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The gardening thread

Calamity1971 said:
Slugs got my morning glorys this year.
I can't believe how well yours are doing considering how long your fence has been up. Envy overload :oops:.
Click to expand...
The garden is protected by a ring of pellets - mostly iron phosphate, but it seems to have done the trick.
I had the confidence to plant lettuces in an island bed the other day :)

I couldn't have all that fence without growing stuff up it.
First thing I did was staple string fans on every panel.
Some of the morning glories are up to that net at the end and just starting to appear at the trellis left and right.

I still have my fingers crossed for the thunbergias I planted back left and a few canary creepers (another nasturtium variety.)
Even the hops are getting there - and next door's green one is starting to show on the right - ready for a scrap with more nasturtiums and morning glories :)

It's quite alarming the rate of growth of all that green - all from a small handful of seed :)
I seem to be on autopilot - I have to get at least an hour in down the park for context - and even there I spend part of the time working on garden challenges I've set myself. :facepalm:

All basically inspired by the little community veg patch in the park - which is where most of the nasturtium seed (and tagetes) came from :)
I will be sure to give them credit.
 
Imported to Europe by Spanish conquistadors around 1500, the nasturtium was introduced as a vegetable, along with the potato and tomato. First documented by Spanish botanist Nicolás Monardes in 1565, the nasturtium was noted as reaching England by John Gerard in 1597. At that time, the nasturtium was known to British growers as “Indian Cress” due to its origins in the Americas, then known as the Indies. It received its common name “nasturtium”—which in Latin translates to “nose-twister”—from Renaissance botanists due to its peppery flavor and spicy fragrance similar to watercress (Nasturtium officinale).
Click to expand...
www.gardnermuseum.org

The Elevation of the Nasturtium: From Plate To Palace Garden

How did an edible flower come to be honored for its beauty alone? Discover the history of the nasturtium, from beneficial herb to treasured ornamental.
www.gardnermuseum.org www.gardnermuseum.org

I was hoping for something like this out the front but they insist on growing upwards !
(or at least try because I've given them nothing to climb on ...)

Nasturtiums-Display-2021-2_ISGM_Pore_2000x1500.jpg

Hanging Nasturtiums Courtyard Display, 2021

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Photo: Jenny Pore
 
In addition to the rats and foxes I now have several more pests.
The only birds I ever see at next door's feeders are bloody wood pigeons and they sit on my southern fence crapping on the tomatoes - hopefully the salad is far enough away to be safe...

I have quite a collection of balls and frisbies from next door's hyperactive little boys who are encouraged by their varsity rugby father - maybe they're actually trying to tell him something ?

Difficult to know how to play it because it was his fence project that made my garden happen...

I will probably do what I did in vain with previous neighbours and return them all in a sack ..

Last night I had a nightmare where I relived the day shortly after I arrived at secondary school where the games master instructed me in the playground that I was required to attend rugby practice (I seem to recall tears).
In my dream I was my adult self and I did the House MD thing where he's trying to scare off a waiting room full of outpatients ...
"I have never voluntarily been within feet of a ball ... you will regret this ...." I woke up as I was basically smashing the place up ...

pigeonshit.png
 
Just turning my eye to my cluttered up back yard
Want to turn it into a pleasantly green smoking and contemplation area

I’ve seen plenty of smaller spots turned into little tranquil in the Middle East.

Gonna need some vertical storage/plants



It’s super sunny in the morning and shady in afternoon evening
 
bellaozzydog said:
Just turning my eye to my cluttered up back yard
Want to turn it into a pleasantly green smoking and contemplation area

I’ve seen plenty of smaller spots turned into little tranquil in the Middle East.

Gonna need some vertical storage/plants



It’s super sunny in the morning and shady in afternoon evening
Click to expand...

