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Gardening resources and tips, etc.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Pampy » Thu May 19, 2022 10:31 pm

What a lovely chap! Obviously got his priorities right - you work, he lounges on a garden chair!

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Thu May 19, 2022 11:06 pm

He has had a very nice day, I think.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Sat May 21, 2022 7:46 pm

Pampy wrote:What a lovely chap! Obviously got his priorities right - you work, he lounges on a garden chair!


Hmmm. know a few fellas that like to do that!

As per the main board, I spent 2 hours digging weeds out of the rose bed. Feeling so pleased that I still can. Persistent buttercups had crept in. I hope to sleep tonight and not feel stiff in the morning! :crossed
Dug a hole and planted a rhubarb that was in a pot, bartered a chilli for bean seedlings (to be grown in a potato sack) and checked my first sack of Swift first earlies: ready to harvest.
I have set tomatoes on the Bloody butchers, need to buy more tomorite (or equivalent).
Hub's newly acquired interest in wild flower gardening is... err... blooming and we should have a fine display of poppies and cornflowers.
Chillies have first flowers, 2 cucumbers out of 3 growing well; one looks very poorly. All sown identical time, compost, etc. Odd.

Tomatillos. I'm in the dark. They look OK

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Sat May 21, 2022 8:57 pm

Some of my tomato plants have tomatoes, but are still in smallish pots. It's not like it doesn't happen every year though...

Today was a wash out in terms of gardening. I just didn't have the energy. All I have done is pot on some tithonia and watered things. I hope the sunshine gives me some tomorrow as I have an overwhelming amount to do - as many tomatoes potted on as I can (will involve disinfecting some pots first. Need to look for the Jayes fluid. Can I use anything else? It's because of blight last year.) plant potatoes :? move dahlias out of greenhouse to make room for tomatoes, plant peas, plant some of the flowering plants (need to buy a new kneeling mat first), prepare beds for celery and PSB and plant both plus pathetic beetroot I few from seed, plant some more sweet peas maybe (or not bother). The few I experimentally put in the raised veg bed are doing very well and about to flower. I should do this next year too. Maybe more? But at the expense of veg...
Pot on tomatillos (they are in 3 inch pots and flowering). Pot up or plant out more morning glory.
These are the urgent things. I also need to sort through pots of herbs to see which are still viable, take spent bulbs out of pots and hang up to dry. Maybe sow some sunflowers direct. Pot on peppers and aubergines.
Ditto a few other things.


Meanwhile my broad beans also being eaten by slugs and snails and I have blackfly.
Peas are pathetic.
Half my French beans didn't come up, some were eaten, the rest so so (reminds me I had better go and check on them) - I have decided to buy some. Next door has put his perfect beans in in perfect rows with slug deterring collars.

I suppose I should be kinder to myself. I was foolish to set myself up with so much work - I always do - but I could not have foreseen the events of the last few months - mother's illness, Covid, her death etc.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Wic » Sun May 22, 2022 11:28 am

This year, having seen pictures of them, I’ve grown some Petunia Tidal Wave, Red Velour from seed. They have grown well and are just coming into flower. The colour is incredible, you could drown in it! However, it’s years and years since I’ve had any petunias, so can anyone tell me whether I should pinch the ends out? They look a bit leggy as of now.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Sun May 22, 2022 9:13 pm

That sounds nice. Could you post a photo, Wic?

I managed to overwinter some hybrids I bought last year from T&M. They are sort of flame coloured. Orangey red. I've not grown petunias before (and can't even say the word to myself without thinking of Douglas Adams) but love these so so glad they survived. I think most of my dahlias survived too. Some were wrapped up in bubble wrap and put in the greenhouse. The rest were hung up in string bags in the lean to, and I did intended to pack them up as you are supposed to in dry soil etc. but never got round to it. Most are in pots and sprouting, now.

Today I set up my two new quadgrows - I really like the new design. Hopefully they will be much more stable than the old ones. I potted up 8 tomatoes in them. I took the dahlias out of the greenhouse, disinfected the other quadgrows with Jayes fluid (and now worried about Basil paws. I foolishly did it on the grass down the bottom. I have shut him in for the rest of the evening. I think he might think we are going away as he looks miserable.) I feel undeservedly virtuous for doing this. I did have some blight last year. I also planted out about 25 assorted calendulas, cosmos, rudbeckia, cornflowers and an Emilia coccinea. There are a lot more to do.

Ialso chucked some manure on the bed destined for the celery and semi-cleared the other semi-shady bed for PSB and beetroot. I want to put manure in that too, but it's very full. I suppose I could take some soil/compost out and use it for the Jerusalem artichoke pots. Not the intended things will thrive in it, given how much sun doesn't get, but want to give it a go. I could do with some cavolo nero really.

