How does your garden grow?

[Sits]

How does your garden grow?

An allotment! Missed this when you posted. I've always loved allotments and Mrs. S and I would love one now but there are almost none in the Sydney suburbs and none at all near us.

A photo today of the best foxglove we've managed to produce thus far. Also features the veg boxes and frames, and my path. The path is not as weedy as it looks: the thing spreading from the slabs far right is meant to be there.

[Amor de Cosmos]

How does your garden grow?

We get loads of mushrooms at this time of year. There are a couple of different kinds on the back lawn at the moment. Yesterday I watched a squirrel eat its way through four or five. Do you reckon that means they're safe for humans too?

[Sits]

How does your garden grow?

Would never risk it.

[caja-dglh]

How does your garden grow?

I bought 60 bags to clear up leaves in the yard. I think I was 20 short. Screw 60ft tall mature maple trees.

[hobbes]

How does your garden grow?

Don't you have a leaf vacshredder?

[caja-dglh]

How does your garden grow?

I borrowed my friends leaf blower, but I am unconvinced it was any more effective than a rake.

The bagging is necessary for the town to take them away free of charge. Next year I might try and compost them but everything is running rather tight right now such that the budget for composting and a worm farm is firmly set at $0.

[Amor de Cosmos]

How does your garden grow?

You'd need to do an awful lot of composting to get rid of that many leaves. We use maybe two bags of leaves max for a winter's compost. You also have somewhere to store them to mix gradually with other waste. They can't all be dumped in the compost in November.

[caja-dglh]

How does your garden grow?

Thanks Amor - as you can tell I haven't done much composting beyond thinking it is probably a good idea given we have the space and place to use the output. I guess I am signed up for about 75 bags of leaves a year, though given the (soon to be terminated) lawn guy quoted a grand to clear it up I will be happily raking away for years. I might try and mulch some into the ground, but we have too many leaves even for that.

[Amor de Cosmos]

How does your garden grow?

Yeah. Once upon a time you could hire a neighbourhood kid to do it, but that doesn't happen anymore. I don't mind raking too much, provided the leaves are fairly dry and there's no wind. It's kind of relaxing and therapeutic. We've a 20-25ft maple in the front but the guy next door, and upwind of us, has a forty footer so we get a lot of his leaves. During leaf drop I usually fill four to six bags a week, so it's not too taxing.

So far as compost goes, some municipalities will provide a composter (or sell you one for a nominal amount.)

[Amor de Cosmos]

How does your garden grow?

Stopped raining, so can start to see what's been lost to the exceptionally hard Winter we just had. Mostly lavender it seems. We had a lot — French and English — and everything on old wood has gone, about two thirds of the total. Left some big holes in a couple front beds so I'll be looking for something lowish that likes a fair amount of sun, with an East to South-east exposure.

Other plants are just exceptionally late, by a month or two in some cases. Tulips are still in bud, Hyacinths in bloom— usually they're gone by the beginning of March.

In other news, bastard drivers have taken to driving over the edge of our front lawn. There's no sidewalk, and people cut in too soon when they park in front of next door. Something with big tires — probably an F150, they're all assholes by default — cut a eight foot long, six inch deep gouge out of it this morning. I've put a substantial rock in place to extract revenge should the culprit return.

[Sits]

How does your garden grow?

Excellent plan AdC.

Now, I must show everyone my lemons.

[Lang Spoon]

How does your garden grow?

Would a pot of basil work outdoors in a Dublin, fairly rainy, rarely above 23 degrees (or below 3) environment? I'm fed up buying it so might just stick a few pots on my roof garden. My ma has managed rosemary in Fife so I might go with that for kicks as well.

[Amor de Cosmos]

How does your garden grow?

If you can keep most of the rain off it should do OK. Lots of people here grow basil under tomatoes — they keep the rain off, but like a similar climate. So if you can grow them, you can probably grow basil (with umbrellas.)

[Lang Spoon]

How does your garden grow?

Hmm, prob best indoors so. Have a sun room/mini artist studio next to my bedroom and cherry tomatoes grew free there a few years back with minimal effort (has a glass front wall as well as most of the A of the roof frame so it can get to 40+ degrees in there once summer kicks in).

The tomatoes weren't very good though, however prodigious.

[Muukalainen]

How does your garden grow?

Amor de Cosmos wrote: Stopped raining, so can start to see what's been lost to the exceptionally hard Winter we just had. Mostly lavender it seems. We had a lot — French and English — and everything on old wood has gone, about two thirds of the total. Left some big holes in a couple front beds so I'll be looking for something lowish that likes a fair amount of sun, with an East to South-east exposure.

Other plants are just exceptionally late, by a month or two in some cases. Tulips are still in bud, Hyacinths in bloom— usually they're gone by the beginning of March.

Whatever picture my mind may have created of the Finnish and Canadian climates being even vaguely similar has been utterly destroyed by AdeC's post. The reality here is that we've still half a metre of snow on the ground, the ground is frozen solid, and it'll likely be another month before we can start any gardening.

Regarding the composter, why not make one? If you've got the space, all you need is some wood.

[Gangster Octopus]

How does your garden grow?

Vancouver (where AdC lives) and the rest of Canada are two totally different places as regards to climate.

[wiblflibl]

How does your garden grow?

