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Gardening thread 2021

Started by Ferris, April 05, 2021, 02:26:54 AM

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Ferris

Repotted the hops, one bine is actually tall enough to train! Exciting.


Ferris

I see I left that lavender in frame (top left).

Also, look how many new shoots are coming up for the hops. Advice seems a bit all over the place, but mainly not to bother trimming anything back this year (to allow the crown to develop and give it a good chance of surviving and being healthy over winter) and pruning aggressively in early spring of next year.

That seems about right to me as I'll be sticking these in the ground at the end of the season to take their chances outside of my pots/enriched soil, so having a big biomass is probably a good thing and I can worry about yields later.

Emma Raducanu

Quote from: Buelligan on May 29, 2021, 05:11:21 PM
Acers hate direct sunlight, they hate harsh winds.  They are tender troubled little fucks that need total love.

I hear you. I put it in a sheltered spot with minimum direct sunlight.

Any recommendations for a decent, more robust potted miniature tree?

Emma Raducanu

Here is my wilting, dieing Acer. Guess there's not much chance of a diagnosis from this. Acers eh, you love em and they do this.


Slightly happier with how the alliums, lupins and delphinium are coming on. I'll post the picture next week of them all dead. Like my salvia which is being ravaged by a slug in the night.

Buelligan

Really sorry to see your poor acer, honestly think it's had a shock of some sort, too much direct sunlight and/or harsh wind.  Do you have a sheltered area, ideally under a tree or somewhere with dappled shade, you could move it to?  It might pull through if you try that.  Make sure you don't let it dry out and be even more careful you don't let it sit in waterlogged soil.  Not a great trees in pots person but you could try a bay tree.  Useful, evergreen and pretty tough.  But give your lovely japanese maple a chance first, eh?  On the slug thing, get a hedgehog or some ducks.

holyzombiejesus

I tipped those weird potato plants over the wall at the bottom of the road, where everyone dumps their grass cuttings and there were loads of potatoes in the bottom. I thought there would be sludge or weird shrivelled baby heads or something, but no, loads of lovely looking potatoes. So strange considering it's about 9 months since the seed potatoes were planted in there, and the yucky blight. Might not get rid of the other pot now.

Attila

Mr Attila had a huge acer in his back garden (yikes!) that was pretty tall and lush; suddenly up and died a couple of years back.

Meanwhile, day spent at the allotment yesterday, digging over, composting, and tilling in the area where my dye plants are going to go. Dug up lots more wee pot shreds, as well, always quite exciting. Mr Attila did the same over a much bigger section to put in sweetcorn, and an opportunist little robin immediately swooped down on the finished section to gather up worms and grubs.

A few weeks back I did a weeding blitz on the 'strawberry patch' that took up a small section (I needed to do something violent in response to the increasing amount of shite coming from senior management) -- you couldn't see them for the weeds. He works full time, so his allotment is a bit wilder-looking* than the ones maintained by the oldies who spend all their time there (and ohe of them constantly complains about him to the jobsworth who oversees the whole allotment -- some of the plots are in dreadful condition, so go peddle your papers, dude. He knows better than to approach me on the rare occasions I'm down there, as I'm usually wielding a fuck-off sized hacking knife). Anyway, cleared out the small plot to reveal about 6 or 7 surviving stawberries, all of which are now chucking out tiny green fruits.


*Which means that we get lots of wee toads and things on his patch, and yesterday got to check out two fat slow-worms who were hanging about amidst the weed-blanket that was covering my dye-plant section.

gib

Planted two marrow seeds. Both came up but a snail devoured one. Here is the sole survivor.


Dex Sawash


Acer is some sort of maple maybe Japanese[nb]or that's what we call the deeply palmate maple in america, probably not from japan[/nb]?

ZoyzaSorris

Acer is the maple genus (also includes sycamores). Don't know if in gardening it has become a short hand for those over-the-top showy red Japanese fellas or what.

