# What's Growing in Your Garden?



## PiP

Any gardeners out there? What's growing (or not) in your garden or terrace? What challenges do you need to overcome in terms of weather, pests and diseases or gardening in general? Please share your pictures of plants dead or alive and work in progress! Any useful tips?

Over the last week I've been knee deep in mud, weeds and manure preparing my humble raised veg garden and planters for this year's crop. 




I've neglected my garden over the last few months and now I am paying the price. The roots of the mint and raspberry plants, which will only grow where they want to grow, had invaded planters and my raised veg plot. I had to bribe Mr. PiP to turn the soil so I could remove all the roots. A backbreaking job that took hours... Yes, even Mr. PiP gets the pointy stick treatment.

I also have eight recycled containers where I grow strawberries. They were in dire need of an overhaul so I removed all the strawberry plants, removed the dead leaves, washed the roots, changed the earth and added manure then replanted. 



This container has since been replanted. Anyone else use recycled crates as planters?

If I manage the pots I can expect strawberries twelve months of the year.


What fruit or veg are you growing and where?


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## Ultraroel

Nothing  I wish I had a garden. I live in an apartment in the Capital. I had two plants on the balconies, but my dog shoved them off the side..


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## Kevin

I have fruit trees (that I planted) and squirrels. Pineapple Guava, fuju persimmon, loquat, and pomegranate. Almost forgot: 1 apricot, and a dwarf cumquat .  As I said, I have squirrels, both tree and ground varieties, so you might guess the rest. They are pretty trees though. 

I also have native cherries (which are not really edible unless you're a coyote) and about twenty small pots with grown-from-found/harvested, wild-seed natives: cherry, walnut, and bay leaf. And there's some cuttings of native snowberry. 

One year I bought a whole bunch of wild flower seed but the slugs ate all of them as little sprouts. The wife got so tired of  my blubbering she banned me from the garden. I'm all better now.


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## JustRob

Ultraroel said:


> Nothing  I wish I had a garden. I live in an apartment in the Capital. I had two plants on the balconies, but my dog shoved them off the side..



Aren't there any community gardens there? Here in England people will plant flowers and vegetables anywhere that's allowed. Local people may plant flowers on a traffic roundabout or in a shopping precinct, for example, just as a sign of local pride. In the suburbs of London where I was a child I recently saw that the locals had created a small community garden with flowers and vegetables on a tiny patch of unused land alongside the booking office of the railway station. 

My angel dug flowerbeds out of the lawn in front of a local charity's offices and planted shrubs and flowers there. She regularly looked after them for many years, but now the office has closed and the site will soon be redeveloped. Some of the things that she planted came from a previous garden that she'd maintained in the tiny hidden yard of the gatehouse to the local castle when the charity had had its offices in that building. There were special events at the charity with the town mayor and local member of parliament there and people had had drinks and conversations in that tiny garden, as they did in the other one in later years.

Our councils are finding it hard to find the money to pay people to maintain the urban landscape in this way, but local volunteers help to make an environment which looks as though people care about it.

We have holidayed on St. Mary's, the "largest" island in the Isles of Scilly, twenty miles out in the Atlantic to the west of southern England. "Large" is relative there as we easily strolled around the entire coastline of the island in one day. They have a community garden there and leave tools around in it with signs inviting visitors to help with weeding or whatever they think needs doing, so the garden just "happens".


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## BlondeAverageReader

*Clematis Freckles in my garden in January*

It always amazes me that such fragile little flowers bloom in mid winter here, and look this good after a sharp frost. This clematis and the winter jasmine are the only bright splashes of colour in an otherwise sleeping plot. 
Must admit that I wouldn't want it any other way, a garden without seasonal changes would be boring.


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## Bloggsworth

Weeds mostly.


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## Sleepwriter

We usually have tomatoes, peppers ( sweet and hot varieties ) and kale.  Not quite time to get it going for the year here yet.  We are working on two avocado trees that are close to two feet tall now.   Have various herbs growing most of the time.


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## Ariel

Gardening is . . . odd in the US.  Public land requires a permit to walk on if it isn't open to the public much less to garden.  Plus, most businesses won't allow locals to do anything with the land surrounding their property. On top of that private gardens require permission from homeowners associations (if you have a nice enough house) and they will rule even what kind of things you can plant.

I have room for a garden and no homeowners association but I still have to contend with poor soil, walnut trees, and not enough sunlight. Last time we planted a garden the neighbor's boys pulled out all of our sprouts while we were at work. The year before that they smashed all of our pots.


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## Ultraroel

JustRob said:


> Aren't there any community gardens there? Here in England people will plant flowers and vegetables anywhere that's allowed. Local people may plant flowers on a traffic roundabout or in a shopping precinct, for example, just as a sign of local pride. In the suburbs of London where I was a child I recently saw that the locals had created a small community garden with flowers and vegetables on a tiny patch of unused land alongside the booking office of the railway station.



Probably we can. Buy Bulgaria is full of people who will steal anything that they think can make them some money. I understand that, I mean, living with 200 euro a month is nothing, but it prevents me and others from even trying anything of the like. Unfortunately. I grew up in the Netherlands with a big garden and I always loved it, but for now.. its out of the question. Maybe if I ever get so far from buying a house in a village.


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## BlondeAverageReader

Kevin, if you just adjust your view on the garden a bit. Might l suggest nature reserve. Then sit back, look out of the window and enjoy all those amazing animals. Much less stress.


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## Kevin

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Kevin, if you just adjust your view on the garden a bit. Might l suggest nature reserve. Then sit back, look out of the window and enjoy all those amazing animals. Much less stress.


I do. We have resident hummingbirds and doves, birds of prey that swoop through attempting to harvest the doves. There are cottontails, raccoons at night; lizards, bugs, occasional snakes. It's too bad I don't eat squirrel.


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## PiP

Kevin said:


> I have fruit trees (that I planted) and squirrels. Pineapple Guava, fuju persimmon, loquat, and pomegranate. Almost forgot: 1 apricot, and a dwarf cumquat .  As I said, I have squirrels, both tree and ground varieties, so you might guess the rest. They are pretty trees though.



What a great selection of trees!

Thank God  squirrels are one rodent we don't have where we are. We have mongoose but I have not discovered why they climb over the wall to access our garden. Probably water? We also have rats from time to time. HAte leaving poison traps for them but at least left under crates no cats or birds can access.



Kevin said:


> I also have native cherries (which are not really edible unless you're a coyote) and about twenty small pots with grown-from-found/harvested, wild-seed natives: cherry, walnut, and bay leaf. And there's some cuttings of native snowberry.
> 
> One year I bought a whole bunch of wild flower seed but the slugs ate all of them as little sprouts. The wife got so tired of  my blubbering she banned me from the garden. I'm all better now.



That's a shame, Kevin. Have you thought about investing in a greenhouse?



> JustRob said:
> 
> 
> 
> Aren't there any community gardens there? Here in England people will plant flowers and vegetables anywhere that's allowed. Local people may plant flowers on a traffic roundabout or in a shopping precinct, for example, just as a sign of local pride. In the suburbs of London where I was a child I recently saw that the locals had created a small community garden with flowers and vegetables on a tiny patch of unused land alongside the booking office of the railway station.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It sounds nice where you live, Rob. IT's nice to know there are still some people who take a pride in their village
> 
> 
> 
> 
> BlondeAverageReader said:
> 
> 
> 
> It always amazes me that such fragile little flowers bloom in mid winter here, and look this good after a sharp frost. This clematis and the winter jasmine are the only bright splashes of colour in an otherwise sleeping plot.
> Must admit that I wouldn't want it any other way, a garden without seasonal changes would be boring.
> 
> 
> View attachment 16770​
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> They looks so delicate! I used to have a beautiful fragrant winter jasmin growing in a pot but it got black mold due to the high humidity here and eventually it died.
> 
> Perhaps I'll try again.
> 
> 
> 
> Sleepwriter said:
> 
> 
> 
> We usually have tomatoes, peppers ( sweet and hot varieties ) and kale.  Not quite time to get it going for the year here yet.  We are working on two avocado trees that are close to two feet tall now.   Have various herbs growing most of the time.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Jealous of your avocados. We live too close to the sea and the salt winds have killed most fruit trees I've tried to grow.
> 
> What herbs do you grow? I am just replanting my herb bed at the moment.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ariel said:
> 
> 
> 
> On top of that private gardens require permission from homeowners associations (if you have a nice enough house) and they will rule even what kind of things you can plant.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> So you can't grow veg in containers?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I have room for a garden and no homeowners association but I still have to contend with poor soil, walnut trees, and not enough sunlight. Last time we planted a garden the neighbor's boys pulled out all of our sprouts while we were at work. The year before that they smashed all of our pots.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> And they are allowed to get away with it?That's so sad, Ams...
> 
> back later...
> 
> Click to expand...
Click to expand...


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## Ariel

Those kids were a nightmare. Never had any supervision and would destroy things just to destroy them. I have a chunk taken out of my wooden front porch where one of them to the claw end of a hammer to it. They've moved now so maybe this year I can get things growing again.


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## PiP

Goodness, they sound like the neighbors from hell!


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## Jenwales

I can only enjoy my garden when my neighbour isn't there. I will sit in it in the summer and she'll go outside in her garden and smoke and ruin it for me! She's retiring soon so there's goes my garden time. I only have a small garden and every year I hope to get more pots of herbs, my dream is to have a herb garden but I'm not much of a gardener, I follow my mother I think, she killed a cactus


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## PiP

Jenwales said:


> I hope to get more pots of herbs, my dream is to have a herb garden but I'm not much of a gardener, I follow my mother I think, she killed a cactus



Hi Jen,

My next project is to revamp my herb bed. My herbs will never grow where I want them. What herbs do you plan on planting? As for cactus, they are quite easy to kill...overwatering  I noticed the leaves of my Christmas cactus looked very ..crinkly and yellow. Turns out the poor thing was sitting in 3inches of stagnant water... I'm just hoping I caught it in time.

As for your neighbor...what a pain!


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## Jenwales

Not sure, I have Lavender and rosemary and chives. One of my lavender plants has gone through the pot and into the ground and has sorta tipped over. I'm just going to go to a shop and buy whatever I fancy and grow all in pots/containers


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## Ariel

My mom had a green thumb and could bring plants back from the brink. I have one plant of hers that my husband was able to save.  Everything else is new and has been replaced at least once.


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## BlondeAverageReader

What's growing in my garden is the heap of shell shaped ice blocks from my bird bath.

​
No idea why iPad photos appear on their side. Rob says I shouldn't take this lying down.


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## escorial

we  have a comunial garden and I use the word we loosely...not much growing there but it comes in handy for drug deals and police to enter the building without informing any of the residence...


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## Kevin

The top 4-6" of my soil under the native oak is highly reactive toward wood: it rots it. The undisturbed soil underneath, however, preserves it. Isn't that absolutely fascinating?! lol. 
I think, in general, there are things in my soil that, given enough constant moisture, kill many of the plants. I've lost strawberry trees, ceonuthus, coffee berry, Rosemary. I imagine fungal 'threads' that can only 'join' given enough moisture. There are also invasive roots of something that will grow up into a pot and kill whatever is in there. 
Yes, it's a jungle out there, and the plants bite.


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## BlondeAverageReader

Ariel said:


> My mom had a green thumb and could bring plants back from the brink. I have one plant of hers that my husband was able to save.  Everything else is new and has been replaced at least once.


Green fingers can be a problem too. I've spent hours walking round the garden, pot in hand, looking for a space big enough to plant the wretched thing. This causes funny looks from him indoors and he may mention a squirrel searching for a place to put its nut. He knows he's safe, l don't have a space big enough to plant him!


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## BlondeAverageReader

Jenwales said:


> I can only enjoy my garden when my neighbour isn't there. I will sit in it in the summer and she'll go outside in her garden and smoke and ruin it for me! She's retiring soon so there's goes my garden time. I only have a small garden and every year I hope to get more pots of herbs, my dream is to have a herb garden but I'm not much of a gardener, I follow my mother I think, she killed a cactus


To have success growing herbs in pots, the most important thing is good drainage. I know Wales gets a lot of rain. So mix in 20% sharp sand with soil based compost. A sunny spot is also a must. Don't feed them too offen, if they grow lush and soft all the flavour goes.


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## PiP

Ariel said:


> My mom had a green thumb and could bring plants back from the brink. I have one plant of hers that my husband was able to save.  Everything else is new and has been replaced at least once.



We managed to keep one of Mr. Pip's mum's plants alive for 30 years after her passing. IT was a feather fern like asparagus. I lost count of the times we forgot about it, and we were left with just born dust. We always managed to revive it but the last time it just gave up. It was at least 50 years old. I was upset because it only died because I neglected it.

]





Kevin said:


> The top 4-6" of my soil under the native oak is highly reactive toward wood: it rots it. The undisturbed soil underneath, however, preserves it. Isn't that absolutely fascinating?! lol.



Absolutely! I am fascinated by soil. And as I discovered to my epril soild means different things to different people.



Kevin said:


> . There are also invasive roots of something that will grow up into a pot and kill whatever is in there.
> Yes, it's a jungle out there, and the plants bite.



This has happened to me on a number of occasions. I wondered why one of my pots of strawberries were dying off only to find a whole nest of roots from a nearby hedge plus a thick leader root about 1/2" thick from a fir tree. Needless to say both were enjoying the love and attention the strawberries were receiving.



BlondeAverageReader said:


> Green fingers can be a problem too. I've spent hours walking round the garden, pot in hand, looking for a space big enough to plant the wretched thing. This causes funny looks from him indoors and he may mention a squirrel searching for a place to put its nut. He knows he's safe, l don't have a space big enough to plant him!



oh... oh... I know that feeling! The times I've bought a plant on a whim. When I get home I walk round and round looking for the perfect spot. Unfortunately, more often than not I need to move something else to make room or it ends up in a pot! We have salt winds from the Atlantic  which some plants object to.



BlondeAverageReader said:


> A sunny spot is also a must. Don't feed them too offen, if they grow lush and soft all the flavour goes.



I was not aware of this! Good tip, thank you.


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## PiP

When buying cacti with flowers always check the flowers are real. It never occurred to me suppliers would glue or attach artificial flowers with a stick.




#gutted


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## BlondeAverageReader

OK so I'm showing off, here's one l grew earlier. A succulent, not a cactus. Living stones Lithops, real flowers look shiny.


​


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## PiP

Wow... they are amazing! I've just researched 'living stones' and I am now on a mission to add to my collection. They are beautiful. I can't say I've seen them here... Thanks, Angel. Mr PiP is not going to be happy....

And they have just given me an idea for a poem!


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## BlondeAverageReader

PiP said:


> Wow... they are amazing! I've just researched 'living stones' and I am now on a mission to add to my collection. They are beautiful. I can't say I've seen them here... Thanks, Angel. Mr PiP is not going to be happy....
> 
> And they have just given me an idea for a poem!


Glad you liked my lithops, I grew them from seed. But if a couple of years is too long to wait, by all means buy some. They all have similar flowers in shades of yellow and white. The best bit is some smell lovely, on the down side some don't smell at all. Happy hunting.


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## Olly Buckle

I am usually the total fascist with struggling plants, I get rid of them and plant healthy ones, or weed out all the struggling seedlings and simply plant out the best, but even I have my moments. About four or five years ago I was given a camelia in a pot of dry hard earth that was two sticks about 18 inches tall, one completely dead, the othet with one leaf. Last year it flowered for the first time, four or five white flowers with lemon yellow centres, and I planted it out in a sheltered spot. It is thriving, about three feet tall now, covered in leaves and flower buds, with a number of new shoots coming from the base. I hope the frosts we are having don't damage the flowers too much.


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## Jenwales

I want to grow daffodils this year or buy them in a pot to come back every year, I love them because they're everywhere by March and I'm a bit patriotic about them being Welsh


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## Olly Buckle

Jenwales said:


> I want to grow daffodils this year or buy them in a pot to come back every year, I love them because they're everywhere by March and I'm a bit patriotic about them being Welsh



You are a bit late for this year, they are best planted in the autumn/early winter, so you might have trouble finding bulbs now, though they would probably still come up . I remember a friend who found a large bag of tulip bulbs at this time of year and remembered he had a contract to plant them outside some commercial premesis. He said the ground was so frozen he had to make holes with a six foot iron bar, they still came up and looked fine, it is amazing what you can get away with sometimes, tulips are earlier than daffs. If you get them in a pot and plant them out when they are finished they should come back, though sometimes they spend the first year with the bulbs recovering their strength and bloom poorly. The usual reason for them not blooming well though is that people are too kind to them, if they are well fed in a good position the bulbs get large and then split to reproduce, if they find themselves stuck in a poor place they make flowers, the only way a plant can move itself about, is by spreading seed. It is the opposite to most plants that do not have the vegetative option for reproduction though.


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## PiP

Olly Buckle said:


> The usual reason for them not blooming well though is that people are too kind to them, if they are well fed in a good position the bulbs get large and then split to reproduce, if they find themselves stuck in a poor place they make flowers, the only way a plant can move itself about, is by spreading seed. It is the opposite to most plants that do not have the vegetative option for reproduction though.


Oh pooh... feeling homesick I brought some bulbs back from the UK. I planted them in pots using top quality compost. There are plenty of leaves but I can't see any sign of buds yet.


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## BlondeAverageReader

Jenwales said:


> I want to grow daffodils this year or buy them in a pot to come back every year, I love them because they're everywhere by March and I'm a bit patriotic about them being Welsh


There will soon be lots of pots of daffodils in the shops. Well grown and ready to flower. Buy them, sink them still in their pots into the garden or container of your choice. Enjoy them, then when they've finished flowering take them out of the pot and put them in the place you'd like them to live permanently.
I find the short ones do best, stand up better to wind and rain. I holiday in Wales, so l know you get a lot of both.
Hope this helps.


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## Olly Buckle

BlondeAverageReader said:


> I find the short ones do best, stand up better to wind and rain.
> Hope this helps.



"tete a tete" are a good early one, I almost said "A head clear of the rest", but that's a pun too far, they do tick all the boxes though, short, sturdy, pretty and plenty of flowers. They are good for somewhere like a corner of the path where you pass regularly when the weather is still rubbish and the garden muddy.


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## Kevin

Just thought I'd share...

The dominant feature of our backyard is a native oak. My oak tree has a bad split in it. I say "my" but I think I'm more of a renter, something temporary in its lifespan, which could be 500 years (already) or more. 

In any case, the trunk is two trunks, like a wishbone, forked near the base, and several years ago a crack formed. Since then the crack went from a thin line to more than an inch. Over the years there have been (and will continue to be) many examples of similar native oaks suddenly collapsed. I think part of it is that they've all been 'lollipoped'. That is when the lower branches are removed. I think they do this for aesthetics. The lower branches naturally brace the tree against the ground. 

The 'collapsing' most often happens during the rainy season which is now. I have the trunks lassoed together with steel cable by the the two 'legs' of the wishbone up high, and one of them is braced beneath with wood, but there is always the concern that something will fail. We have strong winds that come before or after each storm which adds to the suspense.


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## Winston

I live in Washington State, so right now we have a bumper crop of moss.


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## PiP

Kevin said:


> Just thought I'd share...
> 
> part of it is that they've all been 'lollipoped'. That is when the lower branches are removed. I think they do this for aesthetics. The lower branches naturally brace the tree against the ground.
> 
> The 'collapsing' most often happens during the rainy season which is now. I have the trunks lassoed together with steel cable by the the two 'legs' of the wishbone up high, and one of them is braced beneath with wood, but there is always the concern that something will fail. We have strong winds that come before or after each storm which adds to the suspense.



Can you take a photo?


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## Jenwales

Olly Buckle said:


> You are a bit late for this year, they are best planted in the autumn/early winter, so you might have trouble finding bulbs now, though they would probably still come up . I remember a friend who found a large bag of tulip bulbs at this time of year and remembered he had a contract to plant them outside some commercial premesis. He said the ground was so frozen he had to make holes with a six foot iron bar, they still came up and looked fine, it is amazing what you can get away with sometimes, tulips are earlier than daffs. If you get them in a pot and plant them out when they are finished they should come back, though sometimes they spend the first year with the bulbs recovering their strength and bloom poorly. The usual reason for them not blooming well though is that people are too kind to them, if they are well fed in a good position the bulbs get large and then split to reproduce, if they find themselves stuck in a poor place they make flowers, the only way a plant can move itself about, is by spreading seed. It is the opposite to most plants that do not have the vegetative option for reproduction though.


