The gardening thread

[TopCat]

I'm popping cherry tomatoes like sweeties, they're almost ripening by the hour.

Mine are getting there. I want them with the basil I have grown and some buffalo mozzarella

 

[campanula]

My house was built in the 60s with a tiny back yard and no topsoil whatsoever, so I have had to import all the soil for 2 raised beds and far too many containers. I don't have a water metre but nevertheless, it really isn't responsible, sustainable or even aesthetically desirable, to run a garden as a random collection of whatever takes my fancy. So my priorities are shifting towards a more water-wise way of gardening which doesn't compromise style and diversity (in other words, I can still have a shitload of plants).


Back when I was doing design and build, I was quite committed to the idea of dry gardening, having fallen under the influence of Beth Chatto, Heidi Gildermeister, Thomas Rainier and the likes, and built a number of gravel/scree gardens , along with using a palette of proven perennials. Here in East Anglia, we are classed as 'semi-arid , so 'dry' gardening, along with using a limited but cast-iron palette of proven perennials (Karl Foerster, Piet Oudolf et al) was a popular choice. However it was a lot easier to maintain an ethical and environmentally cohesive garden with a generous budget and decently prepared and designed (by me) blueprint. Mostly the generous budget though. Of course, gardening for myself, I have pretty much no budget and, it's fair to say, not a trace of cohesive style. I badly need to get on this and do some thinking and editing.

So I can see some obvious solutions.s It is simply not possible to miss the miserable kirengoshoma (A Japanese woodlander, FFS), drooping sadly in the background. Every single year, I look at it and think I really need to deal with this...but it is bloody massive and gets bigger every year. Japanese anemones also (although these were the second plants I EVER bought and have been in my garden for 25 years). Then, there are the hundreds of pots.

I don't expect the necessary changes are going to be easy, straightforward or uncontested. I am grieving already for the inevitable demise of the primulas, roses and dahlias. The garden year begins in October (afaiac), so I can start to implement the needed radical changes, by showing some discipline in the seed sowing arena, as well as setting free as many plants as possible, to explore the rhizosphere. Planting them at the allotment, in other words.

My tomatoes remain stubbornly green.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Actually glad I don't have an allotment in this because hauling up to water tomatoes twice a day would be torture.

 

[gentlegreen]

Yes. Just nipping out a couple of times during the day to water the garden took significant recovery time.

 

[gentlegreen]

The past few days kicked everything into a growth spurt and at least the next week looks like being pretty well ideal for steady flowering of all my south American plants - the lobelia cardinalis-es are about to start flowering and the Bishops of Llandaff won't be far behind...

I've dropped the silly and scary idea of netting the house up to the roof - but with the cobea scandens not actually needing a net and with three kinds of morning glory to fill the wall up to 3 metres, it's quite tempting to let them carry on to see how far they go - in terms of visual appeal it would be mostly a case of getting the garden noticed from a long way off ...

 

[Leafster]

Everything in my garden which isn't drought tolerant is withering up.

 

[gentlegreen]

Everything in my garden which isn't drought tolerant is withering up.

Most of my ornamentals are natives of tropical climes - and put on a massive growth spurt, but only with heavy watering.
The coming week is actually pretty well optimal for them.
I wish I'd made more of an effort with the runner beans - another South American plant ... and given them cans of water rather than just extra drip irrigation .. I had a lot of blossom drop.
It will be interesting to see how the far less well cosseted ones in the park community garden have fared as the volunteers seem mostly aged well over 70 ...

 

[Leafster]

Most of my ornamentals are natives of tropical climes - and put on a massive growth spurt, but only with heavy watering.
The coming week is actually pretty well optimal for them.
I wish I'd made more of an effort with the runner beans - another South American plant ... and given them cans of water rather than just extra drip irrigation .. I had a lot of blossom drop.
It will be interesting to see how the far less well cosseted ones in the park community garden have fared as the volunteers seem mostly aged well over 70 ...

When I was planning my garden I seriously tried to plant drought tolerant plants but, well, I 'tried'!

According to my rain gauge we've had 0.4mm of rain in July after 21.3mm in June so that's all most of the plants have had apart from the veggies.

 

[Numbers]

One of my tomatoe plants has Blossom end rot

 

[gentlegreen]

One of my tomatoe plants has Blossom end rot

water stress / calcium deficiency - not a disease.
What are you feeding them on ?

