Anyone for Gardening?

dreamdaisy

I don't know about the rest of you but the outdoor housework is ongoing (and, if I'm honest, becoming rather tedious). I'm deadheading every alternate day, I have had to weedkill the drive, I must buy a lawnmower that I can use because my chap is nowhere near as reliable as he was (thanks to his taking on too much work) and the variety of pollens and low-pressure moulds are giving me wonderful trouble with the hayfever and asthma: I LOATHE summer.

The other day, however, I had an unpleasant first. I was sitting watching telly when a rapid movement caught my eye. I looked to see a large, fat brown rat running along the ledge half way up the wall that backs onto our garden. Neighbours not too far away keep chickens (remember the vomiting fox?) and now it would appear that rattus rattus has moved in. Behind the wall are around ten garages most of which are empty, so maybe Mr Rat had lost his bearings in trying to return home - a faulty rat-nav? I stopped feeding the birds a little while ago (there must be enough food for them at the moment) but I enjoyed seeing the field mice feed: I do not want to encourage rats though so maybe I won't resume. DD

applerose

Sorry you're having a rough time in the garden DD. I love working in my garden, deadheading, weeding, anything. I do have hayfever but fortunately only sneezing while in the garden. Hope the rat has fixed his rat-nav and you haven't seen him again. Good idea to stop feeding the birds. I have too. I usually give them some while they are feeding their young but I found my blackbird's only baby legs up at my front door the other day and white and grey feathers all over the back garden.

I've got lots of rhubarb growing now. Had 2 rhubarb crumbles so far. Eaten about a dozen strawberries but quite a few more are ready. There are enough red gooseberries for a pie. Apples are coming along nicely, cherries almost ready. Rasps and blackberries will be a while yet.

Yellow loosetrife is making an attempt to take over the garden along with the yellow irises which have about finished flowering. Roses are looking terrible. Had an outbreak of black stop so had to remove a lot of leaves.

Froglets are about somewhere but haven't seen them for a few days. Lots of various sized bumble bees around but not many honey bees and only a couple of butterflies.

Airwave!

I am still clearing the rubbish created when I started trimming all the hedge and shrubs, why oh why do I feel better for five minutes and get enthusiastic about gardening again? It always ends the same, doing too much and regretting it!

Big party coming up so head down and fill the trailer up ready for the dump. I agree DD its hard finding people to help even if you pay them.

No plums this year, apples and pears yes but lots of small ones on the ground. Caterpillas on the cabbages, I gave them a spray of some anti wiggley stuff and then OH says, "did you spray underneath?".........I'm just off to the cabbage patch!

Right, no use moaning, head down and do!

lindamay

Slugs are our big problem this year. Horrible big yellowy ones! My husband goes out on "slug patrol" almost every morning, especially after rain. We have kept our local Homebase going with the purchase of pellets and have shares in the salt companies! But they still appear and his plants disappear.

daffy2

apples and pears yes but lots of small ones on the ground.

That's the June drop and part of the tree's natural processes - set as many fruit as possible against future disasters and then later shed surplus to improve outcomes for the remainder. Many modern fruit varieties still carry too many fruit and benefit from further thinning by the gardener, and in fact if not done you may end up with a tree that only fruits well in alternate years. Victoria plum is prone to setting too many fruit, risking branches breaking.Seems counter-intuitive, but believe me it works. In the case of gooseberries it also works well for the kitchen - successive thinnings of small under-ripe fruit can be cooked leaving the rest to get bigger and riper with the extra space around them and less competition for water and nutrients. Particularly worth doing with a red dessert variety such as 'Pax' which will end up as a sweet juicy deeply coloured eat off the bush treat(assuming the birds don't find them), and a real revelation for those not used to thinking of eating goosegogs raw.

Airwave!

Sounds good stuff Daffy but there really are no plums this year. After cutting the overhanging fir trees we will cut the fruit trees back next spring and continue with clearing the fir tree debris.

I can hear the pitter patter of rain so I get let off filling the other half of the trailer, phew!

