Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
Today I did something in my Garden
Comments
-
SouthWesterly wrote: »A busy few days in the garden ....
Same here. Lovely gardening weather (until yesterday afternoon, then suddenly cold, damp and windy
)
Mostly "housekeeping" for me this week. I've taken out all the gerkins and all but one of my Charentais melons, and have cleared all the remaining sweetcorn. Those three produced surprisingly great harvests, despite the drought.
The sweetcorn was from saved seed - the one and only cob from last year's crop - but a huge amount of work at the point of harvest so 90% of the cobs stayed on the plants. I don't really eat corn on the cob, although this year's Covid refugees did and declared it delicious, but I do use a lot of tinned sweetcorn so I think I'll plant about the same amount next year and try to get a better handle on the harvest. It suits me to sow it in place of this year's tomatoes.
The "regular" veg is still producing: picked about 4kg of green and butter beans, 3.5kg of tomatoes and 2kg of beetroot, all destined for preserving in one way or another.
Still no leafy greens (other than nettles :rolleyes: ) although I think the lamb's lettuce sown a few weeks ago is beginning to peep out of the soil. In the newly weeded and rain-watered beds, I've put in some more lamb's lettuce, 10 metres' worth of spinach and one last try with lettuce. Thinking that the weather would be "nice" for another month, I also sowed an experimental line of red cabbage and celery.
I'm trying (yet again) to grow decent white onions from seed; and will think about planting garlic and shallots next week from this year's poorer quality cloves. I'll probably buy some new seed garlic next month as a back-up.0 -
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
Wish I could put the actual image here...
Could some kind and skilled soul do so? Please! Thank you!
It was a seed, dry and sere, in a paper packet... And now! How can anyone not be filled with awe and joy! So hard won, and all the more lovely! (starts singing, " You are my sunshine!")
0 -
-
I built a house for our hedgehogs today.
I noticed two fairly little ones moving around together. Since we also see our fair share of foxes and cats passing through the garden I decided to do my bit to solve the housing crisis and give them a little hand for the winter. It ended up being a bit bigger than it needed to be, but maybe they want to move in together. I hope they like it, will report.
0 -
-
-
RachelsCousin wrote: »Off topic, but do you have a trail camera set up? Something I'm looking into at the moment, lots of wildlife around me including I suspect a badger.
Yes, I have. And it's definitely worth it, I had no idea about all the activity in the garden at night.
And I just checked the images from last night, we have success! One hedgehog can cleary be seen entering the house at shortly past 5 this morning - link goes to imgur.com. The sequence is heavily compressed to be able to upload it (couldn't do it here), it looks better in the original footage. I'm happy they like my work
0 -
I took advantage of the break in the weather today to do a few final winter jobs. It was glorious here in the NW! I planted out the last few bulbs, positioned some perennials that I grew from seed in their final spots and took a saw to my potted delphiniums. I bought 2 a few years ago, now I have 11, freshly potted in the cold frame ready for spring
!
Gardening is such food for the soul, being out for those few precious hours brightened up my whole week! Pity we’re facing into the long winter now, at least I can always plan and dream of better days!0 -
Advertisement
-
SnowyMuckish wrote: »It was glorious here in the NW! I planted out the last few bulbs ...
Last few? :eek: It's only today that I've received my bulbs! Over a thousand (tulips, crocuses, alliums and fritillaries) destined for an expanded bed out the back. Hoping to get them done while we too have glorious weather.
As they didn't arrive till lunchtime, I started on a different project: clearing 100m² of thorn bushes, brambles, hawthorn and wild roses. In previous years, I'd have spent the best part of a month working away at it with a hedge trimmer, lopping shears and a rake; today, I used my new mini-digger and although I felt somewhat deprived of the benefits of physical exertion, it was immensely satisfying to get the whole job done (apart from the clean-up) in one day. Oh, and quite nice having all those thorns kept at a long metal arm's length! 0 -
-
SnowyMuckish wrote: »:eek: That must have cost a pretty penny! Where do you source them?
Would love to see a picture of the finished product next year, should be very dramatic!
Dramatic is the plan! I'm taking "before" and "during" photos; "after" will be along in a few months!
This bed was previously 16m² (separating two parts of the back lawn and I've just doubled it up. Even though it's claggy clay soil and theoretically not really suitable for spring bulbs, the original bed has masses of daffodils in it that get better and better every year, so I thought I'd take a chance with the tulips (500 of those, black and cream, two varieties of each for flowering in April and May).
