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Your gardening photos

redser7

Whether it's a competition rose or a wonderful weed, post it here. Fruit, veg, blooms, landscaping or just something pretty you noticed growing in the crack of a wall on a country lane. Share it with the forum.
Please try to keep comments to a minimum and let the photos speak for themselves. A brief description is helpful and show your appreciation by using the Thanks button.

To embed your photo instead of attaching it ... go to http://tinypic.com/ Choose 'Message Board' or '15" Screen' or '17" screen' from the 'Resize' drop-down menu. Click 'Choose file' and navigate to your file. Choose 'UPLOAD NOW'. Copy the contents of the 'IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards' field. Back at the Boards.ie Photo thread, in your new post paste in the IMG Code. You're done. If you are not happy with the image size on the page, try again with a different resize option listed above (Message Board, 15 or 17).

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iamtony

And still can't get my imgur links to work so here's a link.

http://imgur.com/gallery/maDkhZW

Just throwing out an old plant and found an ant colony had been there. I've noticed loads of them in the back and front garden this year.

GreeBo

Red Hare wrote: »

Pears are normally picked while they are hard and then ripened indoors. If you turn the pear up at an angle and its breaks off - then its ready to bring indoors. If it doesn't break easily itself then leave it - its not ready yet.

So thats why all the ones on the ground are soft!

GreeBo

fryup wrote: »

a decent crop of pears for once, they're very hard though..will they ripen on the tree?

If its any consolation, mine are the exact same.
Nice crop of huge (compared to last year anyway) but they are like apples for weeks now.

The birds seems to like them though

wotzgoingon

My mothers sextuplets(6 twins) Sun flower.

Red Hare

Pears are normally picked while they are hard and then ripened indoors. If you turn the pear up at an angle and its breaks off - then its ready to bring indoors. If it doesn't break easily itself then leave it - its not ready yet.

fryup

a decent crop of pears for once, they're very hard though..will they ripen on the tree?

[Deleted User]

Thanks! No they’re not in pots, there’s a 2 foot height difference between the lawn and chips, so I backed the soil with sleepers and put the flowers in then. I have pots of lupins, delphiniums and lavender to the front of them in the left hand corner in the top photo but it’s hard to make out in the photo!

Happy4all

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

Geranium Rozanne with musk mallow

LoOks great. Are the flowers in pots?

Reckless Abandonment

Fantastic job
I love seeing transformations like that.

FlipperThePriest

To be honest it was more of a father's day project last year to try and get the wee one interested. But I have seen them occupy it alright. I'd say there's more attractive natural alternatives around the place. I've seen leafcutter bees and solitary bees using it.

Gloomtastic!

^ Good work!

Do those bee hotels work?

FlipperThePriest

Before

Sloped back garden, wanted to dig out a flat seated fire-pit area, a few flower beds left and right and replace the lawn with wildflower, except for a little path that goes around.

All the gravel came from digging this area and the bed on the right. Kerbs and bricks were just lying around. I will eventually put in some sort of dry stacked wall and some seating.

A late showing due to the work only kicking off during lockdown.

iamtony

fryup wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^^^

cute carrots

I know ha. I planted them in my veg trug and nothing rrally grew great in it this year. I didnt replace the compost and didnt feed nearly enough. Spring onions didnt grow at all. You see one in that pic. They grew to that size in like April and havent done anything since.

fryup

^^^^^^^^^^^

cute carrots

iamtony

Attachment not found.

Todays harvest.

kathrinalewis

Red Hare wrote: »

Allium Christophii on 29th June 2014

This shows some good care of your garden.

[Deleted User]

Had these two lovely visitors today!
There’s no nicer feeling than planting something for wildlife, then sitting back and watching it come!

wildlifeboy

bind weed is very easy to control if you get it early, i just remove them as i see them.

iamtony

GreeBo wrote: »

Its busy rotting away now, the smell is atrocious!

I've had a few more pieces appear that I've added to the pile, but heres hoping I'm Bindweed free in 2021!

Oh how many times ive said that :rolleyes:

fryup

my hanging basket of petunias...

GreeBo

Reckless Abandonment wrote: »

I've been experimenting this year with continuously pulling it up everytime I see it. So far its definitely weaking it.

My garden is very old and I'd estimate unmaintained for 10+ years so the root system (as you can see!) was very strong.
I had been pulling it but it was just reappearing every week, everywhere and was pissing me off.

I have to say that while back-breaking, it was *very* satisfying to trace the roots out. The number of times I thought I was just only to dig a little deeper and low and behold I'd find a warren of the white ba$tards!
I recommend using a hand fork and prising up the soil.

Reckless Abandonment

I've been experimenting this year with continuously pulling it up everytime I see it. So far its definitely weaking it.

GreeBo

Reckless Abandonment wrote: »

That's a lot of bind weed. You'll enjoy watching that burn

Its busy rotting away now, the smell is atrocious!

I've had a few more pieces appear that I've added to the pile, but heres hoping I'm Bindweed free in 2021!

