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The gardening thread

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.
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I apparently sowed mine May 9th and planted them out June 6th.
My free-draining soil didn't inspire confidence till we'd had a decent amount of rain ...
Once again a plug for LED lighting indoors.
My seed sowing is winding down for the year so all my current ones are happily sitting under three 9 watt warm white lamps.
 
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MrCurry said:
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.
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When it's as dry as it's been recently I'll always douse the area with lots of water before attempting to dig a hole. London clay is like concrete when it's dry. It's better, more loamy, up here on the Hill but I still need to lay the hosepipe down for about 20+ minutes before attempting to put a potted plant in the ground. It makes it so much easier to get her fork in and move the soil around.

I also don’t bother weeding til it’s rained or until I’ve watered everything. Deep and firm rooted stuff comes up so much easier when the earth is wetted.

And I’ll deep soak the pot too. I’ll put it into a bucket and flood the bucket, then go and drench the spot I’m going to dig.
Then when I’ve got the hole in the ground, I fill it with water.
Then I’ll take the new plant out of the pot, wriggle the roots around so they’re not compacted, and then put it into the hole.
Sometimes, the water had drained away but sometimes, I’m planting into a muddy hole. When I lived on clay I‘d make sure to add organic matter into the mud so it wouldn’t set into a concrete-hard clay ball around the roots, but up here on the Hill I can just backfill the earth into the watery mushy mess, and then I firm it in with my foot. Saves me having to water everything in after I’ve planted it.

My Dad taught me this trick. No idea if it’s standard but it works for me.
 
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...

I keep trying to grow foxgloves and I keep failing. The slugs decimate any I put in, and any seeds I throw out there just don’t seem to take. My sister had an enormous swathe of white foxgloves on one side of her garden and over a period of (?)3 years they self seeded and marched across to the other side, and changed from white to purple in the process.

I’m a very lazy gardener and I’ve never been patient enough to grow seedlings and then transplant them out. I know this is the right and proper way but I can’t seem to find the regular routine and rhythym necessary to do all the necessaries in a consistent fashion. But surely foxgloves, being woodland natives, should just grown from a random flinging of the seeds!
 
story said:
I wish I liked courgettes enohgh to grow them, cos the flowers are gorgeous. (Also see my earlier post re: my impatient inability to grow things form seed.)
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I'm growing a whole 16 square metre patch as much for their ornamental value as for eating them.
The winter squashes next to the north-facing fence are unlikely to yield much in the way of fruit but I thought I would try.
I have 13 plants out there of 4 different varieties ...
 
gentlegreen said:
I'm growing a whole 16 square metre patch as much for their ornamental value as for eating them.
The winter squashes next to the north-facing fence are unlikely to yield much in the way of fruit but I thought I would try.
I have 13 plants out there of 4 different varieties ...
Click to expand...

Whereas my garden is more like a glade in a woodland.
I do eat out of my garden, but it’s more like foraging than farming.
 
Johnny Vodka said:
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?
Click to expand...
Yep, this is usually done to woody shrubs and is called 'stooling'. Tomato shoots can be buried deeper too, in order to encourage stem rooting. Gently pack some soil around the plant, covering the damaged area and, if possible, up to the next leaf node. This might not be possible if there are long gaps between leaf axils, so as long as you cover the wound, cell changes will occur to encourage rooting cells.j Is there any green growth left above the ground? Morning glories are sometimes annual and sometimes perennial - as a rule, there will be a good chance of recovery if the plant has enough stored energy in perennial roots. Well worth a try.
 
