ive recently taken a keen interest in gardening but i have to say its all gone a little wrong and most things have died :(

so i thought i know ill do a thread on the forum for others as well as myself to get tips and hints and stuff so feel free to post about your gardens flowers ect ect

Hi when you say died do you mean shrivelled up and died or just disappeared?

There's been a lot of rain but its also been very hot and new plants need an awful lot of water whilst their roots are still very shallow.

If plants have been there one day and not the next then they have been eaten - i had a fab row of lettuce but then a few days later resalised that i only had three left - eaten to nothing. Strangely the slug only ate one brand of lettuce but the catterpillar has eaten holes through the other variety.

Bought a mini greenhouse to plant melons and cucumbers in - they are coming on a treat, my tomatoes were all beheaded when the mini greenhouse took off during the bad winds a few weeks ago but some seem to have survived.

If you have a composter dig this into the land before planting crops, should help them grow a bit better - if you don't have a composter you can often get them for a few quid from the council or a company called Blackwall sell them cheaply.

peas and beans coming along nicely, strawberries were lovely and just starting to plant winter crops in pots in the mini greenhouse.

I've had a bit of a disapponting year really because i was late getting stuff in but next year should be better - saying that its still early in the season so...

babs

I love gardening and at the moment, my fetish is my pond and the fish that live in there.
I buy tons of plants all through the year and always lose the plastic name tag that comes with the pot so I have lots of flowers all over the place and I have no idea what theyre called.
That doesnt stop me though, I even grabbed a handful of poppy heads when I left Sheffield in 2002 and I make sure that I take seeds wherever I go. I make sure the poppys are well watered and cared for and over the years theyve been cross pollinated with poppies form here and are now a bright red where they were once purple.

I have a huge garden which has just been flattened and so all the new beds need plants - i am bad at planting plants from seed for some reason although i will work on this next year 'cause it will cost thousands to plant everywhere if i buy individual bought plants.

I have just had the veg patch built - had it raised and dh has built me a retaining wall out of the chimney that we had taken down - it's about 30 foot by 18 foot so i have a good space for veggies and fruits. Next year i will have all 8 fruit and veg beds organised and some fruit trees planted - its a lot of hard work but very rewarding and an education for the kids - oh and after a bit of glass to make a cold frame for the melons 'cause i don't think that they will reach maturity in the mini greenhouse - would love a proper greenhouse.

Was given lots of plants by a friend but i am gutted because all the wonderful irises that she gave me haven't flowered, i have a lovely set of leaves though:(

Anyway for this year i am working at getting all the different areas prepared and then early next year i can concentrate on filling spaces, for a graden so big i was surprised that it had so little growing in it - lots of the purple geraniums and some sort of yellow plant and a few very mature roses but apart from that not a lot else - very disappointing.

I have some poppies but they are orange and very small - i'd love some of the HUGE red ones. I also bought some plants online and i am so disappointed with those, they refuse to grow as they should - my neighboour has the same plants in the same position yet his are huge and lovely and mine are small and weedy - then again i have the yellow plants which grow like triffids in my garden but are far smaller in everyone elses - i'm not good with flowering plants.

i love it all though - i am working organic so maybe the neighbours are using miracle grow or something.

i'd love a pond for tadpoles and frogs and water plants but i have a small child so not a good option just yet - we get to walk to the stream though and paddle with nets so they aren't deprived.

Ooo and just planted my herb garden, looks to be doing well apart from corriander - so its all coming together well.

yep a keen gardener here - hence the screen name.

babs

That sounds exciting.
Theres nothing better than a new patch of land that can be moulded into what you want it to be, is there?
My garden is tiny and the topsoil was only about in inch deep when I started on it back in 2003.
Under the soil were huge lumps of concrete and breeze blocks and half bricks- I later learned that the garden was where all the rubble was dumped when they were building the area.
Now, one garden composter, a lot of digging and a hell of a lot of blood, sweat and tears later the garden looks almost decent.
Heres a pic of part of the garden taken a few weeks ago (http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i159/Doppler1/SANY0003.jpg), the pond, which now has a current for the fish is, I discovered today, infested with horse leeches, the eggs of which came in on some plants I was given.

when i said died i mean they dried / shriveled up and gone all droppy :(


ill get some photos but mines still a work in progrees have still loads of hard landscaping to be done :thumbsup:

dried / shriveled up and gone all droppy :(

JT should see a Doc about that!

Ooooo jabber, those red hot pokers are to die for - i must do a list of all the stuff i want in my garden and actually do some planning, i think thats where i go wrong i just chick stuff in without thinking about it all - i want lupins and did plant some but they didn't grow.

Cute pond!

