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Heaven: 2021 The Plot Thickens: The Gardening Thread

TrudyTrudy Heaven Host
edited January 2022 in Limbo
Whatever you're putting down or digging up, this is the place to talk about it. How does your garden grow? Share it here. The 2020 Gardening thread has been locked but is still available for perusal.
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Comments

  • I dug a huge new herbaceous border during the lock-down of April and May last year. I've started it off with plants that I've divided from elsewhere in the garden but there is LOTS of space to fill. Happy Days!
  • I spent yesterday evening filling in my Chiltern Seeds order (ouch, their seed porn* is just toooo irresistible!), which I will post in a few mins - this will be my second, and probably last, trip outdoors today, the first was to empty the compost bucket of the trimmings from the swede and celeriac I harvested yesterday. The allotment is currently somewhat hard to get to dry shod as it's on a water meadow - just off the right hand side, annoyingly, of the third photo here: https://airexperiences.co.uk/aerial-photography/uk-floods-oxford-stratford-upon-avon/ - the strange circles just right of centre are the remains of prehistoric houses, fact fans.

    This year's plan is to make the garden more all-year round, and more wildlife friendly too - I've bought things like hellebores, and I've also brought over from the allotment lesser celandine for early nectar, spreads like hell but it flowers so early and dies back so early, and is so flat, that it's not really a nuisance. Hopefully our local nursery can supply my wants list (they will be poked in Duke Horse), and they will also be supplying some new hedge - apart from panels alongside the new shed and the bins, I'll have hedge all the way up one side of the plot when I'm done. Said shed now has its water butts installed, so I can make grotesque butt innuendoes til the cows come home. When we can have visitors, the shed will have electrics too... when we can have visitors!

    We shall see... currently it's drizzling, effing cold, and getting dark, so I'm scheming instead!

    * I found this in there last year... something about it I can't quite put my finger on... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitoria
  • Lol.

    Unfortunately last year’s plans were delayed by us all going down with covid days before lockdown but my convalescence gave me the opportunity to establish a veg patch and tackle some flower beds, shrubs and the mini pond, and we got a local gardener to do some landscaping. We now have an accessible lawn for the first time in a decade, a wildflower area around the small fruit trees and my husband put up a new garden shed near the patio and a huge bicycle shed near the gate (we have a 100 foot long narrow garden). I re-started the wormery and stocked the bird feeders - I now have a monthly bird feed delivery too.

    Our plan is to make the garden more accessible for entertaining in, especially as we don’t expect indoor parties for a while but hope for garden visits at some point. Husband put a decking barbecue area at the end of the garden a few weeks ago (away from house so as not to disturb neighbours) and tables and benches are ordered. We need to tidy the unused but working outside loo near the house which is currently storing building materials!

    I need to replace the Nelly Moser clematis outside the gate which was bought this summer, flowered wonderfully and suddenly died. There’s a huge wild rose which has outstayed it’s welcome where we want to put up a new picket fence. Re-dig the veg patch and stop the alkanet from re-invading the newly cleared bed where I have made a cottage garden style planting. Somewhere I want to plant a red buddleia.

    There’s an area near the shed/patio which I want to add a water butt and paving. It’s next to our old chicken shed and I’m wondering if we should get chickens again.
  • As there's bugger all to do in the garden at the mo bar scheme, today I mostly cut hardboard for the shed lining to size and shape. Tomorrow I shall give it a coat of white paint so I have a nice light shed... except I need to get the sparks in before I can put the lining up, and that's not going to be for a while... Ah well, first world problems and all that.

    Given what is going on at the mo, I'm thinking see if Favourite Nursery will deliver 25 bare-root hedge plants, get a fence panel delivered, buy a sledgehammer and just get what I can done whilst bugger all is still the default number of things to do. Can that lot all be done sensibly and responsibly, I wonder?

    @Heavenlyannie, your garden sounds rather lovely.
  • My allotment seed order went off yesterday so I'll be ready to sow in time this year, hopefully - in the past this has either been too early or too late.

    Both front and back gardens are currently serious wildlife habitat and will be cleared in March. I plan to plant a cotoneaster and sorbus to help with bird feeding and perching, and tomorrow's daily walk may well be to a nursery to see if they have what will suit the plot.

