Your Garden 2022

I might try peat free compost for the first time this year, don’t know how that’s going to work cost wise.

Saw this article on the 10 best peat free composts, anyone use them before?

https://www.gardenersworld.com/product-guides/growing/best-peat-free-composts/

I harvested some seaweed for the veg beds as an alternative, back to the old ways!

Thanks for that. I will check him out. Not too far from me anyway.

I took out my seed potatoes this evening to lay them out to chit. All the homeguard potatoes have sprouted fairly extensively, is that okay? Should I reduce them down to a single sprout/potato at this stage?

Anyone with spuds planted needs to keep an eye out for blight this week

I think the weather has been fairly good for the garden here in Cork so far this year. The only real victim of the recent cold nights seems to have been a passion flower climber I put out a few weeks back and it had been getting going well up until the week just gone. Only three euro something from Lidl so not going to worry about it too much. Dry May has been good for lots of flowers lasting longer but some veg have not got a great start due to not getting enough water. Posted a video showing some of the recent blooms here.

Happy gardening!

Have a lidl passaflora planted April 2019 in a fairly dry bed only thing I've ever fed it is seaweed and it's done brilliantly ever year for us

Anyone start harvesting spuds yet? Tempted to dig a plant or two this weekend to see how they are

Fierce slow this year but things are finally moving along now it appears, buds on Rudbeckia and Strawflowers and some good movement on the Roses/Strawberries/Wildflowers/Dahlias/Sunflowers.

Glad I'm not only one thinking things are behind. My Shasta daisys are usually couple of weeks into flowering at tis stage still haven't broken bud yet

Blight warning on the 9 o'clock weather this evening so drove out to spray the spuds, loads of them gone already with it ffs. Dug about 10 plants that were badly affected, got a good few small spuds from them and sprayed the rest but I'd say there's at least another 20 gone. Sickened 😢

Earlies - Homeguard & Solist

Pinch it off.. you will do no harm.

My outside strawberries are truly miserable and have failed to give me even one sample from 18 plants. My tunnel ones are super.

Anybody else with issues re. outside strawberries this year?

Agree about the flies, not the cluster fly swarms of earlier in the year, but all kinds of flies and midges in the garden.

our outside strawberries have been flying it this year, have about six plants, full bowl of ripe ones almost every second evening for the past four weeks or so

Now I think of it, agreed not many bees, or butterflies, but loads of bugs, mostly of the munching variety it seems. Swarms of those medium sized black flies (bigger than midges) that hover around under trees. Except the magnolia, if you want a bug free zone to sit in, plant a magnolia. You will have to wait a while to use it of course 😀

And spiders, lots of spiders.

Blight warning for the country this weekend. I didn’t get a chance to spray my potatoes…

I planted a few seeds from a halloween pumpkin with the kids, they're growing huge - the biggest one has spread ~3m in total. Is there any particular minding I need to do with these? Should I prune them down to a small number of flowers to ensure a decent sized pumpkin? Or just let them grow and prune once the fruit has set? Or do nothing and just let them at it?

Looks impressive 👌

Fair play, if only I had the patience to grow my own 😏 I have the space , just not the patience or green fingers, I've plenty of shrubs, plants etc which keep me busy. It's not been a great season with the weather so mixed .

But well done , I've great admiration for those who grow their own veg 👍

Has anyone ever had an experience of Magnolia trees starting to show buds and flowers again for a second time this year?

I've got two in the garden and they are both starting to get buds and flower again, not as many as April - but obviously this time they are full of leaves.

First picture below is April, the others are Today - don't know why boards has turned them on their sides.

Maybe with the drought, it thinks it is a mini spring again.