Anyone for Gardening?

trisher

Hi Ionic

Yes the lavender is really nice.

I always put it in with the towels and sheets when you open the bedroom door you get this lovely smell it last for ages.

You can dry it and keep it for doing that.

Trish xx

tkachev

The garden is looking lovely. Put up hanging basket with tomato plants in this year for a change. Have got lots of prickles growing through next door fence so plan to do a bit of chopping today.

Elizabeth

angel1

I have a big, mature garden, which has been loved and nurtured for forty five years. We practically lived in it during good summers - well, in 1976, we actually did! There isn`t a tree, shrub, bush, or flower that doesn`t hold a beautiful memory. I also have a special place - a pretty little arbour that gets the sun all day long - where I scattered my precious Frank`s ashes.

After Frank died, I managed it on my own for the first two years, then Arthur decided to come live with me. I now have a gardener once a week. He has quite an easy job, because we did all the hard work years ago.

I gave away the greenhouse, which I don`t regret most of the time, BUT Oh, how I miss home grown tomatoes. I can eat them til they come out of my ears. When my boys were born, everyone was surprised that they didn`t look like a tomato, I ate so many!

So now, my lovely knowledgeable friends, this is where you come in. What is the easiest way for me to have a constant supply of tomatoes. Should I buy a little glass frame thingy? You will need to take me through the whole process, from what to buy plantwise, to watering. The eating I can do, no probs!.......Much love.......Ange.

frogmorton

Hi Ange

You garden sounds absolutely wonderful.

You described it so well i can picture it

What precious memories it holds for you - amazing that because the garden hold more memories for me at hopuses I have lived in that rooms inside houses.

Unlike you i have moved many many times (my Dad was a hungarian immigrant in 1956 -so her had 'itchy feet' which I have inhertited), so i evny you your roots literal and metaphorical.

Ange

get yourself off to the garden centre - they sell small lean-to style polythene greehouses. One of those should do nicely - although at the mo it almost feels like you could grow them outside

Buy some plants already grown for you and a grow bag - shove them in and you will be back in tomato heaven.

thanks for that Ange

Love

Toni xx

barbara12

Hi everyone
Ange your garden sounds idyllic, you must sit there with all the happy memories...how lovely...like they say know one can take those away...
The garden is looking lovely...the wild flowers are showing through the soil...and the lavender...oh I cant wait to see it all flowering
I will just sit here for a min with a cup of tea...anyone want to join me...Oh bliss

frogmorton

Hi barbara

Brought a flask and some cake over from the cafe

Lovely.....

can you hera the birds....???

Toni xx

barbara12

frogmorton wrote:

Hi barbara

Brought a flask and some cake over from the cafe

Lovely.....

can you hera the birds....???

Toni xx

Hi Toni...oh thankyou for the tea and cake......shall we put the sunscreen on...and spend the day here..

frogmorton

Barbara

factor 50?? Or 30 - I got both

What a gorgeous day

Toni xx

mellman01

I hate slugs, feckers have been eating me seedlings!

trisher

I was watching QVC ......a shopping channel. Well on their gardening programme they were saying don't put down slug pellets as the birds eat these and die as the pellets have poison in them.

They showed some metal it may have been copper and they sell it it strips

If you put this around the bottom of a plant or around a container with plants the slugs will not go near them for some reason.

I don't know if this is any help to any of you.

I was reading back when I came across where I had mentioned about the large vegtables this man grew.

I can see now it could seem rude. I apologise if I upset anyone, it was not meant, I was doing a running comentary about the programe and did not realise it sounded rude. :oops:

Trish xx

tillytop

Hi all - what wonderful weather today! I have been too stiff and generally useless to do anything in the garden today - except sit (and give encouragement to G who was working very hard on my behalf!) He was potting up lavender plants - definitely going to dry some for inside as you have suggested. I love the smell. Hope your chopping went well Elizabeth - and good luck with the basket toms! So, Pixie and Fairies, we now have three members of the "gardening in your nightie club"! The others don't know what they are missing do they? Like the idea of your gold and silver baskets! Ange, your garden sounds absolutely beautiful - like Toni says you painted a wonderful picture so we can all imagine just what it is like. I grow my toms outside in big pots with varying degrees of success depending on the weather and how much I water and feed them. Need lots of both. Pots dry out v quickly which is a disadvantage. Sungold is my absoulte favourite with Gardeners' Delight a close second. Both sweet cherry toms. Not yet succumbed to blight but, if blight is in your area I agree that a plastic greenhouse would be a good option for you. Please let us know how you get on. Copper tape sounds like a good idea Trish, but the slugs in my garden just ignored it and ate everything anyway - but it might be worth a try Mellman! Ironic, might suggest to G that he sets the alarm early tomorrow to go slug hunting - think he might think that was a request too far tho Tilly x

barbara12

trisher wrote:

I was watching QVC ......a shopping channel. Well on their gardening programme they were saying don't put down slug pellets as the birds eat these and die as the pellets have poison in them.

They showed some metal it may have been copper and they sell it it strips

If you put this around the bottom of a plant or around a container with plants the slugs will not go near them for some reason.

I don't know if this is any help to any of you.

I was reading back when I came across where I had mentioned about the large vegtables this man grew.

I can see now it could seem rude. I apologise if I upset anyone, it was not meant, I was doing a running comentary about the programe and did not realise it sounded rude. :oops:

Trish xx

Trish you rude no way.... now about the slugs...I use Elnas method....beer in a can gets the little bugger everytime...and what a way to go

whalewatcher

Does anyone know how to catch a phantom snail?
He's been at my lupins, has a good meal & leaves nasty slimy trails all over them then disappears. This is on a first floor balcony so there's not many places he can go. I've looked under all the pots but no sign of him.
Perhaps he's abseiled down the building.
I've heard of catching slugs in beer - does it work for snails?