    The allotment is providing a good harvest still, and I aim to start really preparing it in March too.
  • mrsshrewmrsshrew Shipmate Posts: 9
    We were able to get contractors to redo our garden in November of last year, putting in drainage, adding raised beds and redoing the patio.

    I then laid a lawn. It was heavy work and I was very proud when it was finished!

    Now plotting what to put in the raised beds. They are in full sun. I want to have herbs in the part adjacent to the patio, and veg in the rest. There is a blueberry and two raspberries in there already.

    It's exciting to plan a garden, I have never had time or a nice space before!
  • mrsshrew wrote: »
    It's exciting to plan a garden, I have never had time or a nice space before!

    I wouldn't go quite as far as saying that it's better than sex, but it lasts a lot longer and you can plant exciting things in the wet patch.

    I'm impressed by your lawn - well done!

  • @Heavenlyannie, your garden sounds rather lovely.

    Our garden has had 20 years of neglect. We moved in 6 weeks before I gave birth to our first child and we've always been too busy to do anything with it. It is very narrow (we live in a terraced ex-council house) but long, as we are on the edge of the estate and until 5 years ago we had farm fields behind us. We now have a huge new estate behind our house, which finally meant we had to do something with the garden as we had never needed a back fence!
    The gardener is a young man who used to live two doors down and now runs his own business. So he helped us sort our garden at a very good rate and put a back fence up.

    We should have done it years ago, I find gardening very therapeutic.

    Buddleia ordered, including a couple of patio ones for the deck, and some geraniums and fuchsia for hanging baskets. Fruit bushes and rhubarb ordered for husband's fruit patch.
  • Our gardener worked through spring, summer and Autumn. He will be back in Late March.
  • Ooooh, where's the old Ship's rotating head smiley when you need it?

    My Chiltern Seeds order is here. I'm going to get a bib out for the drool when I open it.
  • edited January 2021
    Bl**dy freezing in the back yard today. It's almost a garden, but tiny, very dark, and full of sheds. And surrounded by other peoples' houses - 8 or 10 of them - a couple of tall trees block some of that out and some hanging baskets catch what sun there is. Last year we grew strawberries and tomatoes on the roof. It was fun, but the consumption of the whole crop took less than a couple of minutes.

    I'd like to get my bird feeders going, but it always ends up like a joke I read on the web about a parrot whose owners called him Onan (I don't need to spoil that by explaining it here of all places, do I? [now consumed with self-doubt - it was probably on the ship that I read it]).
  • Heh.
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    I'd like to get my bird feeders going, but it always ends up like a joke I read on the web about a parrot whose owners called him Onan (I don't need to spoil that by explaining it here of all places, do I? [now consumed with self-doubt - it was probably on the ship that I read it]).

    I know that joke and it was definitely on here that I read it.

    I've got some snowdrops coming up in the garden, and a primrose blooming. This time last year my white Christmas rose was blooming its heart out and clearly exhausted itself as this year it's nothing but a leaf.
  • I have my bare root hedging heeled in, plus one more olive barrel for a water butt (I should have about 1000L butt capacity when everything is connected - shed, greenhouse and house. which hopefully will save a few pence on the water bill) - I have a nasty feeling that these will be a casualty of B****t, so I'm quite pleased the nursery still had one hanging around. Most of the shed lining is painted... so lots of to do once blah blah, you've heard all that before. And the tool racks I ordered long before Christmas have suddenly nearly arrived (Herpes couldn't find them at the door, though they knew they had something for me!).

    Today's life lesson - do not volunteer to buy other people spuds! I spent what felt like an hour in a local nursery choosing seed potatoes according to people's lists. Luckily, it was very quiet.

    Looking round the garden the snowdrops are heading up, new hellebores are in bloom, the old ones are thinking about it, the celandines are starting to emerge, the nice arum is going like the clappers, and the first crocus in the lawn has shown a leaf.

    I've also got some advice from one of Mother Knotweed's contacts at a wildlife trust about placing bird boxes - annoyingly (seriously? talk about First World problems!), timber seems to be one of the things that Covid has held up, trying to find 19mm thick 150mm width planks to make boxes from without going and finding them myself (as wot I am abviously trying to avoid doing!) is a right PITA. Internet searches prioritise differently to what I want and what I tripe in, the barstewards.

