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The gardening thread

At the university where I worked, I think they raised some of their patches in a greenhouse and planted them on clean ground :)
 
I would like some more interesting weeds.

After years of the garden being a jungle deep in bamboo mulch, there are very few species - one of which - Evening Primrose is down to me letting them roam in the past .. oh and winter purslane - "Miner's lettuce" - which I sowed but never ate and now it's everywhere - and those aren't proper Welsh miners - this was an anti-scorbutic used in the Klondike ... I even have self-sown lettuces - that rush to seed ridiculously quickly ...

In the community allotment bed in the park they have heartsease - viola tricolor - as a weed which I am coveting right now - when I had an allotment I could never bear to remove it ... I wish I could see a plant setting seed.
It would be very naughty to nick a plant - though I could always return several replacements later ... and I've started earning my keep by getting surgical with bindweed and tweaking the peas ...
It'd be just my luck if I hesitated and someone cleans up the bed ...
I see two of my neighbours have window boxes with teeny violas in them ...
I wouldn't mind some of their chickweed too - people rave about that as a wild edible ...
EDIT :-I've just had a silly idea of extending my NFT facility and growing chickweed and nettles in it :facepalm:

I may have to sneak one away in the dark :oops:
 
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I have a wildflower meadow at my allotment, Johnny Vodka . I have not found this to be anything like easy or quick...despite the many, many seed merchants, keen to sell us packets of 'wildflowers', implying a simple spring broadcasting and we will have sustainable colour with environmentally benign plants. The claims of seed merchants, along with the usual sponsored media tosh are variable - ranging from bullshit to outragous bullshit...and as for quality of seeds! The term 'wildflower' is used in quite a cavalier manner, with quite a number of these mixes containing hardy annuals and tender annuals (such as cosmos, coreopsis, Californian poppies...which have very different requirements to UK native and naturalised wildflowers. Some mixes have grass seed, some are just flowers. A popular mix, often labelled "cornfield mix' contains 4 or 5 annual plants - poppies, cornflowers, ox-eye daisies, corn marigold. Guaranteed flowers from a spring sowing, this is probably the easiest mix. (although preparation is really very crucial). Has to be cleared and resown every year (or it will turn into a poppy-field). A classic hay meadow will be soil and climate specific...and usually takes at least 2-3 seasons to become established.

I could ramble on about my meadow...but it would be a long post. Now in its 4th (or 5th year), it has been a fraught experiment, with an endless list of unforeseen difficulties, hopeful, (but wrong) decisions, moments of transient beauty, and more frustrations (and delights) than all the rest of my plot together.

I think I can see a light at the end of this - possibly next year, when I might have achieved some sort of actual, sustainable, flowery 'meadow'...although it is quite a long way from my initial 'plan'
 
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Arsing fox destroyed another half row of carrots.
Now I'm forced to have a permanent net fence around the bed.
I have some black netting that is slightly less offensive than the green ...
 
Tescos have no more New Horizon compost - displaced by charcoal and I realised I can get Clover delivered for the same price - so I ordered A LOT - but it means I can use my ginormous tubs - and I will need one for the musa ensete and the cannas ...
Also Chempak fertiliser so I will be ready for my irrigation / feeding.
Since I'm getting all precise with these things I think I will measure it properly - and I have my TDS pen if things get a bit random .
It will be interesting to see how grey water measures ...

Well this is one way to spend my retirement Amazon vouchers and you can't take it with you ....
 
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I did the last part of the grass cutting yesterday - risking assault by midgies - and tidied away to the compost heap.
Left as late as possible as I had indulged in a rare chance for VitD production ...
After cleaning and putting away the mower, I went around with the watering can - for the contents of the three mini-greenhouses.
And, today, I have a couple of beefsteak tom plants to deal with. Cloudy & warm rather than baking sun.

I did, however, manage to tie up more of my various roses that are getting too leggy. I rarely "hard" prune them because of [frost] damage and low level growth is too tempting for the dammmmmm rabbbitttts. Debbledspite fencing, I've lost a couple of bushes and even the established rugosas have been nibbled ...

Hopefully, will have home-grown salad leaves either today or tomorrow [working on a variation of cut n come again basis].
I wanted to add "rocket" to this process, but my seeds failed and I haven't yet found any plants at my usual garden centres.
 
It may not have been a fox.
I just saw a small rat (I think) in broad daylight - nibbling something near my runner beans :p
This is where I start getting issues with my conscience.
When they're in my house I kill them ... outdoors when I'm not a subsistence farmer ...
As well as being some sort of "vegan"...
 
I'll use preventative measures for some things (netting for pigeons, dogs for cats, etc..), and snap traps for others (mice & rats). I never use poison (poisoned rat goes somewhere to die, only to then be eaten by a cat, which gets ill), and ensure that snap traps can't be got at by other wildlife (hedgehogs, dogs, etc..)

