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Gardening resources and tips, etc.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:14 pm

I need a mini beer crate...

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Pampy » Thu Nov 25, 2021 12:16 am

herbidacious wrote:Ha yes. I wonder how many people MD has helping him.

I work damned hard in spring and early summer. A part time job's worth some weeks. It will be hard to do quite as much if I have to do 3 days a week in the office next year. It's amazing how much you can get done after work if you can finish work and be home at 4 (and haven't had to do tiring commutes).

I think I could manage it. I also think I asked for a half plot. I'd continue to grow things that need watering every day at home, I think. Anyway not much point in thiking about the detail when I am not 52...

I used loo rolls the year before last but they smelt terrible, went very mouldy and sprouted mini mushrooms. None of this mattered (and clearly I was overwatering) but it put me off. One does wonder if chemicals go into loo rolls too. If my dad were still around (and fit enough) he'd be making me a bit clunky wooden frame to put grow tubes in :)

If you imagine where loo rolls have been, it's no wonder they smelt terrible and went mouldy! :D :D Local schools here don't allow them to be taken to school for arts and crafts for that very reason.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Thu Nov 25, 2021 12:36 am

that may be the reason that they aren't acceptable in schools but the reason they smell and go mouldy when used for planting is that when wet, the loosely pressed, organic material breaks down quickly and decays.
loo rolls aren't made to last so don't have 'preservatives' in them.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:54 pm

I am still disinclined to repeat that experiment either way!

Now if I had an allotment I could grow asapargus... :)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Lusciouslush » Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:44 pm

Suffs wrote:Put a couple of squirts of washing up liquid /Ecover/soft soap in a bowl of lukewarm water.

Pick up the pot and spread your fingersover the top of the pot between the stems and turn upside down and swoosh it around in the water a bit. Turn upright and leave to drain. That'll sort 'em. It may need repeating throughout the winter but it won't harm the basil. 8-)


Worked a treat.........!! :clap
all white crawlies gone & so simple to do - thanks again Suffs! Basil is very grateful to you. :D

Do you spray your garden herbs with the same solution ? Mine get greenfly - especially the fennel which is plastered much to the joy of the bluetits who are always routing about in it.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:44 pm

Lusciouslush wrote:Do you spray your garden herbs with the same solution ?


i use the ecover cure in the garden, too - good for blackfly on broad beans and other aphid.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Fri Nov 26, 2021 3:28 pm

Glad to hear the whitefly have met their nemesis Luscious :thumbsup

We rarely have a problem with aphids in the garden ... the bluetit families, hoverflies (they breed in the shallows of our wildlife pond) ladybirds and lacewings seem to deal with them before they become a nuisance.

If I notice numbers building up before the bluetits are feeding youngsters I just brush most of them off with my fingers.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Wed Dec 08, 2021 12:46 pm

My broad beans are coming up at last! Hurray! (Not all of them though...)

I need to resow some of my sweet peas. I also need to venture down the garden to check on the greenhouse and to see if we have a small lake down there :?

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Sat Jan 01, 2022 4:56 pm

I have been out to water and check the overwintering plants and cuttings in the heated propagators. On the whole, we have a fine collection of geraniums and, so far, the chillies are looking OK.
The fuchsia is looking very sorry for itself, but I'm hoping that, when I prune and start watering it, it will spring into life. I think I lost the cuttings, though.
I have taken my eye off the ball the last few weeks (I have got a note, matron!) but even hub came out there with me today!
Now settling down with the chiltern seed catalogue.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:07 pm

Sloe-Gin wrote:Now settling down with the chiltern seed catalogue.

prepare to spend a fortune!
i have planted the babbington leek bulbules this afternoon.
next on the list will be getting some decent seed compost, finding a space for and setting up the propagator, and sowing the first lot of seeds.
one of the packets i'm looking forward to sowing is the nine star perpetual cauliflower/broccoli. i do like perpetual veg although we can't keep up with the perpetual kale - it's a good job it looks good as it's rather rampant!
hopefully my seed potatoes will arrive soon.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Sat Jan 01, 2022 7:20 pm

I'm hovering over the 'pay now' button. Good job I checked my seed tubs, as I'd forgotten I'd bought heritage tomatoes, chillies, some herbs and lettuce earlier this year... correction, last year.
I am going to try tomatillo.
However, as one cannot have enough chillies (and I can always pass some on the the rest of the village, if I have) I've bought some more.
Being brave enough to buy annuals, as we need the garden tickety boo, if we put the house up for sale.
Right, where's that pay now, button?

