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March 28, 2024, 06:51:48 PM

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Gardening thread 2022

Started by Brian Freeze, January 29, 2022, 07:35:48 AM

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Buelligan

Yeah.  I bloody love crocosmia.  Had a conniption when I read that dirty Eggs post but decided he must be trolling.  Who, in all god's decency would use Roundup?  On crocosmia?

Anyway, cannot get mine to thrive - they remind me of the old long lost lanes of West Cork, that is my yearning, my love and my inspiration - too fucking hot and dry here, even with constant night time visits to the spring to fetch water.  They're nervously sprouting now (we've had some rain) but it won't last.

One of the marvelous things about them is their variety (and their self-sufficiency if you live in a dampish climate) - everything from shy little lemon yellow stars, through huge dark-hearted bronze orchid-a-likes, to violent rags of scarlet on tall poles.  A fucking delight when all's said.




FWIW, IMO, a whole border would look astounding.  More drama is needed in the world of gardens!

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/2809/the-crocosmia-gardens/nursery
http://www.lovecaistor.co.uk/things-to-do/the-crocosmia-gardens/

TommyTurnips



In a sort of gardening thread/homebrewing thread crossover post I am pleased to share that my cascade hop plant has sprouted a shoot. No signs of life yet above ground in the other two plants.

Ferris


Buelligan

Beauty beauty.  One of the best things there is, seeing a wee sprout like that.  So perfect.  Just pushing up through.  Makes you glad to be alive.

TommyTurnips

So much potential in that one shoot. My money was on the Mount Hood being the first to sprout as it looked to be the healthiest of the rhizomes but instead it was the cascade. Here they were prior to planting.



The Centennial looks a bit scrawny, but it might be alright. I'll see how it copes.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

They look like Mick Hucknall's dreadlocks.

Ferris

Fucking hell those are significantly bigger than the rhizomes I got. Mine were like a single carrot, plant em sideways and cross your fingers. That's a whole fucking plant!

They will go like rockets I suspect.

TommyTurnips

Well that's good to know. I wondered how good they would be. I bought them through the post from a hop company in Kent but based on their reviews it seems most of their trade comes from people buying garlands of hops and other decorative arrangements of hops as ornaments for their weddings, which to me seems like a waste of hops, but that's just my opinion. Despite this though, they actually had a decent range of hop rhizomes delivered all wrapped in moss. I heard you're meant to plant them side ways but there isn't really room to do that in the large clay pots that I bought, so vertically they went. Ah well, I'm sure they'll sort themselves out.

Buelligan

I've never grown hops but I think the sideways thing is probably something like the sideways training of say, roses or fruit trees. 

If you make something almost horizontal, a root or a branch, just a teensy tiny upward slope from bottom/base/root to top, the sap moves more slowly upwards.  This stimulates growth points all along the whole length, meaning you'll get more shoots/flowers/fruits along the whole thing, rather than concentrating all the hormone activity and food at the top/end. 

That would be my guess.

Brian Freeze

We have the crocosmia in.

Got 75 bulbs of mixed small flowered varieties and stuck seven or nine or so in a spade cut at random. Looking forward to the results.

While we ordered those we got six lost label roses at the same time for 2 and a half quid per bare root plant.

Not been able to get them potted up for a week as not allowed out to buy compost yet. Kept them dark, dry and cool. Be reet wont they?

Ferris

Quote from: Buelligan on March 17, 2022, 07:27:20 PMI've never grown hops but I think the sideways thing is probably something like the sideways training of say, roses or fruit trees. 

If you make something almost horizontal, a root or a branch, just a teensy tiny upward slope from bottom/base/root to top, the sap moves more slowly upwards.  This stimulates growth points all along the whole length, meaning you'll get more shoots/flowers/fruits along the whole thing, rather than concentrating all the hormone activity and food at the top/end. 

That would be my guess.

Which is odd for hops because once you get 2 shoots, you're supposed to trim everything back and concentrate the growth in those bines so why would it matter if they're sideways? But it's always the advice I've seen given and your explanation definitely makes sense.

