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Gardening resources and tips, etc.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Sat Apr 30, 2022 12:38 pm

I love those violets, herbi. Your mum had a good 'eye'
Funnily enough, I am planting up the pot that fits our sole chimney pot at the moment. I seem to be big on orange this year, paired with Black velvet nasturtium.

I am on the final 'cull' of tomatoes. I want to give them away before I plant into bigger pots. 4 more are going into their quadgrow stations this weekend.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Sat Apr 30, 2022 1:04 pm

i wish I could put mine somehwere else. The biggest ones are now 30 inches high. They will be difficult, or awkward, at least, to pot on. Will need to have another cull too. They are leggier than I would like them to be but should be ok in the end.

I had one of my morning glories oin the kitchen window sill and noticed it had done this. (You will have to look carefully.) Husband kindly disentwined it.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby KeenCook2 » Sat Apr 30, 2022 6:02 pm

Ha, Herbi :lol:

If anyone is in the Taunton area next week-end, my BF is having an Open Garden. She's just sent me some pics!

(The village is Stoke St Gregory)

https://ngs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2 ... l_2022.pdf
"Hillcrest" no.48 p.18

When I admired the cowslips she said it's taken them 20 years to get there :lol:
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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby PatsyMFagan » Sun May 01, 2022 4:13 am

I have a solitary cow-slip in the lower part of my garden - the part I like to call the wild area... it has lovely soil probably too rich for most wild plants, but at least the English bluebells and Lenten lilies (wild daffs) are popping up each year. I had Honesty growing there that seems to have disappeared, so feel sympathy for Monty Don who has failed to spread Honesty to different parts of his garden ;)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Mon May 02, 2022 1:28 pm

Beans sown in modules last week (and starting to germinate) include -
Cherokee trail of tears,
Housewives early,
Pinto,
Yard long (dwarf - don't know how that works - I've only grown climbing ones before now),
Gigantes.
I know I shouldn't be growing that many varieties for seed saving but I'll be bagging some of the flowers before they open.
The dodgy courgette that I planted out last week didn't make it - good job I sowed a couple of replacements.
Some squash can go in, too.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Mon May 02, 2022 5:41 pm

We watched a bit of Gardeners world last night and saw a clip of a garden set up to look after itself while he is on his travels. He was using Quadgrow with copper bands to deter slugs. I have sourced some from ebay, so hope they really are a viable slug deterrent.
Apart from a bit of potting on, not much has been done today.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon May 02, 2022 7:51 pm

I will do some sowing tomorrow - and some pricking out. The minimum (nigth time) temperature in the greenhouse has been hovering around 9-10C. Almost warm enough for tomatoes but certainly warm enough for hardy plant seedlings and even half hardy ones, such as cosmos. Maybe the ipomoea. This means a big clear out of the lean to is possible. Most of the tomatoes are too big, really to go in there now, but I can move all but the newly germinated seeds on the kitchen window sill into there and sow more things without guilt.

As mentioned on the wildies thread, my gardener has said she can no longer come except on an ad hoc basis which seems much more expensive. £32.50 per hour for unqualified young people who often don't know what they are doing. I pay £20 per hour for my mum's gardener.

Back to greenhouse temperatures... the physics is mysterious (to me). As I have mentioned, in early spring, the night time temperatures in the greenhouse were lower than outside. The other night when it was cooler I put a mini pop up polythene 'greenhouse' thing over some plants on top of a metal table, and the temperature under that was colder than in the greenhouse in general.

I have never had a big problem with slugs and snails and tomato plants. Outdoor ones have lost a few tomatoes to snails but not enough that I feel the need to use anything to protect them. (I do with other plants.) I suppose if they get in a greenhouse and there is nothing else to eat they may go for it at certain times of the year. It wasn't an issue last August-October.

I am having trouble germinating tithonia and some zinnias. Should have started earlier. I think I sowed both in March last year.

Need to do my potatoes tomorrow too if I have enough compost.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Tue May 03, 2022 10:57 am

yesterday, sowed some spring onion seed and giant parsley seed, planted out half a dozen young lettuce plants, put in the pea supports, did some hoeing and spread some water around. the little bit of rain we had the day before didn't really have much effect. i also picked a load of spinach - we had saag aloo.
three of the five babbington leek bulbils i had for christmas are growing. i'll save some egg shells for them - according to a botanist friend they like a bit of calcium.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Tue May 03, 2022 2:58 pm

I sowed various types of beans - French climbing (3 purple types...?!?), dwarf - Red Swan and Ying Yang, and pea beans. Also some sunflowers.

Had a mishap with the beans. After sowing two types, I knocked the whole lot over. Annoying as they are mixed up now.

My morning glory had got tangled up and I lost patience so they had a trim. I imagine they will be ok. Lots of seedlings have gone into the greenhouse. Will have to keep an eye on the temperatures. Really a lot of them could be hardened off. I have seen calendula, for example, in flower all over the place.

I also pricked out a few tomatoes. I need to stick canes in the big ones in the sitting room. They are too tall for those green sticks - even the very long ones. Also need to do potatoes... and umpteen other things, but too tired to do anything else today, I think. Plus loss my motivation.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Wed May 04, 2022 6:33 pm

I pricked out or, er separated, about 15 pots of calendula and cosmos. The former are looking very floppy but hopeully they will perk up. Generally though my calendula are a bit floppy. Not sure if this is normal. Can't remember from last year.
I also potted on aubergines, peppers and some tomatoes, and transferred the remaining seedllings that can go into the greenhouse, into the greenhouse. I did my watering but probably ought to have been more thorough. We really need some rain. The small rainbutts on the greenhouse are empty, and the big one near the house, almost.

I chucked a tomato plant out. It was not looking healthy. Pity. A Roma one. Another has gone in a cold frame because also looking unwell. Cold frame location may kill it, but I wanted to quaranteen it, just in case.

The broad beans pods are comings on nicely. I do love the flowers. I have different shades of pink/purple, as well as white.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Thu May 05, 2022 10:30 am

i couldn't believe how quickly the bean seedlings grew yesterday. they were just beginning to push the cotyledons up in the morning and some were two to three inches tall and showing their first true leaves by the evening. i may put them outside for a while to 'compact' them a bit today.
the squash spent their first night out, last night. they've been hardening off for at least a week so they should be ok.
the leeks i sowed in a couple of pots are looking like grass so i'll have to pot those up next week, i should think. there are rather a lot of them - two varieties - we like leeks.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Thu May 05, 2022 12:28 pm

I tried growing leeks in pots last year. It was a fail. I wonder if I could grow some in the broad bean bed when they are done. Too late probably. I have 5 small raised beds. I tend to discount them because they are in semi but mostly shade. Frustrating. I read you can grow beetroot in semi shade if you don’t mind smaller results. Might try. Otherwise it’s kale and maybe spinach. Not my faves really. ‘I ‘wasted’ a lot of cavolo Nero this year. It’s currently flowering. Good for the beds I imagine, though.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Sat May 07, 2022 7:04 pm

I decided that I would do anything to stop those slugs getting my courgettes, so 4 of them went into quadgrows today, banded with copper tape. It's an experiment, so will see how it goes.

We are having the first of our lettuce tonight and some wee radish. I look forward, eventually, to assembling a whole home grown salad (except for the olives!!). Flowers on the tomatoes, so hopefully, will be picking those soon.
Marconi peppers are outstripping all the others, as are the Pikito chillies.

My cucumbers are now hung on S hooks from the greenhouse struts, in polythene bags - their own little hot houses!

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Sat May 07, 2022 7:11 pm

Some sunflowers came up while I was away. Etiolated... But hopefully will be ok in the end. A few French beans but not that many.

Most of my tomato plants had wilted for lack of water... some will survive. Not so sure about the others. i suppose I was going to have to give some away but I would have liked to have chosen which varieties I was keeping.

Also a couple of the plants I bought to replace ones that died while I was in Norfolk have died.

A big :( But I suppose most things are ok.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Sun May 08, 2022 2:01 pm

Higher tomato survival rate than I had feared...

I have just potted up some seedlings that came while I was away. I had better label them (not sure what some are as they were removed from their packaging, but should be able to find out).

The rest were psb and delphinum blue butterfly which are lovely delicate, gorgeous blue things. I grew some last year and am also growing some from seed. (I think a couple came up. Certainly one.)

edit: the others are Xerochrysum bracteatum 'Orange' (syn. Helichrysum)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Sat May 14, 2022 10:44 pm

I wasn't going to do any gardening, but couldn't sleep when i attempted a nap so ended up doing a couple of hours. I had forgotten to bring my morning glory in - which were hardening off - two nights in a row so potted some up today. Also potted up some sweet peas and planted out a few cornflowers and a non-hardened off cosmos which was rather feebly flowering. I watered everything 'properly'. Will try to do some potatoes tomorrow. Maybe a bit more weeding. (I did some yesterday.)

Hardening off is a pain. I am having to take each little pot out of the trays to check for slugs and snails. And there are a lot of little pots.

Most of the dahlias seem to be coming on nicely in the greenhouse and cold frame.

I wonder if my sweet peas and ipomea will survive the (snaily) night. Plenty more of the latter if not, but not the former, really.

There is many a slip betwixt immature fruit and edible one, but if they were all to mature and not be eaten by birds, I would be having a reasonable cherry harvest, a very good plum one (all dwarf trees in pots) and quite good raspberries and currants. But as I said, many a slip... I need a walk in fruit cage really, but I think husband would not be happy about that. (Would make mowing a pain.) I don't think my blueberry one will be great. I have not looked after them. I really need to feed them.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Mon May 16, 2022 10:00 am

We planted the runner beans out yesterday ... a bit earlier than I used to do it, but they're a runner x french bean hybrid and have the slightly hardier nature of the french beans, and I found last year that they were happy at slightly lower temps than runners would be ... so I've gone for it again ... they're are looking very perky now they're in the earth and have beanpoles to climb up ... we had light rain overnight and that suited them along with this morning's sunshine.

The lettuces and chard are growing nicely :D

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon May 16, 2022 10:53 am

I have had really bad germination rates with my French beans. About 13 out of 32. Similar last year. They are mostly new seed.

I will sow some more after the funeral. Ditto peas. I am not doing runners. I have some Seed Heritage library lettuce which I might try. I assume not too late. I have never grown lettuce.

I am a bit worried about what to do with my seedlings/young plants while away, with temperatures forecast to soar up to 25. I have been hardening them off from the greenhouse. I think I will sit them on capillary matting in gravel trays, water well, and put under the trees down the bottom. I had planned to set up a proper wicking system but I don't have everything I need to do that and without a car it will take up too much time to go and buy things, assuming I can find what I want. (Inverting seed trays in a large gravel tray was the plan, but the former are too big when upside down.)

I was going to plant potatoes today. I still could after the gardener has been, I suppose. I could also plant out psb, but it can wait a bit. I think sorting things out for the mini heat wave take up a fair bit of time.

edit: now down to 12 beans (assorted types) as a snail got one, even though they are on the balcony. Might buy some, but will sow some more. Still no go with the yin yang ones.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Thu May 19, 2022 3:40 pm

did some more earthing up of potatoes, earlier and will be picking some strawberries later. they are mostly red so a bit more sun will be just the job. maybe i should go and buy some cream...

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Thu May 19, 2022 4:39 pm

Still not done the potatoes... not sure if it's going to happen.

I planted out a dozen or so plants, picked a bucket of slugs off things, sowed some peas in pots and some in the raised bed, potted on some very late tomato seedlings which I will give away if anyone wants some. Put all the tomatoes out to start or continue hardening off.

This is not bad going as I didn't want to do anything. I am sure it did me good, doing things and being out in the sunshine, but I am dismayed at how very much needs doing in the garden. This weekend's big job will be putting tomatoes into their final pots and quadgrows. I might not manage to do it all, and it will involve a bit of reorganization in the greenhouse for the ones destined for in there... plus finding all the quadgrow components and possibly washing them. Oh dear I did have some blight last year...I really should have disinfected. I am not working tomorrow, but it is forecast to rain all morning.

I should probably give some of me young flower plants away otherwise I am going to have a garden full of cosmos and calendula, which would not be a bad thing, but I would like a little more variety. I have probably too many rudbeckia too.

Basil helped me out a bit...

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