Gardening resources and tips, etc.
- herbidacious
- Posts: 4598
- Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:02 pm
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
Is it one of those Greenhouse Sensation ones, SG?
I have just gone down to the GH thinking this would be my last crop. It's not going to be. I also got the same again from the garden (although not many left there that I want to bother with, and they are not so sweet.)
Some aubergines too.
I have just gone down to the GH thinking this would be my last crop. It's not going to be. I also got the same again from the garden (although not many left there that I want to bother with, and they are not so sweet.)
Some aubergines too.
- Pepper Pig
- Posts: 4920
- Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 5:52 pm
- Location: North West London
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
Does anyone here plant up frost-resistant hanging baskets? I’m thinking of having a go this year. Any do’s and don’t please. I’d like them to be good at Christmas ideally.
- Stokey Sue
- Posts: 8629
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
- Location: Stoke Newington, London
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
I got the small violas last year, they lasted so well I had to discard a lot while still flowering, they were scented I believe
Might have a trip up to Crew's Hill, perhaps on Monday, violas, etc and GC lunch
Might have a trip up to Crew's Hill, perhaps on Monday, violas, etc and GC lunch
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
If they are for Christmas, PP, what about red Heucheras and variegated ivy? All the right colours and you can add a bit of tinsel or baubles if you fancy it.
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
Stokey Sue wrote:I got the small violas last year, they lasted so well I had to discard a lot while still flowering, they were scented I believe
Might have a trip up to Crew's Hill, perhaps on Monday, violas, etc and GC lunch
Sue, for a nanosecond I was scratching my head, wondering about why you had "small violas" - maybe because we watched a streamed Wigmore Hall concert the other night and one of the viola players had an instrument that was absolutely huge, the largest viola I've ever seen
- Pepper Pig
- Posts: 4920
- Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 5:52 pm
- Location: North West London
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
Wic wrote:If they are for Christmas, PP, what about red Heucheras and variegated ivy? All the right colours and you can add a bit of tinsel or baubles if you fancy it.
Yes. I think that’s more what I’m looking for. Thanks Wic.
- Stokey Sue
- Posts: 8629
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
- Location: Stoke Newington, London
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
KeenCook2 wrote:Sue, for a nanosecond I was scratching my head, wondering about why you had "small violas" - maybe because we watched a streamed Wigmore Hall concert the other night and one of the viola players had an instrument that was absolutely huge, the largest viola I've ever seen
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
If you can get hold of the hybrid ‘Panolas’ … bigger flowers than the violas, more floriferous than the winter pansies … they’ll flower their socks off all winter and then some … and a beautiful scent too.
http://www.thewalledgarden.co.uk/winter ... sy-panola/
Most garden centres will have them about now.
http://www.thewalledgarden.co.uk/winter ... sy-panola/
Most garden centres will have them about now.
- Pepper Pig
- Posts: 4920
- Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 5:52 pm
- Location: North West London
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
Ooh thanks Suffs. I'll look out for them.
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
Has anybody tried to 'force' rhubarb? As my new seed tray will have growing lights, I wondered if I can try, so I have potted a young crown into a large pot to get it established.
My seeds arrived today, including an all year round lettuce and a free pack of Pak choi, which can also be grown under glass in the winter.
My seeds arrived today, including an all year round lettuce and a free pack of Pak choi, which can also be grown under glass in the winter.
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
I’m no gardener SG, but I thought that the point of forcing rhubarb was to exclude light? I know that the famous rhubarb triangle sheds are only lit by candle light so that as little light as possible is in the growing shed. I remember my grandad forcing it, and he put what looked like n earthenware cloche type pot over the crown.
I’m sure others will have a more technical explanation.
BB
I’m sure others will have a more technical explanation.
BB
- herbidacious
- Posts: 4598
- Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:02 pm
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
What would you need the lights for?!? I suppose you might get early rhubarb if you grow it in the greenhouse, but I think it likes a lot of room. You'd need very big pots, which would take up a lot of room, of course. When I dug mine up some of the roots were 6 ft long (not deep, thankfully!)
I think Suffs forces rhubarb. I have done it too. I put a bin on top of it. It's a lovely colour. (Because no light = no photosynthesising.)
I think Suffs forces rhubarb. I have done it too. I put a bin on top of it. It's a lovely colour. (Because no light = no photosynthesising.)
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
I think i have been remembering the lights in the rhubarb triangle. Yes I don't really need them for that.
- Earthmaiden
- Posts: 5297
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:58 am
- Location: Wiltshire
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
I thought you just put a bucket over the rhubarb and kept it a bit warmer than freezing winter conditions.
- Stokey Sue
- Posts: 8629
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
- Location: Stoke Newington, London
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
Earthmaiden wrote:I thought you just put a bucket over the rhubarb and kept it a bit warmer than freezing winter conditions.
Yes my dad used to put a large plant pot or bucket full of wood wool over a crown in the ground and leave it to get on with it, but I suppose if he had put the crowns in a pot in the greenhouse or garage it would have been earlier
- Badger's Mate
- Posts: 1489
- Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 6:07 pm
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
I just put a terracotta forcing pot over a plant in the early Spring. If there's an empty compost dalek handy, some more plants can be forced too. They would of course be earlier if grown in a purpose-built shed, but earliness is only part of the appeal of forced rhubarb. I prefer it to unforced. Hereabouts, the crowns are only forced to obtain the first stalks, after which the plants are uncovered and allowed to recover while we try and empty the freezer of other soft fruit before the summer.
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
I do exactly the same Badger's Mate ... or I did when the forcing pot would fit over the rhubarb plant ... now it's way too big. I keep meaning to split it but haven't got a round tuit so far.
The old way of lifting a root and forcing it in a shed usually exhausted the crown and they were either replanted and not harvested again for several years in order to rebuild the crown, or discarded.
The old way of lifting a root and forcing it in a shed usually exhausted the crown and they were either replanted and not harvested again for several years in order to rebuild the crown, or discarded.
- Badger's Mate
- Posts: 1489
- Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 6:07 pm
Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.
That's why I only take the ealy stalks, it's a seasonal treat and doesn't exhaust the plants if they're subsequently left undisturbed and given an annual dose of 'goodness'. One or two of my crowns could do with dividing, come to think of it.
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