The Gardening Thread

[feral chile]

As I live in a flat the only garden I have is an indoor one. It is very pretty though.

What do you grow? Can you recommend something that can survive alternating neglect followed by compensatory overwatering?

[whisty]

Very busy time of year, concentrated on getting garden straight, cut down conifers, lawn repatriated from kids trampoline, leveled and grass seeded. Just how exciting is sowing seeds and waiting every day for them to show through. Neglected my allotment so far, need to get there and put spuds in this week. Where's Carlos?

[Katster]

What do you grow? Can you recommend something that can survive alternating neglect followed by compensatory overwatering?

Purple Shamrock, but it needs a lot of light. Peace Lilly, bromeliads but again they need lots of sunshine. Devils ivy. Few others I don't know the names of but I recently killed some aloe vera which is a shame

[frostypaw]

I've been meaning to get into gardening, in the sense that I'd love to have home grown produce - it's the actual gardening I'm worried about - all the creepy crawlies. And I won't kill anything, so I doubt I'd ever get to eat anything I grew.

Grow in a raised bed under anti insect mesh tents and put some copper wire around the edges to deter slugs - it can be done

Having to set up such a thing for a client and making the tents this week shall take photos if memory allows

[feral chile]

Grow in a raised bed under anti insect mesh tents and put some copper wire around the edges to deter slugs - it can be done

Having to set up such a thing for a client and making the tents this week shall take photos if memory allows

Thanks, maybe this will finally be the year I get some nice veg.

[grumpyhack]

As I'm now sitting nursing a 'done in' back after a mammoth weeding/clearing session in the veg patch today I thought it was time to resurrect this thread.

I had five hours today, after a similar session yesterday, digging over and fingertip weeding my veg patch.

Area all now covered over for the winter with black plastic apart from the runner beans that we are still picking.

I'm also creating a 'wild garden' in the bottom corner of the garden.

I thought a 'wild garden' was a bit where you just left the weeds to grow wild but Mrs GH insists that it needs to be carefully cultivated, so I've cleared most of it and sown wild flower seeds and dug up things from other bits of the garden and replanted in the 'wild' area anything that might be suitably wild - like foxgloves.

[feral chile]

Well, I grew some runner beans in a wheelbarrow to deter the slugs - this worked well to start with, but the plants got top heavy and fell over, and perished.

Also, something had been having a good chomp, so I think the slugs learnt how to navigate the wheelbarrow.

(Don't mock!)

[Thearg]

Also, something had been having a good chomp, so I think the slugs learnt how to navigate the wheelbarrow.

(Don't mock!)

If you used soil from the garden the snail/slug eggs would already be in the soil.

[feral chile]

If you used soil from the garden the snail/slug eggs would already be in the soil.

No, I did use garden centre stuff, but something really liked eating the leaves. I really don't want to use pesticide, I don't like killing, AND I have a dog, plus lots of cats wander through the garden. (and hedgehogs etc.)

[Thearg]

No, I did use garden centre stuff, but something really liked eating the leaves. I really don't want to use pesticide, I don't like killing, AND I have a dog, plus lots of cats wander through the garden. (and hedgehogs etc.)

If they can learn to fly

[Katster]

Sounds more like it was caterpillars having a chomp to me Feral Chile

My indoor garden still going strong, I have a wicked spider plant added to my collection now too.

[feral chile]

Sounds more like it was caterpillars having a chomp to me Feral Chile

My indoor garden still going strong, I have a wicked spider plant added to my collection now too.

It might have been, I'm not good with garden beasties. The wheelbarrow wasn't deep enough to support the runner beans though, the other half said that when he got rid of them the earth was a solid lump. Too little soil? Not enough nutrients? (we did add some stuff) too much water (Wales, you know) not enough drainage?

[Katster]

Yup, I would imagine too much water would have been the issue. There's not many plants that enjoy sitting in water, which if you imagine had you just left the wheelbarrow outside with nothing in it rain water would no doubt have collected even in the driest of Welsh summers. It's a nice idea but you prolly need to drill some small holes into the wheelbarrow for it to work

[Katster]

Get some supports too, to tie the top of the plants to. If you are going to give it another go, that is.

Get yourself a purple shamrock for indoors, keep it dry in a sunny spot and water it only when the leaves start to droop. If you manage to kill it, give the lot up, there's no hope for you!

[Spindles]

The bumping of this thread only reminds me that I haven't done a damn thing in my garden since early august and now it looks like a jungle again.

[feral chile]

Get some supports too, to tie the top of the plants to. If you are going to give it another go, that is.

Get yourself a purple shamrock for indoors, keep it dry in a sunny spot and water it only when the leaves start to droop. If you manage to kill it, give the lot up, there's no hope for you!

OK might try that.

I'm good with animals

[midnight]

Can you recommend something that can survive alternating neglect followed by compensatory overwatering?

Phalaenopsis orchids. Seriously. Get a big fat plant, not one of the cutsey little ones. I got one that I salvaged from a scrapheap, people often throw them out after the flowers have gone.

Drench the roots in rain or filtered water every now and then (perhaps twice a month). Do not put in direct sunlight, and not in a very cold room. Otherwise neglect. Mine are thriving on that.

Anyway, living in London, I am only a roof gardener. Do I qualify?

[Katster]

If I qualify with my window, you definitely qualify with a roof. I would LOVE a roof garden!

[midnight]

Yes, it is nice. "Inofficial", though, I don't have planning permission.

But the neighbours like the flowers and it's been there for ages, so I'm getting away with it.

[frostypaw]

There are many sorts of garden! Any counts

Phalenopsis say "don't leave standing in water" I violently disagree, as long as their potted in loose bark and it's not gone all mushy they do wonderfully standing in a little water. Never had any success until I was less careful with how much I watered when I did water

Today I saw how bad a garden can get if you refuse to use any kind of weedkiller, it's not pretty. She wants me to leave the brambles *shudders*

[grumpyhack]

I leave the brambles till I've picked the last of the blackberries then cut them back.

[frostypaw]

....and dig them out?

such horrible things. There's more than enough in the wild to not let them spoil your gardens.

[midnight]

There are many sorts of garden! Any counts

Phalenopsis say "don't leave standing in water" I violently disagree, as long as their potted in loose bark and it's not gone all mushy they do wonderfully standing in a little water. Never had any success until I was less careful with how much I watered when I did water

Today I saw how bad a garden can get if you refuse to use any kind of weedkiller, it's not pretty. She wants me to leave the brambles *shudders*

Exactly, mine thrive on benign neglect and not much else.

Weedkiller? Tut tut.

[whisty]

Exactly, mine thrive on benign neglect and not much else.

Weedkiller? Tut tut.

There are some great weedkillers about. Mind you, on stonework I do allow the odd squirt of poison!

Edited October 14, 2014 by whisty

[frostypaw]

Weedkiller? Tut tut.

Why tut tut though? There is utterly nothing wrong with a bit of pesticide used the right way

I've had it nearly up to here with the organic brigade - too much of it is based on ignorance. I had one very wealthy lady who refuses the use of pesticides in her garden refuse my proposal of spinosad (safe to anything but insects that eat a lot of it, totally natural) and tried to get me to use borax instead. Yes borax - that horribly toxic to everything chemical but ok because she knew it came from the ground

So does asbestos, i'll mix the two and put them in your coffee shall I?

Correctly applied weedkiller will harm nothing else, I've managed complete kills on bindweed and brambles right through bushes with nothing else harmed. Abuse of such things is terrible - but the ban-it-all brigade are asking for the ban of all knives because of you know, swords and such. Use correctly, use without shame

Edited October 17, 2014 by frostypaw