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Gardening resources and tips, etc.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:10 pm

Yes, that’s kind of where I was going - the one I’ve ever planted in the ground lasted years, when last seen it was about 8 years old, a big woody shrub that looked set for another 80

It’s meant to go woody, it’s the nature of the beast, if you have a big one you can keep trimming and use the regrow the in the kitchen

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Earthmaiden » Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:53 pm

Perhaps sage does prefer being planted into the ground. I had a beautiful specimen n the ground for years but it had to come up when alterations were made to the garden. I've got a lovely one in a pot at the moment but it's still quite young.

I posted a question a few posts back about coal dust in soil. I know it's terribly boring but if anyone knows if it would be ok to be used in a pot along with some bought compost I'd love to know.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:58 pm

I don't think sage likes multi-purpose compost ... if I was going to grow it in a container I'd use John Innes loam-based No 2 with the addition of some horticultural grit ... at a ratio of about 4:1.

No idea about the coal ... I'll ask over on the GW forum ...

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:11 pm

I have sage in both pots and in the ground. The one in the ground is a few years old and was MASSIVE, but it's not looking happy this year.... since I pruned it. The pruning may be a coincidence. It may just be getting crowded out by the mint. Not sure whether to replace it or leave it be. I could really do to re-do my herb patch. It's small and it was foolish to put mint and rosemary in it. I wish I had room for a bigger one in a better location... (It's on an east-facing wall on a slight slope.)

This all said, on balance sage is happier in the ground, I think.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:40 pm

Mint and sage need very different conditions ... if you grow them together one will be happy ... the other will not.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:47 pm

They've been fine in the same patch for at least 4 - 5? not sure years, Suffs. It's just this year things have changed. The sage was there first! Rosemary has more similar requirements to sage, I think, but mint is very robust. (And, it seems, virutally unkillable.) It may jstu be that the sage has come to the end of it's life.

I've not pruned it regularly.
Last edited by herbidacious on Mon Jul 19, 2021 11:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:55 pm

Sage is a plant of dry mediterranean hillsides with gritty poor soil ... it needs good drainage and sunshine. https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/g ... grow-sage/

Mint is a plant of damp waterside fringes ... it likes it's toes in rich damp soil and it's face in the sun. It's a hungry plant and needs mulching and feeding to do well. . https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/g ... grow-mint/

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:56 pm

EM ... we've had several helpful responses about your coal dust

https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discus ... -ok#latest

:D

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Earthmaiden » Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:27 pm

Suffs, you're a star! Thank you so much.

Of course I know that coal was once a living plant but judging by the smell, its properties are somewhat different all this time later! I won't be using it for edibles but judging by the replies it should be fine for general use. That's great.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon Jul 19, 2021 11:19 pm

Suffs wrote:Sage is a plant of dry mediterranean hillsides with gritty poor soil ... it needs good drainage and sunshine. https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/g ... grow-sage/

Mint is a plant of damp waterside fringes ... it likes it's toes in rich damp soil and it's face in the sun. It's a hungry plant and needs mulching and feeding to do well. . https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/g ... grow-mint/


Yes. The sage and rosemary are in an appropriate spot. It's in a dry area with pretty poor soil. Enough sun.

The mint is doing fine in the same spot. (I also have mint elsewhere in pots in more appropriate locations.)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:27 am

I find ( and James Wong does too according to his Tweets) that the best way of killing mint is to let it get pot bound, I split mine, usually annually

I think half the mint tea round here is made from bits cloned from my mint, it was a little supermarket pot once but it has great flavour

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:46 am

i have two types of mint (bowles and apple), a thriving rosemary bush, oregano, alpine strawberries, some chives (which are suffering from being crowded out by the mint) a rather large figwort that has seeded itself from some unknown place and a load of weeds (sorry, wild plants) that all love being in the same, 'unmade bed' that's about a foot wide and six feet long, along the side of a path. other than the chives (which i need to move) they all seem to be thriving.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:11 pm

Most of my herbs are in pots. I would rather they weren't.

I think some of my tomatoes might have blight. I am growing more blight resistant varieties than not but some of the possible blight is on a blight resistant one. I suppose the key were is 'resistant' there... Some of them are supposed to be very blight resistant.

My borlotti beans seem to have a mosaic virus.
I suspect the aubergines might too. (Presumably a different type.)
Sweet peas have mildew. Courgettes may or may not have but I have bought some organic certified stuff to spray on.

I am inclined to think this is mostly bad luck. Courgettes, for example, have been consistently watered (but not overwatered). One plant to each big pot and not touching one another. I have mildew resistant back up varieties which I really must pot on.

Meanwhile the dahlias are getting eaten to death - I really need to do something before some of them have no leaves left.

On the positive side, I am picking a large portion of French beans every day and a smaller one of mangetout. Every time I walk down the garden, I can graze on several types of raspberry, tomatoes, red, white and black currants, two types of gooseberry, jostaberries (the birds missed a few) blueberries and the odd pod of peas here and there (the peas have not done well...)
I may get a modest broad bean harvest. Sweetcorn are about to flower. I am picking courgetttes and cucumbers.
I have a sizeable aubergine and the promise of more to come unless they do have a virus and loads of chillies coming. More tomatoes are ripening and the tomatillos are getting there.
I have three flower beds filled with flowering plants that I have grown from seed.
I am sorry about the peas. I think if I could only grow two veg, it would be tomatoes and peas.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby PatsyMFagan » Thu Jul 22, 2021 10:37 am

Stokey Sue wrote:I find ( and James Wong does too according to his Tweets) that the best way of killing mint is to let it get pot bound, I split mine, usually annually



Thanks for solving the mystery of why the mint I buy never thrives and eventually dies off :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Busybee » Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:39 pm

For hire- one Vizsla pup, good at digging.

No flower bed too small, all given equal priority when it comes to digging and general gardening.

Also available for taking up lawns.

Price on application (it could be free, or my hooman may even pay you)

Love Iggy the Viz (Whizz)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Pepper Pig » Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:47 pm

:lol: :lol: :lol:

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Jul 24, 2021 6:27 pm

Thanks for the offer Izzy

I had a cat who used to remove newly transplanted flowers from their beds - not digging latrines, just some strange way of joining in my gardening

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby jeral » Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:09 pm

My friend's daughter used to pull carrots up to see if they were growing. Perfectly logical of course. I plant some seedlings in transparent bottles or glasses to see more easily if roots are forming as pulling them up might not be the best way to check on growth.

Perhaps the dog thinks you'd been burying bones? Cats on the other hand have to be considered to be mysteriously delightful.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Badger's Mate » Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:05 am

The jackdaws on the plot are very good at gardening. They check that you've securely planted broad beans, for example. I used to wonder how I kept losing plant labels from the ends of the rows but there must be some sort of 'pre-owned label market' in Jackdaw land. :D

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby jeral » Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:29 am

Reminds me of a news item on TV in the middle of the night about cockatoos in Australia (or similar somewhere, I was half asleep) that had learned to pull up with their beaks and flip over the lids on street refuse bins, the same as our tall square bins.

Not just one trained bird but many, with the theory that they had learned from one another so now they're all at it to see what food they can find. They must be incredibly, or scarily, strong as those lids aren't exactly light in weight.

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