My garden is also full of stone - we have actually removed several huge mounds of earth that made hills and then evened out other areas and hidden tons of debris, mainly bricks and stone - this area is to be grassed though so isn't a problem - i understand the hours of sweat and blood though. It was terribly overgrown when we bought the house - i spent the first winter removing miles and miles of ivy - far too much to take to the tip so we filled the skips with it then shoved the rubble on top - tried burning it but the smoke upset the neighbours.

I think it will be another year before we have it looking good and maybe another two before we have it finished, still when i look back at what it was like i can't believe that we have done so much - i don't have photos on this putter and i wouldn't know how to post one anyway 'cause i am useless but will do if i can work out how to transport piccies -

have always wanted a beutiful cottage garden and so looking forwards to having it the way i want it - we have been lucky too 'cause we have been able to use hundreds of stone boulders that were up and down, as well as the chimney and some lovely old stone sets that we found when we demolished the back part of the house in the garden - oh and the old slates that we removed from the roof and some reclaimed ones that we bought to replace are left over so i get to break them up this weekend to make the front path - i have managed to restore the front garden to what i think it would have looked like when the house was built - still need some more plants - lots more plants in the front but hopefully it will look really nice and should be the first area that we finish.

I think that i have a lot to learn though.

thanks for the picture - i love looking at gardens,

babs

Katy definately sounds like lack of water then.

We have had major landscaping done and decided to hire in a man and his digger for a few days - well more than a few days really to do it all - twill still be a long time till its finished though - i'll get some before pictures and then take some now pictures and then if i am still about in a few years some after pictures.

babs

I've got catterpillars as big as fingers in my garden. They managed to eat half of my lawn in a couple of days. It's like baging my head against a wall trying to control them. I have to put pesticide down every couple of days, which then stops the new seed from comming up. End result sore head.

Nice garden jab.

Catterpillars eating grass?
Thats a new one to me.
Id throw bird seed down to attract the birds, surely theyd love a nice fat catterpillar.

Nice garden jab.
Thanks, its still a long way from looking decent though but I have a bash at it every day.

Miss Jones - or may i call you Bridgette?:D

catterpillars often have fave plants - if you can work out what these are and plant a bunch of them somewhere away from the grass then move the critters to the plants - eughh not sure i could pick up finger sized catterpillars though, they might leave the grass alone - i haven't heard of catterpillars eating grass before.

That must be pretty strong pesticide to kill off the grass - maybe citronella oil might deter them - supposed to work for ants and cats.

maybe plant them a bunch of lettuce somewhere and let them live on those - no wonder they are the size of fingers if they ate your whole lawn - what size butterfly will they turn into? Scary.

babs

Id throw bird seed down to attract the birds, surely theyd love a nice fat catterpillar.
But what if it rains & the bird seed germinates & grows loads more birds that do ploppies on her washing?

Not thought this one out very well mate :hihi:

Thanks, its still a long way from looking decent though but I have a bash in it every day. :o :o :o :hihi:

But what if it rains & the bird seed germinates & grows loads more birds that do ploppies on her washing?

Not thought this one out very well mate :hihi:

:o :o :o :hihi:
The ploppies are what makes the washing whiter than white. Modern detergents are merely airborne laxatives that make the birds do their filthy business onto the sheets.

As for the bashing bit...I was being completely innocent there, honest.

You need to water every day Katy! Get yourself a hosepipe and spend a few minutes every evening watering - its nice and relaxing. :thumbsup:

Basically not every plant will do well in a garden and it might take a few years to work out what's going to do well. I love Hostas but can't have them due to a massive ongoing snail problem. Likewise I've no chance of growing lettuce or strawberries. One end is very dark and dry, but the rest can be quite damp. I can grow tropical plants with ease though as its so sheltered I can leave palms outdoors in winter.

I can't grow fuchsias at all - though I can't work out why. I love Pinks too but struggle to keep them growing for more than one season.

My favourite plants so far this year have been the foxgloves that I let seed where they like - I had loads of cute bees, but they've died back now. :( Also I've had some lovely lime green trailing petunias that are very hardy and resistant to greenfly. I've also got some nice scented blue ones. And I had some dwarf sweet peas that I got by mistake and one pot has done well, and they're lovely flowers. I thought my lilies had died as they never flowered last year but this year were covered in masses of flowers.

I cant grow fuchsias either! I love the things and Ive tried for the past three years in pits and in beds and they just die after a few weeks no matter how much I care for them.

Mine always end up totally infested with greenfly and blackfly and all kinds of bugs. No matter what I try to deal with it, I cant kill off the bugs before they've done the damage. Once I even tried oil (someone recommended it - what a fool I was to listen) and I just ended up with crispy fried fuchsias. It really annoys me as my dad has a fuchsia that's over 100 years old!