Emma Raducanu

Well mine is fucked. If you touch the leaves now they turn to dust. I found out my daughter's friend had been over while I was at work and they enjoyed watering everything, especially the little tree. I don't want to blame a two year old for anything but I fear it could be her fault and now she must pay.

Pink Gregory

bastard bastard fucking aphids and their bastard bastard honey dew; we have this massive sycamore in our tiny terraced house garden and not only does it block out all the light, it covers our garden in sticky aphid turds and buries everything in leaves in the autumn.  Presumably also gives a lot of lovely moist cover for the snails and their antics.

Still, we're one of the only ones in the row that I can see that doesn't have a concreted or tiled garden - there's a triangle of spanish bluebells that come up in May that are delightful.


Pink Gregory

Quote from: ZoyzaSorris on May 31, 2021, 01:31:49 PM
Acer is the maple genus (also includes sycamores). Don't know if in gardening it has become a short hand for those over-the-top showy red Japanese fellas or what.

I think they're generally Acer palmatum (cultivar/variant) but I could be wrong.

ZoyzaSorris

Yes, that's seems to be the case. The obstinate botanical pedant in me wants to point out that there are 131 other species of Acer though. And I don't like artificial cultivars of anything because I'm a curmudgeon.

Ferris

People in this thread not knowing Acer make laptops lmao.

Boring esoteric hop update - the "lead" bine has slowed down, but there are 3 other big ones shooting up. It's quite odd seeing a plant put it's energy in different places. It is definitely happier in the massive pot as well - much greener and the leaves are broadening out.

touchingcloth

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on May 29, 2021, 05:12:40 PM
Repotted the hops, one bine is actually tall enough to train! Exciting.



Is that a hockey puck on the ground behind it?

Buelligan

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on May 30, 2021, 08:51:25 PM
I tipped those weird potato plants over the wall at the bottom of the road, where everyone dumps their grass cuttings and there were loads of potatoes in the bottom. I thought there would be sludge or weird shrivelled baby heads or something, but no, loads of lovely looking potatoes. So strange considering it's about 9 months since the seed potatoes were planted in there, and the yucky blight. Might not get rid of the other pot now.

I don't think it was blight.  I think they got frosted because you were growing lates (heheh).  The absolute proof with blight is the potatoes, the actual tubers, go all slimy and buggered, inedible mush - not just the mother potato, she will always do that because it's her that fed all of them to start with, the poor little soul but most or all of the ones that subsequently grow (see the shameful and desperately tragic history of the Great Famine, not recommended if you're feeling low).  If you had recognisable reasonable-looking potatoes there, even after being left to fend for themselves for so long, that was no blight, it was winter. 

Ferris

Quote from: touchingcloth on June 01, 2021, 07:25:26 AM
Is that a hockey puck on the ground behind it?

Yes. Also the orange thing is a street hockey puck.

NattyDread 2

Quote from: Pink Gregory on May 31, 2021, 08:41:17 PM
I think they're generally Acer palmatum (cultivar/variant) but I could be wrong.

Do you know if that's what mine here is? A gardener mate chastised me for calling it a Japanese Maple, insisting 'nah, it's an Acer.' Clearly talking out of his hole going by the posts here.


Buelligan

That is a Japanese Maple or Acer palmatum, depending on how formal you like to be.  Nice Dryopteris filix-mas and Fragaria vesca an' all.  A great example of right plant, right place, look at that moist dappled glade.

NattyDread 2

Aye, we're pretty rich in ferns (unfortunately bracken included). So much so that a local expert sometimes comes over to coo at them. I can't always tell one from the other. I really should read his book on them!
He brought us a present of a fern the other week. Very nice, but fuck knows where he thinks we can put it.



They do look very lush at the moment. It all looks a bit bedraggled come winter though.





Buelligan

Ah, it's really beautiful.  I was up on a roof last autumn, you have to clean the plants off of old pantiled roofs every decade or so because they get heavy and allow too much water to rest up there and so on.  Job I hate because the whole point is to kill plants, I left all the ferns - there weren't many, this place is too hot for all but the most specialised.  When I pass that roof, I think on my secret ferns and wish them and their children health and joy.