:cheers:

daffy2

no plums this year

The blossom is vulnerable to frost as it's early so that may have been what happened. There are wild plums in many of the hedges round me which all flower and ripen at slightly different times so there are always some at least each year.Tends to be the less well flavoured(usually yellow or light scarlet) ones that survive, but no matter they are still free for the gathering and are good cooked if not raw. There are one or two very dark red fruiting trees(including one in the car park at work - convenient!) which are heaven to eat off the tree, having first checked for wapsies who also like them - in fact that's the best indicator that they are ready to eat.

tkachev

Just a quick post. My pink roses have done brilliantly this year and look beautiful. In fact everything is coming up roses.

Elizabeth

applerose

My roses all, apart from the rambling rose, had black spot. I've had to take off all the leaves but fortunately new ones are sprouting and the flowers are starting to open up. Not many flowers though. I'm glad yours are doing well Elizabeth.

frogmorton

How lovely to see this thread 'up' again

I don't have much gardening news having just moved house other than the lawn at the back is HUGE and the village is entered in the 'best kept village' competition :?

I have located one or two neglected roses, (don't think they'll flower for me this year Elizabeth ), and a seriously neglected pond.

The pond isn't very pretty at all...being of a sort of square 'concretey' construction.



I have already started cornering applerose for advice and clearing the area around it.

Any help/advice/experience gratefully received!!

I also found a lovely old bird bath which we have placed in the front garden, safer from a certain miss Daisycat!!

love

Toni xx

daffy2

Hi Toni. Your water feature(!) isn't much cop at the moment but it could be made so I suspect without too much effort, so long as it's still watertight and the surrounding hard landscaping is sound. Do you need the covers over the water? If not, removing them would make a huge difference. If you do need them look into alternatives, not least because I suspect what is there at present might not prevent a child related accident. It looks as if the water lilies are overgrown - they poke their leaves above the water when that happens to try and get more light and elbow room. Planting in the ground around the edges of the pond would soften the 'square concreteness' of it and be beneficial for frogs etc. Containers with something fragrant and/or colourful on the side by the steps could make for a pleasant 'perching' spot(for you and pusscat) and again distract from the straight edge. Waterlilies like calm water so in a small space fountains aren't a good idea, but if you replaced the lilies with different plants you could have a solar powered feature to provide interest from sound and movement.

Airwave!

Trumpets tooting, drums rolling, serious annoucement! We have grown our first poppies! Da dahhhhhhhhhh. Well, over the last fifteen years, spending money and sowing many thousands of seeds, saving other peoples seeds and sowing them, four have decided that our veg plot is the place for them.

I suppose they will now take over the veg plot?

:cheers:

daffy2

I suppose they will now take over the veg plot?

Possibly yes, possibly no! If they set seed and are able to germinate and you don't weed them out, then they'll multiply. But...nature often has other ideas, and the fact you would like to see more of them might scotch that.
I'm always intrigued by the way that opium poppies come up different each year for no apparent reason, but not mixed each year as might be expected. One year most will be pale lavender single or semi-double, the next year they might mostly be fully double pink, another year mostly red single fringed.At work, where I also volunteer on the garden team, it can make for some interesting colour combinations in the border with the perennial flowers.

frogmorton

I Love poppies too Daffy and Airwave, (though probably not in my veggie patch!!!), I grew these a few years ago



I expect their colours are made up of generations of mixed genes??? or maybe they are hyper-sensitive to fluctuations in the environment??

Thank you so much for the help with the pond. I have started tidying already....I have no young kids, but do have one small cat so not sure what I would cover it with.....??? Will look into alternatives.

The previous neighbour had a small Grandson so probably botched the cover as an emergency one and never removed it.

Planting around the edges is a great idea to make it less square It's definitely watertight still.

Watch this space

Toni xxx

daffy2

Toni I would be inclined not to bother with a cover in that case. Cats can swim, and there might be more risk from getting trapped or entangled(claws and paws). Ponds are often attractive as sources of drinking water so better to allow unfettered access, and also reduces worry of hapless hedgehogs getting caught - check there's somewhere to clamber out, a planted pot, or bricks works well so long as stable. In my two previous gardens neighbours' cats often came to drink or terrorise the birds and tadpoles at my ponds. One overbalanced one day but scrambled out -luckily only causing some pots to fall over rather than puncturing the liner in its hurry to escape the embarrassment! Didn't put it off(drat)

tkachev

I love poppies. I had one and it got mowed down by the OH. He's now had yet another official warning after chopping the head off my first blooming rose.