Still not done potatoes, or the peas. I need to make a concerted effort with the peas. I am not doing well so far.
The sweet peas in the raised veg bed are doing really well and just starting to flower.
Oh and I bought a lovely lupin which was reduced, while buying a new kneeling mat first thing.

We visited the local posh allotments – open day today. I am now no.34 on the waiting list! (At least I hope and assume it’s me – they just give initials.)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Rainbow » Mon May 23, 2022 6:38 am

Hi Wic, I haven't grown petunias for quite a while, but when I did I'm sure I pinched them out to make them more bushy. It improves most plants, in my experience!

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Wic » Mon May 23, 2022 8:00 am

Thank you Rainbow. I've been out and done it - and then I remembered why I haven’t grown them for a long time. I hate the stickiness! Ah, well. They are a lovely colour. I’ve never yet managed to post a photo, Herbi, but I’ll have another go when there are more flowers, they’ve only just begun. The colour is like a glass of red, held up to the sun, only in velvet.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon May 23, 2022 8:51 am

I had a look online, Wic but I am sure the images there don't do the plant justice. Yours sounds beautiful.

My hybrid one is not very sticky - one of the appeals of it.

On our last proper holiday abroad in 2019 we visited a small, very off the beaten track monestary that had petunias in dozens of different shades. I think that's what made me think about getting some.

Mine is called Orange Nugget. They don't seem to sell it anymore.

The first photo was taken last year, and the second this. Smaller this year too. I should feed it.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon May 23, 2022 8:54 am

When I was in my 20s I had a skirt reminiscent of the first flower. I rather wish I still did. (Of course it wouldn't fit me now.)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Mon May 23, 2022 9:32 am

hahaha - the first thing i made in sewing lessons, at senior school, was a wide whale corduroy, fitted, mini skirt in the colour of the outside edge of the flower in the top photo.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon May 23, 2022 10:30 am

Very, er, pink?

I do like pink and orange as a colour combination - for flowers at least. But possibly clothes too. I have come a long way (in theory) from my only (shades of) black wearing days.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Mon May 23, 2022 2:53 pm

yes, the description of the fabric on the roll was 'cerise' - if that was true it was definitely genetically modified!
it was closer to day-glo/shocking pink.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon May 23, 2022 9:47 pm

Has anyone got the Gardener's world two for one entry card? I am sure I saw a code to use when booking in advance online but can't find it anywhere now. Did I imagine it?

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Pampy » Mon May 23, 2022 11:58 pm


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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Tue May 24, 2022 12:08 am

Thank you. It doesn't seem to say how you book on line though. On some of the individual gardens pages they say select 2for1 but I can't see any options for this on the ones I am interested in. Same problem last year when we were still in lockdown (or was this 2020? but you couldn't visit anything without prebooking. But I am tired so maybe I am just not seeing it. Will look again tomorrow. Bed time, I think!

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Rainbow » Tue May 24, 2022 1:03 am

Wic wrote:Thank you Rainbow. I've been out and done it - and then I remembered why I haven’t grown them for a long time. I hate the stickiness! Ah, well. They are a lovely colour. I’ve never yet managed to post a photo, Herbi, but I’ll have another go when there are more flowers, they’ve only just begun. The colour is like a glass of red, held up to the sun, only in velvet.

I'd forgotten about the stickiness!! I hated that too!

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Tue May 24, 2022 3:29 pm

I am panicking a bit now about having used some Jayes fluid spray to clean pots on the bottom lawn... apparently lethal to cats and generally very bad for the environment. It's rained a lot since then. Hopefully it will not stay on the grass or render it toxic. It's not killed the slugs... (yet. I found lots hiding in the things I cleaned with it). But that's another matter.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue May 24, 2022 3:55 pm

I think you need quite a lot of phenolic disinfectant like Jeyes (also TCP and old fashioned brown Dettol etc) to damage a cat, and I think they need to ingest it or have a lot of contact, we used to use loads round stables in my pony riding days, and stables cats are always bouncing with health (rodents come for hay and straw, cats come for rodents...)

But - generally - anti bac spray or Savlon for cats, even tea tree isn't brilliant

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Tue May 24, 2022 3:58 pm

Thanks Sue. That's reassuring. I won't be using it again though. I am feeling even more protective of him than usual at the moment, for obvious reasons.

It smells foul too.

That's useful to know about anti-bac stuff. Good thing I am a rotten housewife. (And that T is a rotten househusband.)

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