General Chat

Just though of another one for you Mersey. How about a Phygilis, (think that's how you spell it). I have seen them in a wine colour, a salmon, and a limey yellow.

Julia in Derbyshire

Thankyou girlies for all your suggestions going to write em down and when im out and about il take a look.....

Thanks for the offer Puss but its ok thankyou think Mum ma have honeysuckle so may take a few clippings :-)

~~~Julia, hiya hunny :-D

Never heard of that one Julia, thanks will write it down as we speak..... :-D :-D

mersey if you get some cuttings before you plant out dip in some rooting powder and try in a pot till you get a good rooting on it x

Thanks for the welcome Ann.

We probably do grow much the same plants in pots. The difference is we don't have to put them in a greenhouse during winter. Nor do we have to worry about losing pots due to frost. Some areas of Australia do which may surprise some people. There are areas that get snow and frosts.

I like old terracotta pots so I usually have a good look around markets to see if I can find some. I went to a garage sale one time and there were some plants that were old and very straggly. I bought them for a song because of the pots. They were old terracotta and quite nice. I took the plants out - they weren't worth trying to save and the soil was so compacted it was little wonder they were in poor shape.

If you don't have rooting powder, honey is good (just a teeny bit on the cutting). That's what I use. I put the container with honey in a dish of water, helps keep the ants away.

A GOOD BUG SPRAY - get a spray bottle and a thin sock (a knee high is good, or the leg-end of tights). Fit the sock into the bottle & turn the top down hold it in place with an elastic band to stop it creeping back into the bottle. The sock is to stop bits of garlic clogging up the "straw".

Crush a whole bulb of garlic (don't bother peeling it) & stuff it into the sock (easier when the sock is in the bottle). Fill the bottle to about 7/8 with water, then add a good squirt of dishwashing liquid. Give it a good shake. Don't put the dishwashing liquid in before the water or you will have bubbles everywhere.

I sometimes add 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne to the mix.

I use it on just about everything (except orchids).

out of 24 lavender cuttings only 3 have taken
so did some more fresh new shoots
so lets hope better luck this time
i am going to nip the tops off my broard beans today
so they bush out a bit
and sweep my paths out the back ready for
jet washing the decking before painting with ronseal
when the weathers better

:-D :-D got some good news,

i have greenery coming up! lettuces and raddishes, altho i think i put to many seeds in one pot :-| as lots of little green stalks ill have to thin them out into new pts x

I am very excited as have planted my second climbing rose -'Zephrine Drouhin'...another pink, smelly old fashioned rose and thanks to all the tips and hints on this thread..including banana skins from Merlin!

Can't wait till they bloom! *sings happily...Roses round the door...babies on the floor...de da dah...de da dum... :-D :-D <3

banana skins! We throw them into the plants....... but next morning they're usually gone..... the possums eat them :-(

No, we can't dig them in (the banana peels). The plants (elk horns & stag horns) grow ON the tree.... I can't spell it... epiphyite..... I think.

Never thought of throwing banana skins onto the garden ,though we would have no problems with possums ,lol ,we normally put them in the compost bin.
Just put two new roses in too ,B C ,but mine are both old fashioned Tea Roses,i noticed a small garden centre here starting to bring the old varieties back and fancied them over the newer ones ,as they are scented and more colourful to my mind.
Glad to hear your efforts are being rewarded at last Stray ,but you could make your seeds go a lot further by trying to put just a couple to a pot ,lol,it would save you a lot of thinning too ,lots of plants such as carrot ,parsnip ,and turnip ,don't take kindly to being transplanted :-(.
I keep meaning to put my onion plants into their boxes ,but again ,a heavy frost last night ,grrrrr ,so ,it's back to the plan B ,lol ,Fred. :-D

I'm not sure this is the right place to post as I stopped gardening over 10years ago...
BUT you know them people who can step on plants, poison them and ignore them BUT they still grow????
That is me....

I hate gardening now but have so much growing it isn't funny....
Been picking tomatoes everyday and never planted anything....

I don't even know one flower from the next but the yard is full of them,,,,

Kellie

Just visiting this thread.... as instructed by ' Susan wiv ' but while I'm here perhaps you can advise.......

I have some sprouting potatoes. Bought direct from a farm for eating, but we haven't been quick enough, so that they now look like Tryfidds ( sp)

Can I still plant them?... or is it too early / late? Will the shoots be OK, as I think some might break off in the move to another place.
The variety is Marfona.
We have a small garden, but there is a place I could grow them in the ground. Should I dig in household compost or anything else first? The soil is rather heavy and clay-like in parts, although we have put compost in in previous years.
We are in the far south east, with low rainfall, usually lots of sun.... and a hosepipe ban.

You can tell that I'm not up to your standard here, but I'd like to have a go at growing these particular ones if possible, so advice would be welcome please.

Gwyn

Go for it Gwen ,dig in some old compost whetever first ,along with a little growmore ,put your tubers in carefully ,and cover with a little more compost so as not to knock off the shoots.
The potatoes will break down the clay as they grow making the soil more friable by next year.
Me having a small garden too ,i grow my potatoes in old compost bins and use brought tubers left over from the kitchen store as well ,cheaper and just as good as paying the earth for chitted[seed ] tatties .Fred.
:-)

banana skins have potassium in them ........ good for lots of plants (not just my giant epiphytes)

Fred
Thank you for your advice.
I will get to work tomorrow.
I am keen to get these potatoes to grow because I took some of the sprouting ones into school where I volunteer help,to show the young children.
One young lad keeps asking if my ones are planted and growing, so he's going to expect results !
Hope I have something to report, later in the year......

Thanks.

Gwyn

The Banana Skins you chop up small and dig in, that tip was given to me by Old David Austin of Roses Fame and I,ve always used it and it works.Same as using them for help in ripening fruit.At the moment I,m building up my rose garden, and have twenty going pretty well here, before we downsized had about fifty different types,they look and smell good and if you have enough you can fill the house with them and their fragrance.As you can gather I like them a lot.**M**.

I have a problem i have potatoes growing in my pea tub and sprot tub and carrot tub and it looks like a flippen dinosaur has taken a bite out of my runner bean leafs whilst still in p tunnel x :-0 :-0

Bean leaves problem sound like snails Puss. Use whatever method you normally use to eradicate them. They will get into polytunnels and greenhouses.

I usually pull out any potatoes that grow in compost used for other things, treat them like weeds. Or I suppose if you don't want to waste them you could try transplanting them, be careful that when you pull them out you don't disturb the other seedlings.

I never put potatoe peelings in my compost bin, put them in your garden refuse bin, or burn them in an incinerator. They will always sprout, but if you have potatoes indoors that sprout, its worth a go at them growing, . This will be the second year we have done that, as well as seed pots, and it works !!

If anyone has slugs or snails biting their veg or plant shoots, then there are bird, animal and child friendly slug pellets. always use them, until plant can fight back !!!!

Jan...happy gardening everyone, if it doesn't rain in your area