The gardening thread

[gentlegreen]

If this was the 1970s I would be plagued with psychonauts pillaging the seedpods - though I don't know if any of these species are particularly high in LSA ..

I once had a garden full of poppies (then straw when I chopped them down) and none of the many locals heading for the Chemist's on the corner for methodone took any interest ... (I once found a whole bag of empty bottles in my skip - presumably rifled from the Chemists' bin for the final drops)

 

[gentlegreen]

I've given up on PH pens for now for my hydro - I've probably broken a second one - and have ordered some test paper instead - it has dawned on me in any case that I won't need to test the PH very often.
I have new nutes coming that aren't preadjusted for hard water so will need to add phosphoric acid and do the PH now and again ...

My drip system in the back garden is apparently going to work - and using a pump - not the mains !
I managed to push a really good flow of water up to the beans and back down to the squash bed where I have fitted 13 drippers - which explains why those 1,000 litres per hour pumps were overkill for my NFT.
I will be raising my three water delivery tanks to above that level so it may even run by syphon alone - so I will have to fit a stop valve .

I will hopefully send all my roof and grey water that way..

Why did I wait so long to try this ?
I've had half the bits knocking about for years -see also hydro.

This year and next may be my last here - at least I will hit the ground running next year so it won't be so crazy.

 

[BristolEcho]

We have a leaf on the Black Magic.

 

[gentlegreen]

View attachment 328988

We have a leaf on the Black Magic.

Are you sure it's that much of a bog plant ?
The one I grew from a yam I bought didn't seem to be ...

"Water: loves water, Keep soil moist but not wet"

Colocasia esculenta Black Magic Care: Growing Black Elephant Ears Plan

The “black elephant ears plant” or taro, Colocasia esculenta Black Magic brings the same easy to grow, durable plant, combined with... [MORE DETAILS]

plantcaretoday.com

Mind you I somehow lost it after a year and failure to water is my big failing ...

It's apparently an evergreen so you should grow it as a houseplant and put it out in summer ...

 

[BristolEcho]

Are you sure it's that much of a bog plant ?
The one I grew from a yam I bought didn't seem to be ...

"Water: loves water, Keep soil moist but not wet"

Colocasia esculenta Black Magic Care: Growing Black Elephant Ears Plan

The “black elephant ears plant” or taro, Colocasia esculenta Black Magic brings the same easy to grow, durable plant, combined with... [MORE DETAILS]

plantcaretoday.com

I'm calling it a bog plant regardless. It said I could plant it underwater and it spent a lot of time underwater until it got going. It seems to be doing okay.

How to grow colocasia (taro or elephant ears)

All you need to know about growing colocasia (taro), also known as elephant ears, in this Grow Guide.

www.gardenersworld.com

Lots of sites say to do different things. I suspect it might like something a bit less wet but that might have to happen next year as I will need to dry the soil and then empty the pot and drill a hole in it. Also not clear on fertilizer but some sites have said it needs lot so I've been adding 2x a week which seems to be going okay and it's definitely sped up.

 

[gentlegreen]

It will grow in swampy land in the tropics ...
If I was growing it, I would bring it indoors before the frost got it - as I do with my brugmansias and will with the banana I just bought.

 

[BristolEcho]

It will grow in swampy land in the tropics ...
If I was growing it, I would bring it indoors before the frost got it - as I do with my brugmansias and will with the banana I just bought.

In the winter you need to bring the tubers in. We'll see if we get that far first.

 

[contadino]

View attachment 328988

We have a leaf on the Black Magic.

A leafy Excalibur.

 

[gentlegreen]

 

[Fuzzy]

productive morning. grass cut and beds weeded. First courgette on its way.

 

[TopCat]

Harvested my broad beans this weekend. Had the first lot blanched and skinned added to a salad Nicoise with spuds, garlic, lettuce and the little beans from the garden.
It was lush. I beat the ants for the first time.

 

[gentlegreen]

Even with the tank at its current low level, my irrigation system continued to syphon after I turned off the pump - so raising the tank / watering can sump will guarantee flow.
Naturally my drippers immediately started to clog due to random crap in the system - and even when I switched out a dripper for an unrestricted barb connector a little bit of green plant matter immediately showed up to clog it
So I will need to make provision for firing mains pressure up it once a day...
I dripped all the peppers and tomatoes - so up to 30 now - used three rates of drip for the 3 kinds of plant - but can't see a difference.
With the runner beans I will probably use whatever's left after I've done the front garden - anything to get a lot of water to them.

I finally planted out eight of my pointy peppers - which I should probably have been potting-on - but they didn't seem massively potbound.
Annoyingly, planting deep apparently doesn't work for peppers.
I'm rather disappointed I bought generic seeds from Wilkos rather than fancy heirloom ones ...
But peppers were a bit of an afterthought ...

 

[StoneRoad]

I had intended to move a few things [pots] around today, but a) needing to rest my bad back intervened and b) it's been blowing a houlie & half since yesterday morning, interleaved with heavy [hail] showers.
I've left the various mini and micro greenhouses closed up for most of the day, I find strong winds and cucurbits don't get on together. One of the cucumbers has a stem repair - duct tape ! - already. But that was probably a bird.


gdn - cucumbers soon par StoneRoad2013, on ipernity

The intermittent rain is annoying as I wanted to finish off the current round of grass cutting, at this rate the areas that were done first will need doing again before I get a chance to do the three small areas I hadn't done ...
bah, humbug !

 

[iona]

Aaaaaaaaaaarrrgh

* drowning in weeds and too many things that need doing *

 

[contadino]

Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhh!