I know my nan is a gardener and my dad used to grow stuff too. I was going to buy them ready grown in a container/pot like averageblonde said. I don't really have a garden, it's slabbed over and I rent, there's a small patch of dirt with tree stumps in it and then the side of it has dirt and stones, so I only plant in pots really. Except for one bulb my nan gave me one day but I can't remember what it is, possibly a gadioli? Probably spelt wrong.


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## BlondeAverageReader

*Oh no, it's happened again*



To the garden centre
We went just yesterday 
But only for a coffee
As it was on our way

I didn't mean to buy them
Then my addiction struck 
And all of them on offer
Well what a stroke of luck


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## PiP

I know the feeling!
Flame of the forest?

Fortunately the garden centres where we live don't have coffee shops so I don't have that temptation... and yet... my new passion, collecting cacti and succulents is a good excuse to just 'pop' in.


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## BlondeAverageReader

PiP said:


> I know the feeling!
> Flame of the forest?
> 
> Fortunately the garden centres where we live don't have coffee shops so I don't have that temptation... and yet... my new passion, collecting cacti and succulents is a good excuse to just 'pop' in.


Good spot, it's Pieris ' Flaming Silver' actually, the leaves have silver edges. I'll soon be traipsing round, pot in hand again.
No coffee on offer in your garden centres! How very odd, l suppose ours do it to make revenue in the leaner months.


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## BlondeAverageReader

The garage roof wearing its Easter bonnet of Montana, plus a bit of Wisteria.​


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## Winston

Out front, the Apple Tree is budding, as are our Blueberry and Gooseberry bushes.  The Strawberries look healthy.  The Mint, Thyme and Cilantro all came back strong.

In the raised beds in back, the compost we incorporated sure helped.  The Potatoes have big healthy stalks.  The Beans and Turnips are sprouting.  Our Tomatoes always struggle, and this year looks to be no exception. And our carrots are always slow out of the gate, but usually finish well.  We bought starters for our Cucumber and Zucchini.  They look to be busy spreading their roots.   

It looks like an average year so far.  No surprises would be nice.


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## bucklethree

Mine is just a small garden, and I am growing herbs that I also use.


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## PiP

bucklethree said:


> Mine is just a small garden, and I am growing herbs that I also use.



What herbs do you grow, bucklethree?


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## PiP

It's June, and we've only had a few hours of mizzle in weeks so everything is beginning to bake and many of the plants are at my mercy (they need me to remember to water the and feed them).








My latest Hibiscous. The moment I saw it, it was love at first sight!



one of my succulents... I'll find the name


Growing/collecting Cacti and succulents has become a passion. I drive my husband mad...


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## JustRob

PiP, no doubt my angel will have some comments to make about your pictures when she returns from her Pilates session. Meanwhile I can report that what's mainly growing in her garden at present is her frustration with the weather. When she wants to work on it the sun is blazing hot, scorching her pale skin, and there's a shortage of rain. Then when it does rain that apparently happens at the wrong time too. I thought gardening was about being at one with nature, not in perpetual conflict with it, but what do I know? So long as she's ... happy?


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## Firemajic

PiP! Your pics are stunning! How fabulous to have that beauty in your own yard, sheer bliss...


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## Gumby

PiP, your garden is just stunning! So inviting, just makes me want to dive in that water.


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## JustRob

Gumby said:


> PiP, your garden is just stunning! So inviting, just makes me want to dive in that water.



Really? Do you think it's deep enough for diving?

(Still waiting for my angel to finish typing. She is soooo slow, bless her ... and now she's got her gardening encyclopaedia out!)

Please wait ...


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## BlondeAverageReader

*Gorgeous Garden*

Pip
Your garden looks amazing, those succulents are certainly a good choice for the dry conditions you are faced with. The hibiscus is gorgeous, l can see why you fell for it. How's the veg patch doing? I couldn't cope with the Portuguese heat but l really, really want your pool, its beautiful.

At the moment my Cordyline is in full flower, the bees  love it. I grew this Oriental Poppy from seed, it's in the wrong place but l don't want to risk moving it.

 ​


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## PiP

JustRob said:


> Really? Do you think it's deep enough for diving?



Yes, it's 2m deep one end and near the steps about 1m + My SIL dives in... I just tend to float on top with my poetry notebook in one hand and a G & T in the other.


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## PiP

Angel, your Cordyline is stunning.  

As for poppies, I don't grow them ever since I read about a retired couple in Italy who were arrested for growing poppies because...  You're secret is out!


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## BlondeAverageReader

PiP said:


> Angel, your Cordyline is stunning.
> 
> As for poppies, I don't grow them ever since I read about a retired couple in Italy who were arrested for growing poppies because...  You're secret is out!



No these are oriental poppies (papaver orientale) not their naughty cousins the opium poppies (papaver somniferum)
I do however grow caster oil plants (ricin) be afraid be very afraid.


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## BlondeAverageReader

*Poor Shirley Tomato*

Caterpillars, Tomato Moth Caterpillars to be precise.


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## Freethesea

Gross. Why don't they grow their own tomatoes?


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## PiP

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Caterpillars, Tomato Moth Caterpillars to be precise.
> 
> View attachment 19210



That caterpillar looks like it's genetically modified.


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## BlondeAverageReader

Freethesea said:


> Gross. Why don't they grow their own tomatoes?


Have you ever seen a caterpillar trying to build a greenhouse!


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## JustRob

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Have you ever seen a caterpillar trying to build a greenhouse!



Some build tents. Does that count?


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## BlondeAverageReader

JustRob said:


> Some build tents. Does that count?


No, and it doesn't count towards your LOL tally either!


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## JustRob

BlondeAverageReader said:


> No, and it doesn't count towards your LOL tally either!



Now be fair. I only insisted on you marking a LOL on that other post of mine because I saw you do it.

What's growing in our garden? Actually I have no idea what she creates out there, but it looks suspiciously like a wicker man to me. I'll carry on calling her my angel though. She's already earned that title many times over.


----------



## Freethesea

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Have you ever seen a caterpillar trying to build a greenhouse!


 

 

Caterpillars are notorious freeloaders. They would never pick up a hammer in their bazillions of hands.


----------



## Winston

I need to go weed and pick some veggies... ugh.

It was interesting visiting the ecosystem just north of us.  In southern Alaska, they have blueberries and salmonberries just like we do in WA state. Since we're both costal, the climate is very similar.  Little snow at sea level, copious amounts of rain, long summer and short winter days (theirs are just a bit more drastic).  

I didn't find any varieties that I feel compelled to add to our little homestead.  However, they did have this rather odd plant called "skunk cabbage".  The leaves on that plant are HUGE.  It is edible, but as the name implies, it needs a lot of boiling before you try to eat it.  A lot of boiling.


----------



## PiP

My favourite Hibiscous. The flowers are the size of my hand!


----------



## Winston

The potatoes, tomatoes and pickling cucumbers are still out there.  Much more to pick in the next few weeks.
If you're in Western Washington, come and bring your own bucket.  Take some of these monster turnips.  Please.


----------



## Freethesea

PiP said:


> My favourite Hibiscous. The flowers are the size of my hand!"
> 
> Beautiful flower! Did you know boiling the flower (after you remove the center) lowers blood pressure? Very quickly? You add half a lime and can make iced tea as well. Just for your info.
> 
> Not that I would ever want to kill one of yours... You can buy dried ones as well so yours may live.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Heavenly Blue Morning Glories*

I was starting to think these would never come into flower this year before the first frost arrived to kill them off.


----------



## bobo

Beautiful !!


----------



## bobo

Freethesea said:


> PiP said:
> 
> 
> 
> My favourite Hibiscous. The flowers are the size of my hand!"
> 
> Beautiful flower! Did you know boiling the flower (after you remove the center) lowers blood pressure? Very quickly? You add half a lime and can make iced tea as well. Just for your info.
> 
> Not that I would ever want to kill one of yours... You can buy dried ones as well so yours may live.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Are you saying that's the Hibiscus flower (minus center) which lower your blood pressure ??
Click to expand...


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Autumn flowers and berries*


----------



## Olly Buckle

People often tell  you that all parts of the yew tree are poisonous, the outside of the berry has a pleasant, slightly waxy taste, be sure to spit the pip out though, that is poisonous just like the rest.


----------



## PiP

What a wonderful autumn collection



BlondeAverageReader said:


> View attachment 19749



Fuchsias, My favourite! I've not grown these since I left England. I think I will try next year as I have the perfect shady spot


----------



## Olly Buckle

I have a nice one called 'Tom' something, his surname. It is the only variegated one I have ever seen, low growing though.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Variegated Fuchsia*

I've had this one in the garden for years, don't know it's name unfortunately. 
Low growing and the new growth is pink, flowers are very small.


----------



## JustRob

Since my angel (BlondeAverageReader) has been posting her pictures here I have become more aware of the enormous variety of flowers in our garden. When I go out there I usually only see the overall impact of it rather than the details. I must get her to give me a guided tour some time.


----------



## dither

I suppose, maybe... couldn't the word " garden " be taken in another context, as a metaphor ? In life-terms or to describe a certain part of one's life. Am I digging myself into a hole here.:read::uncomfortableness::-k


----------



## JustRob

dither said:


> I suppose, maybe... couldn't the word " garden " be taken in another context, as a metaphor ? In life-terms or to describe a certain part of one's life. Am I digging myself into a hole here.:read::uncomfortableness::-k



I'm certainly no gardener, as my angel will confirm, but I think you have to dig yourself a hole in order for your life to flourish.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

dither said:


> I suppose, maybe... couldn't the word " garden " be taken in another context, as a metaphor ? In life-terms or to describe a certain part of one's life. Am I digging myself into a hole here.:read::uncomfortableness::-k



Just mind you don't end up going to pot!


----------



## Olly Buckle

BlondeAverageReader said:


> I've had this one in the garden for years, don't know it's name unfortunately.
> Low growing and the new growth is pink, flowers are very small.
> 
> View attachment 19776


It sounds similar, the name is 'Tom  West'


----------



## Winston

It was a warm summer, and we still have a few tomatoes that need to be picked.  They aren't getting any riper at this point. Gotta get them before it gets too cold.  
The potatoes will survive the first frost, as will the carrots.  Still should pull some of them as well.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Pick them qickly before you get fungal diseases setting in, green tomatoe chutney is good, just about matured enough for Boxing day if you make it now.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*The Grapevine showing off its Autumn tints*


----------



## moderan




----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Half cut Paperwhite Narsisus anyone?*

Found this while looking at reduced price bulb offers. 

 If you prefer to keep your paperwhites compact, Anna Pavord in her book Bulb tells of experiments at Cornell University, where they discovered that a little alcohol reduced their height by up to 40%. Apparently the best way to tackle it is to stand the pot of paperwhites on a tray of pebbles filled with water, making sure that the bottom of the pot is not standing in water. When the shoots are approximately 5cm high, tip out the water and refill with a mix of 9 parts water to one part hard liquor such as gin, vodka or rum (beer and wine should be avoided).

So, half cut on spirits, l suppose they run amok on wine or beer. Can't wait to try it!


----------



## Birdy

My Paperwhites didn't manifest last year; I bought the leftover bulbs.  Will try again another time. 

Nights that I have trouble getting to sleep, I walk myself through the garden and consider the errands that I can do the next day that will feed the eye candy, such as I call the friends with blooms. Lately, the usual work that I would do at this time of the year has been delayed by the continuation of Summer. 

Is Winter coming? 

The violets, lobelia and begonias are still rooted in the bed, the empty pot seen perhaps as  threat to their tender feet. I cover them if frost is threatened, but thus far, here in the Northern Kingdom,  only 4 times have the tarps been required. I will at some point, dig them up into pots, and offer them the mantra "come with me if you want to live." 

Last Christmas the summer begonias and the rest of the gang displaced the holiday tree. This Winter we will have to take over a different room, perhaps the garage, as I was never able to solve the spider mite problem. The garage is slated to become a hot tub room anyway, if we can get that free find spooled up. 

The palm trees occupying the tin trash barrels will fit in perfectly. 


But meanwhile, the broccoli is still producing, very grudgingly, along with the kale and small cabbages. I potted a lettuce, it's still giving me leaves to get my bitter on. The carrots will have to be pulled at some point, they are quite sweet this year, and then I will have to start the storing process.  

Today, I will clean out the Strawberry bed. I mean to ask them why they are so depressed. 

Weather calling for highs in the 70's the rest of the week. Is it time for crocus already here in NY?


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Good question Birdy, is winter coming?
We might live on opposite sides of the pond, but both have the same strange unseasonably warm weather. My summer bedding plants in pots are still blooming and look far too good to scrap. Luckily l have enough spare pots and troughs to plant the winter pansies, dianthus and bulbs, so now l have two seasons bedding flowering at the same time!
Greenhouse has no winter bubble insulation or heater installed yet. Let's hope it doesn't change to freezing overnight and catch us out.


----------



## Birdy

Hi BAR... and so you read my fortune. I will find out later how palm trees hold up against frost. The frost wasn't forecast, or I wasn't paying close enough attention. 

I was actually designing a greenhouse project yesterday; I want it on a track so it can follow the sun, but overnight near the warmest part of the house. See how I get distracted?


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Birdy said:


> Hi BAR... and so you read my fortune. I will find out later how palm trees hold up against frost. The frost wasn't forecast, or I wasn't paying close enough attention.
> 
> I was actually designing a greenhouse project yesterday; I want it on a track so it can follow the sun, but overnight near the warmest part of the house. See how I get distracted?



Do hope the palm trees are ok, (what type are they?) don't forget to post some photos of your successes and failures in the garden. The greenhouse project sounds like a good idea in theory, you'll have to patent it. Otherwise you will just have to put a greenhouse in a sunny spot and knit it a cosy for winter nights.


----------



## PiP

Birdy said:


> Hi BAR... and so you read my fortune. I will find out later how palm trees hold up against frost. The frost wasn't forecast, or I wasn't paying close enough attention.
> 
> I was actually designing a greenhouse project yesterday; I want it on a track so it can follow the sun, but overnight near the warmest part of the house. See how I get distracted?



Hi Birdy, so are you growing palms in pots or in the ground?

I love palms and have four different types. I had 5 but the deadly palm wevil killed one. 

Have you checked this list of palms to see which will survive frost?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hardy_palms

My garden is the most wonderful place to procrastinate...


----------



## PiP

I have a new plant. I asked my friends, who were going to the Algarve Mediterranean Garden  show to choose me a cacti from one of the specialist sellers. Something different I said...

Be careful what I wish for... methinks



They don't know what it is called and Google's best guess on image search is a palm tree. 

Any ideas


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Try looking at photos of Madagascar palm trees, they look similar to me.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Tropaeolum*

Only just came out in time to beat the frost.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Lovely, but you are assuming there will be a frost  
Seriously, my datura is still blooming, usually by this time it is bare and in the greenhouse. Last week there were still flowers coming on the Heavenly Blue morning glory out the front, and where I pulled the Grandpa Otts down at the back it spread seed everywhere which has turned into hundreds of little three inch plants. Too warm.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Olly Buckle said:


> Lovely, but you are assuming there will be a frost
> Seriously, my datura is still blooming, usually by this time it is bare and in the greenhouse. Last week there were still flowers coming on the Heavenly Blue morning glory out the front, and where I pulled the Grandpa Otts down at the back it spread seed everywhere which has turned into hundreds of little three inch plants. Too warm.



We have already had a frost here, shed roof and lawn were white a few mornings ago. Warmer now and wet, my Heavenly Blues are still going, on good days, did yours start blooming very late like mine? It's been a strange summer. The Tropaeolum is sheltered by the house and is now producing seed pods, fingers crossed! I can get some to ripen.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Ginkgo Biloba*

From the age of the dinosaurs (not this one, obviously) l grew it from seed, it's about 8 ft now and goes this lovely buttery yellow in Autumn.


----------



## JustRob

BlondeAverageReader said:


> From the age of the dinosaurs (not this one, obviously) l grew it from seed, it's about 8 ft now and goes this lovely buttery yellow in Autumn.



It hadn't occurred to me that seeds evolved in the time of the dinosaurs. I assumed that in those times plants all came from spores or something primitive like that. It is obvious that my knowledge of the propagation of plants is at the opposite end of the scale from my angel's. In fact, as the spelling checker isn't working on this computer I even had to check that I'd spelled "propagation" correctly. I just assumed that it is spelled similarly to "propaganda", a word that I do encounter.

Propaganda - A large hairy animal native to China that eats very specific primitive species of plants and spreads misleading information on Facebook. China doesn't permit Facebook there to prevent the wholesale migration of other similar species into its own country from abroad. Oh no, hang on, that's a panda isn't it ... or is it? Oh look, pretty flowers on this thread. Dum de dum ...


----------



## Kevin

JustRob said:


> It hadn't occurred to me that seeds evolved in the time of the dinosaurs. I assumed that in those times plants all came from spores or something primitive like that. It is obvious that my knowledge of the propagation of plants is at the opposite end of the scale from my angel's. In fact, as the spelling checker isn't working on this computer I even had to check that I'd spelled "propagation" correctly. I just assumed that it is spelled similarly to "propaganda", a word that I do encounter.
> 
> Propaganda - A large hairy animal native to China that eats very specific primitive species of plants and spreads misleading information on Facebook. China doesn't permit Facebook there to prevent the w
> holesale migration of other similar species into its own country from abroad. Oh no, hang on, that's a panda isn't it ... or is it? Oh look, pretty flowers on this thread. Dum de dum ...


 flowering plants in the Jurassic... I was similarly shocked to see ducks depicted in the water  with aquatic dinos munching away nearby. Apparently by the era depicted it was an accurate depiction.


----------



## Winston

Hopefully nothing will grow in my garden for the next few months.
Yesterday, I cleared and turned all six beds.  Covered the bare dirt with dark plastic (no light penetration).  No Air, no Water, no Light.  No weeds.
This should make next Spring a bit less tedious.


----------



## Olly Buckle

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Warmer now and wet, my Heavenly Blues are still going, on good days, did yours start blooming very late like mine? .


They did, the Grandpa Otts were much earlier. I have been experimenting with growing them in long tom pots and I had mixed them three to a pot, all started at the same time. It worked very well on my friend's balcony last year, they don't grow huge, but were healthy enough and flowered well, but this year one lot finished before the next lot started, I wondered if I was going to see  any heavenly blues.

I had some seed called 'Flying saucers' a couple of years back from Thompson and Morgan, thinking I might try them again next year, they are a bit of a mix, heavenly blues with splashes of other colour mainly.


----------



## Olly Buckle

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Warmer now and wet, my Heavenly Blues are still going, on good days, did yours start blooming very late like mine? .


They did, the Grandpa Otts were much earlier. I have been experimenting with growing them in long tom pots and I had mixed them three to a pot, all started at the same time. It worked very well on my friend's balcony last year, they don't grow huge, but were healthy enough and flowered well, but this year one lot finished before the next lot started, I wondered if I was going to see  any heavenly blues.

I had some seed called 'Flying saucers' a couple of years back from Thompson and Morgan, thinking I might try them again next year, they are a bit of a mix, heavenly blues with splashes of other colour mainly.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Olly Buckle said:


> They did, the Grandpa Otts were much earlier. I have been experimenting with growing them in long tom pots and I had mixed them three to a pot, all started at the same time. It worked very well on my friend's balcony last year, they don't grow huge, but were healthy enough and flowered well, but this year one lot finished before the next lot started, I wondered if I was going to see  any heavenly blues.
> 
> I had some seed called 'Flying saucers' a couple of years back from Thompson and Morgan, thinking I might try them again next year, they are a bit of a mix, heavenly blues with splashes of other colour mainly.



l had never heard of Grandpa Otts, so Googled them to get a picture, they're a lovely colour must try some. Inkspots are an interesting mix with splashes of inky colours, worth a try. They were over before the H Blues came out too. I've tried starting them earlier, but even in large pots (which I then put out in the garden) in the greenhouse if it gets a bit chilly the leaves go white! Starting them late April works best for me.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Nasty smell in the greenhouse*

Oh phew! the carrion cactus is in flower, the warmer it gets in there the stronger the pong of rotting flesh becomes.


----------



## PiP

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Oh phew! the carrion cactus is in flower, the warmer it gets in there the stronger the pong of rotting flesh becomes.
> 
> View attachment 20204



I grow the 
https://worldofsucculents.com/orbea...ata-starfish-plant-carrion-flower-toad-plant/
and my plants don't smell :scratch: The flowers are amazing!
I'd like to track down some of the less common varieties and add to my cacti and succulent collection.