That said, I've had a lot of losses already this year...
 
I’m a complete beginner at gardening really, I mean I never do any, unless you can call cutting the lawn gardening.

My wife has just bought this clematis in lidl, which I’ll try putting in the ground against a trellis which already exists at the side of our decking. Apart from digging a hole, putting it in then watering it, is there anything I need to know / do?

D3B9BB7E-4B1B-4637-892D-D11806FF989B.jpeg
 
I spent the last two days in the garden. Did a rough cut of the lawn and used hand shear around the edges and some clumps of wildflowers, watered all the pot plants and set the sprinkler up for hours and hours, gave the magnolia a good dousing with some ericaceous food. I finally planted out a big pot of lemon balm that I’ve been moving from spot to spot for the last three years, to check where it would be most happy. Cut back some of the adventitious shoots on one of the lilac trees, deadheaded the roses, weeded through the wild rocket, cut back a lot of the quaking grass (so pretty but it tends to choke out other grasses when it’s plentiful). Cut off a dead branch of the apple tree, and I’m glad to see that so far, this year’s June drop is less dramatic than last.

The evening primrose is starting to flower, and the handful of seeds I hurled into the shade of the ash tree last year has all germinated and grown this year so I’m going to have a glowing forest of them next year, with a path going through where the foxes come over the wall and through my garden. It’s going to look magical.

The Jack-by-the-hedge is looking a bit ropey because I’m letting them go to seed so I’ll have an established population and can harvest in future.

Tree surgeon coming next week to remove the absurd bay tree. Someone planted it in the ground 20 or 30 years ago, then someone cut it back to the ground maybe 10 years and it’s been cut back to head height at ,east once since then, so now it’s a dense stupid coppice two storeys high that keeps sending up further shoots. No birds live in it, it steals a lot of sunshine from the garden, nothing grows under it. It needs to come out. I’ll keep the logs, theyll chip and take away the rest and poison the root system. They’ve very kindly given me a good deal on the possibility (probability?) that they’ll have to come back to grind out the huge anvil of root stock.

Getting rid of that will give me access to the old brick wall, which needs re-pointing, and I need to fix and rebuild the trellis all along that wall too. Without the bay, there will be a lot more sky, but also less privacy, so hopefully it won’t be long before I can get that trellis sorted out, and then do some planting where the bay currently stands. My current plan is to plant a little forest of about four or five Birch trees, then I can cultivate a lawn underneath it and maybe, hopefully, introduce some mushrooms there (wouldn’t it be wonderful to have fly agaric in my own back yard). That spot is in the lee of the shade from the neighbour’s house, and it’s quite cool compared to other parts of the garden. Just behind the Bay there is a self-seeded Buddlia and a berberis of some kind. I need to decide whether to train the Buddlia up and through the trellis and keep it pruned and in good order or just take it out. The berberis is pretty, and the thorns are useful for the perimeter security, but it may not survive the tree surgeon’s activities. They're so close to the bay that I may just give them permission to cut both those down when they’re working on the bay. They’ll probably grow back anyway, and then I can train them int9 the trellis from scratch.

The trellis on the wall is a puzzle. It’s shady on my side and sunny in the neighbour’s side so whatever I plant, they’ll get most of the visual benefits. I may come back for ideas when the time comes.
 
story said:
I spent the last two days in the garden. Did a rough cut of the lawn and used hand shear around the edges and some clumps of wildflowers, watered all the pot plants and set the sprinkler up for hours and hours, gave the magnolia a good dousing with some ericaceous food. I finally planted out a big pot of lemon balm that I’ve been moving from spot to spot for the last three years, to check where it would be most happy. Cut back some of the adventitious shoots on one of the lilac trees, deadheaded the roses, weeded through the wild rocket, cut back a lot of the quaking grass (so pretty but it tends to choke out other grasses when it’s plentiful). Cut off a dead branch of the apple tree, and I’m glad to see that so far, this year’s June drop is less dramatic than last.

The evening primrose is starting to flower, and the handful of seeds I hurled into the shade of the ash tree last year has all germinated and grown this year so I’m going to have a glowing forest of them next year, with a path going through where the foxes come over the wall and through my garden. It’s going to look magical.

The Jack-by-the-hedge is looking a bit ropey because I’m letting them go to seed so I’ll have an established population and can harvest in future.

Tree surgeon coming next week to remove the absurd bay tree. Someone planted it in the ground 20 or 30 years ago, then someone cut it back to the ground maybe 10 years and it’s been cut back to head height at ,east once since then, so now it’s a dense stupid coppice two storeys high that keeps sending up further shoots. No birds live in it, it steals a lot of sunshine from the garden, nothing grows under it. It needs to come out. I’ll keep the logs, theyll chip and take away the rest and poison the root system. They’ve very kindly given me a good deal on the possibility (probability?) that they’ll have to come back to grind out the huge anvil of root stock.

