The gardening thread

[gill216]

If I could find my camera I'd take a picture of my tumbling tomatoes. I have bushes covered in ripening tomatoes. From 2 tiny seeds. They started out in small pots. They ended up in my grandsons paddling pools, the paddling pools can no longer be seen. I can't sit on my decking -and opening the shed door is out of the question.

Both grown outside in this nasty north climate

[giraffe]

My raspberries have decided to produce another crop! Last week there were a few ripe, and then the other day I had 15 huge raspberries all on the same day. My rhubarb came up twice this year too. I think the wet summer confused the garden and it thought it was April again, and started over. There is also a beautiful display of croci (Is that how you spell crocusses?) on the roundabout near Asda.

[kathlyn]

I've got a wild primrose flowering, so climate certainly confused.

[gill216]

In the bright sunshine today- yes I know lots of you have more snow - I've been tidying up in readiness for spring.
My fruit bushes and fruit trees all have buds. My heathers have flowers appearing.

The garlic I dug up last autumn ( does anyone know anything about garlic?) is about 2 inches through the soil, my strawberries have new growth, and while searching through the debris thats called the storage area, I found a soggy crown of something as yet unknown ( its about 12" diameter shoots included) that has so many sprouts I stuck it in a pot with new compost and we wait and see what transpires.

I also have seedlings from bedding plants (about 1/2" high) that seem to have re-seeded themselves.

My back aches, my knees ache.

[giraffe]

There are two spikey bushes outside my front door (I've forgotton the name of them) that have collapsed. I thought a gust of wind had ruined them the other day, but looking closer they don't look healthy and the neighbours both sides of us have the same plants and they look just as sick. Is there a spikey bush disease going round?

[LAT]

Did they get badly covered by the snow and damaged by that?

I just tried to do some gardening but the ground was rock hard. I managed to tidy up some dead leaves etc - where they weren't frozen into the earth. Had to give up before my hands became frozen solid too (and I was wearing two pairs of gloves!

[giraffe]

No, they were fine after the snow. The fact that the leaves have gone a funny colour makes me think they are sick.

[tricia]

just check the garden yesterday - haven't gone near it because of the frosts - Unfortunately I have lost my bay tree- most of the leaves are brown and falling off, I have also lost my rosemary - it was fine up till Christmas-and quite a few of my teracotta pots have been damaged by frosts. A trip to the garden centre is needed

Tricia

[gill216]

Leave your bay!!! Mine did the same but has recovered. I had great fun with a hammer and my frost broken pots!
Lots of crocks for the bottom of the new ones

I made an early start and planted loads of seeds in propagators and put them in my spare room.They all were doing really well until a couple of days ago - and without exception they are all dying

[giraffe]

Are they getting any fresh air in the spare room?

[MBH]

Pruned my Buddlia last week for the 'new year'. Hope it comes back as good as last year

[Wulfruna]

My birthday "treat" last week was a trip to the Garden Centre for some plants (primulas for instant cheerful colour!), packets of seeds and several bags of compost..... So now the propagator is full of trays in the hope that something gets inspired to believe that Spring is here!

[gill216]

Does anyone grow cucumbers?

I have one plant with stunted growth. It has 3 leaves, no flowers but about 25 cucumbers trying to escape. It actually looks quite obscene

It has a competitor who is its reverse. About 3 foot high, loads of leaves and flowers and very little else.

I have another 4 normal ones.

[Bunnylump]

Does anyone grow cucumbers?

I'd love to but I can't. I have a stupid cat who eats slug pellets. So I can't use them, and consequently most vegetables get eaten before I get to them. Having said that, I have put an old fire guard over my strawberries, so have been able to put down slug death in there (cat can't get in). And I have had the biggest crop of strawberries I've ever seen. I'm getting a great big tupperware container of them every day at the moment. I've been eating them for breakfast!!

My bean plants are truly spectacular though!

[giraffe]

I have grown cucumbers for the last few years, but didn't get round to it this year. I grow them in pots in the conservatory and the slugs can't get in there, so I don't find that a problem. I have found that the leaves sometimes look very sick by the time the cucumbers appear, but the cucumbers seem to grow ok anyway.

[Wulfruna]

I have one plant with stunted growth. It has 3 leaves, no flowers but about 25 cucumbers trying to escape. It actually looks quite obscene

I haven't come across that particular problem, which sounds definitely a nightmare! I wonder what is going on?
I have now got three cucumber plants looking fairly promising, the survivors of five earlier ones two of which then go eaten off by the inevitable slugs...... However, they do always suffer seriously from mildew and every year in the past I have needed to spray regularly with fungicide for that - which usually worls quite well.
Hope that helps!

[gill216]

Time to revive this thread!

I came upon www.gardenbargains.com and placed a fairly large order. Service so far seems great, everything arrived before the estimated delivery time. Amongst other things I bought the mini fruit tree orchard. I got a Braeburn apple, a conference pear, a damson plum and a morello cherry tree - all for under £30. The final price depends upon how many items you buy and how much you spend. The 4 trees started at £29.99 for the lot- I got them at £22.49 for the 4. They arrive at 5' can be grown in 30 litre pots, dont grow past 7' and will be replaced if they fail to flourish. Check out their gurantee. Mine went into the soil the night the gales started

I've also bought their potato pods to release some of my ground for other things. The free seeds are a mix of flowers and veg, all in date and all priced.They include tomato seeds and lettuce. I got my free fertilizer, have bought 3 rhubarb crowns and a Raeburn blackberry that can also be grown in a pot. I'll let you know how they go.

[giraffe]

I have a big bush in my garden. I think it's evergreen. It has shiny almost round leaves that are a sort of mid green. A couple of weeks ago all the leaves started to fall off and now there are only a handful of leaves on it. They didn't go brown, they just fell off and they don't look diseased. (Well some have black blobs on them, but the first ones to fall off were unmarked. Any ideas? Is my bush dead? Is it deciduous and forgot to lose it's leaves? It's about six feet wide by 8 feet tall, so will leave a massive gap if it's dead. I wondered if the snow after Christmas was the last straw for it.

[kathlyn]

I think the weather has done a great deal of damage to many garden shrubs especially as the temperature went down so low and for so long. The coldest we registered here was -18. Many of my shrubs look half dead, though on inspection today some have new shoots beginning to emerge. So I suggest to anyone with plant problems at the moment to play a waiting game and just be patient and hopefully given some milder weather new shoots will appear before long.

[Wulfruna]

......and placed a fairly large order. ........... I'll let you know how they go.

Wow, Gill - so it's not just your kitchen that's getting a makeover? That sounds like a really good bargain! Fruit trees are great if you have the space - you get the blossom to enjoy in the Spring and the produce in the autumn. We planted an apple, a Morello cherry and a pear over the last couple of years and are definitely reaping the benefit. Though the best investment was definitely the raspberries, which we are still eating from the freezer.

Sorry to hear about your bush, Giraffe - It certainly doesn't sound too good if it has suddenly dropped leaves at this time of year, but I agree with Kathlyn that the weather has been a problem for lots of things that would normally survive, and hopefully it may yet recover. I wonder what it is? I guess that there is nothing you can do to help it, other than wait and see. It may, perhaps, benefit from careful pruning in, say, March, to encourage new growth from lower down.