----------



## PiP

*My Garden in December*

I was looking for inspiration and found myself drawn to my garden to find my muse. I love the vibrant colours of the bougainvillea and hibiscus. The mosaic tile of a butterfly in the bottom LH corner was the first project I made at mosaic class.


----------



## kaufenpreis

I was not aware of this! Good tip, thank you.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Carrion cactus seed pod*

After the smelly flower you get a spectacular seed pod!


----------



## Olly Buckle

PiP said:


> I was looking for inspiration and found myself drawn to my garden to find my muse. I love the vibrant colours of the bougainvillea and hibiscus. The mosaic tile of a butterfly in the bottom LH corner was the first project I made at mosaic class.
> 
> View attachment 20253
> 
> View attachment 20254
> 
> View attachment 20255



Looking out of the window at the remenants of storm 'Caroline' lashing the trees I feel so sorry for you having to put up with all that boring sunshine, even in winter. An excellent mosaic, but does the thermometer above it ever actually reach minus forty? It seems unlikely you ever get anywhere near


----------



## PiP

Olly Buckle said:


> Looking out of the window at the remenants of storm 'Caroline' lashing the trees I feel so sorry for you having to put up with all that boring sunshine, even in winter. An excellent mosaic, but does the thermometer above it ever actually reach minus forty? It seems unlikely you ever get anywhere near



It's only when the reservoirs dry up that you wish the sky would turn grey and give you rain...  We've now had a few storms with heavy rain. Unfortunately it is still not enough to replenish the depleted water reserves.

I think the thermometer is more of a design statement with the -40, Olly   We don't really get frost as such. VERY occasionally some on the windscreen of the car, but nothing like you get in the UK.


----------



## Olly Buckle

We went for a xmas tree this morning and the frost  on the car windscreen was in leaf patterns. I had to run the car forsome time to  warmit up  before I could shift it, before that I could only get a thin layer off the top.

Tree is up and making the front room smell nice


----------



## PiP

Oh no... you don't buy a real tree? Does it have roots so you can keep it alive?


----------



## PiP

Yesterday, I went I went to buy some garden pots. I ended up with 2 pots, a Buddha and this odd cacti. I only bought it because it was quirky and I collect quirky.


----------



## JustRob

Olly Buckle said:


> We went for a xmas tree this morning and the frost  on the car windscreen was in leaf patterns. I had to run the car forsome time to  warmit up  before I could shift it, before that I could only get a thin layer off the top.
> 
> Tree is up and making the front room smell nice





PiP said:


> Oh no... you don't buy a real tree? Does it have roots so you can keep it alive?



That smell is the reason for having a real tree. There doesn't appear to be an artificial substitute for that. However, trees that don't drop their needles also don't tend to smell, whether they are a different variety or have been sprayed to stop the needles dropping. We don't kill a tree for Christmas any more, but we miss that unique seasonal smell.

Even if trees have just the stumps of roots they can recover and carry on growing provided that they are well cared for while in the house. My angel's family had a Christmas tree like that that they planted out in the garden and it became a full sized fir tree that eventually produced fir cones. It must have been about 45 years old when it was cut down because it had become so large and we kept a couple of roundels from the trunk as the rings in them represent my angel's life right from when she was a little girl. In fact the tree was probably born around the same time that she was.


----------



## Olly Buckle

PiP said:


> Oh no... you don't buy a real tree? Does it have roots so you can keep it alive?



Yes, from the Christmas tree farm, it is about six foot tall, so too big for roots


----------



## Pete_C

Part of the woods at my house used to be a Christmas tree plantation, many years ago. The previous owner planted a couple of acres of Norwegian Spruce, before realising you need around 400 acres at least to make a living off it. He gave up on the idea but never removed them or thinned them out. Instead he just added more deciduous trees to hide the thing. As a result we have a deciduous woodland with a coniferous wood in the middle. They're about 40 foot high, way too close together and with no living branches until you reach the last five of six feet, which get light. It's dark and quiet inside, eerily so, and the grandkids love it so I've left it alone.

I decided that if I chopped one down, I could trim off the top six feet and have a free Christmas tree. Happy days! Of course, they were so close together that the selected tree didn't fall once chainsawed. It just leaned against the others, the live branches at the top intertwined. It was like a bunch of friends holding up a drunk on Christmas Eve night. I figured I could tie a rope around the base and pull it out with the truck. What could go wrong?

Luckily I had been drinking when I decided to do this, so after a few snapped ropes and the bumper of the truck getting a tree-sized dent, I opted for the more traditional manual approach. Sadly that ended up with my Missus tearing her rotator cuff! What followed was an epic amount of swearing, combined with the misuse (and abuse) of just about every tool I could find. I had no joy.

In the end I devised the 'slice and kick' method. This involved slicing through the trunk with a chainsaw at about head height (yes, I know), and then drop kicking the lower portion. The result was that the six foot piece of trunk would go sideways and the rest of the tree would drop to the ground. Eventually it would clear the canopy and fall to the ground, probably. I know it sounds slightly unorthodox, but I was the wrong side of a good few IPAs by this point.

Having made the first slice, I prepared for the kick. I told my Missus to clear the area. Looking around, I realised that if anything went wrong I had nowhere to run. I was pretty much hemmed in by trees, and the only was out was passed the one that would be falling. There was only one course of action: I made the kick before common sense could slow me down.

It took three or four drops before the tree broke free of the canopy, but even then it didn't fall. It just smashed into another tree and hung there precariously. I used a variety of tools: ropes, hammers, metal spikes, pieces of discarded trunk. Because of the angle of the tree the chainsaw blade was likely to jam as the trunk sagged, so I decided to use off-cuts to prop it up. That might sound technical, but it amounted to little more than jamming upright pieces of trunk into the ground and wedging them under the trunk. 

It was pathetic, but I had no choice. She had embedded herself in front of the fire with a glass of red and was refusing to offer further help. It was getting dark and the rain had started. I had to get the tree down and in the house. The method employed was 'cut and run'. I got the chainsaw running at fell speed and attacked. The trunk started to move sideways but I got through it before it fell and then dropped the chainsaw and ran. It was, to some degree, a successful manoeuvre!

A few cuts once the tree was on the ground resulted in a six foot green tree. Now, you might think - as I did - that the top 6 feet of a 40 foot spruce would look similar to a 6 foot Christmas tree, but it doesn't. It looks like the top 6 inches of a 6 foot tree, but magnified. I ended up with one central branch and one side branch that was about 4 feet long. When I showed it to my Missus, she cried. Tears can of joy as well as sorrow, so I took that as a good sign.

Everyone who saw the tree laughed. Well, when I say everyone, I must exclude my loved one. She didn't laugh at all.

This year, she informs me, we are buying a tree.


----------



## Kevin

Tree lots this year are scarce. I went yesterday and they (kids working the lot)said we are feeling the 10-year-after-effects of a drought in the northwest. Prices were higher, and stock, limited. The owner ( he rents) told me the lot location was getting developed, so he asked for my email to let us know where they'd be selling from next year. I didn't ask, but for the last few years all the trees over here have no scent to them. They seem to last longer, too.  I'm thinking hairspray or Chapstick. No one seems to know.


----------



## Darren White

Pete_C said:


> This year, she informs me, we are buying a tree.


Pete, you had me crying with laughter, which is a good thing I can assure you


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Crab Apple tree is growing smaller*

Men with chainsaw and chipping machine arrived today to tame my unruly tree.


----------



## PiP

Over the last  six months I have developed a passion for collecting cacti and succulent and am on a quest to collect over 100 different types.  These are just a few. To aid their survival (I have a tendency to overwater)  I am gradually creating a photo journal of every plant I buy along with its name and relevant care instructions. I then print and file in a looseleaf file. 

Some of the plants grow in pots while others I grow directly in the ground.



My Jade plant has been flowering all through January!


Then I have (I've yet to identify him)




Sedum


----------



## dither

Was thinking;

The title of this thread could be easily used as a metaphor.
Just thinking that's all.


----------



## Olly Buckle

dither said:


> Was thinking;
> 
> The title of this thread could be easily used as a metaphor.
> Just thinking that's all.



With the voice of Kenneth Williams?

I'm afraid our little Prunus Autumnalis has died, it was a particularly graceful example, sometimes they are a bit 'heavy' or uneven.


----------



## topcol

Ariel said:


> Gardening is . . . odd in the US.  Public land requires a permit to walk on if it isn't open to the public much less to garden.  Plus, most businesses won't allow locals to do anything with the land surrounding their property. On top of that private gardens require permission from homeowners associations (if you have a nice enough house) and they will rule even what kind of things you can plant.
> 
> I have room for a garden and no homeowners association but I still have to contend with poor soil, walnut trees, and not enough sunlight. Last time we planted a garden the neighbor's boys pulled out all of our sprouts while we were at work. The year before that they smashed all of our pots.



Bloody Hell, Ariel, that is damned awful. If you can afford it, move to the UK! Failing that, perhaps fresh horse manure on your garden would resolve the poor soil and the predations of your neighbour's horrible brats.

What about hanging baskets and/or window boxes?

When I worked for the police, we often had reports of such incidents and we treated each one as criminal damage.

Hope things improve for you.

topcol


----------



## topcol

We've been living in a rented holiday cottage for a year now since selling our narrowboat. It's on a small farm in Kent which can only be accessed along a badly potholed track across a manorial common called a 'minnis'. We haven't got a garden, just a few potted plants but there are thousands of snowdrops blooming at the moment in the farm's gardens as well as all over the minnis. No other plants at all unless you count grass, trees and shrubs, all Winter bare at this time of the year apart from the hollies which form the hedge around the sheep pasture next to the windmill.

topcol


----------



## Bayview

I've got at least two feet of snow in my garden, and more falling. February is supposed to be a fierce month this year.

It's too early to even start seeds, although of course I'm getting antsy and want to try. I've got a far-too-large system of lights I inherited when a friend cleaned out her basement, one of those multi-level shelves with fluorescent tubes at each level? I haven't changed any of the tubes so I'm not sure I'm getting all that much of the important light from them, but I set it up in front of some patio doors so there's natural light as well as the artificial and things seem to go okay. But it's too early! I can't plant outside until mid- to late- May, so... must restrain myself!

I'll just have to live vicariously through the rest of you!


----------



## dither

Jeez Bayview,
where are YOU posting from?


----------



## Bayview

dither said:


> Jeez Bayview,
> where are YOU posting from?



Ontario, Canada. SOUTHERN Ontario, one of the mildest climates in the country. They don't call us the Great White North for nuthin'.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Mistletoe*

Not in my garden, in a local lane this tree is loaded with it.


----------



## Moonbeast32

for the last few years, there's been nothing in the garden box but some wild oaks. I'm surprised they are still able to survive in such a tiny box. 

We've never gotten around to uprooting them. I guess we've grown to prefer the curtain from our neighbors over some pathetic tomatoes and rosemary


----------



## Bayview

I'm trying to hold out for another couple weeks before I start any seeds. I'm not sure I can make it!!! I need to see something GROW!!!!!


----------



## Olly Buckle

Bayview said:


> I'm trying to hold out for another couple weeks before I start any seeds. I'm not sure I can make it!!! I need to see something GROW!!!!!



Mustard and cress, it's great, grows like stink, takes no time at all, you get multiple boxes on a window sill, you can eat it, and it is so fresh, practically still living. Great stuff for dark days.


----------



## PiP

I've never seen Mustard and Cress in Portugal not even in the supermarkets. PErhpas I need to get some seeds sent from the UK. I used to love egg and cress sandwiches! MAkes me homesick just thinking about it.


----------



## Olly Buckle

If it is real mustard and cress you have toplant them at different times, they germinate at different rates, but you can plant things on their own. A lot of 'cress' is other things, plenty of two-leaves make tasty salad. Rape seed is cheap and plentiful, basil is really tasty, and produces thousands of seeds if you let it go to  flower.


----------



## Bayview

I do have an indoor windowbox full of lettuce that I use cut-and-come-again harvesting on, but it doesn't grow too well at this time of year and my current batch has been cut too many times so it's getting bitter. I guess I could re-seed it! It may not be a great crop, but it'd be something!


----------



## H.Brown

I'm waiting to see if my Chili plant has survived the winter. Fingers crossed.


----------



## Olly Buckle

I have pots with tete a tete, early minature daffodils, coming into flower, and some minature tulips.


----------



## Bayview

Olly Buckle said:


> I have pots with tete a tete, early minature daffodils, coming into flower, and some minature tulips.



I have a foot-and-a-half of snow, AFTER a three-day thaw. Aaaargh!!!!


----------



## writerJoe

I'm growing coffee plants in containers! Its not exactly a garden but they've traveled with us through 5 moves and a car accident, so I'd like to think of them as our traveling garden.

They've certainly been tricky plants and I'm honestly surprised they are still alive, given everything they've gone through. 

They've only really thrived with south facing windows, which has not been a convenience to us in some situations. Growing lights have not seemed to help supplement lighting issues. They like the room to stay warm, which has made the power company happy. The soil needs to stay acidic, so the room they are in usually smells of vinegar. And just recently, they've broken out with soil mites, so we'll probably repot them in efforts to combat those buggers. The repotting is really a shame because they just started rebuilding with new growth. They've struggled hard since their old containers were destroyed in our car accident and have finally just settled into these containers. I'm sure something else will come up soon too. It's always something with these plants!


----------



## Olly Buckle

I have two varieties of rhubarb, the earlier one has well broken the surface, so I covered it with an old dustbin the other day to force it on a bit. Not much else happening though, except snow.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Struggling back to spring*



Battered and bruised by the Beast from the East.


----------



## Olly Buckle

All my little tete-a-tete were flopped over, but they have stood up again today, amazingly tough, not many living cells will freeze through and still make it without bursting.


----------



## Winston

My daughter just bought more cilantro.  We planted the stuff years ago and it keeps coming back like a weed.  In-between the beans, tomatoes, carrots.   I think that stuff is more resilient than dandelions.
We did plant some daffodil bulbs.  If they do sprout this year, they probably won't flower.  That's what's nice about gardening.  There's always next year.


----------



## Kevin

We got a new crop of gophers, rabbits, and rats. The new squirrels don't recognize we're dangerous. The new generation... Sheesh.


----------



## LMWriting

I used to have a rabbit that live in my garden, I just named it and shared the space seemed easier than trying to convince it to leave my garden alone.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*The yearly battle begins*

As l got the greenfly killer out to try and save my Fuchsias, l remembered this poem an old gardener friend had given me, it says it all.


----------



## Kevin

I like rabbits.
 I like'm with taters, carets, pays... scworsh.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Sparrows are removing my basket liner.*

It’s so unfair, l go out of my way to keep them fed and watered and this is how they repay me.


----------



## Olly Buckle

You are not alone, I have never had much success with those wall things, I have tried all sorts of plants, our back wall faces south, and it is next to the tap  so gets watered. My best was tumbler tomatoes, reasonably decorative when ripe


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Tulips*

Small dainty ones.



Large red ones.



Weird! Don’t remember planting any that looked like this.


----------



## Olly Buckle

The small dainty ones are nice, i have some yellow and white ones similar in shape, Turkish in origin ?  I have tended to acqire odd bulbs and cuttings, so things like that I often don't know exactly what I have got. My rhubarb, for example. It is a really good early one, must be an old fashioned variety, I found it thirty years ago when clearing weeds. It is having a recovery at the moment, I had a black dustbin over it so we had two pickings of wonderfully tender and sweet pink and white stems. My other, later, one is coming on though.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Olly Buckle said:


> The small dainty ones are nice, i have some yellow and white ones similar in shape, Turkish in origin ?  I have tended to acqire odd bulbs and cuttings, so things like that I often don't know exactly what I have got. My rhubarb, for example. It is a really good early one, must be an old fashioned variety, I found it thirty years ago when clearing weeds. It is having a recovery at the moment, I had a black dustbin over it so we had two pickings of wonderfully tender and sweet pink and white stems. My other, later, one is coming on though.



Yes l believe they are Turkish, the only tulips I’ve grown with two or three flowers per stem, being short they stand up to the wind well too.
l love rhubarb but it takes up too much room in my smallish garden, so when mine got past it l didn’t get a replacement..
l now grow raspberries which take up less ground space and have a long cropping season.


----------



## PiP

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Weird! Don’t remember planting any that looked like this.
> 
> View attachment 21524



I love these! I love quirky flowers and plants.


----------



## PiP

On the 18th March I bought some lettuce plugs from the local market.



A month later



It just goes to show even if you have a small garden or even only a balcony you can grow your own lettuce. I also grow cucumbers, spring onion and radish. All in recycled containers.

Anyone else grow salad in containers?


----------



## Bayview

I grow lettuce on my dining room window sill all winter long. It's not as good as outdoor lettuce, but it's still pretty good!

And re. quirky plants - some venerable British gardener (can't remember who) had a part of his garden that he called The Lunatic Asylum. As I recall, the entrance was marked by a pair of Corylus avallana 'Contorta', and then he planted whatever other weird and wonderful items he could find in the inner garden. I have aspirations to follow his example...


----------



## PiP

> I grow lettuce on my dining room window sill all winter long. It's not as good as outdoor lettuce, but it's still pretty good!



The great thing about growing your own lettuce is you only pick the leaves you need. 



> And re. quirky plants - some venerable British gardener (can't remember who) had a part of his garden that he called The Lunatic Asylum. As I recall, the entrance was marked by a pair of Corylus avallana 'Contorta', and then he planted whatever other weird and wonderful items he could find in the inner garden. I have aspirations to follow his example...



I grew those when I was in the UK. Can't say I've sen them here. I LOVE the idea of growing quirky plants.... hence why I've started a cactus and succulent garden.


----------



## am_hammy

I used to garden with my grandmother when I was small  and I had my own mini tomato patch and tried to grow cucumbers. These days I can barely keep plants alive, though I’m considering starting a mini herb garden and set it on the balcony.

Your gardens look lovely ^_^


----------



## Olly Buckle

Growing in small containers is more difficult, hammy. Generally speaking plants like constancy, or rather the slow, even, change of the seasons, I know a few people who have grown potatoes in a nice sunny spot, produced a large, healthy looking plant, and almost no potatoes because the top part of the plant likes hot and sunny, but underground it prefers cool and damp. If you want a herb garden the shrubby ones like sage, rosemary and thyme can do quite well, mint is a little more demanding of constantly damp earth. It is worth planting in separate pots, not only are the plants not in competition with each other, if ever you have occasion it is much easier to move things, though it is worth using potsthat are as big as you can manage in the space. I have a small trough outside the back door, maybe two feet long, with six thyme plants that spillover the edges, and even a little one like that is quite heavy full of damp earth. If you try different sorts of mint, and there are well over a hundred, they *must* be planted separately as if the roots mingle they will soon all taste the same. Those thyme plants I put out at the end of last summer, they have been growing quietly at the bottom ofthe garden. They came from a pot of thyme from a supermarket which I split up into the individual plants and potted on last spring. A supermarket thyme is basically a collection of young seedling plants, the seperation process is a bit brutal on them and a number did not survive, I still had enough to make three little troughs, kept the best and sold the other two. This works with most things that are sold growing in the supermarket, but not worth it for basil. Try growing that from seed, you will get more variety too that way, my missus particularly likes the large leaf variety. Warmth and constant damp are what is needed for germination, and a piece of cling film across the top of the pot can help that no end.
I usually prefer watering from underneath, so look out for something tray like that will fit your space, and sit fairly level, it is much quicker and easier to tip water into the tray than water each pot individually, and there is always a gradual accumulation of earth under the pots, which can be messy and staining if they are on the floor. Individual saucers still mean the plants need watering individually, and the saucers are usually bigger than the pots, meaning they are more spread out for no extra soil.

Start with some good earth that will hold water, peat based compost is wonderful at it, but *not* environmentally friendly, there are some good substitutes nowadays, and remember holding water does not mean it contains the mineral foods plants need. These are soluable and wash out quite quickly, remember to *feed* your plants from time to time, tomato feed is a good all round feed and usually the cheapest way to buy it.

Good luck, it really is a good feeling when you flavour your meal with home grown herbs and add a few leaves of your own salad on the side as garnish.


----------



## Dave Watson

We bought a 230 year old cottage a couple of years ago. Place ended up almost bankrupting us due to lots of damp and asbestos in the walls, a collapsed living room ceiling, leaky roofs and chimneys and a twice flooded kitchen. It came with a decent sized garden though, with fruit trees and everything, though it hadn't been tended to in several years and was a bit of a jungle. Don't know if it was turning forty about that time, or the fact that I've developed a low tolerance for mess as I've grown into my middling years, but been spending the rare sunny days in Scotland transforming my green space into a leafy fruity haven. Here's a couple of snaps...