MrCurry said:
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.
Click to expand...
O, that's handy. Ville de Lyon is a late flowering viticella type and grows on this season's new wood (pruning group 3). This means that you cut the whole plant down to about 2 feet, every February (or, whenever you feel like after it has flowered). It will make all its flowering growth in 1 year, so you avoid all the faffing with keeping old and fragile stems tied in because flowering happens earlier in the year ON LAST YEARS GROWTH) - pruning group 2). I had some unidentified clems for years, which I lovingly pruned and fed...yet never saw a single bloom...because I had cut off all the old flowering growth. Took me about 4 years before the penny dropped.
 
story said:
When it's as dry as it's been recently I'll always douse the area with lots of water before attempting to dig a hole. London clay is like concrete when it's dry. It's better, more loamy, up here on the Hill but I still need to lay the hosepipe down for about 20+ minutes before attempting to put a potted plant in the ground. It makes it so much easier to get her fork in and move the soil around.

I also don’t bother weeding til it’s rained or until I’ve watered everything. Deep and firm rooted stuff comes up so much easier when the earth is wetted.

And I’ll deep soak the pot too. I’ll put it into a bucket and flood the bucket, then go and drench the spot I’m going to dig.
Then when I’ve got the hole in the ground, I fill it with water.
Then I’ll take the new plant out of the pot, wriggle the roots around so they’re not compacted, and then put it into the hole.
Sometimes, the water had drained away but sometimes, I’m planting into a muddy hole. When I lived on clay I‘d make sure to add organic matter into the mud so it wouldn’t set into a concrete-hard clay ball around the roots, but up here on the Hill I can just backfill the earth into the watery mushy mess, and then I firm it in with my foot. Saves me having to water everything in after I’ve planted it.

My Dad taught me this trick. No idea if it’s standard but it works for me.
Click to expand...
Yep, I do this. It is called 'puddling in'.and is, to my mind, far more efficient at getting water to the rootzone. Thanks for mentioning this, story. It is a valuable technique, especially for spring planting. If anything, I like to ensure that the top layers of replaced soil are actually dry, acting as a sort of 'dust mulch'...so pre-watering the hole is crucial.
For the longest time, I always added some compost to the planting hole but this has been shown to be detrimental. The new roots are disinclined to extend beyond the cushy confines of the amended rooting hole...plus it creates all sort of drainage issues. Nowadays, I plant wider then deeper, spreading the roots out horizontally, then backfilling with the original spoil.
 
campanula said:
Yep, I do this. It is called 'puddling in'.and is, to my mind, far more efficient at getting water to the rootzone. Thanks for mentioning this, story. It is a valuable technique, especially for spring planting. If anything, I like to ensure that the top layers of replaced soil are actually dry, acting as a sort of 'dust mulch'...so pre-watering the hole is crucial.
For the longest time, I always added some compost to the planting hole but this has been shown to be detrimental. The new roots are disinclined to extend beyond the cushy confines of the amended rooting hole...plus it creates all sort of drainage issues. Nowadays, I plant wider then deeper, spreading the roots out horizontally, then backfilling with the original spoil.
Click to expand...

Awr, my dear old Dad. I wonder if he was taught by someone or worked it out for himself.

I confess I’ve always skipped the “add compost to the hole” bit and assumed I was being a garden slattern but tbh, it seemed obvious to me that supplying food in situ would keep the plant cuddled in to the original hole, addd to which it‘s also less compacted. Why move from the comfy chair if everything you need is easily at hand?
 
story said:
I keep trying to grow foxgloves and I keep failing. The slugs decimate any I put in, and any seeds I throw out there just don’t seem to take. My sister had an enormous swathe of white foxgloves on one side of her garden and over a period of (?)3 years they self seeded and marched across to the other side, and changed from white to purple in the process.

I’m a very lazy gardener and I’ve never been patient enough to grow seedlings and then transplant them out. I know this is the right and proper way but I can’t seem to find the regular routine and rhythym necessary to do all the necessaries in a consistent fashion. But surely foxgloves, being woodland natives, should just grown from a random flinging of the seeds!
Click to expand...
Yep, they do, but timing is crucial. Don't feel bad about your efforts. Look at the prodigious quantities of seed, each plant produces, than reassess just how contingent the whole process of seeding actually is. I have found that the easiest way to grow foxgloves is to wait till the plants have dry, brown seedpods, then carefully cut a spike (keeping the plant upright). Walk about, waving the seedhead here and there...then walk around where you think seeds have landed. They need to make a good connection to the soil, but remain on the surface because they need light to germinate. If you can do this on damp soil, your chances of success are much increased. Later in the year, you should see many tiny seedlings, which you can carefully relocate to where you want more plants. You can also simply have a look around existing plants - there will usually be a colony of tiny seedlings.
Foxgloves are not keen on being transplanted either...so if you do want to use seedlings, get them as soon as possible, when they are still teeny.
 