Along with the rest, it came to 162€ delivered (to France) from bulbi.nl On top of that, I spent 76€ on 200 plastic pots (only really needed 50 but postage was 12€ regardless of quantity, so decided to get extras for future use. I'll plant the tulips in 5-litre pots sunk into the bed so that I can lift them out in the summer and drop something else in there for later colour.0 -
CelticRambler wrote: »
I'll plant the tulips in 5-litre pots sunk into the bed so that I can lift them out in the summer and drop something else in there for later colour.
That’s really interesting! I never thought of planting and lifting the tulips when they’re finished. There’s always that awkward in between phase when they’re dying off.CelticRambler wrote: »Even though it's claggy clay soil and theoretically not really suitable for spring bulbs, the original bed has masses of daffodils in it that get better and better every year, so I thought I'd take a chance with the tulips
Our soil was almost solid blue clay when we moved in. I could go into the pottery business if this gardening hobby doesn’t pay off! My OH removed the topsoil without thinking when he leveled the site. I’ve spent years trying to replenish it with organic matter. This year I went gung-ho with drainage chips and sharp sand. Only to plant my tulips too early :rolleyes: I didn’t know about tulip fire!CelticRambler wrote: »Dramatic is the plan! I'm taking "before" and "during" photos; "after" will be along in a few months!
I must do the same, come this time next year it’ll be a case of you show me yours and I’ll show you mine :pac: :pac:
What are you thinking of replacing the tulips with, that’s what I’m struggling with at the moment. I have spring sussed= pink tulips with forget me nots and early to mid summer= allium Purple Sensation, with purple lupins, saliva, aquilegia, agastache, scabious and catmint. But then there’s really nothing to take me through till autumn?0 -
Neither did I ... until I went looking for an explanation as to why my daffs did so well but the few tulips I planted years ago gave me one worthy display then gave up. Apparently (I know now! :pac: ) lifting them is the done thing, even in places like the Keukenhof Park in the Netherlands.SnowyMuckish wrote: »That’s really interesting! I never thought of planting and lifting the tulips when they’re finished. There’s always that awkward in between phase when they’re dying off.
I've opted for the pot technique to make it easier to find them when the time comes, and so as not to disturb (too much) whatever's growing in the vicinity ... and to have a right-sized hole ready made.SnowyMuckish wrote: »What are you thinking of replacing the tulips with, that’s what I’m struggling with at the moment. I have spring sussed= pink tulips with forget me nots and early to mid summer= allium Purple Sensation, with purple lupins, saliva, aquilegia, agastache, scabious and catmint. But then there’s really nothing to take me through till autumn?
To be decided! This bed was supposed to be a sort of "natural" hedge-and-border barrier between the two halves of the garden, but it's just not working as intended. Like yours, it's really interesting in the spring (daffs and lilac) and then meh ... Aswell as the lilac, I have two young oak trees, an acacia and a hawthorn as the main vertical elements (need to add at least one other real tree - will see if I can move a chestnut, beech or sycamore from the lane)
I happen to have a load of self-propagated acanthus handy, so will put those in towards the back to give me a mid-level evergreen, weed-suppressing backdrop, and I'm hoping I can persuade my self-seeding alyssum (which does amazingly well in the courtyard) to grow in this new spot; I picked and potted about 100 plants last week, which will go in behind the crocuses and between the tulips, to cover the dying foliage.
Other than that, dunno ... lupins, definitely, but I have to grow them first; sunflowers, probably as I have seed saved from this year; veitch's blue thistle, probably too, as that's suitably invasive and should compete well with the acanthus! Due to the size and location of this bed, anything going in here needs to be "massive" or it'll just be lost. The specimen plants I'll keep for the courtyard or the planters out the front.
Just remembered - I posted a "before" photo on the photos sub-forum last week, here.0 -
-
Yes, I have. And it's definitely worth it, I had no idea about all the activity in the garden at night.
