How does your garden grow?

[Nocturnal Submission]

Yes, very neat and organised.

[slackster]

We've reached that time of year that the unwanted weeds are popping up quicker than I can remove them. Feel's a bit Canute-ish right now, but like the high tides, these things will pass and my trusty hoes will prevail.

[Sean of the Shed]

I'm trying some new vegetables for the first time: pak choi, french beans and and mange tout (or minge toots as we call them). Basically anything that will go in a stir fry.

[slackster]

Started digging over the weed and tangled root infested borders close to the house recently, after waiting to see if any decent perennials might be hidden. Answer as expected: not many. But there’s a decent spread of old - if unruly - roses dotted about the place, and there was a patch of giant campanula that I rather liked, though:



Had a panicky moment when I saw what looked like, on first glance, about half a dozen 1m stems of the dreaded knotweed - but it was just leaf and stalk lookalikey Himalayan Honeysuckle, which can stay for now.

It’s gonna take a couple of months to do it properly, because there’s 12 beds to do and each averages out to about 8 sq metres. The process is laborious: fork over a small bit at a time, then down on knees crumbling the soil, picking out the weeds, and yanking/mattocking out any bigger roots. In the summer heat I can only do this for an hour or two at a time before either the bent back or bored mind complains. But it’s worth the graft in the long run.

[Felicity, I guess so]

I thought Himalayan whatsit was an invasive one, too? I know they look nice.

This week we have eaten courgette, garlic and basil pasta with everything but the pasta homegrown. And last night a kohlrabi/potato gratin with a chicory side salad. We haven't even started on the brassicas yet, which are booming due to newly acquired butterfly net.

Tonight pork chop with braised fennel- all my fennel, pre lockdown, bolted and was tasty but long and thin- these are proper bulbs, better than waitrose. That's what daily attention, watering and weeding can do for them/you.

[slackster]

You may be thinking of Himalayan Balsam, FIGS, which we also have spread about. Though that’s very shallow rooted and easy to pull up.

Himalayan Honeysuckle can also be a dominating menace if left to it’s own devices and spread, but it generally forms as a clumping shrub and any errant youngsters can be removed without too much effort.

[Sunderporinostesta]

“Russian Giant” sunflowers. Eight foot tall when we went on hols last weekend. Neighbour texted this morning “it’s peeping in our back bedroom now”. I almost want to go home early to see it. They grow to over twelve foot if circumstances are right. Thank me this time next year.

The bamboo gets cropped back to four foot every year yet it was fifteen foot tall last weekend but seems to have stopped growing.

Strange year.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Advice needed.

I've planted several succulents in a south facing bed with no shade. Right now they're loving it. Two have immediately produced flowers (see recent pics on the photo thread) and the others have grown significantly. We're in zone 8a, the highest in Canada, (not sure if that means anything in the UK) but it's basically a mediterranean climate. At extremes you can grow bananas, lemons and so on. So the summer doesn't concern me too much. Autumn and Winter are another matter. Cold I can mulch and use sacking to keep them warm, but moisture is a more serious issue. There are sprays like 'Wilt Pruf' (really!) but I don't know how effective they'd be, and also protective 'tents.' Again no idea whether they'd work or not. All suggestions gratefully received.

[gjw100]

Your real problem will be the wet more than the cold, Amor. I have quite a few succulents in terracotta pots or bowls and move them all into an unheated greenhouse from mid-Autumn until Spring. Covering yours with large cloches or similar might do the trick but you could also replant them in larger pots sunk into the soil that you lift and put somewhere sheltered for the Winter.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Cheers. Yeah. I was going to try mulching, cloches and the spray that keeps them from absorbing water (have you tried that, or know anyone that has?) Sedums do brilliantly here with no attention at all, but I realise they're hardier. I'm reluctant to transport them indoors in pots, partly because I'm likely to forget about them(!) But mostly because pots will constrain their size. The ones I've planted have tripled in size in a couple of months, or produced flower stalks almost two feet high. So transportation damage would already be a concern.

[slackster]

I've been spending more dosh down the Stihl stockist getting a couple more accessories for my Kombi tool: a pick tine cultivator (which will be good for clearing borders and setting out my veg beds) and a leaf blower (I'm expecting an autumn deluge of leaves from our woodlandy gardens far beyond what I'll need for mulching).