Reckless Abandonment

That's a lot of bind weed. You'll enjoy watching that burn

GreeBo

Not as aesthetically pleasing as many of the other pics, but highly rewarding!

pajosjunkbox

Goldfinch8 wrote:

I have grown a wildflower meadow for the past 14 years with a few other wildflower strips around the garden. What advice I give is just based on my own experience of growing wildflowers every year and the bit of reading that I have done around it. I am certainly no expert on it. In reality, there is not much work to it all and if you understand a few basic principles, they are not that difficult to maintain and they certainly are rewarding as a gardener if you like that wild dimension in your patch. When I first planted a wildflower patch, it was a riot of colour the first year. What happens in subsequent years if you do not till the plot, is that some grasses become more dominant and some of the original wildflowers do better than others. In my own patch, different purple vetches, yellow vetchlings and different yellow birds foot trefoils became the dominant species as the years went on as well as some Red Clover. I was happy with that as a lot of pollinators were still drawn to the meadow every year but the variety of colour was not as dramatic as the first year after sowing. To maintain it, I usually strimmed it in the late summer, let the cuttings and seed heads dry on it in warm weather for a day or two and then remove them all. Wildflowers can compete better with grasses on poorer soils and by removing the cuttings you are trying not too enrich the soil. Over the years, even though I liked the increasing clover patches as it attracted many bees, it too enriched the soil by fixing nitrogen to it. This year, I decided to plant the meadow again as I wanted a more varied blast of colour through the summer. In early April I dug it with a fork and removed roots, scrub and small sods from it. I also skimmed off some soil with a shovel where I thought it was a bit rich or deep and used that elsewhere in the garden. I raked it to a fine enough tilth then. I waited 9 or 10 days for small seedlings to appear, and then hoed them out of it without being overly precise. Most of these were probably grasses and weeds for want of a better word. I did this instead of using a weedkiller. I then scattered the seed over the prepared area and gently raked it in. I then let nature do the rest. I did however water the wildflower seeds once in early May as we had a Spring drought due to good weather then and this helped them on their way. As the pictures above show, the poppies were in full bloom a few weeks ago along with Red Shank which is usually regarded as a wildflower/weed that enjoys broken or newly disturbed ground. (I have read that their seeds can lay dormant in the ground for a few decades until the ground is disturbed and conditions become favourable for them to germinate).They did well as a result of the ground being disturbed this year. The great thing about a wildflower meadow is that some of the colours come in waves as different species come into bloom at certain times. Blues, whites, pinks and purples are in vogue the last week or two in the meadow. There is also no worries about so called weeds appearing in it either and in fact buttercups gave my own wildflower patch a nice welcome splash of yellow in the early summer. Finally, what is fascinating and probably the most rewarding thing about a wildflower patch is how various pollinators and insects are drawn to it. Best of luck with it if you decide to give it a go.

Thanks for that advice. Looking forward to enjoying it next year !

FlipperThePriest

Goldfinch8 wrote: »

I am happy with how a wildflower meadow that I planted turned out this year (despite the weather at times!) but I am even more pleased at the amount of insects and birds that have been drawn to it.

That is fab.

Goldfinch8

pajosjunkbox wrote: »

Hi. I'm thinking of planting wildflowers around my garden next year. How did you prepare the ground before you planted the wildflower seeds ?

I have grown a wildflower meadow for the past 14 years with a few other wildflower strips around the garden. What advice I give is just based on my own experience of growing wildflowers every year and the bit of reading that I have done around it. I am certainly no expert on it.
In reality, there is not much work to it all and if you understand a few basic principles, they are not that difficult to maintain and they certainly are rewarding as a gardener if you like that wild dimension in your patch.
When I first planted a wildflower patch, it was a riot of colour the first year. What happens in subsequent years if you do not till the plot, is that some grasses become more dominant and some of the original wildflowers do better than others. In my own patch, different purple vetches, yellow vetchlings and different yellow birds foot trefoils became the dominant species as the years went on as well as some Red Clover. I was happy with that as a lot of pollinators were still drawn to the meadow every year but the variety of colour was not as dramatic as the first year after sowing. To maintain it, I usually strimmed it in the late summer, let the cuttings and seed heads dry on it in warm weather for a day or two and then remove them all. Wildflowers can compete better with grasses on poorer soils and by removing the cuttings you are trying not too enrich the soil. Over the years, even though I liked the increasing clover patches as it attracted many bees, it too enriched the soil by fixing nitrogen to it.
This year, I decided to plant the meadow again as I wanted a more varied blast of colour through the summer. In early April I dug it with a fork and removed roots, scrub and small sods from it. I also skimmed off some soil with a shovel where I thought it was a bit rich or deep and used that elsewhere in the garden. I raked it to a fine enough tilth then. I waited 9 or 10 days for small seedlings to appear, and then hoed them out of it without being overly precise. Most of these were probably grasses and weeds for want of a better word. I did this instead of using a weedkiller.
I then scattered the seed over the prepared area and gently raked it in. I then let nature do the rest. I did however water the wildflower seeds once in early May as we had a Spring drought due to good weather then and this helped them on their way.
As the pictures above show, the poppies were in full bloom a few weeks ago along with Red Shank which is usually regarded as a wildflower/weed that enjoys broken or newly disturbed ground. (I have read that their seeds can lay dormant in the ground for a few decades until the ground is disturbed and conditions become favourable for them to germinate).They did well as a result of the ground being disturbed this year. The great thing about a wildflower meadow is that some of the colours come in waves as different species come into bloom at certain times. Blues, whites, pinks and purples are in vogue the last week or two in the meadow. There is also no worries about so called weeds appearing in it either and in fact buttercups gave my own wildflower patch a nice welcome splash of yellow in the early summer.
Finally, what is fascinating and probably the most rewarding thing about a wildflower patch is how various pollinators and insects are drawn to it. Best of luck with it if you decide to give it a go.

pajosjunkbox

Hi. I'm thinking of planting wildflowers around my garden next year. How did you prepare the ground before you planted the wildflower seeds ?

[Deleted User]

I've 2 with begonias, one is almost bare and the other is perfect after the storm, I'm hoping it will just recover as they've been gorgeous all summer.