And then me and the boy built a firepit!


----------



## PiP

Dave, your garden looks like my kinda place.  I'd love fruit trees, especially pears. Unfortunately, because we are so close to the ocean our garden is blasted by salt winds and any fruit trees I plant are fighting a losing battle. I have persevered and now have an orange, nespera and peach tree. .. the plum, apricot and kumquat are still undecided if they want to live. 

A fire pit, what a brilliant idea!


----------



## Dave Watson

Thanks PIP. The firepit was easy. All you need is a shovel and a bunch of bricks!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Mother-in-Laws tongue*

Coming out late afternoon ready to make us feel slightly sick this evening.
I guess they are moth pollinated as they only smell at night.


----------



## PiP

That looks  a healthy specimen!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

PiP said:


> That looks  a healthy specimen!



Yes it grows very fast, desperately in need of a larger pot!


----------



## Olly Buckle

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Yes it grows very fast, desperately in need of a larger pot!


What sort of dimension? I have some pretty big ones in my 'spares' collection.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Olly Buckle said:


> What sort of dimension? I have some pretty big ones in my 'spares' collection.



Thanks for the offer Olly.
I am lucky enough to have inherited a large collection of Sankey clay pots, some must be older than me, equally wonky too! I’ll have to brace myself to evict the huge spiders who call them home, if l don’t return send help!


----------



## Olly Buckle

Terracotta pots look great , but they lose water so fast, most things don't like them. Spray the inside with satin finish varnish though ...


----------



## Bayview

PLANTS!!!

Finally, after the longest winter I can remember, there are plants growing in my garden!

I planted two pawpaw trees this morning. They're understory trees in nature, and _most_ of the guides I found said they want partial sun, not full, and _all_ agreed that they can't handle full sun for the first few years. There's an area of my garden that has trees pruned up to have tall canopies and then several-years-worth of scrubby growth underneath that (because it's a sort of plateau/terrace half-way down a steep hill and I haven't bothered to keep it tidy). So I cleared out a few square metres of ground and slapped the pawpaws in the middle of each clearing, but then worried that I'd overcleared and they'd get sunburned while they're babies so I put tomato cages around them and then propped an upside-down plastic pot on the top of each tomato cage so they won't get direct sun at noon-time, and... we'll see what happens!

I'm going to have rustic stairs hacked into the side of the hillside this summer, and there's already a firepit down there, so I'm looking forward to having campfires and watching my pawpaws grow!


----------



## PiP

Bayview said:


> P There's an area of my garden that has trees pruned up to have tall canopies and then several-years-worth of scrubby growth underneath that (because it's a sort of plateau/terrace half-way down a steep hill). So I cleared out a few square metres of ground and slapped the pawpaws in the middle of each clearing, but then worried that I'd overcleared and they'd get sunburned while they're babies so I put tomato cages around them and then propped an upside-down plastic pot on the top of each tomato cage so they won't get direct sun at noon-time, and... we'll see what happens!


sounds like a plan!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Olly Buckle said:


> Terracotta pots look great , but they lose water so fast, most things don't like them. Spray the inside with satin finish varnish though ...



I only use them for cacti and succulent plants that suffer if they get waterlogged. The mother-in-laws tongue has to have a clay pot for another reason too, the root system is so strong it rips plastic pots to bits!
Considering using the rest of the pots to make Bill & Ben figures, already have plenty of Little Weed.


----------



## Winston

Tried growing some of my veggies from seed this year.  They sprouted just fine, but when I put them outside, they withered and died within days.  It's not that cold here, but I discovered my mistake.
It turns out I needed to acclimatize them first.  A few hours a day out, then back inside for a week or so.  They needed to toughen-up first.  Live and learn.

On the bright side, the blueberry and gooseberry bushes look good.  And the pruning of the apple tree worked great!  I think it'll produce some better quality apples this year.
And we planted some purple Peruvian potatoes that are sprouting now.  A little something different.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Even 'ordinary' potatoes taste different when they are grown in a bit of real dirt and havn't been in a plasic bag for a week. As my friend commented, 'Your onions make me cry when I chop them, Olly; the supermarket ones don't do that anymore. Things like potatos and onions that grow from bulbs or tubers can be much easier and quicker than sowing seed. Mind you, runner beans are always worth growing, about 900% better than shop bought and nearly always do well.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Wisteria now in full bloom, smells the house out.*


----------



## Olly Buckle

That and the clematis are great together. We have a summer jasmine that grows right up above the back  door, the smell from that goes right through the house. Do you know the cottages in Benenden? There is a row of thatched cottages with an ancient  wisteria that goes the whole length of them.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Welsh Poppies*


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Olly Buckle said:


> That and the clematis are great together. We have a summer jasmine that grows right up above the back  door, the smell from that goes right through the house. Do you know the cottages in Benenden? There is a row of thatched cottages with an ancient  wisteria that goes the whole length of them.



No, don’t think we’ve been through Benenden for years, but there are lots of old houses in our area covered in it.
Our Jasmine climbs over the fence every year and makes itself at home on top of the neighbours shrubs, no complaints so far!
Sadly the Wisteria that came from the other side of the house to join up with this one suddenly turned up its toes.


----------



## bangers

Nothing yet, but I am planning on planting tomatoes, potatoes, and some flowers. This will be my first time doing such thing, so  I hope it will be successful.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Storm Clouds, everything’s dripping*


----------



## Olly Buckle

bangers said:


> Nothing yet, but I am planning on planting tomatoes, potatoes, and some flowers. This will be my first time doing such thing, so  I hope it will be successful.



I don't know where you are, but I know people with potatoes in flower already and my tomatoes are in  flower, better get a move on! I would reccomend runner beans to anyone as a first crop, productive, grow satisfyingly big, and taste completely different picked fresh. It is a lie about them putting nitrogen in the soil, they make it for their own use, so composyt the plants afterwards to get it. They like keeping their roots damp, a trench lined with paper or cardboard helps, and it rots down to put fibre in the soil for the next year.


----------



## Winston

It looks like the bumble bees and honey bees like the thyme in our herb garden.  I don't know if anyone else has had success attracting bees with this.  
The only other thing they like is the annoying white flowering weeds in our lawn.  Makes me feel guilty when I weed.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Winston said:


> It looks like the bumble bees and honey bees like the thyme in our herb garden.  I don't know if anyone else has had success attracting bees with this.
> The only other thing they like is the annoying white flowering weeds in our lawn.  Makes me feel guilty when I weed.



Bees are keen on all herb flowers, sage, rosemary and chives are favourites in my garden. Fruit bushes in flower, the raspberries are very popular and a bit later in the summer make sure you have a lavender or two.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Raspberries have been buzzing! In Summer I think of verbena benariensis, in Autumn the michealmass daisies. But yes, I have a small trough with half a dozen thyme plants, and bees have been loving it.


----------



## Dave Watson

Hey Olly, got a spud related question maybe you could help me with. Threw a bunch of wee pots in my planting beds a while back, bout a month or so, and they're now satisfyingly bushy and looking ready to be harvested. To keep the grow going, do I just put the smaller specimens back in the ground to keep a constant stream going, or do I replant the actual plants after taking ff the spuds?


----------



## Pete_C

Olly Buckle said:


> It is a lie about them putting nitrogen in the soil, they make it for their own use...



Mister Buckle; hush that dirty mouth.

If you pull up the roots and examine them you'll find tiny little specks; these are rich in nitrogen. You need to cut off bean stalks at ground level and leave the roots intact. Some of the nitrogen will be used up by the rotting roots, but not all. If you add further compost that isn't fully decomposed then that will rob nitrogen if dug in.

The best thing to do with bean stalks is burn them, them put the ash on the surface. That'll also increase the potassium and potash (no, they're not the same).

When you have the initial trench lined with newspaper, don't forget to do a Jimmy Riddle into the trench every time you pass before you fill it in.

I build trenches in autumn. I tend to put in newspaper, then I damp it down with my secret golden elixir, then a layer of unrotted (yes, unrotted) manure, then a load of veg scraps, then a layer of compost and cover it with weed matting and a layer of heavy duty black plastic. Take the last two layers off in Spring. 

If you include potato peelings with the veg scraps, you'll usually get a crop of very small potatoes before your clear off any weeds and put the beans in.


----------



## Bayview

Dave Watson said:


> Hey Olly, got a spud related question maybe you could help me with. Threw a bunch of wee pots in my planting beds a while back, bout a month or so, and they're now satisfyingly bushy and looking ready to be harvested. To keep the grow going, do I just put the smaller specimens back in the ground to keep a constant stream going, or do I replant the actual plants after taking ff the spuds?



If your soil's light enough, you can actually keep the current plant active by digging beside the plant, burrowing over and gently pulling the potatoes off the roots, then patting everything back into place (maybe with a "thank you" top dressing of fertilizer). I like baby potatoes much more than the big ones, so I tend to harvest this way all through the season and then leave the plants alone for the last month or two of growing to build up some bigger tubers for the final harvest.

I feel a bit guilty, stealing the "babies", but they're delicious!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Fuchsia Blacky*


----------



## Bayview

BlondeAverageReader said:


> View attachment 22046



That's GORGEOUS!

Are they hardy where you live, or do you have to treat it as an annual?


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Bayview said:


> That's GORGEOUS!
> 
> Are they hardy where you live, or do you have to treat it as an annual?



Blacky is half hardy, so in the U.K. it will have to spend the winter in my greenhouse. Towards the end of the year l will also take cuttings from it, so l have more next spring.


----------



## Bayview

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Blacky is half hardy, so in the U.K. it will have to spend the winter in my greenhouse. Towards the end of the year l will also take cuttings from it, so l have more next spring.



What does "half-hardy" really mean? Like, it'll make it through a mild winter but not a harsh one?


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Bayview said:


> What does "half-hardy" really mean? Like, it'll make it through a mild winter but not a harsh one?


Basically yes, won’t put up with frost at all, or in some cases will put up with a light frost. Sometimes it just depends if the soil is dry, ours never is and we get frost so the safest place is inside.


----------



## Winston

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Basically yes, won’t put up with frost at all, or in some cases will put up with a light frost. Sometimes it just depends if the soil is dry, ours never is and we get frost so the safest place is inside.



That would mean our potatoes are 4/5ths hardy.  Only, I'm not moving hundreds of pounds inside every winter.  So we take our chances.


----------



## PiP

All the flowers on these tomato plants drop and fail to fruit.  Any ideas what could be causing this? My Cherry tomatoes are fine, but not these.


----------



## PiP

BlondeAverageReader said:


> View attachment 22046



I'd love to grow fuchsias. This  variety is stunning!


----------



## Bayview

There's an actual condition called tomato blossom drop - I think it's most often tied to temperature issues, but I think any stress on the plant can be the issue.

I have no idea why it'd be affecting one type of tomatoes and not the other, though... Are the plants in the same part of your garden? Are they approximately the same size plants?


----------



## PiP

The plants are side by side... I have raised both varieties of tomatoes since they were seedlings in early February. I'm gutted


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

PiP said:


> The plants are side by side... I have raised both varieties of tomatoes since they were seedlings in early February. I'm gutted



Have you grown both varieties successfully before?
Has it been hotter than usual, or colder? Weather seems to be the root cause of this problem.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Built a tunnel over the strawberries, but left out a couple of odd plants at the end, I wondered why the birds were not eating them, then realised the cat has discovered the tunnel is a nice warm place out of the wind. Picking strawberries daily, but they are a bit on the small side, it has been very dry.


----------



## TuesdayEve

New at gardening fruits and veggies. The squirrels live
for the tomatoes. Heard peppermint and spearmint are
detractors, not true. I planted both in the same pot with 
the tomato. They dig down into the roots and also my 
petunias. All the flowers are gone and the roots dug up.
I have a bird bath for water and occasionally in summer 
throw out peanuts for my three girls but they still dig up
the petunias which also have peppermint planted with 
them. Eye-yi-yi...Someone recommended cayenne. 
Anyone else have any organic anti squirrel ideas?


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

TuesdayEve said:


> New at gardening fruits and veggies. The squirrels live
> for the tomatoes. Heard peppermint and spearmint are
> detractors, not true. I planted both in the same pot with
> the tomato. They dig down into the roots and also my
> petunias. All the flowers are gone and the roots dug up.
> I have a bird bath for water and occasionally in summer
> throw out peanuts for my three girls but they still dig up
> the petunias which also have peppermint planted with
> them. Eye-yi-yi...Someone recommended cayenne.
> Anyone else have any organic anti squirrel ideas?



As you have the right to ‘bear arms’ I’d suggest an AK 47, sorry only kidding, there’s no point fighting squirrels life’s too short. A wire mesh cage is probably the only safe place to grow your toms.


----------



## Olly Buckle

I don't know about spearmint, it looks different from mint, but there are many, many different varieties of mint with flavours from pineapple to lemon, but if grown in the same pot they will all end up with the same basic mint flavour.

Wire cages can also be used to trap squirrels, softies then deport them, toughies drown them. We have the excuse that grey squirrels are not a native species, our own red ones are not nearly so destructive, in gardens or forests.


----------



## AphoticN

Ugh! This year, nothing is growing in my garden thanks to two obnoxious dogs. Yes, they are my dogs--or my wife and daughter's--but they chewed through _metal chicken-wire_ and cedar posts and ripped out my fences that were solely intended to keep them out. They fancy digging in my planters now. Since even metal does not stop their voracious chewing habits, I have ceded the garden to them and they are victorious... unfortunately.

I had an awesome zucchini harvest last year.  Sliced and combined with the garlic and chives that were slowly but surely growing, we feasted on some amazing grilled zucchini at least once a week for about four months last year.


----------



## EmpWriter

I have huge over grown rose bushes. Too many rose bushes!


----------



## PiP

I love growing hibiscus. This has been growing in the same pot for eight years and thrives in partial sunlight (morning only). I water daily throughout the summer and feed with 'miracle grow' every few weeks during the summer. It is a very happy plant as it rewards me with a continuous show of flowers twelve months of the year.


----------



## moderan

Pumpkin patch, with weeds and assorted flowering plants.


----------



## PiP

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Have you grown both varieties successfully before?
> Has it been hotter than usual, or colder? Weather seems to be the root cause of this problem.



Yes, it's the same varieties I grow every year. I would say colder...but our colder is probably a typical English summer for this time of year with temps that went down to 16C then up to 30C. PErhaps I started them too early.

But hey, I have just bought another six plugs which I plan to frow well away from the other plants.  Are you growing any vegetables?



moderan said:


> Pumpkin patch, with weeds and assorted flowering plants.



I've never tried growing pumpkins. Are they easy to grow?


----------



## Bloggsworth

Too much, far too much...


----------



## Olly Buckle

Bloggsworth said:


> Too much, far too much...



I am reminded of the Perishers cartoon,

Marlon' What are you doing?'
Wellington, 'Cutting down weeds'
Marlon, 'How do you know they are weeds?'
Wellington. 'They're growing aren't they?'


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

PiP said:


> Yes, it's the same varieties I grow every year. I would say colder...but our colder is probably a typical English summer for this time of year with temps that went down to 16C then up to 30C. PErhaps I started them too early.
> 
> But hey, I have just bought another six plugs which I plan to frow well away from the other plants.  Are you growing any vegetables?



The only veg, errr, come to think of it aren’t tomatoes fruit? Well anyway I’m growing 4 types of toms in the greenhouse and put 3 odd ones in the garden, the first flowers are showing now.
Trying an orange beefsteak variety again, bit disappointed with the quantity of toms last year, the few huge ones were delicious though.


----------



## moderan

PiP said:


> I've never tried growing pumpkins. Are they easy to grow?



Very easy. I planted them and I water them. That growth in the picture is less than a month's worth.


----------



## PiP

moderan said:


> Very easy. I planted them and I water them. That growth in the picture is less than a month's worth.



That's impressive! Perhaps I should try growing them.


----------



## Gumby

Taken today,still a work in progress in the back bed.


----------



## PiP

Gumby said:


> View attachment 22137
> 
> Taken today,still a work in progress in the back bed.



I love the face. IT's really quirky. Is the bed in the shape of a heart?


----------



## Gumby

PiP said:


> I love the face. IT's really quirky. Is the bed in the shape of a heart?



More like a butterfly.


----------



## PiP

Gumby said:


> More like a butterfly.



Ok_aaaaa_y. I'll take your word for it  IT's the angle the photo was taken which gave it the appearance of a heart.


----------



## Gumby

It wasn't meant to be any particular shape, more just a freeform. The front bed is much smaller than the back. The rocks are gathered from the property and from what my dad dug up when he did the backhoe work for our waterline. 

By George, looking at it with new eyes I think you may be right about it being more heart shaped, PiP.


----------



## C.Stone

I have a single strawberry plant. I eat from it everyday.


----------



## Gumby

I love strawberries! You need a fenced garden here because of the deer and rabbits, etc.


----------



## H.Brown

C.Stone said:


> I have a single strawberry plant. I eat from it everyday.



I want to grow a strawberry plant on my window ledge alongside my sole ghost chocolate chilli plant. Love eating strawberries.


----------



## Paul Atreides

I'm just growing some peppers, onions and some peaches. The process is going good so far but i have gotten some worms and other insects that are trying to infect my garden. I got em and hopefully my stuff grows healthy.


----------



## Olly Buckle

H.Brown said:


> I want to grow a strawberry plant on my window ledge alongside my sole ghost chocolate chilli plant. Love eating strawberries.



I have a section of box gutter under the windowsill by the back door with alpine strawberries in it. They flower frost to frost, so there is nearly always a tasty morsel.


----------



## Winston

Just harvested some carrots and peas.  Fresh, firm and flavorful.  The potatoes are probably ready, but I tend to leave them (out of sight, out of mind).  I planted some Peruvian Purples, can't wait to try them.  It's always hit or miss with the tomatoes in this climate, with this year being more of a miss. :grumpy:
All the "volunteer" cilantro growing between stuff is flowering and attracting bumble bees.   
My wife picked blueberries and gooseberries out of our front yard.  More jars of preserves coming up.
Also upcoming, our apple tree will start dropping fruit in a few weeks.  Gotta be ready for that.


----------



## TuesdayEve

Sounds yummy...My tomatoes are still there, growing 
and still flowering. The mints are exploring beyond the
tomato pot, so far I haven’t seen any sign of squirrel 
invaders. Maybe mint works.


----------



## PiP

My latest crop of strawberries.



Yes, they are huge!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Sempervivums flowering and second flush of Wisteria flowers*


----------



## Gumby

Evidently I am growing moss.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Gumby said:


> Evidently I am growing moss.
> 
> View attachment 22305




My moss is dead
My lawn is brown
My soils now dust
I wear a frown
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]I’m the only green thing around here having seen your picture.
If you have any spare rain send it here.[/FONT][/FONT]


----------



## undead_av

My garden is a jungle but I love it...I don't even know half the names of the flowers that are growing but it's thriving and I love it. There's vegetables and herbs scattered among them. I have black-eyed Susans, daylilies, purple bell-shaped ones that I can't remember the name of...roses, and a lot more that I can't think of. There's at least four different kinds of basil--lemon basil, Thai basil, purple basil, and the normal kind, dill, rosemary, lavender...we have some tomatoes already ripening, and cucumbers. We also have some peppers in pots on the deck. I think we have eggplant too. My friend helped me plant the veggies and we can't remember where we put everything so there's vegetables appearing in places that I didn't remember that we planted them. It's all lovely.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

undead_av said:


> My garden is a jungle but I love it...I don't even know half the names of the flowers that are growing but it's thriving and I love it. There's vegetables and herbs scattered among them. I have black-eyed Susans, daylilies, purple bell-shaped ones that I can't remember the name of...roses, and a lot more that I can't think of. There's at least four different kinds of basil--lemon basil, Thai basil, purple basil, and the normal kind, dill, rosemary, lavender...we have some tomatoes already ripening, and cucumbers. We also have some peppers in pots on the deck. I think we have eggplant too. My friend helped me plant the veggies and we can't remember where we put everything so there's vegetables appearing in places that I didn't remember that we planted them. It's all lovely.



Nce of you to join us here in the garden, feeling extremely jealous of your lush jungle, please post some photos.


----------



## Snelbrouler

Our garden consists of overgrown grapevines that are practically suffocating each other, chives and parsley that have been showing up out of nowhere and are growing like weeds, a wide variety of tomatoes that I never knew existed until I saw the seed packet and thought "hey that looks pretty cool!", two varieties of cucumbers, one short and mushy, one long and crunchy, string beans, peppers, and a bunch of herbs and spices that I can't recall the names of. They grow in my backyard, in a small fenced garden built by my family. There are several apple, pear, and walnut trees surrounding the house. The front lawn garden consists of flowers and wild onions.