I can't grow Aubrieta either (snails :(), and I think they'd look perfect in my garden.

Grow 'poached egg plant' among them, the flowers of this attracts hover flies. Their larvae eat all those nasty aphids like what ladybirds do without harming the plant.

Watch out for ants too as they 'farm' aphid & blackfly by bringing them to feed off the plant while the ants feed off the aphid.

Slug pellets kill snails too and, contrary to common myth, DON'T effect other wildlife that may eat the slug/ snail after :thumbsup:

I cant grow fuchsias either! I love the things and Ive tried for the past three years in pits and in beds and they just die after a few weeks no matter how much I care for them.
Do you feed them regularly mate?

Put some bone meal in the area you intend to plant them this autumn.

This will break down over winter & add nitrogen to the soil. This will give then an early root & shoot boost.

When the first buds appear feed regularly with a tomato feed (high in Potash) this will give you a good flowering show. Dead head regularly to encourage further flowering :thumbsup:

Do you feed them regularly mate?

Put some bone meal in the area you intend to plant them this autumn.

This will break down over winter & add nitrogen to the soil. This will give then an early root & shoot boost.

When the first buds appear feed regularly with a tomato feed (high in Potash) this will give you a good flowering show. Dead head regularly to encourage further flowering :thumbsup:
I never fed them bone meal so thats probably a reason they snuffed it.

Ill give it a try.

Ta.

I live near banana plantations and have been told this is the reason for the monster size bugs. I'm not sure what's in the killer but the seed doesn't come up if I use it at the same time. The only thing that they don't eat in my garden is the bouganvilla. Maybe I should just concrete the lot and have loads of potted Bouganvilla. I now know why you don't see many gardens over here!

My fushchias are doing very well, thanks, but they are in a damp-ish shady spot against a wall. No problem with bugs because i grow plenty of plants to attract bees and butterflies.
The only problem is my sorrel plant gets properly munched by caterpillars - the price you pay.
I've just put in an extra blackcurrant bush, a white flower carpet rose, moved some 'indoor' roses from outdoor pots to a bed and replaced them with alpine Thrift as the roses weren't getting enough water, even with me using the hose in addition.

This what your after katy (http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3461/gardenview1ei.jpg)? :thumbsup:

Now THATS a garden!

This what your after katy (http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3461/gardenview1ei.jpg)? :thumbsup:


ohh jimbob you know me soooo well :D

This what your after katy (http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3461/gardenview1ei.jpg)? :thumbsup:

Ooooh, that's a nice garden! Is it yours? *jealous*

All it needs is a shed right at the end to go and sulk in. ;)

Now I'm reluctant to use too many slug pellets. I tend to only put them where the frogs have no chance of getting near them. But I did try copper tape this time, and I can recommend it. It's ruddy expensive, but its entertaining watching snails try to crawl over it as they go "Ouch!" and reel backwards when it gives 'em a shock!

Ooooh, that's a nice garden! Is it yours? *jealous*

All it needs is a shed right at the end to go and sulk in. ;)
Aye and it has one ;) in the top left corner :p

Aye and it has one ;) in the top left corner :p

That must be a really good one because its well hidden. Just turn the bridge into a drawbridge and you'd have all the privacy in the world for sulking. :thumbsup:

Please can anyone help?

We have Ivy I cannot get rid of no matter what - it is taking over everywhere.

Please can anyone help?

We have Ivy I cannot get rid of no matter what - it is taking over everywhere.
Pull it off the wall or from wherever its climbing then pour tons of salt onto the roots.
Itll take a week or so to kill it but itll kill it.

Thanks

I have pulled but obviously it has found its way into crevices etc - I havent tried the salt part - is that ordinary or rock please

Thanks

I have pulled but obviously it has found its way into crevices etc - I havent tried the salt part - is that ordinary or rock please
Ordinary salt is better than weedkiller in certain circumstances. Thatll do the job but itll take slightly longer.

This what your after katy (http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3461/gardenview1ei.jpg)? :thumbsup:

That Jim bob is a stunning garden.!..i take it thats your parents place.?

Do you have a gardener to take care of it..or is it just years of hard work.?

or are you a young millionaire..and keeping it a secret.??

jt

Afternoon..right we have now finished the hard landscapeing of the garden and are ready to start to plant flowers etc.!

As i said on an earlier thread...i want to have a waterfall installed down the side of my garden...the way the gardenflows...it's just calling out for one.!

So i will cut to the chase...is there anyone out there who has the time and knowledge to help me out here..in return for loads of free beer...and anything else that i can give back in terms of time etc...

this would be greatly appricated..

john.