Gardening thread | Page 18 | Vital Football

Gardening thread

berksimps said:
Not sure what to suggest, but if you want insects, having an insect box/hotel, something to pollinate and somewhere to drink would help. Ivy, Virginia Creepers, Clematis, Honeysuckle all work well in smaller spaces but you will already know that.
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We have an insect hotel and a fair few flowering things. I suspect it's just the late spring.
 
Rob the Imp said:
Well I lost a load of carrots and red brussels sprouts today after the puppy decided that the veg patch was an excellent place to dig a big, f*ck-off hole....cue much swearing.
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On a recent visit to my dad, he was playing merry hell about birds pulling up all of his bedding plants. I pointed out that, despite their gratitude for the numerous bird boxes scattered around outside his greenhouse, they probably didn't give a shit. That is, apart from down his windows and on my car!
 
plumbob said:
On a recent visit to my dad, he was playing merry hell about birds pulling up all of his bedding plants. I pointed out that, despite their gratitude for the numerous bird boxes scattered around outside his greenhouse, they probably didn't give a shit. That is, apart from down his windows and on my car!
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I expect they saw it as a very convenient food source on their doorstep!
 
Rob the Imp said:
I expect they saw it as a very convenient food source on their doorstep!
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We mostly get various types of gull around here. But we've had a magpie, pied wagtail and a plethora of starlings in the garden. The latter was very Alfred Hitchcock, particularly when they all lined up on the telephone wire at the back of the house and stared down at us!
 
Best thing for insects is to have long grass and if you can leave any self setting wild flowers/flowering weeds. We have an unusual shaped garden so have 4 mini lawns. We have just cut a path through and let the rest go wild. Bees love it. I prefer this as the grass is low quality in the convent sense it will never be a bowling green - rather then try to aim for the impossible which involves great expense and many chemicals we have just let it sort itself out. Win win
 
NottyImp said:
We mostly get various types of gull around here. But we've had a magpie, pied wagtail and a plethora of starlings in the garden. The latter was very Alfred Hitchcock, particularly when they all lined up on the telephone wire at the back of the house and stared down at us!
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for a bit we had a resident Jackdaw - I was hoping I could condition them to attack the obnoxious cow busy body who lives down the road. Sadly he flew off before his training was complete.
 
A squirrel ate through the bird feeder this week so have replaced it with one of the caged ones. Saw a Thrush yesterday, in the garden for a few seconds only, hadn't seen an urban one for ages.

The Gladiolus Byzantinus, (looked up the Latin) given to us by a random woman in a local village is coming to an end. It's a late-spring flowering bulb which produces spikes of up to 20 funnel-shaped magenta flowers. It looks stunning planted in groups among shrubs or in pots. Plant bulbs in Autumn.
 
A few strawberries starting to appear, a plethora of gooseberries and one or two apples appearing on the dwarf trees. Not sure if the latter will grow to be the full thing. The potatoes are rampant and the tomato plants are doing well and starting to flower.
 
Potatoes and sempervivum going absolutely crazy at the moment. We seem to have a lot of pears developing too, although we always have lots drop off before getting very big at all. Poppy plants popping up everywhere too. Trimmed lots back yesterday to uncover some of the overcrowded plants, such as our bay tree.
 
Rob the Imp said:
Potatoes and sempervivum going absolutely crazy at the moment. We seem to have a lot of pears developing too, although we always have lots drop off before getting very big at all. Poppy plants popping up everywhere too. Trimmed lots back yesterday to uncover some of the overcrowded plants, such as our bay tree.
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Sempervivum: much underrated.

What are you growing all these Poppies for? :wagging:
 
The weather here is still odd - warm day followed by mild windy and wet. Seems to have thrown things off. I think we are still at least 3 weeks behind year. Figs are not ready yet but shouldn’t be long. tomatoes still look a while off too. Everything seems very late this year.
 
bristolimp said:
The weather here is still odd - warm day followed by mild windy and wet. Seems to have thrown things off. I think we are still at least 3 weeks behind year. Figs are not ready yet but shouldn’t be long. tomatoes still look a while off too. Everything seems very late this year.
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I think the dismal May weather was the key here. June in the NE has been - until the last couple of days - pretty good. We have some strawberries starting to ripen now and the gooseberries are doing very well.
 
NottyImp said:
I think the dismal May weather was the key here. June in the NE has been - until the last couple of days - pretty good. We have some strawberries starting to ripen now and the gooseberries are doing very well.
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we need some of that weather here in the south west!
 
bristolimp said:
we need some of that weather here in the south west!
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It's grim down south. 😁

Had our first ripe strawberry from the garden today - delicious and 7-8 more on the turn. The first few tiny tomatoes appearing too.

Sadly, sawfly got to two of the gooseberry bushes before we noticed. Have now sprayed them and hopefully they will survive.
 
Five roses in bloom, all with a lovely scent. Three rescued from the undergrowth, two bought cheap from a garden centre.

Potatoes and carrots doing well, the two strawberry plants are laden but not ripe. While away the other veg has been eaten off by pigeons or Blackbirds. :hmmm: Guess we need a net or wire mesh tunnel.
 
3 big, juicy ripe strawberries off the plants today.

Sawfly problem seems solved and, apparently, the bushes can come back from it.
 
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