Though this may sound impressive, our garden is now a shadow of it's former self. The place is infested with mosquitoes, which spawned in the empty pots we left outside that filled up with dirty green rainwater. The increased presence of bugs means that there are also a lot of spiders living there, which I'm not a big fan of. The soil has become dry and infertile. We used to grow a variety of other plants, such as pumpkins, bell peppers, potatoes, yams, carrots, corn, raspberries, and blueberries, but the perennial plants never survived their first year, and we didn't save any of the seeds from our annual plants. However, that means that more power is focused on growing the tomatoes and cucumbers and stuff, which I can appreciate. We not only don't have to buy them from the supermarket anymore, but we give away our excess harvest as well.


----------



## Bayview

Okay, gardeners - if you were dealing with reduced space and could choose only one vegetable to grow in your garden, what would it be?

I think I'd probably go with tomatoes, just because a fresh-off-the-vine tomato is so unbelievably superior to the grocery store variety, but at least in my climate it takes a LONG time for tomatoes to do anything worthwhile. So maybe I'd be better off with peas (so delicious fresh) or... maybe lettuce? Easy to grow, super-long productive season, and so much less expensive than the bins of mixed greens at the store.

How about you guys?


----------



## TuesdayEve

The Day lilies have bloomed, Hydrangeas on their way
 There’s more at different stages as the backyard gets 
limited sun. 
Having some work done on the exterior of the house
and didn’t want these lovelies to get trampled so they’re 
repotted and soon, I hope they’ll be in the ground with 
with the Black-eyed Susans and Milkweed.
Butterflies have been investagating ...yay.


----------



## Gumby

I love those! Lilies are so beautiful and exotic looking, to me.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Hydrangea*

Only plants in pots getting watered look this healthy in our drought!


----------



## TuesdayEve

Next week I’ll be in Michigan visiting a friend who for
all the years I’ve known her wears that color lipstick.


----------



## Gumby

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Only plants in pots getting watered look this healthy in our drought!
> 
> View attachment 22401



Gorgeous! If my poor crepe myrtle ever blooms it should be this color. Love it!




> Next week I’ll be in Michigan visiting a friend who for
> all the years I’ve known her wears that color lipstick.



Now that is a bold color lipstick! She must be a very confident woman.


----------



## TuesdayEve

With matching nails... she’s a retired dog groomer and 
her nails always looked perfect. 
I wonder what’s growing in her garden this year...


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

TuesdayEve said:


> With matching nails... she’s a retired dog groomer and
> her nails always looked perfect.
> I wonder what’s growing in her garden this year...



Dog Daisy perhaps?
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species/oxeye-daisy


----------



## Bayview

Or a lovely flowering dogwood?

https://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/gardens/southern-gardening-dogwoods


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Fresh out today, the first of the  fringed Begonias.*


----------



## Deleted member 61744

BlondeAverageReader said:


> View attachment 22416



Wow it looks like an explosion!
Tempted to do a rain dance at this rate. It will probably be more effective if anyone else wants to join in:sunny:


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Serra said:


> Wow it looks like an explosion!
> Tempted to do a rain dance at this rate. It will probably be more effective if anyone else wants to join in:sunny:



I’ll join you in the dance, just send details of time / clothing or lack of required!


----------



## TuesdayEve

Ooo, a collective rain dance around the world....
When it starts raining here tomorrow I’ll send out 
the vibe to you.

The red-orange captures my eyes and wakens
my attention to the color similarities throughout nature.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Surprise patriotic wall basket!*

Had no idea what colour the Busy Lizzies were when l planted them.


----------



## Bayview

BlondeAverageReader said:


> Had no idea what colour the Busy Lizzies were when l planted them.
> 
> View attachment 22443



GORGEOUS. I love planters, but they always seem to need daily watering, and there's no way I'm that dedicated!


----------



## Gumby

Wow! Gorgeous!!!


----------



## Winston

While checking the apples to see if they were ready for picking, I was buzzed by a hummingbird.
He hovered just out of arms reach.  We regarded each other for a moment.  Then he was off.
If anyone wants motivation to get out and commune with nature, in your own yard, there it is.


----------



## Bayview

I had my first fresh, homegrown tomato of the year yesterday. Just a wee cherry tomato, but still... delicious!


----------



## TuesdayEve

This is Gayle(nails&lipstick), and this is whats growing 
in her garden.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Cosmos & Gazania*


----------



## Winston

Summer Reds


----------



## NeoKukulza

My lawyer informs me that I should not tell you what I have growing in my garden.  Just kidding, trying to grow some cilantro because I love the smell.  I would show you a picture, but I'm not allowed to send them just yet.


----------



## Winston

NeoKukulza said:


> My lawyer informs me that I should not tell you what I have growing in my garden.  Just kidding, trying to grow some cilantro because I love the smell.  I would show you a picture, but I'm not allowed to send them just yet.



Careful with that cilantro.  We planted some a few years ago, and spread like a weed.  A nice smelling, edible weed.  
As far as your other "crop", I grew up in Northern California (just south of the Emerald Triangle).  Now I live in Washington State where it is legal.  To me, it's just another crop people make money on.
No personal investment (I don't eat asparagus, I don't smoke cannabis).  But a word to the wise:  The smart money is in product support (i.e. fertilizer).  
Or, you just grow stuff as a Labour of Love like the rest of us.


----------



## NeoKukulza

Winston said:


> Careful with that cilantro.  We planted some a few years ago, and spread like a weed.  A nice smelling, edible weed.
> As far as your other "crop", I grew up in Northern California (just south of the Emerald Triangle).  Now I live in Washington State where it is legal.  To me, it's just another crop people make money on.
> No personal investment (I don't eat asparagus, I don't smoke cannabis).  But a word to the wise:  The smart money is in product support (i.e. fertilizer).
> Or, you just grow stuff as a Labour of Love like the rest of us.



I don't actually grow any of that stuff, just thought that would make someone laugh.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Morning Glories*


----------



## Olly Buckle

Someday I will manage to take a picture and show it here. I actually got the camera in my new computer to take a picture, but I couldn't find out how to transfer it here. Never mind, it is past mid-day and the morning glories are going over anyway, but I have a large, black plastic, downpipe from the bathroom next to the back door. I have tied a couple of bamboos to it with blocks holding them slightly away from the surface and now I have a column of purple (grandpa otts) and red (scarlet rambler) morning glories growing next to the back door, much more aesthetic. They self seed and come back every year too.


----------



## Bayview

I have Blossom End Rot on my zucchini!!! Oh no!

The internet says it's from insufficient calcium in the soil, so I've added compost (with plenty of eggshells) and just for good luck I also ground up some human calcium supplement pills and watered that into the soil. Not the most traditional approach (I'm supposed to go to the store and buy a foliar spray, but... nah) but I feel like it might work? Maybe?

But I do find I have trouble getting my eggshells to compost at all, so I'm not sure how much of their calcium will actually make it into the soil. I use vermiculture bins (worms!) for my kitchen waste, but the worms don't seem any more interested in breaking up eggshells than the regular compost process is.

Anyone else have this problem? Any solutions?


----------



## LeeC

The first half of the summer was near drought conditions, with stunted growth and limited blossoming in our natural garden, but in our organic garden, with a little watering, the plants were doing well.

Then in the last few weeks we've had deluge after deluge. I'm seeing a substantial increase of insets destroying organic items like tomatoes, and problems like grapevine black rot in the natural garden. Increasing temperatures moving north are also affecting what plants grow best in this local.


----------



## Dark Dragon

The rain has been bad where I'm, we've had so much lately, though these past few weeks haven't been bad. I haven't noticed too many insects than usual, thugh that could be why my tomato plant begun to die, or from root rot, I'm not really sure. 

Does any one know if blueberries can grow well in a pot? I live in an apartment and would really like to grow some. Though it may be too late in the summer.


----------



## bazz cargo

Oh the drought. My plums have shrivelled.  My Cox's are tiny. I won't be entering the giant marrow contest this year. All I can do is keep talking compost.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

bazz cargo said:


> Oh the drought. My plums have shrivelled.  My Cox's are tiny. I won't be entering the giant marrow contest this year. All I can do is keep talking compost.


Please post photos of your shrivelled plums, we could do with a laugh in this depressing summer weather.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Bayview, I add garden lime, it comes as granules I scatter over the garden if I am going to dig. I also chuck a handful into the compost bin from time to time, keeping it alkaline helps decomposition I think.

Bazz, I think I could enter the marrow contest with the courgette that got away, the plant grows out over the path and buried in the long grass under it I found one about eighteen inches long and four or five across.


----------



## Winston

Weeds.  Gotta get out there and pull some. 
Dug some spuds out the other day.  Grilled with olive oil, and onions.  Served with Polska kielbasa.   
Gonna get some me more taters, along with some of our carrots and peppers (see if any tomatillos ripened) and make a stew this weekend.  



> Does any one know if blueberries can grow well in a pot? I live in an  apartment and would really like to grow some. Though it may be too late  in the summer.


Too late to fruit this year, but you can plant for next year.  Just pick a small bush and a large enough pot so the roots have some room.  And they love to stay moist.  
Might be too big for an average patio.  And watch your local birds (especially robins).  They will pick your bush bare.


----------



## ParadoxBrother

You would think growing a garden in a suburban area wouldn't be difficult, but living in a house that doesn't have an ideal location in terms of positioning of the sun makes it harder than I would like. I live in a two-story townhouse where we are on the top floor, and there is a neighbor next to and below us. In terms of planting space where things won't get mowed over or raked to death by landscapers, we only have a porch. Yet the biggest problem with the porch is that it's at an angle where there is strong sunlight nearly the entire day. This is combined with the biome of the Midwest which is temperate and doesn't have frequent rainfall. So my attempts at growing a successful garden were met with dead plants and no flowers. The first year I tried growing poppies, moonflowers, morning glories, cucumbers, dill, basil, oregano, cilantro, and chives. By the end of summer, my morning glories had withered away, the moonflowers sprouted and died, I never saw anything of the other flowers nor the cucumbers, but the other herbs faired well. I got one strong basil plant that provided me with plenty of leaves for dishes, the cilantro and oregano struggled but still grew, the dill grew a few stalks, and the chives... well, they're still out there to this day. As it turns out, the chives were the best thing we could've planted, because now they won't go away. It's been two years since I planted them, and they released so many seeds that each year they flower, they're destined to come back again. The biggest issue is that I don't really know what to do with chives! A better part of my garden is a little indoor plant I bought at a farmer's market in the city which only has the use of looking cute and being a good desk buddy. He is a ruby ball cactus (or moon cactus) named Shirley, low maintenance and recently replanted. From a flimsy plastic pot, he was transferred into a proper clay flower pot with organic soil and googly eyes on the front. I love him, and he has been a small source of happiness for me. I hope to one day have a garden full of spices and flowers, and plenty of vines of morning glories I can come out and see every morning.


----------



## PiP

Paradox, I can relate to your garden challenges so grow many of my more challenging plants and vegetables in containers. Last year i discovered the joy of cacti and succulents. I must have at least 50 different types planted in the ground or in containers. Have you tried growing

*Pachypodium Lamerei – Madagascar Cactus Palm

*



[FONT=&Verdana]

​​[/FONT]


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*One of those ‘l don’t believe it’ moments*

Found this inside the shed!


----------



## 1Zaslowcrane1

We have a few fruit trees ( Apple, avocado, peach) and since our soil is so poor here (basically sand- the entire town was built on what is essentially an enormous sand dune), we have built four raised vegetable beds ( 3x12'). I built them myself using redwood and simpson braces (so the redwood will rot much more slowly and the simpson products will hold everything together in a superior manner). We've augmented the soil and put galvanized mesh on the bottoms to keep out the ubiquitous gophers. We're growing artichokes ( we had one plant which recently died that was 5 years old and must have produced at least 70 'Chokes). We also have lettuce (in the shade of course) tomatoes and peppers in the sun, strawberries and snap peas, and one entire raised bed devoted to fresh herbs. We have special buckets in which we grow very small potatoes and until recently, we also grew Jerusalem artichokes. there is also a wine barrel (halved) with basil and cilantro just outside the back door (we use a lot of basil and cilantro and so, want that close by)
My challenges? Gophers, and water. It is as expensive as gasoline here and we have the highest gas in the state- probably in the entire US. Let it rain!!!


----------



## Bayview

It's interesting to read about the different challenges in different areas. 

So... best thing about gardening in south central Ontario? Yeah, maybe the water. I'd never even thought about it being an expense -  I've got all the water I want for the cost of the electricity to pump it out of the bay (usually about $15 per month)

Worst thing: probably the winters. They're not _terrible_ here, but they're bad enough that I can't grow a lot of stuff. And our snow cover isn't reliable - we often have a mid-winter thaw that gets rid of a lot of the snow, and then a deep freeze that dries out and kills the plants that no longer have a nice snowy blanket.


----------



## PiP

> Since our soil is so poor here (basically sand- the entire town was built on what is essentially an enormous sand dune), we have built four raised vegetable beds ( 3x12'). I



Our soil is also sandy so we also built raised beds. I also grow much of the produce in containers and old plastic vegetable crates. I find these are great for lettuce, strawberries, radish, spring onions and cucumbers. 

My gardening challenge is tomato blight, blossom end rot on courgettes, and fruit flies which attack the strawberries and peach tree. Normal plants it is grey/black mold and strange viruses probably caused by the high humidity due to living by the ocean. 

@bay 





> It's interesting to read about the different challenges in different areas.



Yep, there is always too much or not enough of something. Learning to adapt is the Key to success.


----------



## Olly Buckle

My friend in Cornwall used to have raised beds for just about the opposite reason, he lived in the middle of a bog and cut four foot deep channels between the beds, putting the spoil on the beds. It raised things enough and carried away enough water that the roots didn't rot.

I have a garden on a South facing slope with an avenue of trees along the bottom that cuts out the prevailing South West wind, we are a bit below the brow of the hill so that and the house cut out the North wind and I have a fairly high hedge to the East. This is not chance. My father had a Quaker funeral, where one meditates silently and stands to testify if there is something to share. His degree was in agriculture, and someone recalled that when they bought their house Mum looked around the house, whilst Dad inspected the garden on the South face of the Medway valley, 'I think this will do, don't you?' he said when she came out, without even going into the house, I learned some stuff from him


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*The pest controllers are breeding*


----------



## Olly Buckle

Lucky you, very welcome visitors!

When we lived in Goudhurst there was a high fence opposite, and my partner called me to investigate a terrible noise coming from the other side, snuffling, grunting, squealing, like a child who had just run uphill half a mile and was now being beaten; it was two hedgehogs engaged in having sex. The old joke of course is 'How do hedgehogs have sex?' answer, 'Carefully'.


I have a friend who was given a baby hedgehog from a rescue centre, he has built it a hideaway and provided it with a longish tunnel in, apparently it is good protection against cats which don't like getting in there. I don't know what badgers would make of it, I always thought of them as the number one enemy, they have the claws to open up a curled up hedgehog, but it is probably a bit too narrow for them.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Intruder from next door.*

Passion flower prefers my side of the fence!


----------



## LeeC

The first half of the summer we had drought conditions, which produced cherry peppers the size of tomatoes. One is enough heat wise for a whole crock pot. The second half of the summer we've had a deluge of rain, with just enough sunny days in-between for all the other vegetables to catch up. The rain also brought out a lot of insects which seemed mostly to prefer tomatoes. So, other than tomatoes, we've had a bumper crop. The bumper crop in turn has created a lot more work in canning as much as possible. I'm wore out.

In my natural garden, the critters pretty much ate everything before I could harvest some fruits and nuts for my self. I don't mind, except for the black bears breaking branches off the oriental pear trees to get at the fruit. I'd scold them, but they don 't listen


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Air Plant.  Fireworks display.*


----------



## PiP

Love it! I want one  Not sure I've seen them here... better do some research.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Pip, they can be ordered online from here for delivery to Portugal if that’s any help.

https://www.craftyplants.co.uk/ordering-info/


----------



## Olly Buckle

Strawberries, would you believe I picked ripe strawberries from my delician plants today, and more coming. Maybe they think it is next year already.


----------



## Kevin

Our gnarled, splitting like a wishbone at the base, native oak got a trimming. Looks like a French poodle. Mmm. So it catches less of the wind. That's good. One of our two guavas fruited and we actually got to eat them.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

PiP said:


> Love it! I want one  Not sure I've seen them here... better do some research.



Look what I’ve just got by post from Crafty Plants, 10 all very different for the princely sum of £3 each, tell Mr Pip Christmas is coming!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Winter Jasmine*

Brightening up the dull days.


----------



## EnderScott

Olly Buckle said:


> Strawberries, would you believe I picked ripe strawberries from my delician plants today, and more coming. Maybe they think it is next year already.


Have you got any pics?


----------



## Kevin

Installed a permanent support under one of two main trunk-halves of our splitting-like-a-wishbone-at-the-base  oak. 

The post is ten foot of exposed 3x3 steel set at a 45* with an additional three feet set in a concrete post hole at the base, and a welded all-thread 18"  'pin' through bolted at the top. It felt strange drilling through the trunk but the arborist said it was less damage to the cambium than a 'saddle' would be. 

We had our first winds with the new support and what relief that was, the previous support being some wood planks that wobbled and squeaked and had finally blown over one night that wood having been there for a couple of years. No more lying in bed wondering if there would be a crash as the tree broke in two, one half hitting the power lines and our balcony; the other landing on our masonry fence. 

Next, I have to put two eye bolts through with a cable at the upper section (one trunk's weight hopefully counter balancing the other's) instead of the cable 'lasso' system that I have there now, again- the piercing supposedly causing less damage to the cambium than a cable loop around the two trunks. 

P.S.- And wifey had gotten a bid for the post install: $2,500.00 plus materials. I did it for $180.00 plus my labor, but when I asked her for the all that money I saved her, she balked. 
Women...


----------



## Guard Dog

Hey, Kevin... Is there any chance of cinching the tree back closer together, then wrapping it with hemp rope or something of the like?

Or has it just split too far for that to be practical? The reason I ask is that would make the tree stronger than supporting it at single points would.




G.D.


----------



## Kevin

Guard Dog said:


> Hey, Kevin... Is there any chance of cinching the tree back closer together, then wrapping it with hemp rope or something of the like?
> 
> Or has it just split too far for that to be practical? The reason I ask is that would make the tree stronger than supporting it at single points would.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> G.D.


 We went with the arborist's recommendation. It's pretty much set in concrete and steel, now .  The crack is close to the ground, three inches wide, we would be supporting the entire tree's weight with a bind. The angle of the two trunks is splayed greater than ninety. We have strong winds. It seems like a low wrap would tend to slip down.  

We're on the edge of a 'preserve' and the oaks out there regularly break apart/collapse. It seems to happen most often in the rainy season. I don't know if it's the weight of the rain, or a softening of the tree (our wild brush definitely gets softer/ more flexible in the rain) and then we often get strong winds right after the rain.


----------



## Guard Dog

Yeah, 90+ degrees is way too much to bind.

Around here we've lost trees due to too much rain softening the ground and not supporting them well enough... That may be what you're seeing there.

Also, it's been so wet here that I'm pretty sure some of the trees that just died did so because they effectively drowned.

Lost a big blue spruce and a couple of others from that combination, as well as having a half-dozen dogwood that had to have died from the excess water alone. ( Could have been some sort of blight, I guess, but enough were left that I'm doubtful of it. )

The odd part about the whole thing is that I live on a hill/ridge. So anything that falls should just run off. But apparently enough still manages to soak in and cause problems.




G.D.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Guard Dog said:


> Around here we've lost trees due to too much rain softening the ground and not supporting them well enough... That may be what you're seeing there.
> 
> Also, it's been so wet here that I'm pretty sure some of the trees that just died did so because they effectively drowned.
> 
> The odd part about the whole thing is that I live on a hill/ridge. So anything that falls should just run off. But apparently enough still manages to soak in and cause problems.
> 
> G.D.



I have seen both those problems, lack of support and drowning. The water run off depends on the sub soil. Round here it is Weald clay and any sort of depression fills up instantly. We are also on the top of a ridge and I counted nearly thirty ponds within half a mile on the ordnance survey map. There is a house on the Tenterden road on top of a ridge that a homeward bound German bomber dropped its left over load at. It missed, but they have a perfectly circular ornamental pond next to the house.


----------



## Guard Dog

The ridge I live on is red clay and rock. Topsoil is a compost of dead leaves and decayed vegetation, but it's only 12 to 18 inches deep for the most part.