And I just checked the images from last night, we have success! One hedgehog can cleary be seen entering the house at shortly past 5 this morning - link goes to imgur.com. The sequence is heavily compressed to be able to upload it (couldn't do it here), it looks better in the original footage. I'm happy they like my work
What type of camera you got. A link to where to buy would be great. Thanks a mill0 -
The "natural look" is now pensioned off!SnowyMuckish wrote: »If you’re going for the natural look, an idea I was toying with because it would fill the large borders easily was a mix of greater knapweed, with wild oregano, bettony, red valerian and purple coneflowers. I have plenty of other natural spaces, which already include several cousins of those plants you mention, and due to a change in the age-profile of family and visitors, this bed can now be dressed up a bit more. It wasn't due for re-design just yet, but ... ... well, you know how it is ... 
SnowyMuckish wrote: »How do you plan to store the tulips after you lift them? Do you just put them to the side for the following year?
Yes, the plan is to save them for re-planting year after year. I have to read up a bit more on the best way to store them from June to October, but it'll probably be in some kind of root-cellar, if I ever get around to making that for my carrots and beets.
Crocuses, fritillaries and alliums are in now. Tulips are on the agenda for tomorrow.0 -
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
When do you lot call it a day with tomatoes? Mine seem to be growing strong and fruiting and flowering.
When they stop! Mine are always an outdoor crop, so the sub-10°C nights tend to put bring the season to a close, earlier or later depending on the year. All done for this year thanks to a few very cold nights quite early in October.
If I know the cold nights are coming, I'll pick whatever's left and give the green ones a chance to ripen indoors. If I don't hear the forecast, or if I'm away and can't do anything about it, I'll leave things as they are and see if the remaining fruit survives.0 -
thanks. I cleared away alot of the smaller plants and left 2 or 3. I'm toying with heating the greenhouse with hot compost so I kinda needed the space.CelticRambler wrote: »When they stop! Mine are always an outdoor crop, so the sub-10°C nights tend to put bring the season to a close, earlier or later depending on the year. All done for this year thanks to a few very cold nights quite early in October.
If I know the cold nights are coming, I'll pick whatever's left and give the green ones a chance to ripen indoors. If I don't hear the forecast, or if I'm away and can't do anything about it, I'll leave things as they are and see if the remaining fruit survives.
this plant in particular is very strong growing from the seed of last years crop by accident and left alone. Interesting without being tied up it tried to put down roots up the stem. 0 -
Advertisement
-
Interesting without being tied up it tried to put down roots up the stem.
They do that. Sometimes, if I've lost a plant or two due for whatever reason, I'll look for an unpruned one that's put down extra "stem" roots and move cut stem to use as a replacement. It's quite remarkable how well they adjust to such trauma, especially compare to some other plants that go hysterical if you so much as brush past them with the wrong colour trousers on! 0 -
CelticRambler wrote: »They do that. Sometimes, if I've lost a plant or two due for whatever reason, I'll look for an unpruned one that's put down extra "stem" roots and move cut stem to use as a replacement. It's quite remarkable how well they adjust to such trauma, especially compare to some other plants that go hysterical if you so much as brush past them with the wrong colour trousers on!
Yes it's crazy alright. One thing it has thought me is to definitely plant into the ground in the greenhouse for next year this thing is much thicker and healthier and grew so fast compared to the potted ones.0 -
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
Ill check the variety tomorrow I think i saved the packets this year. Weird lookin things.
Here's photos of 1st & 2nd crop of container grown carrots. 1st batch were sown in March, and photo is from July (that's a side plate for scale. And yes, the kids ate them raw!). They grew a bit bigger than this, but were being constantly eaten as they were right outside the door.
2nd batch were planted early August, and this is the last of them picked today. They're a lot smaller than the first batch. Even had a few of the 'white' ones when I picked them. They were grown in old planters that were lying around, about 18 inches deep. Mixture of compost & sand.
Of course I can't find the seed packet now to know what variety they were.0 -
-
-
They grew better than mine anyway. I just had a load of mine in a nice stew.RachelsCousin wrote: »Here's photos of 1st & 2nd crop of container grown carrots. 1st batch were sown in March, and photo is from July (that's a side plate for scale. And yes, the kids ate them raw!). They grew a bit bigger than this, but were being constantly eaten as they were right outside the door.
2nd batch were planted early August, and this is the last of them picked today. They're a lot smaller than the first batch. Even had a few of the 'white' ones when I picked them. They were grown in old planters that were lying around, about 18 inches deep. Mixture of compost & sand.
Of course I can't find the seed packet now to know what variety they were.0 -
-
-
Advertisement
Advertisement