Elizabeth

Airwave!

Toni,
You could always put earth round the pond, or shale etc etc then a few pots would break up the outline.

Talking of pots, we went to the gareen centre yesterday and brought half a dozen at 50% off, filled them with plants ready for our party, won't get much more done to garden and I've hurt my back, so no go.

Might even go back and get one or two more when oh isn't looking?

applerose

Toni, don't know if I'm the right person to ask about ponds. Mine was there when I moved in and all I've done is plant things round it. I did put in some pond plants but they eventually dies off and the irises have taken over. The pond itself is quite full of them despite having removed most of them last year. As long as I keep topping up the water, things seem to manage quite well. I don't have any fish although the frogs seem quite happy there and there are things swimming in there. Insectly type things I guess. Lots of weed but the water itself is very clear. I'll be cleaning it out soon as the froggies seem to have left home now. I like the idea of planting round the edges of yours to soften it.

Elizabeth, I think your OH should be banned from the garden.

Airwave, congratulations on your poppies. I hadn't been able to grow them for years but they come up every year now. always in a different place.

I picked 2 big bowlfuls of strawberries the other day. Took one round for my sister and froze most of the other one. Had one gooseberry crumble and plenty more ready to pick. Rhubarb is going crazy, cherries are ready and rasps are starting to ripen.

Irises and yellow loosetrife both trying to take over as is the clematis (very small violet flowers).

Airwave!

I'd like to plant some bamboo, its quite exoensive to buy, I keep looking out for a bargain. Anyone else grown some?

daffy2

Airwave! wrote:

I'd like to plant some bamboo, its quite exoensive to buy, I keep looking out for a bargain. Anyone else grown some?

This is one of those occasions where it might be worth looking at a specialist bamboo grower online(not just an online plant buying site!). Some bamboos can be thugs in the garden and are better in containers, others are well behaved. You could then make a list of ones to look out for(names are a bit of a mouthful as most are latin, but that also means more chance of getting what you expect), perhaps see if there's a specialist nursery within reach of you, or consider buying online. Also check for end of season bargains, but again be aware that labelling may not be as accurate as you might like!
BTW something I read a little while ago which might be of use was that bamboos grown in containers need to have soil based(ie John Innes 2 or 3) compost rather than ordinary multi-purpose - something to do with needing to have silica for good growth apparently. It certainly seemed to make a difference for a little bamboo I had which was struggling.

Airwave!

Thanks Daffy, I'll have look for a few 'thugs'!!!!. We have a big area to fill.

Oh used to have a bamboo thicket in her parents garden and although they've been gone many a year, we have only just run out of bamboo sticks (good place for gc games!).


:cheers:

daffy2

In that case Airwave have a look at some of the 'giant' grasses as well - things like Miscanthus and Arundo

frogmorton

Tia and I hauled the 'cover' off the pond yesterday.

WE will venture in with some gloves later to see what's doing :shock:

pot80

I would advise going carefully with bamboos as they can easily get out of hand. I love grasses and grew some bamboos to block out next door. They gradually got out of hand so I decided to get rid of them, easier said than done. It was hard work grubbing all the roots out and when I thought they had gone shoots started coming up all over the place. I found that Roundup/Roundup gel worked wonders on the re-growth. We have nearly cleared all traces from our garden, apart from all the bamboo canes, but they are happily surviving next door ! I have just planted a grass called Leymus arenarius 'Blue Dune'. There is a warning that it can creep fairly aggressively so give thought to keeping it a pot only.I need to cover a fairly large area so will let it have its head. The rest of my grasses are all smaller and containable.

Airwave!

We have just got rid of some tall grasses and a yuka plant, the grass kept popping up all over the place, the yuka took many years to go, I burnt it, poisoned it, chopped it down, dug it up and still it was there and in the end it relented as for the tall elephant type grass............

So, no more grasses! Now, lots of bamboo means no grass cutting?!!


:cheers: