Gardening Resources & Tips

[herbidacious]

I sowed another 30 little pots. Flowers again. Also sowed some in the garden but not in a very systematic way. I need to get on top of this, but quite early to be doing for many things.

Two calendula sowed on Friday have come up between 8am and 3.30pm today. Same variety, New seed... I do wonder about the viability of old seed. I had a list somewhere about what keeps well and what doesn't. Some packets don't seem to have use by dates.

[Suffs]

Not going to dig couch grass today … giving my back a rest … but I have given the very tall Rosa glauca a good hacking back. I probably won’t get many flowers this year but it should bush out a bit more and hopefully I’ll get lots more foliage lower down

[herbidacious]

I have a couple more pots of seedlings coming up.
It's very muddy down the garden. I really should not have gone down there without wellies. (Shoe cleaning needs to take place, now.) There is a lot that needs doing...
There was still ice down there an hour ago. It can't be getting much sun in places.
I stupidly forgot to water the plants I was overwintering in jackets in the greenhouse. It's probably been baking in there during the day (and frozen at night) and I think I may have lost two of the plants. Ah well. I can't actually remember what they were, so I can't miss them that much...? Meanwhile (touch wood) my large pot of tidal wave red velour petunias which I merely put down the side of the house (very sheltered but not a lot of light) without any further protection has, so far, survived.

I'd love to get stuck into things but too tired and (paid) work to do. If I feel better next week and we have some more nice weather, I might take a day off. (If I had normal energy I could take a morning off and then (do paid) work in the afternoon, but that's not an option, sadly.)

[Stokey Sue]

For the record this is my favourite thing to do with cauli greens, in place of the cabbage in this South Indian stir fry
The recipe is spot-on, two differences from what we had in Kerala - first I wouldn't cut the veg so fine, we called it Kerala coleslaw, and I shred not too finely, second it's not served just with rice and poppadum's, it's one of several dishes on a thali always with at least a sambhar (thin dal)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dry_ ... bage_71527

[Stokey Sue]

Me again
Wondered if anyone had been to the Centre for Wildlife Gardening in SE London?
https://www.wildlondon.org.uk/nature-re ... -gardening

My guess is not that much to see but possibly interesting, maybe one to combine with the nearby Horniman Museum

[herbidacious]

Thanks for the recipe. Looks good.

re the garden, gosh no, I'd not even heard of it. Might be something for this weekend for us. I can report back. Spitting distance from us.

If you go, I would recommend Franklins for a nice lunch up the other end of Lordship Lane - about halfway to the Horniman - but East Dulwich is quite good for food. There's a somewhat interesting street market en route too.

[Stokey Sue]

I though it might be quite near you Herbi!

[herbidacious]

We 'hang out' in East Dulwich quite a lot ; )

[herbidacious]

I finally sowed my cosmos and a few zinnia. (Tasteful ones I know zinnia can be a bit loud.)

T is doing the top lawn Only took him 5 minutes to get the mower going. Hamish is sitting my the pond watching him. Basil and Lily would have scarpered. I am surprised he hasn't tbh. He doesn't like the vacuum cleaner.

Still no daffodils apart from that one!

[Suffs]

I’ve only got the little Minnows and Tete a tetes out at the moment … I’ve seen a few larger ones out … probably February Gold and other early varieties … I don’t expect to see most daffs until late March early April … when I was expecting DD I told DS that his baby brother or sister wouldn’t arrive until the daffodils were out … she was due 27 March … of course we had an early spring (1976) and he got very impatient ‘When’s my daffodil baby coming?’ He kept asking … she was a week late arriving 4th April.

[scullion]

our daffodils have been out for a while and the daff bulb fields are in bloom - looking a bit like the oil seed rape fields upcountry (later in the year).

[Stokey Sue]

The famous (apparently) West Cork daffodils were out in full force last weekend, the roadsides were spectacular in places with solid gold banks of gorse behind the daffs on the verges.

Here the full size daffs are just coming out over the road but my Minnows are beginning to put on a real show in the sunshine.

[herbidacious]

the houses on the other side of our road have front gardens full of daffodils.

[Suffs]

Every year a house up the Rise has the most amazing show of Narc. ice Follies … not my favourite daff but en made that bank looks amazing each spring … yesterday I noticed that the buds are just stretching above the foliage but there’s no colour yet …

[herbidacious]

My mother used to have them all around her little front lawn which I suspect she inherited with the house. They were lovely. But you have to wait so long for all the foliage to die back before things can look nice again.
It is funny looking back at photos of her garden from the 70s and 80s. it was a lot more minimalist than it ended up. Lets just say, the lawns got smaller and the flower beds got bigger. She could do this because the lawns were divided buy paths. I think she must have had some concrete dug up too round the front. I don't remember that.
She was rightly very proud of her gardens.

[scullion]

my tulips are starting to show (the flower bud - the leaves have been up for quite a while) in the cutting patch.

[herbidacious]

I have a pot of daffodils that's very nearly there, and another not far behind... I planted up 8 pots' worth

Tulips nowhere near to flowering.

Did I say I discovered a pot of iris reticulata in bloom? I have a few stragglers in the ground out the front too.

The pots are all out of sight, sheltered beneath the wisteria so I have to go outside to see what's doing what. (I move the pots so that I can see them once they are about to flower.)

[Suffs]

Most tulips (apart from the little species types) flower later than the majority of daffodils.
Are your pots of daffs in the shade … if so you could move them into a sunnier spot to hurry them up.
Do you know which varieties they are? Perhaps they’re later flowering types?

[herbidacious]

They will come out in due course, Suffs, I am sure. They are against a south facing wall. Lots of different varieties so, yes, no doubt some will be supposed to come out later than others. Ditto tulips.
I am not too worried but when I am on the other computer later I will check to see what I have. Pretty sure there are some avalanche which are early flowerers.

Two daffodils about to come out in the front garden!

The ornamental plum is fully out and lovely. I somehow totally missed the intermediate stages. If the sun comes out, I shall take some photos.

[herbidacious]

I went out to look and the pot of avalanche are beginning to flower, but they are very stunted. New bulbs, new compost. Not sure what went wrong.
I probably should have watered them more. They are very sheltered where they are, and I have watered a bit since they started sprouting. In the past I have never needed to water anything in this location, though. Not at all until around now, if then. Really I do regard spring bulbs as something that just works with next to no effort after planting... one of the joys of them.

The one that's flowering in the ground in the back garden - it's siblings have come up blind. I took them out of a pot to put in the ground in January - I wanted the pot. I did not have great expectations. Good thing because they would not have been met! I suppose leave them in and see what happens next year? (Feed?) Or throw away? It's quite a nice one, but perhaps I should just replace.

There are two pots' worth in bud in addition to the one that is right on the cusp of flowering.

I ought to pot up the overwintered dahlias (assuming they survived).