Getting rid of that will give me access to the old brick wall, which needs re-pointing, and I need to fix and rebuild the trellis all along that wall too. Without the bay, there will be a lot more sky, but also less privacy, so hopefully it won’t be long before I can get that trellis sorted out, and then do some planting where the bay currently stands. My current plan is to plant a little forest of about four or five Birch trees, then I can cultivate a lawn underneath it and maybe, hopefully, introduce some mushrooms there (wouldn’t it be wonderful to have fly agaric in my own back yard). That spot is in the lee of the shade from the neighbour’s house, and it’s quite cool compared to other parts of the garden. Just behind the Bay there is a self-seeded Buddlia and a berberis of some kind. I need to decide whether to train the Buddlia up and through the trellis and keep it pruned and in good order or just take it out. The berberis is pretty, and the thorns are useful for the perimeter security, but it may not survive the tree surgeon’s activities. They're so close to the bay that I may just give them permission to cut both those down when they’re working on the bay. They’ll probably grow back anyway, and then I can train them int9 the trellis from scratch.

The trellis on the wall is a puzzle. It’s shady on my side and sunny in the neighbour’s side so whatever I plant, they’ll get most of the visual benefits. I may come back for ideas when the time comes.
Click to expand...
Are your evening primroses at all fragrant ?
I swear that the first ones that appeared 30 years ago were, but nothing is detectable now.
It's now one of my main "weeds" - and for a while it seemed it would take over the street :)
 
Not that I’ve noticed gentlegreen

I‘ll keep checking as they grow.


Same thing has happened to sweet violets. The most fragrant were picked for selling, leaving behind the less and least fragrant to set seed. These days, you need to get up really close to smell them, if they smell at all. Apparently, their fragrance was noticeable at a distance before.


I wonder if something similar has happened to evening primrose? The seed being taken for the oil and all that.
 
Hello MrCurry...and welcome to the gardening thread. You pretty much got it quite right, with the clematis. If I can make a wee suggestion though? When placing plants in the ground, a general rule is to ensure the plant is buried to the correct depth - that usually being the same level as it was, in the pot. However, with clematis, it is worth burying it just a bit deeper than the nursery levels, so that it sits in the soil abount an inch deeper than it had been in the pot (iyswim). This encourages clems to grow more basal shoots (rather than just one single, ever lengthening vine)...and is also supposed to help if wilt fungus (verticillium) is present in the soil. No need to add anything to the planting hole (because we want to encourage the roots to grow beyond the cosy confines of it's previous pot space). Enjoy your plant (and let us know what it is because there will be pruning issues to consider at a later date).
 
campanula said:
Hello MrCurry...and welcome to the gardening thread. You pretty much got it quite right, with the clematis. If I can make a wee suggestion though? When placing plants in the ground, a general rule is to ensure the plant is buried to the correct depth - that usually being the same level as it was, in the pot. However, with clematis, it is worth burying it just a bit deeper than the nursery levels, so that it sits in the soil abount an inch deeper than it had been in the pot (iyswim). This encourages clems to grow more basal shoots (rather than just one single, ever lengthening vine)...and is also supposed to help if wilt fungus (verticillium) is present in the soil. No need to add anything to the planting hole (because we want to encourage the roots to grow beyond the cosy confines of it's previous pot space). Enjoy your plant (and let us know what it is because there will be pruning issues to consider at a later date).
Click to expand...

I have a morning glory plant and that single vine has been destroyed due to rubbing against a surface. If I up the soil level around it, will it throw up more shoots?
 
campanula said:
Hello MrCurry...and welcome to the gardening thread. You pretty much got it quite right, with the clematis. If I can make a wee suggestion though? When placing plants in the ground, a general rule is to ensure the plant is buried to the correct depth - that usually being the same level as it was, in the pot. However, with clematis, it is worth burying it just a bit deeper than the nursery levels, so that it sits in the soil abount an inch deeper than it had been in the pot (iyswim). This encourages clems to grow more basal shoots (rather than just one single, ever lengthening vine)...and is also supposed to help if wilt fungus (verticillium) is present in the soil. No need to add anything to the planting hole (because we want to encourage the roots to grow beyond the cosy confines of it's previous pot space). Enjoy your plant (and let us know what it is because there will be pruning issues to consider at a later date).
Click to expand...
Thanks for that great info and I appreciate the welcome 😊 I have dug a hole and it was a job to get it deep enough to even fit the depth of the pot. I’ll try to go lower, but it‘s as hard as rock down there and every time I stick the fork in I just end with a stuck fork😆 It’s in any case just about vertical now, because it’s at the bottom of the hole, so not much chance to lever it backwards to free things up. Well I can maybe pile extra soil on top and create a small mound over what you called the nursery level.