Looking forward to this :)
In such a small space you can do a lot with a little :)
 
For all my garden being a lot bigger than that space, I'm somewhat squeezed at the moment when I actually try to enjoy it ...
I don't want to be just "sitting on an allotment" ... I still want to try a bench / day bed / kitchen area /camping platform on the left where my chair is ..
I used to have one on the opposite side - where the hydro is - shaded by my greenhouse and vast amounts of creepers...

seatingarea.png
 
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bellaozzydog said:
Just turning my eye to my cluttered up back yard
Want to turn it into a pleasantly green smoking and contemplation area

I’ve seen plenty of smaller spots turned into little tranquil in the Middle East.

Gonna need some vertical storage/plants



It’s super sunny in the morning and shady in afternoon evening
Click to expand...


I don't know if you were looking for suggestions, but you're going to get some anyway...

Bamboos in pots (give hight/structure/color all year round), tree ferns, banana plant.

Keep us updated please!
 
So I've decided.
I'm going to make a bench that's a quasi-deck.
I will make it deep enough to comfortably take my tent - and higher than the usual bench - to help my knees - and also so it will act reasonably well for food prep ...

If it sticks out enough to be annoying I will make it in two halves so one can be stowed or moved to 90 degrees - though these will be very heavy being made out of 3 inch fenceposts ...

I may treat myself to a camping tarp and use paracord to suspend it - for when I'm not using my tent ...

So not quite a gazebo ...
 
So I hoiked a binbag up on the fence with balls and frisbee in.
I get back from the park to see the ball had come over again and had broken a small sunflower.
Until this morning my brand new banana plant was near there ...

It struck me in speaking to his 4 year old brother that maybe it's the slightly older boy I never see who has the problems - lots of tears and tantrums from next door ...

So as not to be Biblical ... 1 day, 7 days... 1 month until its return ?
 
I had my first bath for "a while" yesterday and am now kicking myself a bit ...
I was so focussed on recycling all my grey water out the back, I had somehow forgotten that the bath is a convenient nutrient tank significantly higher than the drippers in the front garden :facepalm:
Before recently plumbing in a new bidet and bum hose, I even used to run the front garden hose from an outdoor tap in there ...

There will be a certain cachet in being able to inform anyone interested that my irrigation system is fed from my bathing water.
Cue regular bathing and even a bit of laundry :eek:

Now to see if I can work out the profile of my bath so I can calibrate it and get the fertiliser dosing right...


warbath.png
 
Bathtub feed to front garden irrigation is installed and working :)
I was easily able to make a hole in the wall at the top of the porch and get the water flowing reliably.

I'm glad I bought ten of those taps as I'm out of straight couplers and leaving things in place allows experimentation.
I fitted a tap at ceiling height as a coupler, but the system seems to need the pump operating to deal with the squishy hose I'm using so I can't just keep topping up the bath and relying on it simply syphoning on demand ...

It's good to get all that soil back in the garden where it belongs !


newsump.jpgallthetaps.jpgceilingtap.jpg
 
I have a very small yard, bellaozzydog, with no real soil apart from what has been provided in raised beds and huge pots. Container gardens have their own joys and challenges and are nothing like standard gardens, based around ground soil. The very best advice I can offer, concerns the size of the containers (as big as possible) and the medium you use to fill them (which is emphatically not a standard multi-purpose potting compost). There are all sorts of considerations regarding bloom cycles, value for money, all year round plants, personal style, budgets and maintenance requirements but at this stage, knowing you are basically creating a green space from scratch, the most fundamental concerns are irrigation and the growing medium.

Essentially, an established plant can survive in the ground, with very little input from us. They can grow deep roots and access enough sunlight to photosynthesise. A container garden is truly an exercise in artifice where everything in it is dependent on us. Small containers need continual watering...so it is always best to have the largest possible containers (the largest of all, being the ground, of course).