campanula said:
Yep, they do, but timing is crucial. Don't feel bad about your efforts. Look at the prodigious quantities of seed, each plant produces, than reassess just how contingent the whole process of seeding actually is. I have found that the easiest way to grow foxgloves is to wait till the plants have dry, brown seedpods, then carefully cut a spike (keeping the plant upright). Walk about, waving the seedhead here and there...then walk around where you think seeds have landed. They need to make a good connection to the soil, but remain on the surface because they need light to germinate. If you can do this on damp soil, your chances of success are much increased. Later in the year, you should see many tiny seedlings, which you can carefully relocate to where you want more plants. You can also simply have a look around existing plants - there will usually be a colony of tiny seedlings.
Foxgloves are not keen on being transplanted either...so if you do want to use seedlings, get them as soon as possible, when they are still teeny.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for this campanula

It matches my own instinct and habit so closely, it’s as if you’ve watched me going about. I do tend to carry seedy spikes around like a flaming torch and then wave them in a ceremonial manner, trying as best I can to do so in a spot that replicate as closely as possible that place I took the seeds from. I do this along track and in the pathways just as I go about. Today I was waving calendula seed heads around the neighbourhood…. although they do benefit from being crumbled a bit, I find. Plenty of hollyhocks all over Brixton cos I’ve carried seed spikes around. Mullein too. I’m sad that I’ve got none in my garden at present, but glad to see fireweed/rosebay willow herb in the neighbouring derelict garden. Not keep to have it rollicking round my own garden but happy to have it close by.

But that info about pressing the seeds down with my feet is very handy to know, and also the reminder that the contents of a little packet of seeds is not at all the same thing as the thousands that get sprinkled around by the mother plants.
 
campanula said:
O, that's handy. Ville de Lyon is a late flowering viticella type and grows on this season's new wood (pruning group 3). This means that you cut the whole plant down to about 2 feet, every February (or, whenever you feel like after it has flowered). It will make all its flowering growth in 1 year, so you avoid all the faffing with keeping old and fragile stems tied in because flowering happens earlier in the year ON LAST YEARS GROWTH) - pruning group 2). I had some unidentified clems for years, which I lovingly pruned and fed...yet never saw a single bloom...because I had cut off all the old flowering growth. Took me about 4 years before the penny dropped.
Click to expand...
Wow.. so whatever it grows between now and next Feb I’m to cut away and dispose of, and just leave 2 feet above the ground? Sounds brutal!
 
Drip irrigation is a nightmare and I already got caught out by paying more than I might for pipe ... I had thought that by ordering enough small diameter pipe I would have sufficient to do the peppers and tomatoes in small diameter pipe - but I now know that's not how it works.
By using old hosepipe I had hoped I wouldn't need to order more 13mm black poly pipe, but no ...

So basically the drippers puncture the 13mm pipe and you can then run short lengths of 4mm pipe to where it's needed.

So I bought a 200-odd piece assortment and ended up with stuff I won't need for this garden - like misters - and six each of the three drip rates - so I will order 25 metres of 13mm pipe and another box - just drippers - 20 of each ...

So I have 5 metres of runner beans at the top of the hill ... then the 13 squash plants which are definitely individual plants - plus tomatoes and peppers - I think there are 9 tomatoes so I suppose 6 or 8 peppers ...

Then the carrots/salad bed might as well get something ...

So what rate of dripper ?