It’s a Ville de Lyon clematis. I suppose it’ll need some pruning, but I’ll be happy if it grows to begin with.
 
I spent a lot of time yesterday watching crazy bees going in and out of the mega foxglove

No idea what type of bees they are but they are non standard issue. Bit bigger than honey bee size but a definite hover mode. They're not hoverflies as they have antennae but they have flight abilities like a fighter jet - they can hover & turn on the spot slowly in mid air. i tried to get a pic but they're too fast/shy . Any ideas??
 
Callie said:
I spent a lot of time yesterday watching crazy bees going in and out of the mega foxglove

No idea what type of bees they are but they are non standard issue. Bit bigger than honey bee size but a definite hover mode. They're not hoverflies as they have antennae but they have flight abilities like a fighter jet - they can hover & turn on the spot slowly in mid air. i tried to get a pic but they're too fast/shy . Any ideas??
Click to expand...
Any colour, generally or in bands ?
 
Brown :D quite similar to honey bees. I think I need to see them more. I don't think it was a Megachile sp. as it didn't wave its bum in the air. I'm wondering if it's some kind of Anthophora sp? They may have had pale tummies. Bees 100% have tummies.
 
campanula said:
I have a wildflower meadow at my allotment, Johnny Vodka . I have not found this to be anything like easy or quick...despite the many, many seed merchants, keen to sell us packets of 'wildflowers', implying a simple spring broadcasting and we will have sustainable colour with environmentally benign plants. The claims of seed merchants, along with the usual sponsored media tosh are variable - ranging from bullshit to outragous bullshit...and as for quality of seeds! The term 'wildflower' is used in quite a cavalier manner, with quite a number of these mixes containing hardy annuals and tender annuals (such as cosmos, coreopsis, Californian poppies...which have very different requirements to UK native and naturalised wildflowers. Some mixes have grass seed, some are just flowers. A popular mix, often labelled "cornfield mix' contains 4 or 5 annual plants - poppies, cornflowers, ox-eye daisies, corn marigold. Guaranteed flowers from a spring sowing, this is probably the easiest mix. (although preparation is really very crucial). Has to be cleared and resown every year (or it will turn into a poppy-field). A classic hay meadow will be soil and climate specific...and usually takes at least 2-3 seasons to become established.

I could ramble on about my meadow...but it would be a long post. Now in its 4th (or 5th year), it has been a fraught experiment, with an endless list of unforeseen difficulties, hopeful, (but wrong) decisions, moments of transient beauty, and more frustrations (and delights) than all the rest of my plot together.

I think I can see a light at the end of this - possibly next year, when I might have achieved some sort of actual, sustainable, flowery 'meadow'...although it is quite a long way from my initial 'plan'
Click to expand...

Will see how this year goes. If it's not that successful, I might try a cornfield mix next year before adjusting my plans.
 
In my last garden I germinated a tray of catenanche. They didn't flower the first year, and we moved house in May. I didn't get any going the first year here, but did last year. Today the first of the flowers has opened and they're lovely. A deep rich blue and they close at night. I've put them all over the place here. I'll take some pictures when the ones round the back open.

Gardening gives such a sense of accomplishment, and all the more so when something takes longer.
 
I won three large bags of used multipurpose compost today.
I'm sure it's perfectly fine - there are weed seedlings growing in some of it, but it makes one wonder - just how much damage a bit of tainted horse manure or whatever could do to your garden ..

As it happens I have 240 litres on the way and it's actually loam I could use to beef it up so this will be left in quarantine for a bit - perhaps I'll sow something in it to be sure - use it as soil enhancement next year ...
 
My gardening question is

Can someone give me an idiots guide to my compost bin? I have been filling it but what now? It’s the standard dalek one.
 
Johnny Vodka said:
My seeds haven't even germinated yet. Gonna need to buy plants from garden centre.
Click to expand...
Last year I went far too early and tried to germinate the courgettes in late January in our sunnier front room and they rotted. Waited until late March this year with much more success.
 
brogdale said:
Last year I went far too early and tried to germinate the courgettes in late January in our sunnier front room and they rotted. Waited until late March this year with much more success.
Click to expand...

I would normally do them on a window sill, but window sill full, so tried them outside under plastic.
 
moonsi til said:
My gardening question is

Can someone give me an idiots guide to my compost bin? I have been filling it but what now? It’s the standard dalek one.
Click to expand...
Is there good compost at the bottom that's ready to use (open the hatch at the bottom to check) or are you having problems with it?
 
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