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:05 am

I did a Sarah Raven order yesterday. I had £10 off, but of course I spent more than that.

I have a lot of seed left over from last year which ought still to be viable, so I am trying to resist buying too much, but it would be nice to grow something different. I really ought to do a seed audit.
I already have modest quantities of various seedlings in the greenhouse sown a few months ago - calendula, sweetpeas, broad beans, peas, centurea montana, californian poppies, delphiniums, foxgloves, aquilegias... not sure if they are all still alive. Some of the broad beans have suffered from frost burn even in the greenhouse. As we are going down to -2 potentially tomorrow, apparently, I have made fleece and bubble wrap tends for everything in there. I hope they help.

I had a Babbington's leek or two, but I lost them. (As in, they were in pots and went AWOL.) I really would like to grow some but can't find a source.

I am not going to grow chillies this year. I have kilos of them dried or in the freezer and not used any yet. I am, though, half-heartedly overwintering some of last year's plants in the lean to. Not sure whether to grow aubergines from seed or not. I had a wonderful harvest from a purchased grafted plant but my own plants even though sown in February, didn't fruit until very late. It's fun to grow unusual varieties but...

I am hoping to have time to do some gardening tomorrow. I found some bulbs I forgot about. It's supposed to be very cold but sunny tomorrow. It will do me good. I want to sow some more sweet peas but it's too cold without some heat I think, unless I start them off in my bedroom which I am not keen to do what with the mouse situation. Maybe in a propagator with the lid off in the lean to?


Sorry I felt the need to be a gardening bore there...

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:27 am

herbidacious wrote:I had a Babbington's leek or two, but I lost them. (As in, they were in pots and went AWOL.) I really would like to grow some but can't find a source.


this is where mine came from. otherwise, when (if) mine produce some pips - although possibly not this year - i'll send you some, if you want.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:22 pm

Herbi … there’s a new 2022 Seed Swap thread on GW (you don’t have to have anything to swap) so if you fancy growing something different have a look on there … when I get home I’ll have to sort through my stash and put a list up … I’ll never grow all that I’ve got …

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Wed Jan 05, 2022 6:11 pm

Thanks, Suffs. Will have a look.

I have a great deal of seed. Some of it is probably out of date though.

I sowed 5 more types of sweet pea at lunch time, and realized that some I ordered early December never arrived. And indeed the same thing happened from the same company last year. Probably stuck in Croydon, this year at least.
I also found the missing tulip bulbs... which I had semi-replaced. I have a crazy number now. I potted up some of these but probabl still have another 4 pots' worth to do. (And some to put in the ground.) Tomorrow...
And finally I planted some honesty, wallflowers and a few foxgloves. Still a few to do.

Apparently, I ordered three potato grow pots on Christmas Eve, which just arrived. They are quite small... but it says to put 4 potatoes in each.

Any recommendations? I could grow three types. ( I can always offer excess ones to neighbours with allotments.)

In the past have tried to grow them in sacks down the bottom of the garden, but they always get slugged to death. As these are small, I could keep them closer to the house and will thus be less likely forget about them/fail to attend to them and/or I could put them on a metal chair bench.
They really are rather small though :?

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Wed Jan 05, 2022 7:58 pm

They’d probably be fine to grow First Earlies in … you’ll harvest them before the plants get huge.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Wed Jan 05, 2022 7:59 pm

Thanks. Will do some research.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon Jan 10, 2022 12:44 pm

I ordered some potatoes to arrive in March.

I have lots of bulbs coming up. Hopefully narcissi. I realize I forgot to plant any crocusses. Ah well. I don't seem to have any snowdrops coming up in the garden this year either.
My Italian anemone is still flowering, having surrived sub zero temperatures.
This was it a week ago.

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51811971511_fb39446838_c.jpg (115.7 KiB) Viewed 3110 times

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Mon Jan 10, 2022 12:56 pm

That's lovely Herbi ... anemones were Ma's favourite flower ... she wanted them for her wedding bouquet but because of rationing there was no heating for greenhouses and the weather was too cold for them that year in March ('47) ... every year afterwards Pa gave her a bunch of anemones for their anniversary ... after he died I did it for him as I'd promised I would.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Pampy » Mon Jan 10, 2022 9:09 pm

That's a beautiful flower, Herbi. I love anemones.

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