My idiot next door neighbors have taken to bulldozing and trying to landscape their side, but all they're doing is causing water and erosion problems.

I've tried to warn 'em that what they're doing is never gonna work, and will only leave them with a constantly wet mess that nothing much will grow on. But as I said, they're idiots, and think they know more than someone who's lived here for nearly 30 years and spent most of his working career with civil engineering firms.

Here, have a look. Their side:


Look like a good place to put a house to you?


My side:

The extension cords were for their R/V they were staying in.


G.D.


----------



## Bayview

Guard Dog said:


> Lost a big blue spruce and a couple of others from that combination, as well as having a half-dozen dogwood that had to have died from the excess water alone. ( Could have been some sort of blight, I guess, but enough were left that I'm doubtful of it. )
> G.D.



The dogwoods I'm familiar with LIKE wet, boggy soil. It's a pretty big genus, so maybe you've got different kinds where you are, but I'd be inclined to suspect a different cause of death.


----------



## Guard Dog

Bayview said:


> The dogwoods I'm familiar with LIKE wet, boggy soil. It's a pretty big genus, so maybe you've got different kinds where you are, but I'd be inclined to suspect a different cause of death.



I did too, at first. But it's gotten much wetter here the past decade, with those long dry summers I remember being long gone.

And starting about 6 or 7 years ago, trees that had been here for longer than I have started dying for no good reason. 

I've talked to a fellow from the Forestry service recently, and he didn't know of any disease that had come through, or any pest or parasite that had hit this area, so that didn't leave much past the increased rainfall, which he said he'd noticed as well.

Anyway, I dunno... Some died, some didn't. And there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it that I can find.




G.D.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Guard Dog said:


> I did too, at first. But it's gotten much wetter here the past decade, with those long dry summers I remember being long gone.
> 
> And starting about 6 or 7 years ago, trees that had been here for longer than I have started dying for no good reason.
> 
> I've talked to a fellow from the Forestry service recently, and he didn't know of any disease that had come through, or any pest or parasite that had hit this area, so that didn't leave much past the increased rainfall, which he said he'd noticed as well.
> 
> Anyway, I dunno... Some died, some didn't. And there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it that I can find.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> G.D.


Strange that your president doesn't admit to any climate change, I wonder, does he spend his whole life in an air conditioned atmosphere ?


----------



## Guard Dog

Olly Buckle said:


> Strange that your president doesn't admit to any climate change, I wonder, *does he spend his whole life in an air conditioned atmosphere ? *



If you had hair like that, wouldn't you?


G.D.


----------



## PiP

This is a tour of my garden in November
https://pigletinportugal.com/2018/11/17/six-on-saturday-a-walk-round-my-garden-november-part-1/


----------



## Guard Dog

Very nice, Pip.

Unfortunately, there won't be much of anything growing in my backyard for a few months.

...and if this rain keeps up, all that's apt to be is swamp grass and cat tails.



G.D.


----------



## PiP

That's a shame, GD. i'd be lost without my garden.


----------



## PiP

My Christmas cacti have just come into flower. They are so pretty. Does anyone else grow these?


----------



## Guard Dog

PiP said:


> That's a shame, GD. i'd be lost without my garden.



Yeah, one of the many reasons I hate winter.

But... it'll come back. It always does.

Might not be what was there before, but something will.

That entire area in the picture I posted was covered in clover for a long time after I first came here... then that left and wild mint sprouted. And then that left and some sort of ground cover similar to low-growing cane or bamboo took over.

So, it just remains to be seen what comes up next time.

(...provided the idiot neighbors don't screw things up too badly trying to make the place over into something it'll never be, that is. )




G.D.


----------



## Olly Buckle

My dad was a biology teacher, we used to take his senior students camping and he had places places marked out. A place where a fire had been to burn all the prunings from an apple orchard, and a couple of places in a piece of coppice, one recently cut, one older. The corners were marked so that we could split it up into squares quite easily each year and count the numbers and varieties of plants there. The plants on the fire site changed each year as the chemicals from the ash were washed into the soil, the first year almost nothing, then mosses, then as the toxic stuff was washed out things like nettles would become dominant for a year or so until the nutrient levels changed. The same sort of thing happened in the coppice, but the factor controlling it was the light level as the chestnut grew back, at first it was stuff like grasses, bluebells and foxgloves, but as it grew shady it became things that could climb to the light , like honeysuckle and bramble. Sounds like something similar is happening on that piece of ground G D.


----------



## Guard Dog

Funny that you mention Honeysuckle and bramble, Olly.

Used to have a lot of that here, Blackberry in particular, and this last season all of it died off. 

The rabbits in particular weren't happy with the loss, I guess, because there've been next to none of them lately.

...which also has caused me to see fewer foxes.



G.D.


----------



## Olly Buckle

The rabbit population here goes up and down with mixie. It never kills all of them as it is passed in the burrows through fleas and there are always a few bush rabbits that live above ground and avoid it. Interestingly that does not seem to be a genetic trait, so they breed like, well, rabbits, and repopulate the warrens, then they get mixie again.


----------



## Guard Dog

Too bad humans don't have any natural mechanisms to keep down overpopulation...

...oh wait, we do; each other. We go nuts and start bumpin' each other off when we get overcrowded.

( Yet another good reason to stay the hell out of cities.)




G.D.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Christmas cactus & Cyclamen*


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Spring is arriving*

Started the day by mowing the lawns!
Spotted all these early risers while doing some much needed weeding.


----------



## Guard Dog

Spring? We're in the middle of winter here.

Everything out my back door is dead as can be, the last few flowering plants done in by several hard freezes.

There won't be much here worth lookin' at 'til the middle of March, at earliest, and that's if we don't get a late snow that sets it all back another month to month and a half. :hororr:



G.D.


----------



## Bayview

Oh, I'm so jealous of the signs of spring!

Is your witch hazel scented? I LOVE the smell of witch hazel (the plant, not the product in the stores!).


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Bayview said:


> Oh, I'm so jealous of the signs of spring!
> 
> Is you witch hazel scented? I LOVE the smell of witch hazel (the plant, not the product in the stores!).



Yes, the witch hazel is scented when the sun warms it up a bit, just wish the plant would grow! I’ve had it for years and it hasn’t reached 3ft yet.
Here is another (sorry) cause for jealousy l found today hiding under a shrub.




I’d love some snow, but in the meantime I’ll settle for Snowdrops.


----------



## Guard Dog

Those leaves there, the mottled ones, remind me of something that grows wild here in the late summer, early fall.
( It likes the shaded, 'forresty' areas. )

I don't know what it is or is called, but it has 3 leaves that grow so their leaves form an equilateral triangle, with a purple, orchid-like flower at the juncture/center of the three. And it's low to the ground, only being a few inches high.


G.D.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Guard Dog said:


> Those leaves there, the mottled ones, remind me of something that grows wild here in the late summer, early fall.
> ( It likes the shaded, 'forresty' areas. )
> 
> I don't know what it is or is called, but it has 3 leaves that grow so their leaves form an equilateral triangle, with a purple, orchid-like flower at the juncture/center of the three. And it's low to the ground, only being a few inches high.
> 
> 
> G.D.



The leaves are Pulmonaria or Lungwort, here they flower in March are about a foot high and mine are pink, purple and blue mixture, other colours are available.



Not sure what the plant you’re describing is, but I’m going to try and find out.


----------



## Guard Dog

Found it.  The plant I was describing is  a Trillium of some kind. They grow wild around here, but if you try to transplant one, even with a bucket-full of the soil they're growing out of... they die.



The ones around here tend to be more blue/purple than those in the picture.

And yeah, the three leaves should'a been a clue as to the name.



G.D.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Guard Dog said:


> Found it.  The plant I was describing is  a Trillium of some kind. They grow wild around here, but if you try to transplant one, even with a bucket-full of the soil they're growing out of... they die.
> 
> View attachment 23202
> 
> The ones around here tend to be more blue/purple than those in the picture.
> 
> And yeah, the three leaves should'a been a clue as to the name.
> 
> 
> 
> G.D.



There is a British orchid family plant grows in the woods down the road that has two leaves, they call that 'Tway blade'. Another 'clue in the name'. The leaves on yours look like the cyclamen We have received in pots over the years and I have planted out at the bottom of the garden under the trees. It is not warm enough here for them to bloom much, but they come into leaf at this time of year when the trees are bare and look good amongst the dead oak leaves.


----------



## Bayview

Guard Dog said:


> Found it.  The plant I was describing is  a Trillium of some kind. They grow wild around here, but if you try to transplant one, even with a bucket-full of the soil they're growing out of... they die.
> 
> View attachment 23202
> 
> The ones around here tend to be more blue/purple than those in the picture.
> 
> And yeah, the three leaves should'a been a clue as to the name.
> 
> 
> 
> G.D.



Do trilliums bloom in the late summer, early fall where you are?

Here, they're definitely spring flowers, usually at their peak mid-May.


----------



## Guard Dog

Bayview said:


> Do trilliums bloom in the late summer, early fall where you are?
> 
> Here, they're definitely spring flowers, usually at their peak mid-May.



I see 'em around here starting the middle or end of August. The blooms, any way. the plants start sprouting earlier than that, but everything is usually so green then, they don't stand out.

The weather getting weird here probably doesn't help, because that's usually our driest time of year lately. So if they don't like a lot of water, that could be why they're so much later here.

( Yes, that's an absolute and utter guess... I really don't know a thing about 'em, past seeing them my whole life, and not even having the faintest of idea what they were. )


G.D.


----------



## Kevin

It's rainy season here, start of our spring. First night the frogs have come out. 

All the wild stuff-  European/Asian imports and indigenous, are sprouting. All of the recent burn areas that were grass/ meadow before are already green. They were black. Everything else is black, and mud. The chaperral (brush) had been there so long no grass seed is viable underneath it. The brush will soon start re-sprouting at the base. The blackened branches will stand for years. Some burnt all the way to nothing. They'll sprout anyway. The whole cycle -turnover - of 'after-burn' plants begins. 


Our garden has a couple of hundred dollars worth of new 1 and 5 gal pots either planted or just about to be. 
She was told to water deeply- 5 gal per 1 gal pot. The rain has penetrated to about 8". I know, because I dug a hole Sunday. 

We flooded yesterday. Had to run a pump to throw it out onto the road. Her salon was saved, but when I got home she made me go right back out and buy rain barrels to run our roof downspouts into. We got two inches yesterday and we've got 3-4 more days of it. 

My work on the little fence continues. It's raw rebar set in concrete post holes, 4' x 25',  but will be simulated wood-branch picket when I'm done. I bought a welder for it. Once I get it all welded and trimmed I'll begin coating it with cement plaster. There's water proofers and colorants - oxides. I'll be simulating our native oak- silver/grey and black- a hint of brown ( barely) in the grey. No more tipping, rotting, being blown apart in the wind. It'll last longer than I will.

I still have to figure out and build the arbor. And mount a gate to it. 
More steel and cement. 
My welds are ugly. They're supposed to look like thick keloid scars. They look more like bubbled scabs. They'll be covered,  but they have to hold. That's what's important. In this case form actually is function. I must try to do better. 

...


----------



## Guard Dog

Y'all are talkin' about spring, and I know I've still got this to look forward to, possibly. :neutral:











Those were taken March 5th, 2015.

...I didn't bother takin' pictures of the last few, but we always have a good chance of gettin' a few inches of snow, the first week of March.

If we don't get one by about the 15th of March, then that usually means we're done with winter and it'll start warmin' up soon.



G.D.


----------



## Olly Buckle

They talk of the possibility of snow here next week, we are far from out of winter, but the first signs are showing. My snowdrops are not in flower yet , but they are above ground , as are daffodils. Rhubarb leaves are starting to poke through the barrow load of compost I tipped on the root, and the sweet peas I planted over Christmas are beginning to show.  

If you have planted sweet peas don't forget to take the tips out as soon as they get a couple of leaves. It is one of those little things that make all the difference, the side shoots grow much stronger, left to themselves they grow into long stringy things.


----------



## unrealbarrie

Wish i even had a garden... would be the life.


----------



## Olly Buckle

unrealbarrie said:


> Wish i even had a garden... would be the life.



Ever come across guerrilla gardening? People garden small areas, sometimes larger areas, of land that is not in use. I have a friend who lives in Wimbledon and down her road all the earth squares around the trees have been cultivated and planted. That is at the small end of the scale, people have taken over disused railway sidings and roundabouts. On the whole people don't object to others making the world look a bit nicer, so long as you don't try and establish squatter's rights. Growing veg. is not so successful, everybody thinks you won't miss one if it is in a public place.


----------



## Kevin

Guerilla gardening. I fight for the injun, the in-dij plants, Arapahos, Piute, hop the corral like cattle thievery, a disappeared goat,  some missing sheep; acorns, native bay, and cherry pits sneaked on to the prim begonia bed, Martha Stewart's imported wasp garden wakes up with an unknown redskin baby. Government land, private land... 
_That plant looks too wild and thorny. Where did that...what is that? Jose, did I order one of those? - No, ma'am, I'll cut it for you. 
Good_.


----------



## PiP

This is one of the many cacti in flower at the moment. This one does not like full sun. It's still a baby and will grow to 1m

Unfortunately I'm an armchair gardener at the moment, so am relying on the OH to not only look after me but also my plants.


----------



## LeeC

Nice PiP, the only cacti I could grow would be indoors. At the moment, the only thing growing in my garden is snow, with another foot plus expected tomorrow.


----------



## Olly Buckle

That cactus is lovely PiP. Depending on others is frustrating, but it will get you recovered quicker.

Lee, it doesn't always mean there is nothing going on, my daffodils are a couple of inches above ground, and we have snow forecast. It will probably do them good if it comes, nice and insulating if the 'upstairs' drops to well below zero as it did last year. 

On the other hand "April is the cruellest month bringing life to the dead land."


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Risking it all.*

Too late to worry about snow!
Daffodils in my garden, the flowering tree we passed on our walk today.


----------



## Bayview

It's still JANUARY. I can handle it if spring comes a bit earlier some places, but... JANUARY!!! That's still winter by anyone's reckoning, isn't it? (Southern hemisphere excluded). Like, this should be one of the coldest months of the year?

And you people have FLOWERS?!?!?!?!?!?


----------



## midnightpoet

Actually I have a very healthy collection of weeds at the moment.  Hey, they're green.  :icon_cheesygrin:


----------



## Gumby

January and as of today, everything covered in snow. We don't see Spring until February has passed.


----------



## Kevin

Planting more rocks and boulders on our hillside collected off Mulholland. The Chillicothe is starting to flower. They flower first, and then grow leaves. 

She will have none of that, ripping out the long tendrils -_they're taking over- _to which my argument that they'll only last a month or two  (well, three or four) and then completely disappear till next year will be ignored or scoffed at. 

She can't snuff them out though, and when we're passed they will not be. Long live the natives.


----------



## Bayview

We aren't reliably snow-free until late April. Not reliably frost-free until late May. Aaargh.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Bayview said:


> We aren't reliably snow-free until late April. Not reliably frost-free until late May. Aaargh.



We also get frost and occasionally snow up to the middle of May, but the sea surrounding the U.K. helps to keep us warmer. The spring bulbs have a gooey sap, natures own antifreeze, so they go a bit floppy in snow but soon bounce back.


----------



## Kevin

Shorts and t-shirt weather today. Should I wear the white tank top with Corona on it, or the Nike one, blue? The Nike is more ventilated. Oh, the pain of it, being locked out of all those wardrobe possibilities.

( exaggerating here; it is 9am 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Long pants and a t- shirt  )


----------



## Guard Dog

Kevin... that's just mean.

I'm lookin' at 54 right now with an expected low of 22 tonight. 

Tomorrow's high is expected to be a grand total of 29, with 18 that night.


Have I mentioned lately how much I hate bein' cold? Or winter in general?

60 more days of this crap, at very least.... *sigh*



G.D.


----------



## Gumby

Kevin said:


> Shorts and t-shirt weather today. Should I wear the white tank top with Corona on it, or the Nike one, blue? The Nike is more ventilated. Oh, the pain of it, being locked out of all those wardrobe possibilities.
> 
> ( exaggerating here; it is 9am 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Long pants and a t- shirt  )



Thanks for that, K. I do miss the mildness of California weather. *jealousy*


----------



## Guard Dog

Just started snowing here, and there's already a half inch on the ground.
( The rain just turned to snow. It's been raining off and on all day, but at 29 degrees... it ain't rain anymore. )

...and there's a few hundred miles of this storm yet to pass over this area.

No telling what I'll see here when the sun comes up. Could be a couple of inches... could be much more.


G.D.


----------



## Kevin

One stacked-rock steps up and then step-ing stone pathway laid. I need more rocks. 

One blackened finger nail, appropriately the middle finger as lots of f-bombs were loosed. I iced it and then later it 'popped' while I continued working, leaking out the blackening (trapped blood), but I don't think I've saved the nail. Swear to *ee-ah* , if I'm not bleeding, I'm not working. 

Anyway, I would have had a good laugh about if I could've been watching me cussing-around.  Put that one on YouTube.


----------



## Guard Dog

One thing about it, Kevin... If you'd smashed your finger here right now, ice would be within easy reach.

It's been semi-funny watching my dogs try to get a drink out of their outside water pan in 18 degree weather.

( Yes, it's 3:00am and I've just been out with 'em. )

G.D.


----------



## Kevin

Guard Dog said:


> One thing about it, Kevin... If you'd smashed your finger here right now, ice would be within easy reach.
> 
> It's been semi-funny watching my dogs try to get a drink out of their outside water pan in 18 degree weather.
> 
> ( Yes, it's 3:00am and I've just been out with 'em. )
> 
> G.D.


 I'm often awake at three. Sometimes I can go back to sleep. I don't have to leave till 5 or 6. 

No rain for the coming week. 
Dug up one 'man root' (chillicote- wild cucumber). 'Marah' is another name. Looks like jicama. Looked it up. Not edible. Too bad.


----------



## Megan Pearson

What's growing in my garden is a pile of snow. Literally--I had to shovel the snow from the porch to somewhere, so into the garden it went!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Come on all of you with snowy gardens take some pictures, we in the green zone would love to see them.


----------



## Guard Dog

Sorry, B.A.R., this one wasn't much to look at here... just cold and inconvenient.

And now, between the dogs trompin' around in it, the sun and the wind workin' on it, it's just a mess.

...plus I don't wanna go out in it if I don't have to. ;-)

Here, here's a couple of pics from a surprise 7-inch snow in Feb. 2003. 




And I have no idea why the pictures looked blue-tinted... That was my first digital camera, and I guess it just didn't like the cold.
( Or it could just be because the snowfall was "out of the blue". :icon_cheesygrin: )



G.D.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Thanks G.D, this blue cast isn’t unusual, even the ‘clever’ cameras find snow a problem in certain light conditions.
Gives your photos a moody chilly feel, very nice.
I find taking photos out of a window is best in snowy weather, while it’s untouched by man or dogs.


----------



## Myk3y

JustRob said:


> Aren't there any community gardens there? Here in England people will plant flowers and vegetables anywhere that's allowed. Local people may plant flowers on a traffic roundabout or in a shopping precinct, for example, just as a sign of local pride. In the suburbs of London where I was a child I recently saw that the locals had created a small community garden with flowers and vegetables on a tiny patch of unused land alongside the booking office of the railway station.
> 
> My angel dug flowerbeds out of the lawn in front of a local charity's offices and planted shrubs and flowers there. She regularly looked after them for many years, but now the office has closed and the site will soon be redeveloped. Some of the things that she planted came from a previous garden that she'd maintained in the tiny hidden yard of the gatehouse to the local castle when the charity had had its offices in that building. There were special events at the charity with the town mayor and local member of parliament there and people had had drinks and conversations in that tiny garden, as they did in the other one in later years.
> 
> Our councils are finding it hard to find the money to pay people to maintain the urban landscape in this way, but local volunteers help to make an environment which looks as though people care about it.
> 
> We have holidayed on St. Mary's, the "largest" island in the Isles of Scilly, twenty miles out in the Atlantic to the west of southern England. "Large" is relative there as we easily strolled around the entire coastline of the island in one day. They have a community garden there and leave tools around in it with signs inviting visitors to help with weeding or whatever they think needs doing, so the garden just "happens".



I used to enjoy planting cannabis sativa outside police stations... oh, how we larfed.


----------



## Myk3y

You would think, living on the equator, that it's easy to grow things, and to a certain extent it is - a dropped seed will germinate and sprout and grow like buggery.