Planted tulips in October (?) so they should be popping up soon. Lovely job.

Buelligan

You're right.  Getting more growth points to just cut them away makes no sense at all.  As I said, I've not grown them.  Maybe it's to do with drainage - like with asparagus planting - they do look like asparagus.

My tulips are coming into flower, I was just looking at them earlier - shows how far we are ahead of you.  Weird.

On the bare-root roses Brian, I'm a bit manic about getting anything into the soil immediately - not sure at all about keeping them dry, this seems mad.  If I had them, I'd soak them in a bucket of water for an hour and then dump them into literally any sort of medium, heel them into a temporary slit next to the crocosmias, even soaked ripped up newspaper in a carrier if necessary, just get them into soil soon as.  Dry is not at all good IMO.

Brian Freeze

Yep, what the fuck was I thinking. Bucket of water right now.

Buelligan

Heheh.  Glad to hear it.  Don't let them get frozen (if it's cold where you are), just nice and cool and don't leave them in the water for days, make sure they're into some sort of damp soil tomorrow morning if you can.  And then be very careful not to let them dry out.

Mr Eggs

Quote from: Brian Freeze on February 19, 2022, 08:10:00 AMWe were thinking of getting a load of assorted Crocosmia bulbs for a bed.

How come you annihilated yours? Will we regret planting ours?

No mate. I'm talking about a bed 50 cm wide and 10m long with nothing but Crocosmia. I want a more friendly garden to invertebrates so I nuked the cunts.

Has anyone had success growing an apple tree from seed?

MojoJojo

Apple trees don't breed true - so apples from an apple tree grown from seed will taste different, and probably worse, than their parents. So you normally graft apple trees.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Won't it take fucking ages to grow a tree as well? Years?

Mr Eggs

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on March 18, 2022, 01:44:18 PMWon't it take fucking ages to grow a tree as well? Years?
[/quot
Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on March 18, 2022, 01:44:18 PMWon't it take fucking ages to grow a tree as well? Years?

It might flower in 5 years. Then he can pollinate it with his cock.

Ferris

Quote from: MojoJojo on March 18, 2022, 01:42:42 PMApple trees don't breed true - so apples from an apple tree grown from seed will taste different, and probably worse, than their parents. So you normally graft apple trees.

It's the same for almost all fruit trees as far as I'm aware. Bad because you have to find a branch to graft, but good because it's faster than planting a tree.

Mr Eggs

Or you get an absolute magnificent one off banger. Like many of the random apple and pear trees around the UK.

Now mostly harvested by the flat-hatted cunts with a VW Campervan.

Emma Raducanu

I grew a rose (shrub? I guess) in a pot last year. I've been waiting until spring to trim it back down by half, only today I had a look at it and it's started growing new leaves/buds and it feels wrong to cut it back as per instructions?

Buelligan

The point of pruning is to make a more healthy strong floriferous plant - if it has really spindly weak stems that cross each other (and so will move in the wind, rubbing and injuring each other and letting in viruses and so on), prune them by all means.  If you feel the need to prune, try to cut back to just above a healthy bud, unless you're removing a whole stem, then just leave a tiny stub.

There are people who are nazis about pruning, there a people who are not.  They did a study, I think at Wisley or Rosemoor, some years ago, pruning one bed of roses traditionally and one with a hedge-trimmer, the difference in resulting flower-production was imperceptable.

My own practice is to take out stuff that I feel I must, according to my own feelings.  You might find this from lovely old Monty helpful -


Although, in your case, you're not moving them, so ignore the last bit.  There are yups of other really good short films on YT about pruning too.


Dex Sawash


Had a look at this apple grafting thing and have had my hat thoroughly fucked by the possibility of one tree bering apples, pears and mutton. Wonder if you could do a kudzu grape vine or poison ivy roses.

touchingcloth

Quote from: confettiinmyhair on January 29, 2022, 04:14:28 PMI've been influenced quite a bit by Charles Dowding and his no dig methods. I've got better prepared this winter. Picked up loads of manure from a local paddock and have got all my raised beds ready to go. Probably won't start sowing until mid March, but I'm certainly all set.