Have you ever considered adding some epimediums, trilliums or even meconopsis?  You look like you've got acidic soil and nice cool damp weather.  BTW, don't be put off by the quiet-looking images in those links, they're photos of species plants.  There are plenty of incredible variations and cultivars.  Very beautiful things.

NattyDread 2

Fern mate was back today. I showed him the hilly bit of our garden which runs totally wild. He pointed out so much to me. Came across a fern that looked as though it was unfurling but actually has little maggots all tucked up in the fronds which somehow stop it completely opening. Amazing.

Quote from: Buelligan on June 04, 2021, 02:04:41 PM
Have you ever considered adding some epimediums, trilliums or even meconopsis?  You look like you've got acidic soil and nice cool damp weather.  BTW, don't be put off by the quiet-looking images in those links, they're photos of species plants.  There are plenty of incredible variations and cultivars.  Very beautiful things.

I like the look of some of those. Especially varieties of the last two. I've never planted much in the garden at all. I tend to mainly concentrate on the veg patch and maybe a few hanging baskets. There are some spots that could do with a revamp though. They're mainly choked with Dead Nettles with some London Pride. And yes, acidic soil and in one of the wettest parts of the country. Thanks for those links. Got me thinking!

Ferris

Quote from: NattyDread 2 on June 01, 2021, 04:32:52 PM
Aye, we're pretty rich in ferns (unfortunately bracken included).

Are ferns not the same as bracken[nb]great word. Bracken.[/nb] then? Always though they were two words for the same thing.

NattyDread 2

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on June 05, 2021, 06:08:47 PM
Are ferns not the same as bracken[nb]great word. Bracken.[/nb] then? Always though they were two words for the same thing.

Bracken is one of the many species of fern. Quite different from the rest in that it's the only one that produces side branches. We're surrounded by the stuff and I'm sure if I took my eye off the ball for a couple of years, the garden would be completely colonised.

This is what I'm trying to keep at bay (along with the gorse). Midgie and tick heaven.

touchingcloth

Ferns are ace. Some of them haven't evolved since the Jurassic.

Ferris

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on May 29, 2021, 05:16:01 PM
I see I left that lavender in frame (top left).

Also, look how many new shoots are coming up for the hops. Advice seems a bit all over the place, but mainly not to bother trimming anything back this year (to allow the crown to develop and give it a good chance of surviving and being healthy over winter) and pruning aggressively in early spring of next year.

That seems about right to me as I'll be sticking these in the ground at the end of the season to take their chances outside of my pots/enriched soil, so having a big biomass is probably a good thing and I can worry about yields later.

Hops still going bonkers - they're easily putting up 1" per day on each of the 7 or 8 bines I have going off the main plant, once they find the trellis frame thing they shoot uo it like mad. Weirdly, the second rhizome I planted at the exact same time in the exact same conditions has managed about... 3" of total growth tops? Properly shit.

After this year, I'm going to re-bed the massive plant that's actually making a go of it and I think I'll put the lazy one in the public verge bit out front so when it eventually throws up some hops they'll be public domain and because it'll take 200 years no one will suspect me.

Ferris

Quote from: NattyDread 2 on June 05, 2021, 10:09:30 PM
Bracken is one of the many species of fern. Quite different from the rest in that it's the only one that produces side branches. We're surrounded by the stuff and I'm sure if I took my eye off the ball for a couple of years, the garden would be completely colonised.

This is what I'm trying to keep at bay (along with the gorse). Midgie and tick heaven.


Ahhh ok so it's a specific (and shitty) type of fern.

You have to spell it out with plant dunces like me, it doesn't come natural.

touchingcloth

Tell me more about the pucks.

NattyDread 2

#209
Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on June 05, 2021, 11:51:32 PM
Ahhh ok so it's a specific (and shitty) type of fern.

You have to spell it out with plant dunces like me, it doesn't come natural.

Same here. I've only just been informed that the ones in our garden that aren't bracken are several different species.
There are also a few different species of bracken.
Freaks my nut out.