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The gardening thread

I have to walk past the florist's on the way to and from the park and even with my dodgy eyesight I could spot New Guinea Impatiens from across the road ...
I almost had four for symmetry and I may have to steel myself walking past there tomorrow ...
Perhaps I'll nick some of the compost from those planters and embed pots in there so I can "plug-in" plants I've "charged-up" in the back garden ...
I think of that bit of the front garden near the house as a bit "theatrical" - with plants being slid in and out as they are ready ...

impatiensboth.jpg

My own vaguely "prairie" thing in the front garden :)

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bimble said:
i over reacted with the deer thing, got to remember this is only the 3rd summer of me having a garden at all but there's plenty of things looking happy out there, some of them despite me. :)

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O no, the whole point of September sowing is to sow the plants where you want them to flower...so directly sown into the ground. They are totally hardy and will grow away slowly, all winter, without any fuss. Even the snails are hibernating. Deer might be a risk, but on the whole, deer are looking for a more robust meal than a few cornflower stalks. What is astonishing (to me) is that autumn sown plants do not look particularly prepossessing...because it is all going on underneath the soil. Growing a root system which will accommodate an enormous spray of bloom. Grpowing them in pots in the greenhouse is perfectly acceptable...but the really astonishing growth occurs when plants have been allowed to stretch and expand.
 
Ideal planting day in Bristol.
Pleasantly warm, but no burning sunshine - perhaps the hint of a shower later ..
I finally worked out where some of my cleomes are going.
After nearly killing my secondary miscanthus for the second time - a shame I didn't pick a less thirsty grass 20 years ago ...
(Its larger replacement next to the house also came close and is less lush than it was - and may have to go as it's making my Joe Pye bend around it to see the sunlight - and speeding up the morning glories on that side compared to the sunnier ones on the right and occupying space that something more interesting can go in ...
I will have to steel myself ...)
I may find an unpromising bit of soil to plant it or them in in the back garden - then I get my containers back - along with the one next to it that has self sown buddleia and foxglove in it ...

byebyemiscanthus.jpg

Edit :-

Deed done - I hope I can find a way to stake my Joe Pye discretely - perhaps now it can see more light it will make an effort to stand up straight ... perhaps there will be several ricinuses there grouped around the base ...
Room cleared to insert one of my first red things - a ricinus ...

Now I need to haul the big miscanthus through the house without harming it or me ...

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I remember it being marketed along with "shrub" as a mixer ...

By all accounts (Cornish) "shrub" has a history going back to the availability of illicit spirits !
Also based on a locally-harvested umbellifer ..

tikkido.com

Cornish Shrub Cordial Recipe

Learn how to make Cornish Shrub liqueur with this traditional Cornish shrub recipe. Shrub is used to make the Rum and Shrub cocktail, a delicious drink well known in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.
tikkido.com tikkido.com

Cornish Shrub Recipe​


  • 1 bottle of brandy (the most standard 70cl size)
  • 3 cups sugar
  • zest of 5 oranges and 3 lemons
  • 2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • two cinnamon sticks
  • 6 cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • The seeds from 5 cardamom pods
  • 1/4 cup of rock samphire (optional, see notes below)

What is Rock Samphire?​

My Cornish friends clued me in to rock samphire, what at least a couple people said was a key ingredient in shrub. It's an edible green that grows on the rocky cliffsides of Cornwall, where the salt spray can reach, and has a slightly salty and herbal flavor. It's also known as Sea Fennel. Rock samphire is high in vitamin C, just like citrus, so it makes sense that it was used in the medicinal cordials from which Shrub evolved. I was able to order some locally, but if you're not in England, it's probably going to be very hard to find. It's often described as having a similar taste to parsley, and after nibbling some, I can definitely see that. If you can't find rock samphire, substitute some flat-leaf parsley and a pinch of salt and you'll come very close to the same taste.
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Phillips-of-Bristol-Cordials-Range.jpg
 
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??
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Apparently they are wool carder bees (after my fluffy lychnis?!) . The one up there was a lady and the blokes were patrolling the foxglove.

Then this happened :oops:
 

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The39thStep said:
I always think it got a touch of cucumber in its taste. The flowers look great in ice cubes btw
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Talking of tasting like cucumber ...

There's some salad burnet growing near the park gate and a couple of times I've chewed on a leaf or two...
But the cucumber taste only appears once I've spat it out !
 
Nothing to be gained from binning them. Sow them in sept but make sure you have a safety net of a new packet too.

Sweet pea seedlings sell for a quid a pop around here in spring, so if you do have extras and can't find anyone to give them to, you can sell them.
 
contadino said:
Borage has a distinct cucumber taste to it.

Lovage works well in mouses. Lovage and fennel mouse (sformata di levistico e finocchio) is great. Lovage soup is great.
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Which reminds me I need to start using my celery seed ...

I munched a borage flower in the park - I got vegetative, but not actually overtly cucumber - but like the burnet it seems to be it's when you stop chewing the plant material you aspirate and it gets picked up on receptors at the back of the mouth ...
 
gentlegreen said:
Which reminds me I need to start using my celery seed ...

I munched a borage flower in the park - I got vegetative, but not actually overtly cucumber - but like the burnet it seems to be it's when you stop chewing the plant material you aspirate and it gets picked up on receptors at the back of the mouth ...
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To be honest, I've read that they taste of cucumber, but I've only had them in ice cubes with Pimms which also has cucumber in... D'oh!
 
bimble said:
gentlegreen how are your moonflowers?
this is happening here, to my great excitement, means the hour is near when they bloom briefly whilst i'm not looking.
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That bodes well for mine :)
I still reckon the location of yours is changing the apparent daylength and triggering flowering - but the morning glory group I joined say it's all a bit random and some seeds will have come from non-equatorial plants etc ...

I still can't be sure if what I have actually ARE moonflowers - or if the other 3 kinds of ipomoea will come up as expected ..
Mine are still slowly making their ways up walls and fences - two on the front house wall, two on the north fence, two on the south, and one in a pot which I'm hoping to grow up canes but keep relatively bushy ... and on the east-facing fence in the back garden where they're out of sniff range I've used the non-smelly ipomeoa "pearly gates" I bought sort of by mistake...

So in total I have seven moonflowers 8 grandpa ott, 5 lobatas ("Spanish flag"), and maybe 4 or 5 "pearly gates" ... and 4 bonus cobea scandens - one of which on the back garden fence has suspiciously white stems and leaves ...

They seem to like a little light, but not too much .. low light makes them climb faster and presumably they eventually go nuts when they get up high ...

gloriesjune.jpg
 
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bimble said:
Excellent. I’ve got a few cobea scandens going too, they really go nuts grow very fast as long as they’ve got anything to twirl around / cling to.
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I half want the house-swallowing project to fail as if they hit the top of the net at 3 metres - just under my bedroom window, I then have to go on the roof to drop more nets - I've been giving thought to how to achieve it with the fewest possible ladder climbs - though I do have a tile to relocate and a gutter to unblock.

The roof is centre valley and only 5 metres of bendy ladder to get there so it's OK once I'm up there ...
 
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