* Came to the allotment this morning and it's pissing it down. Sat in shed deciding whether to wait it out or run home *

 

[BristolEcho]

These are the fuckers eating my rose. Partner's pictures.

 

[gentlegreen]

Another 240 litres of compost ordered - hopefully I finally have enough to cover me into next year ...
I only sort of realised today I have another monster tub to plant-up - the one I mix my compost in ...

Today I got my runner beans drip-irrigated - so that's all the heavy drinkers taken care of

Having now given up on building a pergola or even much of a shelter, I feel confident in using more of my fenceposts to develop "water central". I am raising my water butt by the house as high as I can on a trestle and feeding both roof and gray water into it.
Against the fence are the drip irrigation / watering can "font", the hydro tank and then a slave water butt - not sure if that will be filled from the main butt directly or via pump / syphon ... with all three adjacent to one another it will be easy to extend the existing trestle.

All three are getting lifted to varying degrees as I have found an alternative to my 2 litre bottle float switch

 

[gentlegreen]

These are the fuckers eating my rose. Partner's pictures.

"Rose sawfly" according to google...

I was trying to get a photo of a comma butterfly earlier. I know it will lay eggs on my golden hop, but I have come to accept that ....
I doubt I will be as sympathetic to the white butterflies laying eggs on my nasturtiums ...

 

[BristolEcho]

"Rose sawfly" according to google...

I was trying to get a photo of a comma butterfly earlier. I know it will lay eggs on my golden hop, but I have come to accept that ....
I doubt I will be as sympathetic to the white butterflies laying eggs on my nasturtiums ...

Yeah it's a sawfly. Little fuckers.

 

[TopCat]

Another 240 litres of compost ordered - hopefully I finally have enough to cover me into next year ...
I only sort of realised today I have another monster tub to plant-up - the one I mix my compost in ...

Today I got my runner beans drip-irrigated - so that's all the heavy drinkers taken care of

Having now given up on building a pergola or even much of a shelter, I feel confident in using more of my fenceposts to develop "water central". I am raising my water butt by the house as high as I can on a trestle and feeding both roof and gray water into it.
Against the fence are the drip irrigation / watering can "font", the hydro tank and then a slave water butt - not sure if that will be filled from the main butt directly or via pump / syphon ... with all three adjacent to one another it will be easy to extend the existing trestle.

All three are getting lifted to varying degrees as I have found an alternative to my 2 litre bottle float switch

View attachment 329234

It’s fantastic.

 

[TopCat]

Either weeds or summer flowers seeds are starting to pick up. The Lidl tomatoes are doing really well. Dug out the broad bean bed and readied it for summer salads.

 

[TopCat]

I emptied the compost bin and dug it all in then planted spuds in honour of Badgers. Will let them get big and get baked and introduced to beans and cheese or is it?

 

[gentlegreen]

Is anyone here knowledgeable about legume nitrogen fixing ?
My alfalfa / lucerne cover crop has no root nodules
Do I give it a haircut to plant my kale ?

Thinking about it, my garden has never had leguminous weeds - or many weeds at all due to the monocrop bamboo ...
Perhaps it's too fertile ?

With the ground cleared for the first time I have annual mercury - which may have been laying in wait for decades ..., two small euphorbias, cleavers, henbit (?) bindweed obv... oh and a dock has appeared... wood avens ... willowherb ... fat hen, evening primrose, claytonia, lettuce D ), verbena bonariensis .virginia creeper ,

I'm wondering if I should nick some clover from the park complete with nodules ...

I'm seriously pissed of that I resisted stealing a viola tricolour and some chickweed from the park veggie beds - then they went and tidied it up and heavily mulched the bed

I feel sorry for annual mercury - it's a scrawny thing - even bindweed is attractive in the right place ... I was having to be careful the other day not to mistake my morning glories for bindweed !

 

[gentlegreen]

I gave the alfalfa a haircut and planted my kale - far too close by any reasonable standards, but I'll see how it goes - curly red kale at the back, a cavolo nero type near the path.
I ended up with quite a few "emergency" ones - multiples in 7cm pots so i potted them up individually and as deep as I can manage in the hope that at least a few of them end up big enough to be used ornamentally. I deliberately chose these for their foliage as well as edibility.

 

[gentlegreen]

I should have put the miscanthuses in the back garden right from the start - but I hadn't originally planned for the "patio" to be tropical and swishy in the wind ...

And I think the tree fern is going back in the ground.
It's struggling in the container it's in ...


View attachment Wansview-2022-06-28-21-15-39.mp4

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm weighing up the idea of ordering one of these :-
2 x 2 metres - so big enough to sleep in ...
£60 so I can enjoy my garden more for the last 2 years (hopefully) that I'm here ...
And I can give it to my family even if I don't take it with me - so not a proverbial "shepherd's hut" ...

 

[gentlegreen]

Watercress develops very fast - fully-fledged little plants in a couple of weeks - already with hopeful adventitious roots...
And the Aldi cress from a week ago is similarly enthusiastic in the bathroom bubbler.
I hope I can get my outdoor hydro sorted so I can have enough to start giving it away ...

​

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Huge hollyhocks everywhere in the Netherlands. I must introduce these to my garden.

 

[gentlegreen]

Me too.
In recent years I sowed "Chater's Rose" - maybe luckily I failed because I don't have the room where I currently live.
I must go and check my local street hollyhocks later
They certainly seem to love unpromising dry conditions ...

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I honestly can't recall seeing hollyhocks irl before. They should work well alongside my foxgloves in a wild patch.