Whalewatcher

suncatcher

mellman01 wrote:

I hate slugs, feckers have been eating me seedlings!

I put some beer out once and caught loads a slugs. Now a days ive got chickens and they love eating them.
Sorry about your seedlings

Wonkylegs

whalewatcher wrote:

Does anyone know how to catch a phantom snail?
He's been at my lupins, has a good meal & leaves nasty slimy trails all over them then disappears. This is on a first floor balcony so there's not many places he can go. I've looked under all the pots but no sign of him.
Perhaps he's abseiled down the building.
I've heard of catching slugs in beer - does it work for snails?

Whalewatcher

if only you could attract a songthrush you would have no problems ...... we are lucky to have a songthrush who regularly visits our garden, and leaves a pile of empty snail shells to prove it!!

They apparently don't like copper, & shops sell copper tape you can put around pots to discourage them from climbing up them to the plant. Haven't tried it myself though.

Crushed eggshells, sharp grit etc on teh surface of the soil are also supposed to discourage them from travelling to the plants, but again I ahven't tried.

hope you find a way of stopping the sneaky so and so

hugs
WOnky xx

whalewatcher

Ooh, a songthrush, how lovely. They sound so wonderful as well as being useful.
I'll try some copper tape round the pots & see if that works. At least my basil is safe from marauding snails - its in a hanging basket. Doesn't look as pretty as petunias but tastes better in pasta!

Hugs

Whalewatcher

elnafinn

whalewatcher wrote:

Does anyone know how to catch a phantom snail?
He's been at my lupins, has a good meal & leaves nasty slimy trails all over them then disappears. This is on a first floor balcony so there's not many places he can go. I've looked under all the pots but no sign of him.
Perhaps he's abseiled down the building.
I've heard of catching slugs in beer - does it work for snails?

Whalewatcher

Hi Val

Yes, you can catch both snails and slugs in beer. When they fall in the jar or whatever, the beer destroys their mucus membrane. Yuk!
As snails roam around at night, can you not go out onto your balcony in the wee hours, find it and throw it over the balcony? :oops:

Elna x

trisher

What if he bounces up again Elna it might land on someones trampoline and bounce up again. :shock:

I would try the beer. Someone told me to put salt out it kills them but I did not like the frothing that they do, it sounded awful. At least if he is drunk he will die happy.

skezier

Hi Mel and Whalewatcher,

When I had my veg plots I spent hours and hours trying to stop slugs and snails.. and rabbits... from eating the seedlings and plants....

There are a few things that do work..... the beer traps and salt both do but I got hung up on are they humane.... they can't cross gravel or water and Wonky's song thrush (or a blackbird) is very effective but not easy to put on the pay roll.....

In the end I dug a trench, filled it with water and surrounded it with salt and then an outer surround of gravel and chicken wire but by then I had become a teasy obsessive person....... Still got some though but not as many.... and rabbits they either had pole vaults or owned boats!

Oh as to where a snail might be hiding it might depend on how big the plant is cus they lie to lurk under the leaves, they also like anywhere cool and damp but might be lurking somewhere else and only coming to you for dinner? Cris x

Oh Joanne and I could lend you a chicken.... in veg plots they did as much or ore damage than anything though......

Hi Tilly,

Just leaving you a (((( )))) Cris xx

valval

morning all tea in the garden what a great start to the day. i can see some one has added a hamock what a good idea can sleep out here when it gets to hot.

frogmorton

Ok Val

am here in my jimmys......

first time for everything - by the eck its warm already

gorgeous day eh?

Love

toni xx

frogmorton

Good morning

Got the sprinkler on the veggies plot (from the water butts (dont worry )

and that....it all the sound I can hear

How lovely - hey guys the lettuce seem to love this weather and the potatoes ahve gone MAD :shock:

Even the runner beans are running up their poles - going to tie them on soon with my froggy-bendy ties (pound shop )

hope everyone gets out in tehirs today and has a lovely restful day

Love

toni xx

angel1

Morning Toni,

I`m already out, with my coffee, and such a lovely feeling of well being. And Sunday is the day for long phone calls from "my boys". Happy, happy.

Sunshine makes SO much difference doesn`t it? Enjoy......Much love.....Ange.

frogmorton

Thanks Ange

I did

Back in now.....did i say tah the kids had a water fight yesterday with their friends?? In our back garden?

Well Charlie the eldest got water in her ear (still in there - Tried blowing hard in th other but not much came out ) and she googled it :roll:

in the end took her to minor injuries....of COURSE it is fine :roll:

She was offered a test for the CLAP!!!!! she's 15!! Target group I beleive (I am too old :shock: )

Odd day - so now I am back out recovering from that ordeal :roll:

Hope you had a great day OUT in the sun

Love

toni xx

tillytop

Hi Tilly,

Just leaving you a (((( )))) Cris xx[/quote]

Thanks Cris!
All this talk of slugs and snails! I now have them living happily underneath the "anti sparrow" defences G has made for me this weekend. Can't win! I hate the thought of being cruel to living creatures (although s and s's test my resolve to the limit). But my next door neighbour has a side alleyway adjoining ours and they have just abandoned it. Full of ivy, brambles and bindweed which find their way into our garden. So when I find slugs and snails I just (gently) lob them over the fence into this area when no-one is looking. Doesn't make much of an impact on the snail population but makes me feel better!
Sorry to hear about your unexpected hospital visit Toni, but glad all is well now.
Just going out to look for the least nibbled lettuce leaves to go with tea!
Love Tilly x