But, it also puts up a sign saying 'I'm really tasty - eat me!' to every form of bug, bird, and banana-thieving primate for miles around.

Defending my mangoes and bananas from the privations of silver langurs and macaques, trying to see a tomato through to eating stage, has proven to be one step beyond for me.

As to bugs, the only things that can survive are the native species, and even then you'll find the fruit survive, but the leaves get eaten down to nubs, resulting in a failure to thrive.

Jackfruit, coconut, pineapple and guava are reliable providers. But you need to be quick with the guava before the thieving little hands take them away.

You can forget anything that grows under ground that isn't acclimatised - like woody tubers. A carrot will look great, but when you pull it, will be a stub of chewed nothingness, surviving on heat and water.

Then there's the rot - we have 80-90% humidity year-round - if the bugs don't get it, the mould and rot will.


----------



## pinkus

Snowdrops - Spring is around the corner.


Pinkus


----------



## Olly Buckle

thomasdown92 said:


> I would love to grow something in my garden. Growing up, I never had a garden or a backyard to grow crops. But, I've always wanted to. Now that I have a garden at my disposal, I am actively reading about gardening and farming. Hope I can start growing something soon.



Whenever I have a new piece of garden I dig a trench, line it thickly with newspaper, chuck all the kitchen waste in, backfill, and then put up some sticks and plant runner beans. They love the moisture everything retains, and don't care about things not being well rotted down, they make a good, green, wall and have lovely scarlet flowers, so they look good, and fresh young beans straight from the garden taste great, and you get plenty of them. A good way to improve the soil a bit while you consider what you want to do in the longer term.


----------



## gerolds

thomasdown92 said:


> I would love to grow something in my garden. Growing up, I never had a garden or play baccarat. But, I've always wanted to. Now that I have a garden at my disposal, I am actively reading about gardening and farming. Hope I can start growing something soon.


It's clear to me now!


----------



## unrealbarrie

I'm trying my hand at growing tomatoes, as I eat them all the time and  they get so expensive :/ Plus, really hate all the packaging used by  supermarkets these days. I try to shop at street markets to avoid all  the plastic and cardboard, but I may as well try my hand at growing them  in the meantime!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Lots and lots of Snowdrops


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Hyacinths*

They smell amazing with a bit of sun to warm them.
All of these were at one time indoor prepared bulbs, the flower heads are smaller now but the number of spikes keeps increasing.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Hi Gavin and welcome to WF, you will find a wide variety of friendly people here ready with advice on poetry or prose writing, plus fun and games and all manner of arts and crafts.
Why not start by going to the ‘introduce yourself’ thread and tell us a bit about yourself and your particular writing interests, hobbies etc, hope to see you around the garden again soon.


----------



## Winston

Everything is just starting to wake-up.  Our daffodils were first, with their bright yellow flowers.  Then, our neighbor's plum tree and the ornamental cherry blossoms are blossoming.  
Cleared out our herb garden out front.  The mint, sage and rosemary smell heady, especially mingled with the nearby tree blossoms.  Both honey and bumble bees are whizzing by. 
Our apple tree is just starting to bud, along with the blueberry and gooseberry bushes.  
Our only casualty were our strawberries.  The grasses seemed to choke them out.  Only a couple weak survivors from last year.  I'll be watching our bed we had potatoes in.  They always seem to come back.  Just miss one or two, and they're off propagating.  

Planted some Himrod grape stocks in the back garden.  Should be enough light for them. And they're in a raised bed with a sandy loam soil, so drainage is a go.
My hop rhizomes should be in this week. That should be interesting.  Especially after a year or two, when they get 10 feet tall. _If_ they take.


----------



## Olly Buckle

It takes a little while for hyacinths to recover from forcing, but I can't resists a pot of them most years, they make the house smell so good. When we moved here the garden was in a state and I rotovated all over, any bulbs all went in one corner and at the moment the house smells of the narcissi I picked from there. The yellow of the early daffodils is continuing with the forsythia, and the blue of the crocus in the grass by the road has been taken over by veronica on the patio. I have been raising seed in the greenhouse and there is lots to plant out, sweet peas, and various vegetables, plus I have beetroot and chard starting to sprout under glass in the garden. Soon I will be hauling the potatoes out that are chitting under the spare room bed, I don't grow many, they take so much space, but the flavour is so much better on the home grown ones. Same goes for onions, I have a couple of large beds of them several inches high, they are so different from the shop ones. I gave some to a friend last year and he remarked how they made him cry, the shop ones simply don't do that anymore.  There is a long row of garlic too, plus a couple of plants of elephant garlic from cloves the brother in law brought me back from holiday. I have two long rows of strawberries, and three plants in large pots in the greenhouse for 'earlies' up next to the house, pity you are so far away Winston, there are a dozen or so plants left over, anyone near East Sussex, A21 like a few strawberries? I have some little veronicas in pots as well if you would like a bit of early blue on the patio.


----------



## Bayview

Still snow, here. Patches of ugly grass starting to appear... fingers crossed!


----------



## Olly Buckle

My camellia is coming out. I have had it a few years now, a fellow gardener gave it to me as two sticks in a dried out pot with one leaf on one of the sticks, the other was brittle dead. I am usually merciless about such things, reviving them is rarely worth the effort, but this time I made the effort. It is now a bit over three foot and looking healthy, and last year had about fifteen blooms, not the usual pink or red, these are white with a lemon yellow centre.


----------



## -xXx-

turns out i have 4 jalapenos (plants with peppers)

the weather was so wack
i now have a fully ripened (red)
jalapeno pellet
about 4 millimeter diameter.

amazing!


----------



## Winston

We had this poke up in our driveway:


----------



## Olly Buckle

Winston said:


> We had this poke up in our driveway:
> 
> View attachment 23580



I love the ones that bring themselves in, there are violets and lesser toadflax in my patio I didn't introduce..


----------



## Bayview

Still patches of snow, here (LONG winter for Ontario this year) but my daffodils are up to the "green shoot" stage, if not the full-on flowers.

I take deep, calming breaths and try to be patient.


----------



## midnightpoet

Planted a rosebush yesterday under wife's tutelage.  Only fell once.  This morning it felt like a dump truck had rolled over me.  I may yet live.:icon_joker:


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

midnightpoet said:


> Planted a rosebush yesterday under wife's tutelage.  Only fell once.  This morning it felt like a dump truck had rolled over me.  I may yet live.:icon_joker:



Is the rose alright?


----------



## midnightpoet

Yes. luckily I didn't fall on it.:grin:


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Delighted to hear it, hope all three of you have a blooming good summer.


----------



## Bayview

Do you guys follow the "dig a hole twice as big as the rootball" rule when you're planting a shrub?

My soil is so rocky I consider myself lucky if I can scrape out a hole big enough to jam the whole rootball into, with much twisting and swearing. The idea of "twice as big" is a pipe dream, to me. But... my shrubs don't tend to do super-well, so...?


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Bayview said:


> Do you guys follow the "dig a hole twice as big as the rootball" rule when you're planting a shrub?
> 
> My soil is so rocky I consider myself lucky if I can scrape out a hole big enough to jam the whole rootball into, with much twisting and swearing. The idea of "twice as big" is a pipe dream, to me. But... my shrubs don't tend to do super-well, so...?



Sadly you seem to have answered your own question, to grow away well new plants require enough room to grow a bigger root system.
One useful tip for planting in difficult conditions is to start with smaller plants, obviously they take longer to fill the space but it makes the hole digging easier. Do try to provide as big a hole as possible and fill around the plant with some compost mixed with the rocky stuff to encourage new roots, lots of watering until it gets established too.
I’ve been known to resort to a crowbar and club hammer to dig holes, Oh! and bad languagerange:
Best of luck.


----------



## midnightpoet

My wife is good a recycling things; sometimes she takes old tires, sometimes paints them bright colors, fills them with dirt and plants roses and such in them.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Spent part of today re-cycling toilet roll centres, put them standing upright in a plastic tray that had mushrooms in it, fill with compost, plant a runner bean seed in each and fill to the top. The seed is above the tray so it doesn't matter if it gets a bit waterlogged below. The roots grow through the cardboard and they are really easy to plant out without pulling plants apart and damaging roots.


----------



## Winston

The grape rootstock I planted a few weeks ago are showing signs of life.  Nice fresh, green growth.  
And in only a couple of years, we'll actually have grapes.


----------



## Bayview

Crocuses are up! We have crocuses! Finally!

CROCUSES!!!!


----------



## Olly Buckle

There is a patch of longer grass out the front where I have mowed around the crocus foliage since the flowers went.

So dry I am watering; in April I am watering! Not a sign of April showers going on for hours and hours. This, of course, is natural variation in climate, not human induced climate change.


----------



## Winston

I began clearing the bed I untarped last week.  Once again, there was a bunch of volunteers potatoes already sprouting.
I swear, you wanna feel good about your gardening skills, plant potatoes.  You can abuse the hec out of them and they keep coming back.
While poking around back there, my wife called me Luther Burbank.  That's a compliment.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Clematis


----------



## -xXx-

Winston said:


> The grape rootstock I planted a few weeks ago are showing signs of life.  Nice fresh, green growth.
> And in only a couple of years, we'll actually have grapes.



dug a trench lined up with roof run-off. 
filled with 6" sand.
topped soil back in mounds.
filled sand around mounds flush with edges.
river rock on sand in run0off zone.
planted grape that set the following year.
---note: do not like chemicals in air
but you prolly knew that

trellised over pathway
and
added net after first year

didn't get rid of birds,
but kamikaze dropped off.


----------



## Amnesiac

Just bought a house. So far, I've planted a Japanese maple, two hibiscus, two birds of paradise, jasmine, three jade plants, and a hydrangea. There will be more coming, but we've only been in the house for two weeks. I have a huge dirt patch in the backyard, but the earth is as hard as stone. (Desert hardpan....) So far, I've had to take after all of the flowerbeds with a pickax and shovel, just so the water will actually penetrate the soil and I can plant stuff.


----------



## Olly Buckle

I saw a scuffle going on in the apple tree which is just coming into bloom, then a magpie dropped out of it on to the grass. No sooner was he down than a dove dived on him and he ran off with the dove chasing him. They came onto the salvia bed and the dove chased the magpie around 'Hotlips' three or four times before finally seeing him off. Peaceful as a dove? Until you are a threat to their nest I reckon.


----------



## Winston

My hop rhizomes are starting to break the surface.  The first four came up pretty quick, while the 5th just sprouted today.  The sixth and final hop hasn't come up yet.  But I'm still hopeful (hopful?)

Never grown a plant from rootstock, so I'm having to figure this out.  I'm getting multiple sprouts from some of the cuttings.  I think I'll need to prune them back eventually so the grown can be channeled into a single climbing bine.  I'm just not sure when will be the best time.  Maybe after a couple of months of growth, at two feet or so.  Wish me luck.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Winston said:


> My hop rhizomes are starting to break the surface.  The first four came up pretty quick, while the 5th just sprouted today.  The sixth and final hop hasn't come up yet.  But I'm still hopeful (hopful?)
> 
> Never grown a plant from rootstock, so I'm having to figure this out.  I'm getting multiple sprouts from some of the cuttings.  I think I'll need to prune them back eventually so the grown can be channeled into a single climbing bine.  I'm just not sure when will be the best time.  Maybe after a couple of months of growth, at two feet or so.  Wish me luck.



Hi Winston, as someone who lives in a hop growing area l really hope you understand what an enormous plant you’re growing. Don’t go cutting the tops off the shoots, reduce the number of shoots from each rootstock to 4 or 6 and train them vertically, there was a reason why men who strung the climbing twine for the bines worked on stilts! this might help...

2. Choose the location in which you want to plant your hops. The area you choose will need to get at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight every day. In addition to sunlight, your plant will also need the following: Twine for the hops to grow on. (A bine is a climbing plant which climbs by its shoots. It is distinct from a vine, which climbs using tendrils or suckers.) Hops need vertical space. The bines may stretch 25 feet or longer into the air. Possible ways to grow your hops are on a tall trellis near your house, or a tall pole using hop twine. Planted hops will grow well on an 18-foot trellis and can grow vigorously when limited to 12 - 15 feet of trellis. Choose a spot with good drainage.

I grew an ornamental Glolden Hop for a while, till it decided to take over the world and caused nasty red wheals on any exposed skin that came in contact with its rough stems.

Best of luck


----------



## -xXx-

day after i seeded garlic onions,
potted plant fairy
left well cared for clump
in certified organic soil.

and a mixed dozen eggs (chicken/duck).
didn't plant those.


----------



## Derabont

Winston said:


> We had this poke up gala bingo promo code for existing customers driveway:
> 
> View attachment 23580


Love it!


----------



## PiP

Here is a guided tour around my garden. It's a lot of work... enjoy. Anyone else made tippy pots?


----------



## -xXx-

bougainvillea.....
_*sigh*
*the sky smile kind*_


----------



## Olly Buckle

Grass; drought followed by rain, and then some sun and the grass is going " Grow! "


----------



## Megan Pearson

While I don't have a garden, I do spend a lot of time outdoors. A couple weeks ago I was out for a drive and had to do a double-take at what was poking its head up out of the grass starting to grow long in the ditch beside the road. I think it was a female pheasant. She was light brown in color with darker, spotted lines running down her back. Such a surprise! She makes the fourth pheasant I've seen since we moved back last fall. 

Since then, we've had a ton of Canada goose hatchlings. Mama and daddy goose keep their brood between them while they graze between the road and the many retention ponds we have. They're soo cute! They're also everywhere. (I wonder why I never noticed how many we had when I lived here before?)


----------



## Olly Buckle

Canada geese are like that, they have very early morning culls in the London parks because they get to be so many they destroy the grass and plants. They do it at first light to avoid the handbag swinging old ladies 

Pheasants get bred around here for shooting and certain times of year when let out they are everywhere. We had a male one living in our back gardens for a couple of years, I don't know if he had sussed it was safer than out in the fields or if he just liked the bird table


----------



## Megan Pearson

Olly Buckle said:


> Canada geese are like that, they have very early morning culls in the London parks because they get to be so many they destroy the grass and plants. They do it at first light to avoid the handbag swinging old ladies
> 
> Pheasants get bred around here for shooting and certain times of year when let out they are everywhere. We had a male one living in our back gardens for a couple of years, I don't know if he had sussed it was safer than out in the fields or if he just liked the bird table



Olly, that is just plain cool to know. I don't know any game bird hunters but have inadvertantly run into them during quail season out west while hiking. They're awful persnickety about their dogs. About the geese, here they are protected. We used to have thousands of them in the park back home; I am sure the handbag ladies would run away from them! Ours are pretty opinionated birds. 

Here's a funny story about how opinionated they can be. A couple of weeks back, my husband had to pull the trash out of the retention pond at work. I was there that day and commented to him about the hawk circling overhead as he worked. A little while later, there's this clatter in the lobby. The geese were attacking the front door! Wow, were they stirred up. Turned out the hawk had lunch around the same time he was picking up the trash. Unfortunately for him, the geese decided to peg the crime of their hawk-raided nest on him. For the next week, anytime he _drove_ into the parking lot, here they came honking after him to hound that front door! They may not be so smart, but when they've got their minds made up they sure can be persistent!


----------



## Winston

Built the trellis for my hops (12 feet tall).  Only one bine is ready to start climbing.  I'm waiting till next week to mount the trellis to my raised bed, then maybe I can train another couple bines. 
On the vine front, my grapes are starting to climb.  I ran some wire between the poles so when they get tall enough, I can set them horizontally.  
Planted another couple of blueberry bushes.  Costco had them on sale, and we had some room.  The robins will enjoy their berries soon enough.


----------



## Megan Pearson

Winston said:


> Planted another couple of blueberry bushes. Costco had them on sale, and we had some room. The robins will enjoy their berries soon enough.



My mom let me plant a wild raspberry her flower garden when I was a teen. It was awesome. It took up the entire corner and she never let me forget how upset she was that she let me plant it in her flower garden. So I was out there, faithfully, whenever she was, digging up the new canes in an attempt to stop its spread and preserve my happy little raspberry. It gave the most amazingly sweet fruit--which I used in surprise raspberry pancakes for her as a bribe to keep it in her flower garden. (The bribe always worked.)

The reason I popped this in here was because of your mention of the birds enjoying your blueberries. Seeing birds in the bush meant hurry and run out there with a basket to pick everything I could before they absconded with my sweet raspberries! (I doubt I ever harvested more than half of the crop.) Then a friend took me to her walk-in, fully netted raspberry hut. (I don't know what else to call it--it was a framed, house-like structure drapped in dark netting over two neat rows of canes.) She never worried about losing her berries. 

So, long story short, have you considered using netting? I wouldn't think it would have to be very elaborate and you'd only have to use it for a short while before rolling it up for next year.


----------



## Olly Buckle

I had fleece over my strawberries last year, and couldn't figure why the birds were not having the ones peeking out the end. Then I lifted it and found the cat had found a nice warm place to sleep underneath it. Best bird deterrent ever, I am wondering about a curled up pretend, sleeping cat. Could be commercial if it worked.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*New Nemesia*

Introducing Masquerade, tiny flowers that smell of coconut, with rather creepy faces.


----------



## Winston

> So, long story short, have you considered using netting?



Last year we tried a net.  It reduced the overall loss to our winged brethren.  But being neophytes, we left gaps in the net, and some industrious birdies got in.  
Unfortunately, not all got back out again.  Oh, the robins did.  I think it was a finch that got stuck in the netting.  Poor thing dangled for weeks (late in the season).
Of course, my wife made ME dispose of the death-chamber net.  
In retrospect, IDK if the loss of berries is worth the loss of birdies.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Put the fleece back on the strawberries yesterday when I found the first one eaten by birds, a couple of hours later I saw the cat sneaking in under the end of it.


----------



## Megan Pearson

Winston said:


> Last year we tried a net. It reduced the overall loss to our winged brethren. But being neophytes, we left gaps in the net, and some industrious birdies got in.
> Unfortunately, not all got back out again. Oh, the robins did. I think it was a finch that got stuck in the netting. Poor thing dangled for weeks (late in the season).
> Of course, my wife made ME dispose of the death-chamber net.
> In retrospect, IDK if the loss of berries is worth the loss of birdies.



Oh! That's awful!!!

(Sorry to hear you got volunteered for graveyard duty!) 

Wrong size netting?


----------



## Winston

The robins are already scouting out the blueberry bushes.  We just bought two more bushes.  Hell with it, looks like we'll be sharing.
Meanwhile, out back...

The back garden:  Potatoes, strawberries, green beans, peppers, hops, grapes, tomatoes / tomatillos, carrots.





And a close-up of the vines and bines:









I'm new to rootstock and rhizomes.  Still learning.


----------



## Megan Pearson

I have been borrowing a friends' garden to play in. She has a nice tomato garden I have been helping her with, hopefully in exchange for a spagetti & marinara dinner this fall. But we've had so much rain lately that every hole I dug filled with water. We even watched in despair as the underground current cleared away the cloudiness. 

I think it may be a couple of weeks before her tomatoes get planted. 

(We could use some sun.)


----------



## Olly Buckle

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72267958.html

At last, a way round showing you pictures of my garden. we are moving and the estate agent took them and put them on 'right move'. I hope the link works.


----------



## Winston

Olly Buckle said:


> https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72267958.html
> 
> At last, a way round showing you pictures of my garden. we are moving and the estate agent took them and put them on 'right move'. I hope the link works.



You're moving _from_ there?  Darn, nice looking place.  Someone will be a lucky new owner.


----------



## -xXx-

Olly Buckle said:


> https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72267958.html
> 
> At last, a way round showing you pictures of my garden. we are moving and the estate agent took them and put them on 'right move'. I hope the link works.





Winston said:


> You're moving _from_ there?  Darn, nice looking place.  Someone will be a lucky new owner.



i hope you get every penny of your asking price
from someone that appreciates what you have
created.
beautiful, thriving space(s)!!!
_*stares at bank balance*
*stares at greenhouse*
*stares at calendar*_


----------



## Olly Buckle

Where we are going there is a garden of similar size, but only the bit next to the house is maintained, the further part is recently cleared of what looks like young hornbeams leaving about two inch round stumps, slowly but surely does it


----------



## PiP

A quick update of what veg is growing in my garden this week. I need ideas for dealing with a glut of cucumbers.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Jane says have curry and make raita, a pot of yoghurt and you can grate a whole one in. On the other hand give a few to your local Indian restaurant and curry favour for the future.