Most important of all though, is the soil itself., You will need a loam based medium which will maintain structural integrity, accept water and nutrients and enable the free passage of nutrients to the root sphere. Use a John Innes recipe, usually John Innes 3, as this is actual topsoil. Won't go into the plant science here, but topsoil is a precious (and finite) resource, so please, please don't be tempted by cheapo potting mixes. Clover has a really good J.I.3 recipe, while J. Arthur Bowyers are one of the worst. Levingtons are OK or you may be able to access loam-based topsoil in tonne bags.
Finally, having decided on the growing mix, you can really make a difference to what starts off as fairly inert and sterile mixes, by adding a coupla trowelfuls of 'active' soil from under a tree in the local park or a neighbour's garden. This will be packed with microflife - the skein of fungi, bacteria, nematodes and such, which form an interconnected biosphere...and is essential for life to thrive. Starting with decent soil if the single most important thing to guarantee successful horticulture. Anything else is jam.
 
gentlegreen said:
In addition to the rats and foxes I now have several more pests.
The only birds I ever see at next door's feeders are bloody wood pigeons and they sit on my southern fence crapping on the tomatoes - hopefully the salad is far enough away to be safe...

I have quite a collection of balls and frisbies from next door's hyperactive little boys who are encouraged by their varsity rugby father - maybe they're actually trying to tell him something ?

Difficult to know how to play it because it was his fence project that made my garden happen...

I will probably do what I did in vain with previous neighbours and return them all in a sack ..

Last night I had a nightmare where I relived the day shortly after I arrived at secondary school where the games master instructed me in the playground that I was required to attend rugby practice (I seem to recall tears).
In my dream I was my adult self and I did the House MD thing where he's trying to scare off a waiting room full of outpatients ...
"I have never voluntarily been within feet of a ball ... you will regret this ...." I woke up as I was basically smashing the place up ...

View attachment 330565
Click to expand...
Please return the collection of balls. :)
 
TopCat said:
Please return the collection of balls. :)
Click to expand...

I returned them Tuesday, went off to the park - came back to the ball and a broken plant - nearly destroyed a specimen plant.

I was about to post in K&S - perhaps in the Aspie thread.
I didn't shout at the child - just expressed my sadness - vainly fishing for a grain of reason or empathy from a 4 year old boy.
I was planning to hold onto the ball for 7 days.

It all got rather fucked-up with the parents who believed the child that I shouted and swore at him - by all accounts the father had been bashing on my door while I was in the bath or wearing headphones so they had been stewing over it overnight ...

Made me realise why a key reason I never wanted children was in case they turned out to be boys.
Makes me realise why I am so particular about the people I interact with on a meaningful level.

Trouble is we rarely have the luxury of choosing our neighbours.
I can't wait till I finally move somewhere with none - well none within earshot at least...
 
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Wolveryeti said:
This is where you went wrong - 4 year olds don't do reason or empathy - they are like the second coming of Attila the Hun.
Click to expand...
What makes it more disturbing is my mother used my "autism" as a weapon last year when I finally demanded some truth - she was implying I was similarly problematic.
This little boy's older brother who I never see is quite likely majorly autistic judging by the continual tantrums - probably explains a lot ...
Since I explained the origin of my occasional ineptitude with people, I hope the irony dawns on them after bullying me into child mode ...
The curse of my nature is that I have a cinematographic memory of such events ...

Sorry should be in K&S, but I seem to live here mostly ...
 
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contadino said:
After 3 springs of failing to germinate a single monarda seed, I bought some plugs this year and they're romping away. The cambridge scarlet ones are what I've been trying for. They were the biggest plugs in the order by quite a stretch so I may have gotten lucky. I'll be taking cuttings for sure, just in case.
Click to expand...
So it turns out that I have managed to get a sizeable patch of monarda going. These aren't the red campion that I thought they were. They're putting on a really good display and I'll try to get a current photo tomorrow...DSCF0403.JPG
 
Hopefully the seed-raising craziness is slowing down now ... the garden is full.
I have stripped out the failed plants in the hydro and will take this next week to sterilise and improve the system while these salad plants are fattening up ...
I'm hopeful the thunbergia will perform better than the nasturtiums in my porch planter and actually cascade ...

lastshelfannotated.jpg
 
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