Spring has sprung here in West Sussex, with plants flowering and sending out new leaves all over the garden. I took some photos yesterday, this shot of new growth on a fatsia japonica is my favourite (I think they look a bit like little Trump hands) -



Rather than clutter the thread with photos, here are links to the others if anyone is interested -

https://s20.postimg.org/u5ykdsgrh/2017-04-18_alpine_ish.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/9qxhoz8bh/2017-04-18_apple_blossom.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/3wi38qk7x/2017-04-18_baby_pears.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/g3h8ck0rh/2017-04-18_Chinese_witch_hazel.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/c5yk0w3bx/2017-04-18_Fatsia_Japonica_new_leaves_2.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/4xmxblql9/2017-04-18_new_growth_ferns.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/ai3zzzeu5/2017-04-18_pink_Thrift_-_Armeria_maritima.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/bo7zys34t/2017-04-18_pink_weeping_cherry.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/5kv0sm28t/2017-04-18_Sophora_microphylla_Sun_King.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/knbuh1c65/2017-04-18_tree_fern_new_growth.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/xcaqeg7od/2017-04-18_yellow_thing.jpg

We've lost the labels and forgotten the names of the first and last plants.

[Sits]

How does your garden grow?

WOW

[Various Artist]

How does your garden grow?

Nice one wibl, thanks for sharing! Love the shot of ferns and cowslips, in particular.

Your first unidentified one I think must be a variety of Ajuga reptans (blue bugle) – do those stolons (little shoots presently radiating out in all directions) form new plantlets that take root where they touch the soil? They're great for ground cover, the flowers are terrific this time of year and bees love them. I've got some 'bronze bugle' with especially dark bronze foliage and also acquired a variegated form last year – will try to add some photos later.

The last one looks to me like a Helianthemum (rock rose), of which there are many cultivated varieties. You could have a look at this page, http://www.helianthemums.co.uk/collection/plantlist-colour_yellow where someone's helpfully laid out the whole lot by flower colour and so you can compare with the petals and leaves on yours if you want to try to identify which one it might be. The fact that the leaves are pretty unambiguously green could be helpful, as many varieties have much greyer leaves (google 'Wisley Primrose', for example), so that ought to narrow it down a bit.
If you want to stop it getting too leggy, shear back the new growth (leaving on a inch or two of this year's growth, try not to go back into the woody stuff) after it's finished flowering, and it should reward you with a fresh flush of bushier growth and hopefully a second burst of flowers later in the summer.

[Amor de Cosmos]

How does your garden grow?

Muukalainen wrote:

Stopped raining, so can start to see what's been lost to the exceptionally hard Winter we just had. Mostly lavender it seems. We had a lot — French and English — and everything on old wood has gone, about two thirds of the total. Left some big holes in a couple front beds so I'll be looking for something lowish that likes a fair amount of sun, with an East to South-east exposure.

Other plants are just exceptionally late, by a month or two in some cases. Tulips are still in bud, Hyacinths in bloom— usually they're gone by the beginning of March.

Whatever picture my mind may have created of the Finnish and Canadian climates being even vaguely similar has been utterly destroyed by AdeC's post. The reality here is that we've still half a metre of snow on the ground, the ground is frozen solid, and it'll likely be another month before we can start any gardening.

.

Without meaning to state the obvious, Canada really is very big — think about five Europes stacked, more or less, side by side. As GO said this part — the Pacific Northwest Coast — is quite different from most other areas climatically. Generally it's like a wetter Northern California. The Fraser River delta, where I live, is warmer even than that, with a plant hardiness climate that's defined as Mediterranean. Which is why I've only just realised we've lost one of our Strawberry Trees (Arbutus unedo) in the cold weather. There were five in a cool shady area on the North side of the house — too cool apparently — now there are four. Fortunately the others appear to be fine. Still the loss of 6–8 foot shrub is significant, and requires a moment of horticultural mourning. I must care for the remainder more carefully, the fruit look spectacular though the flavour is subtle.:

[Muukalainen]

How does your garden grow?

It's the degree in difference in climate that surprised me, AdeC. Your statement that some plants are even a couple of months late, thereby implying they could be in flower by about mid-February, is not one I would have associated with anywhere in Canada, even the SW corner on the Pacific coast.

[wiblflibl]

How does your garden grow?

Thanks VA. Mrs Flibl reckons Ajuga is correct. Ours were in pots at the old house but seem to be loving life now they've been planted in the front garden at not-so-new house.

Rock rose sounds familiar to me. I'll have a look at the link some time - currently digging big holes to get our remaining potted bamboo plants into the ground. It's being a bit tricky as the intended patch has a horrendous amount of stones just below the surface so I've been digging small test pits until "Ooh, I think one can go here". I think one or maybe two will have to go over there ---->

[ad hoc]

How does your garden grow?

My garden this morning... frigging April 20th...

[Muukalainen]

How does your garden grow?

Crikey, you've still got snow on the roofs, ours is mostly off. That building on the left looks like its roof has a really steep pitch, yet the snow is staying on it. Am I seeing that right? If so, what's the roof made of?

[ad hoc]

How does your garden grow?

The snow fell overnight. It was full on spring until yesterday afternoon. Hence the flowers all being out (forsythia? It's called "golden rain" in Hungarian) It's also very wet and heavy snow, so it doesn't easily slide off except in one large slip. (That building to the left is next door's barn, and it is quite steep. The roof is just regular tiles, but it does have the little devices they put on roofs to stop the snow coming off easily (I have no idea what you call them, sort of little spikes that stand up and hold the snow so it can come off in safe doses and not come crashing down on some unfortunate passer by on one massive whump.)