I suppose I'll start with the squashes and the biggest drippers, then do the toms and peppers - and then use whatever's left to do the runner beans adequately.
And I have the front garden baskets and planters too ...






flagdrippers.jpg

wateringplan.png
 
MrCurry said:
Wow.. so whatever it grows between now and next Feb I’m to cut away and dispose of, and just leave 2 feet above the ground? Sounds brutal!
Click to expand...
No, you do the cutting back at the end of summer, after it has flowered. You can cut back all the brittle, leafless old stems anytime between late November, say, up until February/March. With some clematis, the flowers only appear on older stems...so you have to be really careful not to cut everything back hard. These tend to have larger, earlier flowers...and can be quite tricky to prune.Your clematis is a viticella type, which flowers on the new seasons growth - that is, everything growing above ground, from spring, until late summer. It will do this every year - throwing out fresh new growth from the base of the plant,

Because you have a new young plant, you won't need to prune it at all for a few years, just try to spread those long stems across a wall, fence, trellis or other shrub, so the sun reaches as many parts of the plant as possible. After 3 years or so, cut the whole lot back during winter, and allow the plant to start over, making fresh new flowering growth.

This business of flowers (and fruits) growing on either the new season's growth...or on older wood, is common to many flowering plants and, therefore, affects how and when you prune (although there is a lot of mysterious rubbish written about pruning, as though it was some sort of dark magical art). Philadelphus, hydrangeas, blackberries and rambling roses all bear fruit and flowers on older wood...whereas buddleja, forsythia, bush roses, honeysuckle, will all produce flowers on new, first year stems...and can be cut back over winter without worrying about losing flowering stems. Of course, no-one is pruning plants in the wild, so technically, we only prune to get rid of dead or dying wood, or to keep a good shape or encourage more flowers...but if we never did it at all, no plants will die. They might look a bit overgrown and unsightly...but pruning is not difficult, once the principles are understood.
 
campanula said:
No, you do the cutting back at the end of summer, after it has flowered. You can cut back all the brittle, leafless old stems anytime between late November, say, up until February/March. With some clematis, the flowers only appear on older stems...so you have to be really careful not to cut everything back hard. These tend to have larger, earlier flowers...and can be quite tricky to prune.Your clematis is a viticella type, which flowers on the new seasons growth - that is, everything growing above ground, from spring, until late summer. It will do this every year - throwing out fresh new growth from the base of the plant,

Because you have a new young plant, you won't need to prune it at all for a few years, just try to spread those long stems across a wall, fence, trellis or other shrub, so the sun reaches as many parts of the plant as possible. After 3 years or so, cut the whole lot back during winter, and allow the plant to start over, making fresh new flowering growth.

This business of flowers (and fruits) growing on either the new season's growth...or on older wood, is common to many flowering plants and, therefore, affects how and when you prune (although there is a lot of mysterious rubbish written about pruning, as though it was some sort of dark magical art). Philadelphus, hydrangeas, blackberries and rambling roses all bear fruit and flowers on older wood...whereas buddleja, forsythia, bush roses, honeysuckle, will all produce flowers on new, first year stems...and can be cut back over winter without worrying about losing flowering stems. Of course, no-one is pruning plants in the wild, so technically, we only prune to get rid of dead or dying wood, or to keep a good shape or encourage more flowers...but if we never did it at all, no plants will die. They might look a bit overgrown and unsightly...but pruning is not difficult, once the principles are understood.
Click to expand...
Awesome thanks :thumbs: I’ll refer back to this when the time comes.

For now it’s in, and I’m trying to keep it sufficiently watered until it establishes itself.
36FADE93-50B1-43B2-AE45-F454CAA2558C.jpeg
 
I've just taken delivery of 240 litres of Clover compost - hopefully that should be it for this year and into next.
.. but this is where it goes - I only actually need a handful of plants but I'm taking no chances - the lettuce is a mixture and I'm hoping to get some nice light green "salad bowl" kinds
I've spent so much on my hobby recently I'm going to struggle to resist buying two more 8 foot sections of hydroponic channel (square section downpipe) - having realised I can walk to a drainage specialist - it'll probably only cost me £15 - it will be interesting to see how much salad I can produce to give away :D
Having three channels makes the plumbing easier and the feed pipe stays roughly where it is.

