Gardening Thread

[Lolalee1]

I have laid a few bricks in my day Veeshame can’t travel I would help ya out.
Also a pilot,shovel it up here and pilot it up over there.

[AntsyVee]

One day, Lola...we will get together... Then, lookout world! Muahahahahaha!

[fishman65]

I'm a bricklayer by trade

[AntsyVee]

Damn, fishman. I hear you guys make bank!

[fishman65]

I've never built a bank Vee, sorry. The building trade has always been very dependent on the state of the economy. When its booming you can make a pretty penny, but in a recession its one of the first to suffer. People only have houses/extensions/banks? built when they have lots of spare dosh

[AntsyVee]

I guess that makes sense, fishman. Well, the masons out here seem to "make bank"...literally and figuratively. We're in a seller's market here. Not enough homes for people who want to buy, so lots of construction...well so far anyway. We'll see what covid does to that market in the end.

[fishman65]

Just thought I'd reboot this thread as the subject of lavender and when it blooms came up in a thread in 'generalised anxiety'.

I made a not exactly correct assertion that lavender should have finished blooming by now. Which was a pretty stupid thing to say when I should know better that there are different varieties i.e French and English lavender. Additionally, the plant's location/soil type/drainage can all influence how it performs. For example, I can only really grow it successfully now in tubs up close to the back of the house, which faces south-west and is a sun trap. Ideal for lavender and I add sand to the compost in said tubs to improve drainage.

However, further down the garden, an ash tree around 15 years old has created increasing degrees of shade, along with the neighbour's two sycamores and a silver birch. If I planted lavender down there it would vanish within a couple of years, never mind flower. And competing with teasel, valerian, meadowsweet, purple loosestrife and red campion would make lavender struggle.

The secret is to know what a plant likes. I remember when we first moved here on 2nd November 1997, the following year I planted an azalea straight into the garden. We have a neutral to slightly alkaline loam, where azaleas need acid soil and it lasted a few months before dying. Of course, pots are the solution where you can create your own micro-conditions to suit each species. I'm sure by now, most people reading this will be asleep

[Catkins]

Not at all!

I only have a yard but it's full of pots. I had lots of cherry tomatoes to pick when I got home, I was very excited!!

Tips on slugs are always welcomed by me - over the years I've tried lots of things, copper tape, wool, gravel, broken windscreen, nematodes, slug pellets, beer, coffee grounds and yet the burgers are still here.

[fishman65]

Not at all!

I only have a yard but it's full of pots. I had lots of cherry tomatoes to pick when I got home, I was very excited!!

Tips on slugs are always welcomed by me - over the years I've tried lots of things, copper tape, wool, gravel, broken windscreen, nematodes, slug pellets, beer, coffee grounds and yet the burgers are still here.

That sounds like a lovely yard then Catkins!! Pots really come into their own when we don't have a garden as such. I'm glad you have some tomatoes and when they ripen it feels like a validation of our gardening skills.

I've got some cherry ones, Koralik which are of Polish origin I think. Also Roma, a plum tomato.

Yes slugs and snails are a perennial problem Catkins, but I gave up trying to control them and instead learned to live with them, like we have with covid. Seriously though, there are certain plants that molluscs adore. Delphiniums and lupins are two. I used to grow both from seed, watched them mature over time until I thought they were safe to plant out in the garden. But the next morning, stalks. In fact with lupins not even a stalk left, they actively pursued the roots down into the earth.

There is one delphinium however that they don't like, delphinium requienii, a species delphinium from Corsica and Sardinia. It has waxy leaves that seems to put them off. Though with it being a species rather than hybrid delph, it only comes in one colour which is a ghostly pale pinkish/grey. They are fast growing and best treated as a biennial.

But one last word on slugs, what I've done before is sprinkle salt around tubs but making sure the salt doesn't contaminate the compost in the pots. That's always stopped them in my experience, but it's time consuming and a good rain of course will undo your work.

[Catkins]

Thank you.

Slugs are the bain of my life. I'll make a note of that delphinium and maybe think about it for next year. Over recent years I've been trying to replace some of the annuals that I put in with perennials, some have worked, some not.

This year I've been using a plant food that my friend makes with fermented nettles. It hasn't done badly to be fair.