We had a good experiment with lasagne gardening last year, which is ideal for people too lazy to dig OR build raised beds. We've got quite a big allotment area, so the main exertion for us is in compost preparation - the local shepherd is happy for us to take trailer fulls of their piles of sheep shit, but loading and unloading it is quite the feat, as is mixing it with other compostables, and then turning the piles every few days while they break down.

In theory there should be less of that sort of work this year because the allotment had a good covering last year and the stalks and mulch have been breaking down nicely as well. The plan is to experiment with ways to have the chickens turn the compost for us, and you can also apparently get to a point where a fungi starts growing on the compost which is an ideal food for hens...but that all sounds a little too low-effort to be entirely believable.

Buelligan

The last time I made a new veg and cut flower garden, it was on an abandoned area here.  The great thing was that the soil had been resting, nothing being taken out of it for decades.  The tough thing was it was full of perennial weeds and the soil was very compacted.

I made myself a drawing of paths surrounding long slim beds - like raised beds in shape - that I could work without ever treading on.  Then I dug and cleared them - that was hard work but because I could do a bed at a time, it felt manageable. 

Once the beds were done, really deeply dug, I'd just hoe and turn over the soil easily each time I lifted a crop, add a bit of compost or whatever.  It became pretty easy. 

I think, in places where heat and lack of water are an issue, making sure your planting medium can absorb moisture deeply when it comes, is really important.  If you have a compacted base under your soil/compost/whatevs, surely you have an issue with run-off, leaching out of nutrients, heat baking your roots to powder and so on?

touchingcloth

Quote from: Buelligan on March 19, 2022, 10:58:48 AMI think, in places where heat and lack of water are an issue, making sure your planting medium can absorb moisture deeply when it comes, is really important.  If you have a compacted base under your soil/compost/whatevs, surely you have an issue with run-off, leaching out of nutrients, heat baking your roots to powder and so on?

As I understand it, the various no-dig methods hope to improve soil by adding a layer of compost which seedlings can be planted into, and then leaving the roots and worms to do the job of breaking down the soil proper beneath the compost. Because they involve relatively thin layers of compost, mulching is the key to making sure water doesn't evaporate as soon as it's laid down - we tend to water each plant deeply individually while they establish themselves rather than soaking the beds as a whole.

Buelligan

I understand that.  I'm sure I'm just old fashioned and I'm sure results vary depending on climate, soil structure and what you plant but here, I had to use a pickaxe to break the rock hard compacted clay that made up some of the garden.  Maybe, in really gentle climates it works just fine but here, plants not naturally habituated to the climate need all the support we can give (IMO) if they're going to make good food.

Roots, unless they're the roots of some invasive motherfucker like Giant Knotweed (Reynoutria sachalinensis), tend to take the path of least resistance.  Just as a plant will circle and circle its roots within a clay pot rather than breaking that pot, I think there is some truth in the no-dig thing but (IMO) you're not giving the plant optimum opportunity by making it survive where it has to use energy in ways other than growing and producing.

It is a case of right plant, right place, in that some will be absolutely fine, I'm sure, but others will not thrive as they might.  And that is partly the point of a veg garden, to get the most productive plant possible in a location chosen by us, not them.  Which is, kind of, wrong if you think about it.

touchingcloth

It seems to have worked fairly successfully so far, but we try and stick to native plants as far as possible and while things like cabbages and squashes went gang busters, the peas died on their arses. I think that was a case of planting out too late in the season more than the soil, though.

Strawberries were a success in terms of how well they grew, but the chickens managed to get among them one day and calmly DEMOLISHED the lot of them.

Buelligan

Peas are something that need water and cool deep root runs.  I love sweet peas (and runner beans) but without constant water here (which I cannot afford) I have to content myself with memories. 

Had phenomenal success with strawberries too, had so many I was giving them away.  Really good ones for here are Gariguette, in terms of flavour, health, looks, scent, everything, a queen amongst strawbs.  If you get the chance to try growing them, I urge you to, chickens will love 'em.