Blossom end rot / RHS Gardening

Dark blotches on the ends of aubergine, tomato and pepper are alarming, but do not mean the end of the crop. This is called blossom end rot and is caused by lack of calcium in the fruits. By making minor adjustments in watering you will usually be able to protect subsequent fruits from blossom...

www.rhs.org.uk

 

[Idaho]

One of my tomatoe plants has Blossom end rot

I've had that a lot over the years. Usually from insufficient watering. Just cut the flowering stalk and let the plant focus on the new growth

 

[gentlegreen]

My first slightly physical job in the garden for a while ...
I extended the fenceposts on the tomato fence to bring them level with the tapered-edge section and ran three lengths of hop cord so I can support the tomatoes and pinch them out at six feet and hopefully start getting some ripe tomatoes.
It's time to switch from balanced feed to high potash...
Hopefully the nasturtiums, morning glories and next door's hop will be able to make use of it without strangling the tomatoes...

On impulse I bought 100 white LED solar string in Aldi this morning - to get a feel for what I might do.
I plan to deploy a fair bit of lighting out there over the next weeks (I have a couple of under-used semi-waterproof RGB strips)... plus there's the front garden ...

 

[two sheds]

After several attempts I have a successful tree mallow (actually two)






And the ox-eye daisies are doing very well

 

[Idaho]

Got a bit of end spot myself. I just take out the affected fruit and carry on.

 

[Numbers]

I've had that a lot over the years. Usually from insufficient watering. Just cut the flowering stalk and let the plant focus on the new growth

Sadly all the flowering stalks had it so it's gone
It was the Shirley F1 variety.

 

[gentlegreen]

Sadly all the flowering stalks had it so it's gone
It was the Shirley F1 variety.

View attachment 333738

It's not infectious...
Pickled green tomatoes are very nice.

 

[Numbers]

They're in the bin.

Thankfully we have 2 other types of plants which are producing good stuff.

 

[gentlegreen]

They're in the bin.

Thankfully we have 2 other types of plants which are producing good stuff.

Why the panic response ? - it isn't blight or TMV .

 

[Numbers]

I would prefer to absorb the loss.

 

[gentlegreen]

I would prefer to absorb the loss.

well at least pickle them
I eat pickled green toms every day during the winter

 

[gentlegreen]

Mine are a way off ripening - even just now after spending half a day tying them up, I found several suckers up to 3 feet long - and there are suckers on the ends of fruit bunches ...
Gardener's delight is a VERY indeterminate and random old variety ...
I was probably feeding everything a little too much nitrogen - 20:20:20 - I've now switched to 15:15:30 - hopefully the magnesium will be more available now - or I'll have to buy epsom salts...

 

[Numbers]

I'm funny with anything not quite right mate, if one of the fruit on the stalk has something wrong, potentially all the fruit has. I'd rather avoid.

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm funny with anything not quite right mate, if one of the fruit on the stalk has something wrong, potentially all the fruit has. I'd rather avoid.

It's physiological - it's a "disease" only in the sense that it makes imperfect fruit.

 

[Numbers]

It's physiological - it's a "disease" only in the sense that it makes imperfect fruit.

I really appreciate your posts Mr Green and I’ll remember it in future. It’s the first time in 18 years of growing tomatoes it’s happened - always learning on Urbs.

 

[contadino]

Sadly all the flowering stalks had it so it's gone
It was the Shirley F1 variety.

View attachment 333738

That's a shame. Expensive seeds, are those Shirley.

I've had one of my Big Daddy with it but the rest of them on the plant are fine.

I clipped an old duvet cover on the roof of my greenhouse whilst it was warm and everything's looking fine now. Wrt my outdoor toms, each weekend I give them a bit of a tidy up and remove leaves that aren't useful, but before the warm weather I sort of held back so the fruit had some shade. Again, it seems to have worked.

 

[two sheds]

Well after posting a picture of a badger at my bird feeders the other day there's a big fuck-off hole down the bottom of the garden. I read that they dig underground for bulbs so I just hope he's not had my fritillaries

 

[cesare]

Well after posting a picture of a badger at my bird feeders the other day there's a big fuck-off hole down the bottom of the garden. I read that they dig underground for bulbs so I just hope he's not had my fritillaries

You got yourself a new Badger sett. It was lovely looking at your webcam photo of badger. Looks like he's there to stay, how will puppy react?

 

[gentlegreen]

I just had words with people on a local fox group feeding a whole family of the bastards.
I'm torn - perhaps the more pet food they waste on these animals, the less inclined they will be to come and dig for things in my garden ...

 

[two sheds]

You got yourself a new Badger sett. It was lovely looking at your webcam photo of badger. Looks like he's there to stay, how will puppy react?

Not sure it's big enough for a sett, I'll take a torch and look inside. I won't be letting Frankie off the lead at night but if it is a sett I won't let him off in the garden at all - bit of a waste of the fence i've been woodtreating for the last month to stop him getting into the road if so

 

[cesare]

Not sure it's big enough for a sett, I'll take a torch and look inside. I won't be letting Frankie off the lead at night but if it is a sett I won't let him off in the garden at all - bit of a waste of the fence i've been woodtreating for the last month to stop him getting into the road if so

A bit of judicious Frankie walking along the perimeter might deter them?