----------



## PiP

Olly Buckle said:


> Jane says have curry and make raita, a pot of yoghurt and you can grate a whole one in. On the other hand give a few to your local Indian restaurant and curry favour for the future.



thanks, Olly. I've just research the recipe and it is really simple to make|
[h=2]Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cucumberandmintraita_67787
Ingredients[/h][h=1]

250ml/8fl oz natural yoghurt
½ cucumber, grated or finely chopped
large handful mint leaves, chopped
large pinch salt




½-1 green chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped (optional)



How-to-videos


[/h][h=2]Method[/h][h=1]

Wrap the grated cucumber in a tea towel and squeeze out any excess water.

Mix together all the ingredients and serve chilled as an accompaniment to any curry or as a dip for poppadoms.



[/h]


----------



## Megan Pearson

No garden, but went for a walk this morning along the roadside. The prairie grasses have grown to chest-height. The ones in the ditch are now eye-level. I didn't even get to pause and admire them before the red-winged blackbirds began scolding me. A whole flock, seven birds, darted overhead, and the eighth fled from her nest near my ankles. Would have never seen her had she not cried in alarm.

We've had a lot of rain lately. All the fields seem to have been planted late. Everyone complains about the rain but it was lightly raining on my walk. I didn't mind. The rain was cool, not cold. The grasses are going to seed already and the birds in the fields seemed content enough.

It was a nice walk.


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Megan Pearson said:


> No garden, but went for a walk this morning along the roadside. The prairie grasses have grown to chest-height. The ones in the ditch are now eye-level. I didn't even get to pause and admire them before the red-winged blackbirds began scolding me. A whole flock, seven birds, darted overhead, and the eighth fled from her nest near my ankles. Would have never seen her had she not cried in alarm.
> 
> We've had a lot of rain lately. All the fields seem to have been planted late. Everyone complains about the rain but it was lightly raining on my walk. I didn't mind. The rain was cool, not cold. The grasses are going to seed already and the birds in the fields seemed content enough.
> 
> It was a nice walk.



What a beautiful bird, those red patches are really flashy.
l Googled for more info, had to laugh at the ‘soggy roadside’ bit! you obviously get lots of rain.

[One of the most abundant birds across North America, and one of the most boldly colored, the Red-winged Blackbird is a familiar sight atop cattails, along soggy roadsides, and on telephone wires.]


----------



## -xXx-

-xXx- said:


> turns out i have 4 jalapenos (plants with peppers)
> 
> the weather was so wack
> i now have a fully ripened (red)
> jalapeno pellet
> about 4 millimeter diameter.
> 
> amazing!




now have enough to pickle.
accidently.
time to start "losing" sturdy stalks
around town.
'cuz when i drop things,
they fall into holes.
rootball friendly holes.
completely by accident.


----------



## PiP

Hi xXx - how do you pickle jalapenos? Would it work for these?


----------



## -xXx-

PiP said:


> View attachment 23956
> 
> Hi xXx - how do you pickle jalapenos? Would it work for these?



those look like what i call banana peppers.
i split and seed those.
quick blanche or roast them.
stuff them like chili reanos.
airtight wrap in plastic individually.
freeze on cookie sheet in the freezer.
stack in plastic resealable container
(end up for easy removal).

or

seed and split.
lay flat on brown paper.
dehydrate to flakes.
store in moisture seal container.
(makes awesome sauce and soup)
gave dehydrated pepper, shredded carrot,
and dehydrated tomato (in olive oil/refrigerate)
for the holidays one year.

as to pickling banana peppers,
i'm pretty sure they have those as sandwich toppings.
i don't do long shelf life pickling in small batches.

here's the general idea 

super simple.
great cold summer treat.
yours are beautiful!


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

*Sweet Peas and Lychnis*


----------



## Winston

I never want to go out there, but I'm always glad when I do.
It's been warm and damp up here.  The plants love it, but so did the weeds.  Spent an hour or two just de-chocking our vegtable garden.  Three different types of bees buzzed by (Honey, Mason and Bumblebee).  Then a dragonfly.  Saw a small garden snake.  
The hops I planted are going great.  The grape stock has established well.  I'm really proud of my Tomatillos.  Grown them from seed, and they're big and healthy.  
My wife picked a turnip, and immediately took in inside to carve and eat it up (right after I saw the snake, coincidence?)  I forgot to grab one of the carrots.  
Sorry, no pics.  But if you wanna beat the heat, you're invited to our 72 degree homestead.  I'll give you the tour.


----------



## Grizzly

YOU GUYZ I just got some new plants!!!!

we have a scullcap, urtica diotica, western mugwort, dang shen, vana tulsi, hopi rattle gourd, echinacea, violet, and so many more! my friend just had an herb sale. I'm so stoked. Going to build a trellis for the gourd hopefully tomorrow. 

we also have kale, chard, some flowers in the poppy family, tomatoes, some random squash that started growing in the compost bins, thyme, mint, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, celery, lemonbalm, something that looks like miners lettuce... and so many more!!!!

I've just recently been introduced into the wonderful world of plants and i am SO STOKED


----------



## Olly Buckle

> some random squash that started growing in the compost bins


By far the best type I have found. England is not really the place for squashand I have tried growing various f1 hybrids and so on sold as especially bred for this country, but they were all pretty much failures as far as fruiting went. The ones out of the compost gave me several nice butternut type squash.

Has anybody else noticed the similarities and differences in things called 'Oregano' and 'Marjoram' ? They can be called opposites and look identical or called the same and look completely different  in my opinion. I have a purple 'oregano' that is attracting butterflies and bees at the moment, and another that is white and not in bloom yet. I think it is like 'garlic', a collection of plants with a similar culinary property given the same common name.


----------



## Winston

My hop bines were not supposed to produce until next year, but last week I noticed hundreds of little cones.  So this weekend I broke out my ladder and picked some.
I only picked the biggest ones.  I'll get the rest next month when I cut the bines back for the winter.  Well, it was a nice surprise.
I just should have listened to the on-line tips.  I didn't wear long sleeves, and those bines are kinda scratchy.


----------



## -xXx-

garlic chive flower.ings


----------



## BlondeAverageReader

Soon to be followed by garlic chives seeding everywhere..........
Love em in omelette or mashed potatoes


----------



## RLBeers

Heirloom tomatoes, beans, and a variety of herbs for my other hobby, cooking.


----------



## PiP

RLBeers said:


> Heirloom tomatoes, beans, and a variety of herbs for my other hobby, cooking.



My attempts to grow herbs proved to be rather disappointing so far. My herb garden consists of: sage, thyme, lemon thyme, marjoram, mint, lemon grass, mint, chives, coriander and basil. I've been trying to grow (from seed) a herb called valerian but a whole packet of seeds only produced two weedy plants that even the slugs rejected.

I love to create rooms within my garden. This is one of them taken from different angles. I love to sit at the table pictured below and write or paint.


----------



## RLBeers

I have three types of tomatoes, bush beans, and a good selection of herbs for my other hobby, cooking.


----------



## Amnesiac

Sunflowers, blackberries, dill, oregano, basil, lavender, cilantro, citronella, pumpkins, tomatoes, ghost peppers, mint, lemongrass, and marigolds.


----------



## Olly Buckle

Marrows, I planted courgettes, but I have been distracted by moving and it rained quite hard; now I have large, prize winning, marrows.


----------



## James Wolfe

Something that may get the federals called in.  .

Just kidding, got all sorts of good stuff,  Peach trees, Avocado, figs and some sort of berries.  Oh, and roses of course, or educated weeds.


----------



## seigfried007

I have houseplants, pretty much, since we had to move from my nice mini-farm into an apartment. Have a potted mint, a begonia, some spider plants, hen and chicks that seem determined to die, a geranium, a dianthus, and a gold pothos. Had a cantaloupe plant, but it seems like it might have died.


----------



## Winston

Pulling carrots today, and found one solitary white one.  Is it lucky, or toxic?  
Anyone else ever grew one like that?


----------



## Zander Willmore

I never did any good with my garden.  I tried three years in a row to grow Pumpkins.  But they never grew any big and I couldnt keep the grass from coming back and choking them out.  I dont have much of a green thumb.


----------



## -xXx-

flowers set on batch of peppers.

weather has been so whack
belljars began to produce
mildew.

nah.
that's not happenin'

_*belljars to shelf*_


----------



## Olly Buckle

Winston said:


> Pulling carrots today, and found one solitary white one.  Is it lucky, or toxic?
> Anyone else ever grew one like that?



Often get a white one. Sometimes one that is half orange, half white


----------



## Winston

The root stock we planted last year really took off, and we now have vines spilling over the trellis I built.  
I'll have a lot of trimming to do, so we'll have more grapes next year.  The Himrod grapes we have are small, but golden and tasty.  Just wish we had more.  
Gardening is a lot like sports.  There's always next year.


----------



## Olly Buckle

We have black grapes coming ripe in the greenhouse. The tomatoes have done well this year. I have been giving them away and we still have enough that the missus is using them in place of the tinned ones. Not a huge money saving , but much tastier. She halves them, puts them in the bottom of the oven with a drizzle of olive oil, then scrapes them out of their skins and freezes them as well.


----------



## ppsage

Harvested the oregano. *Maybe* got a year's worth. It's really time to root out all the _vulgaris_ that's taking over and put in four or five more pots of Greek. The stuff hybridizes at the drop of a hat and never the good way.


----------



## Tiamat

So this year is the first time in life that I've ever tried to grow anything that wasn't a flower or a tree, and while I've made a whole host of mistakes along the way, I've got tomatoes and ghost peppers coming out of my ears. Oh, and so much basil that it's a shame I don't like pesto.


----------



## dither

Ivy, loads of Ivy. Have ordered some strong, so-called Ivy-killing, weedkiller. We shall see.


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## Olly Buckle

I have never found ivy a problem. Mostly it rips up fairly easily, where it grows up trees I have found that going around the base of the tree and clearing a foot wide strip means that everything above that dies, when I did it to the oak tree at the bottom of the garden I realised the robin was following me around the tree exploring all the exposed bark for insects. I have noticed that the robin turns up when there is activity going on that would expose insects, and pulling out ivy is one of his favourites. Where I can tolerate ivy I leave it, for example it grows up the concrete clothes post, it does have some things to recommend it; it flowers in September and provides a good last crop of honey for the local bees, and then provides a late crop of berries for birds building up their weight for the winter. I am cautious about weedkillers, anything that kills ivy will probably kill anything else it comes into contact with as well, and Ivy is at its most destructive in deciduous trees. Because it is evergreen it means it catches the winter winds and puts stress on the trees when the ground is much wetter so it can cause broken branches or even bring trees down. Weedkillers are not specific, they kill everything on the whole, unfortunately that often includes fish and amphibians if they get into the water, read the label carefully and use them accordingly. Removing ivy seems to be fairly effective to me, and of course even if it is dead it will still need removing, this may actually be easier when it tears out in a long strip, rather than breaking off when dead.


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## Olly Buckle

Tomatoes, more than I have ever managed before, a really good year for them. The missus has been using them in place of tinned tomatoes to make sauces, not much of a money saving, but a flavour bomb. I have been giving them away to my neighbours, and last night next door turned up on my doorstep with a freshly baked fruit cake as a thank you for all the tomatoes and the young plants I gave her at the beginning of the year, GREAT, thank you!


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## dither

Mr.Buckle,
I'm no gardener and will happily lay waste to all of the plant-life in my garden. I just want it gone. I've become a bit of an old grouch I'm afraid, I'm not ageing well. And cats, ARGHHH! I prefer wild birds to cats, I've actually invested in some  cat-repellers that SEEM to be working, we shall see. As for robins, humph! As you said, when you're disturbing old roots and twitch, you could almost reach out and touch your friendly local redbreast but once you're done, they're gone and, in my case, leaving me with out of date maggots that got thrown into my incinerator.

Life eh?


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## Olly Buckle

dither said:


> Mr.Buckle,
> I'm no gardener and will happily lay waste to all of the plant-life in my garden. I just want it gone.



It is in the nature of nature that it will return quite rapidly, personally I choose to cultivate it to maintain it, but I can well see that would not bring everyone pleasure. If the case is as you state it I would suggest you find a reputable young man with a mini-digger to clear it, level it, and lay paving. Then get a jet washer so you can keep it clean. It will be level under your chair, you can put things down next to you, and if you wish you can leave a bit of a border to grow a hedge to relieve the fence or have the occasional plant in a pot. It will cost a bit, but what else were you going to spend it on before the system collapses and it becomes worthless?  

It will hold little attraction for cats, other than lying in the sun where they are an easy target. Get yourself one of those kid's 'Super soaker' water pistols, pumps up and shoots a jet 30 feet, you won't hurt the cat, but it won't be back.


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## River Rose

dither said:


> Ivy, loads of Ivy. Have ordered some strong, so-called Ivy-killing, weedkiller. We shall see.



So funny when I read this. I named my youngest daughter Ivy. People warned me she would get called poison Ivy and a weed. Lol. I laughed at them. I said,,,it’s a beautiful name. So Ivy I named her.


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## Tiamat

dither said:


> Ivy, loads of Ivy. Have ordered some strong, so-called Ivy-killing, weedkiller. We shall see.


I have a similar problem, but with ivy (both English and poison) alongside just about every other vine that will grow in my part of the word. We're talking grapevines, bittersweet nightshade, Virginia creeper, kudzu, and wisteria. I bought somebody's grandma's house and somebody's grandma really really really REALLY liked vines. They're all over my fence, through my lilies, my lilacs, and even growing up the side of my brick house. No amount of digging, spraying, hurling curse words, or screaming at it like a madwoman has helped even a bit. It always comes back. I gave up this year. I'm no longer going for the "suburban tidy" look. Now I'm just going for "maybe a witch lives there."


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## dither

Tiamat,

Like I said, I'm no gardener, but I like clean and tidy, a good going-over with weedkiller two or three times a year does it for me. If I've got to pay a bit  more for Ivy-killer and if it will do the job, I can live with that.


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## dither

River Rose said:


> People warned me she would get called poison Ivy and a weed. Lol. I laughed at them. I said,,,it’s a beautiful name. So Ivy I named her.



Do people really do that?


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## River Rose

dither said:


> Do people really do that?



Some kids are mean and just jerks. She does get called names because of her name. I laugh and tell her to tell them she has super powers. I have 8 children as some of you know. 6 girls and 2 boys. I had to fight my hubby for that name 6 times over. He finally broke down. As he knew he had no choice. 
So,,,Ivy Adelaide she is. Mamma proud...


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## john1298

We have about 20 currant bushes in our garden. According to recent data, this is the berry with the most vitamin C.


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## Olly Buckle

The tomatoes are not ripening in the same way now, time to make green tomato chutney.


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## Tiamat

Olly Buckle said:


> The tomatoes are not ripening in the same way now, time to make green tomato chutney.


You should post that in the veggie recipe thread, because I've got a bunch of green tomatoes that don't have a whole lot more time to ripen, and I just hate to waste things.


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## Olly Buckle

Tiamat said:


> You should post that in the veggie recipe thread, because I've got a bunch of green tomatoes that don't have a whole lot more time to ripen, and I just hate to waste things.



Try Googling "bbc good food green tomato chutney" . I am assuming the BBC site will be available internationally, a lot of their recipes are really good and they seem to have several for green tomato chutney. We will be using our own onions and garlic and chili as well, though the onion crop was not terrific, it takes a few years to build a really good onion bed. The thing we are having trouble with is the sugar, muscovado seems to be unobtainable at the moment, lets hope we can find substitutes.


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## TheManx

Olly Buckle said:


> The tomatoes are not ripening in the same way now, time to make green tomato chutney.



Have you tried fried green tomatoes? I made some last year with tomatoes that wouldn't ripen. I've had them plenty of times in restaurants, and wanted to try making them. They turned out fine, but the family wasn't very enthusiastic...


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## TheManx

When we moved into our house, the backyard was a disaster, so we cleared everything out and planted a garden instead of landscaping; (And when I say we, I mostly mean my wife. ) Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash etc. It has shrunk every year as we fixed things up and now we're down to a few tomato plants and some basil. Due to the looming apocalypse, I kind of wish we'd kept the big garden.


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## Tiamat

TheManx said:


> When we moved into our house, the backyard was a disaster, so we cleared everything out and planted a garden instead of landscaping; (And when I say we, I mostly mean my wife. ) Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash etc. It has shrunk every year as we fixed things up and now we're down to a few tomato plants and some basil. Due to the looming apocalypse, I kind of wish we'd kept the big garden.


The impending apocalypse is literally the reason I decided to learn to grow food this year, and I enjoyed it so much I plan to move in the opposite direction from your family in that my garden is definitely getting expanded next year! (Though if I could only pick two things to plant, tomatoes and basil might be what I'd go with...)

Am I alone in growing zucchini just to eat the flowers? I'll eat the fruit but it doesn't excite me.


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## TheManx

Tiamat said:


> The impending apocalypse is literally the reason I decided to learn to grow food this year, and I enjoyed it so much I plan to move in the opposite direction from your family in that my garden is definitely getting expanded next year! (Though if I could only pick two things to plant, tomatoes and basil might be what I'd go with...)
> 
> Am I alone in growing zucchini just to eat the flowers? I'll eat the fruit but it doesn't excite me.



Unless you've got heavy firepower, I pretty sure the zombie raiders or hungry hoards wouldn't have too much trouble raiding your garden. Our biggest problems are the dear, squirrels and birds...


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## Tiamat

TheManx said:


> Unless you've got heavy firepower, I pretty sure the zombie raiders or hungry hoards wouldn't have too much trouble raiding your garden. Our biggest problems are the dear, squirrels and birds...


I mean, I was referring to the coughing masses with their masks pulled down to their chins while they fondle every apple and cucumber in the produce section. For a full-blown apocalypse, someone is definitely going to kill me and take my food. It's a hard knock life. :lol:

Also, fuck deer. That is all.


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## TheManx

Tiamat said:


> Also, fuck deer. That is all.



Oh yeah. We had a beautiful row of hostas in our front yard -- chewed to nubs overnight. The weird thing is, we live just outside the city, surrounded by major roads, so it's like, where do they come from? There are a few little patches of woods, so I guess that's enough to provide a habitat...


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## Winston

OMG what a day in the garden.  

Started off by cutting down my hop bines (Comet, Mt. Hood and Cascade).  I have them laid out in the garage.  I'll start picking and drying the hops tomorrow, then chopping up and disposing of the scratchy bines.

We had a bumper crop of beautiful tomatoes.  Without my wife around to can them, I'm going to have to look up some tomato sauce recipes.  I'll make a couple of gallons and freeze them.  My daughter will eat all the cherry tomatoes.  

Our grape vines produced this year.  Just a handful of small, golden "Himrod" grapes.  They are so delicious.  I swear to God, they're like candy, only better.  Snap in your mouth, with just a tiny hint of bitter.  I just pray that next year we get more.  

One of our blueberry bushes produced late this year.  I picked the dark, plump, juicy berries and filled a small bowl.  I'm surprised the robins actually left me any.  Thanks, birdies.  

I left the potatoes and carrots for next month.  They'll be fine in the ground until the first frost.  And the poor apple tree was just abandoned this year.  We had a lot going on.  I hate to see all that fruit go to waste.
Too bad your guys' deer weren't here to take advantage of all my wasted apples.


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## Olly Buckle

It was plums got wasted here, bit of an attack of plum moth and there were a lot fell off. I picked them up and put them in a bucket, then got involved in other stuff and left them. Next morning the bucket was tipped over and all the plums gone, badger I think, glad something had the benefit. We still had some though, there are jars of plum jam in the cupboard and stewed plums in the freezer, and we had plum pie and ice-cream.


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## Theglasshouse

In my parent's garden: persimmons, sweet tamarinds, lemons, ginger tea leaves, macadamia nuts, lots of flowers, and some other fruits.


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## -xXx-

Tiamat said:


> You should post that in the veggie recipe thread, because I've got a bunch of green tomatoes that don't have a whole lot more time to ripen, and I just hate to waste things.


green tomatoes
flouronmyface pickling ideas ref arlene mobley/amazon affiliate

ripen green tomatoes
growveg



Winston said:


> <snip>
> We had a bumper crop of beautiful tomatoes.  Without my wife around to can them, I'm going to have to look up some tomato sauce recipes.  I'll make a couple of gallons and freeze them.  My daughter will eat all the cherry tomatoes.  <snip>



dried tomatoes in olive oil
pbs ref ciao italia

yeah.
tomatoes.
summer isn't really summer 'til the first vine ripened BLT happens.
flavor, yes, yes.

ps oven dried is fab for several garden fresh items.
toms in olive oil make excellent gifts, too!
do a few in simple skinny jars with spice garnish placement.
beautiful & robust yummy.


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