I probably ought to try to grow some hearting lettuces on rotation - perhaps dedicate a whole channel ... I need some seed so I can plant some in my ornamental allotment ...

I have unused polycarbonate sheet so could assemble a kind of long greenhouse for my first unit to extend the season.

morningseedlings.jpg
 
campanula said:
Yep, this is usually done to woody shrubs and is called 'stooling'. Tomato shoots can be buried deeper too, in order to encourage stem rooting. Gently pack some soil around the plant, covering the damaged area and, if possible, up to the next leaf node. This might not be possible if there are long gaps between leaf axils, so as long as you cover the wound, cell changes will occur to encourage rooting cells.j Is there any green growth left above the ground? Morning glories are sometimes annual and sometimes perennial - as a rule, there will be a good chance of recovery if the plant has enough stored energy in perennial roots. Well worth a try.
Click to expand...

The damage has been done quite far up the plant, so not sure if it can be sorted. There is one healthy leaf (others slug-munched). Thankfully, the frame I'm using also has a potato vine and a passion flower... (Probably three different types of plant is too much anyway.)
 
Johnny Vodka said:
The damage has been done quite far up the plant, so not sure if it can be sorted. There is one healthy leaf (others slug-munched). Thankfully, the frame I'm using also has a potato vine and a passion flower... (Probably three different types of plant is too much anyway.)
Click to expand...
O, I wouldn't give up on it. Morning glories are vigorous plants and will quite likely throw out another vine. They only start to get going with summer heat anyway...and can grow away quite enthusiastically, once temperatures riseI. I have had plants which have been munched to a stub, eventually recover enough to leaf up. They can photosynthesise through their stems ( or any green surface) so stand a chance of regenerating.
I will say that both solanum and passion flowers are very robust plants and will almost certainly need some TLfuture attention to support what will be a large amount of plant growth. The morning glory is very unlikely to survive a winter so ultimately, you will just have 2 climbers to deal with
 
My morning glories are all rather deceptively timid at the moment - I suspect that once they properly see the sunshine they'll go for it.
(I can't help thinking of lianas / strangler figs)
I have them on east, north and south-facing walls / fences ... and yes, a few of them are looking a bit sad at the bottom, but those shoots just keep climbing.
It will be interesting to see how they compete with nasturtiums and cobea scandens and hops ... and some of them may get tangled up with my runner beans ..

I still feel I should try to fit in my purple-podded French beans .. perhaps I will send some up my sunflowers anyway to see if what they say is true ....
 
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Picked up a borage plant while in the garden centre today. I've never tasted it before, but bees were all over it and that can often tempt me to buy!
 
gentlegreen said:
Since I'm about to order from Premier seeds perhaps I should get some - they look amazing as ornamentals :)
Click to expand...
I've stopped growing the Cosse Violette ones. 2 years ago I put two rows of 15 in and they went nuts. Filled my freezer, filled the neighbours freezers. Then I started taking them to the local community kitchen, who were happy to take a carrier-full a couple of times a week, but they told me enough was enough when I took a wheelbarrow-full round.

They're okay eating, but now I just grow Ferrari which are nanos. Taste great and prolific enough. Wilko sell them.
 
This reminds me I'd better locate my bean slicer or buy one - I have 5 metres of runner beans :D

I swear I have one of these somewhere ...

EDIT:- yes - 2015 ...

Amazon.co.uk:Customer reviews: KitchenCraft Krisk Bean Stringer and Slicer, French Style Green Bean Complete Multi Tool to Top and Tail, Stringer & Cutter for Runner Beans, White

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for KitchenCraft Krisk Bean Stringer and Slicer, French Style Green Bean Complete Multi Tool to Top and Tail, Stringer & Cutter for Runner Beans, White at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users.
www.amazon.co.uk
 
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