from the park.
Actually in this case I doubt anyone would mind because they're the result of an unauthorised allotment - now abandoned ...
So off to the park later with a big bag, gloves and sleeves ...
 
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Today's off-beat gardening project ...
A bubble cloner to get teeny seedlings ready to dip their feet in hydroponic nutrients .. I will need a second, deeper one to prepare plants for the NFT.

I have neatly covered my foodsaver in foil to exclude light, and I'm currently figuring the best way to accommodate seedlings that will initially be teeny, but will later have to be extracted with roots intact ...

I have some 100mm airstones coming, but a key issue is my seedling area is directly outside my bedroom and the air pump is likely to prove annoying even set on minimum.



silverbox.jpg
 
gentlegreen said:
Unexpectedly, the pound shop around the corner had 0.4mm galvanised wire so let battle commence.
Click to expand...

Get one of these. It's one of my favourite tools and I use it all the time.

www.fencelinesolutions.com.au

Spring Grip Wire Strainers

1. CAM & ANVIL Spring Operated - won’t fall off Doesn’t Slip or Jam Smooth Grip Self Location On Barb Wire Hardened Steel Jaws Strainer Designed Suits All Fencing Wire The only Strainer designed specifically for high tensile wire. 2. TENSION GAUGE Built in...
www.fencelinesolutions.com.au www.fencelinesolutions.com.au
 
DownwardDog said:
Get one of these. It's one of my favourite tools and I use it all the time.

www.fencelinesolutions.com.au

Spring Grip Wire Strainers

1. CAM & ANVIL Spring Operated - won’t fall off Doesn’t Slip or Jam Smooth Grip Self Location On Barb Wire Hardened Steel Jaws Strainer Designed Suits All Fencing Wire The only Strainer designed specifically for high tensile wire. 2. TENSION GAUGE Built in...
www.fencelinesolutions.com.au www.fencelinesolutions.com.au
Click to expand...
AU$385.00 :D

Somewhat out of my league !

Maybe if I end up in France with an acre and marauding wild boar and deer - in which case I will need electricity too ... and who knows what else...
My biggest fear with my skimpy wire is garotting some poor mammal - so I've draped netting over it.

My neighbour - based on advice from others has apparently been trying a flashing bike light on the roof to try to stop the foxes clattering around near the velux ...

The nettles idea appeals to my perverse nature.
These nettle plants in the park are nearly as tall as I am so it will be an interesting experiment and I'm pondering if actually taking a garden fork would be a little too obvious ...
I always wanted a nettle patch ...
 
gentlegreen said:
AU$385.00 :D

Somewhat out of my league !

Maybe if I end up in France with an acre and marauding wild boar and deer - in which case I will need electricity too ...
Click to expand...

Don't forget your signs. They will fine the shit out of you if you don't have numerous and prominent 'Cloture Electrique' signs everywhere.

You'll also need to go to the Marie and explicity withdraw permission for la chasse to come on your land otherwise your fences are going to get hoofed over with tedious regularity anyway.
 
gentlegreen said:
Burn the witch !!

Learn to appreciate your wild flowers :)

Seriously though - which species ?
It's usually not too difficult to help grass out-compete other plants ...
Click to expand...
oops :D but yeah we sort of do but then it starts to annoy me that the lawn looks patchy close up. mainly dandelions but you're right, I will accept them and the life they encourage!
 
DownwardDog said:
You'll also need to go to the Marie and explicity withdraw permission for la chasse to come on your land otherwise your fences are going to get hoofed over with tedious regularity anyway.
Click to expand...
Thankfully Finisterre is reasonably non-hunty - there's even the odd vegan -friendly establishment :)
And the bit I'm hoping to live in is all civilian naval staff and second homes ...
 
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To add to my wildlife I still have a rampant mole ...

... s/he is living in holes and producing mountains under a couple of trees and a patch in the front "lawn"
I can use the mountains for re-potting various items. Just hoping that I don't have too many collapsed tunnel / runs over the summer.
 
My raid on the local nettle patch wasn't quite as spectacular as I'd envisioned - I would have needed long trousers a fork and transport - but I brought back plenty of almost guaranteed new plants and they should get going relatively quickly thanks to getting fertiliser.

I chastise the fox-feeders, but I suppose they're making my garden worms slightly less appealing.
On the other hand it probably keeps them reproducing.

So far no garotted animals on my fence.

I'm about to put electricity near the end of the garden for my NFT pump and it would be so tempting if I happened to have an ignition coil, indicator realay and points capacitor knocking about ..

What I may fit out there is a cheap PIR lamp - I was planning to fit my smart bulb in a bulkhead fitting I have, but it won't connect to my slave WIFI.
 
This morning otherwise was about getting stuff potted-on and planted out.
I think I've sown my last seeds indoors - apart from maybe
As I was leaving the house this morning I found the main street cat sitting where my climbers need to be planted so I'm going to have to go to town on that in terms of protection.
He does his ginormous poos where I want to plant nicotianas very soon so that will be an issue too.
 
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