On the building renovation project, the 1 bed cottage is at the painting/snagging stage so we will be able to use that within a fortnight. The builders are starting on the main house now: they still say Xmas completion but we reckon Easter is more probable going by the time it's taken to gut and refurb the cottage.

[slackster]

I've inherited a couple of smallish garden ponds, which were full of sludge, duckweed and little else. Both cleared and manually refilled (that's a lot of watering cans to carry from tap to pond!),now netted to stop leaf-fall, and put a few oxygenating plants in each. There's no pump or filter system so next step will be some bog-standard goldfish, and hopefully some amphibians will turn up too in time.

[slackster]

Today’s main task was emptying a small stone outbuilding (dare I call it a shed?) of a jumbled pile of felled tree trunks and branches, in readiness for a spell of chainsaw and axe action to prepare it for firewood on the log burners. It’s a quite dry building with a concrete floor, so I think we’ll continue to use it as a woodshed (see, I can call it a shed…).

[caja-dglh]

I had the chaps out to sort out my sprinklers. I had correctly identified what the source of the malfunction was (failing grommets) but the amount of valves jammed into a small space plus not being able to find one of the valve holes got me to call them out.

It is all running fine again in time for me to dethatch and over-seed the whole lawn in a week or so. This weekend's work is my continued assault on the Virginia Creeper and other invasive nonsense coming through the fence with controlled use of powerful pesticides (the Creeper is trying to take over a whole side of the yard and seems to be based between two or three layers of fencing.

Still trying to plot out exact plans for the yard - I have worked out where a tree needs to go for privacy but am working through what to put there. Or reconsider all that and put an outdoor fireplace and seating in that corner (it is onto an apartment parking lot so unlikely to cause any upset). Though I just planted a good few natives back there which are thriving...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I think slackster's thing is an "outhouse".

If you put a loo in it it would be a "brick shithouse".

[DPDPDPDP]

[DPDPDPDP]

Re: the above photo. I have MS and now need a mobility scooter (top speed 4MPH) to get around the garden. The garden is mainly flat but has a barely noticeable side slope. Barely noticeable that is unless you’re stupid enough to yank the steering wheel to avoid the sprinkler which has just changed direction. The scooter and I both hit the deck and I was inspecting the grass very closely and looking up at the blue sky. No one at home. Called the paramedics using the Apple Watch and they arrived shortly afterwards to rescue me and to have a good natured laugh. Who knew gardening could be so dangerous? Thankfully no injuries, apart from a severe case of earache inflicted by Mrs DP who returned just as the paramedics were leaving.

[Various Artist]

Bless you DP⁴, I'm glad you're in one piece at any rate!

[hobbes]

You have to remember to lean into the turn mate!
Glad you're OK.

[Sits]

Thirded Deepeedee.

[lambers]

We planted about eight Cauliflower seeds back in May, only three actually produced plants and they were looking fairly sad for a while, but in last couple of months one of them has really taken off and today we reaped the fruit vegetable of our labours.

Used half of it tonight in ad hoc's cauliflower recipe (see previous cooking thread entries), and very tasty it was too.

As to the other two plants, one is far too scrawny to have any hopes for, but there is still a chance the other one could produce.

[Sits]

Magnificent.

This morning we will mostly be broadcasting “Eucy” mulch on the big bed in the back garden, before the ground cover violet reoccupies.

Top tip: never include a ground cover violet in your planting. We planted it in between some stepping stone pavers four years ago, and have been fighting to stop it overwhelming the entire back garden ever since. We long since dug it out from the pavers but too late.

[caja-dglh]

I have some native violet I am working to obliterate this fall. The vocal local garden folk would be appalled, but it is not their yard so they can suck it.

[Sits]

[Sunderporinostesta]

I've inherited a couple of smallish garden ponds, which were full of sludge, duckweed and little else. Both cleared and manually refilled (that's a lot of watering cans to carry from tap to pond!),now netted to stop leaf-fall, and put a few oxygenating plants in each. There's no pump or filter system so next step will be some bog-standard goldfish, and hopefully some amphibians will turn up too in time.

Solar filter/pumps are your future goldfishes friend.