    You'd think from all that I had a plot the size of Lords...
  • 6" wide, 3/4 thick - wow, you know how to treat a bird :smile: A bit thicker, but if you are looking for large timbers, cheap, then used scaffold boards which are condemned when they get a bit knackered are a good source for that source of thing. Dealers on ebay, might be one near you. Or a skip - I found a load of pitch pine yesterday, but OK that's a bit unusual!
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Purgatory Host, Circus Host
    Yippee!!! Over a year after we signed onto the waiting list, we got a call today to ask if the rouge family are still interested in a plot in the community garden downstairs. :grin: Very excited. Having a bit of garden to cultivate in Paris is extraordinary luxury.

    There's an information meeting next weekend.
  • That is great news, LVER!

    I gave in, having trawled the neighbourhood skips, and bought some gravel boards in the end - they are much thicker than needed, and I turned two boards into three nestboxes this afternoon. All my gardening has been pottering (the allotment is almost certainly under water again), and is mostly documented on the wildlife thread as a result.
  • Having just moved from 3/4 acre of yard, and feeling relief at not having to weed this spring. I discovered our mobile home surrounded for the most part by rock has no weed barrier and will require a lot of work soon. I am not happy.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The glaciers having retreated, I've been venturing into the garden again, beginning to clear the dead vegetation. Trouble is the compost bin is as full as when I put in the leaves last year. I splash on accelerant regularly, and at times I've felt it hot - but somehow I seem never to get nice friable compost out the bottom.

    Any tips for improving the speed/quality of throughput?
  • AmosAmos Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    The glaciers having retreated, I've been venturing into the garden again, beginning to clear the dead vegetation. Trouble is the compost bin is as full as when I put in the leaves last year. I splash on accelerant regularly, and at times I've felt it hot - but somehow I seem never to get nice friable compost out the bottom.

    Any tips for improving the speed/quality of throughput?

    Turn, turn, turn.

    One of this winter's tasks was the removal of all the sticks and rose-prunings from the compost heap. Guess what was underneath? Compost! And one flat rat.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Reading up, I think you're right. Not the easiest with a bin - I think I may have to tip the whole lot out, riddle out the woody bits, and repack.
  • Those woody bits.....

    I am contemplating getting something to smash / cut them up

    But
    Energy used Etc

  • DeeValleyBantamDeeValleyBantam Shipmate Posts: 16
    Firenze wrote: »
    The glaciers having retreated, I've been venturing into the garden again, beginning to clear the dead vegetation. Trouble is the compost bin is as full as when I put in the leaves last year. I splash on accelerant regularly, and at times I've felt it hot - but somehow I seem never to get nice friable compost out the bottom.

    Any tips for improving the speed/quality of throughput?

    Ideally, if you’ve got space, you need 3 large wooden bins. (Think they’re called New Zealand boxes perhaps?). Fill up bin no 1 with a mixture of green and brown garden waste. For the brown I use shredded up Amazon packaging and copies of Private Eye!
    When full, turn over into bin no 2. Thus the oldest material, which was at the bottom of no 1 is now at the top of no 2. Let no 2 rest while no 1 gets filled up again as the season progresses.
    When no 1 is full (again) turn no 2 into no 3 so the oldest material is now at the bottom of no 3. Then turn the (now full) no 1 int the (now empty) no 2 and start the process again.
    When no 1 is full again - for the third time - no 3 is ready. Take the material out from the bottom. That’s essential. You’ll need to have some removable slats low down for that purpose.
    And bingo, you have compost. Simples! Not Monty Don quality for putting in seed trays, but great for mulching, adding to large pots etc. Works for me anyroad.

  • NazianzusNazianzus Shipmate Posts: 17
    Anyone here good with lawns/grass? We laid new turf last Autumn, and I think it's fair to say it's not enjoyed the very wet winter we've had in the UK. The lawn's doing OK...ish. The turf took a very long time to root, and has lost quite a bit of density over the winter - it's a shady garden and as mentioned it's been very very wet indeed leading to quite waterlogged soil.

    I'm keen to overseed the lawn to improve the density. Is it too early to be doing that, or do I need to wait until spring arrives properly?
  • Strange - my compost Dalek is permanently hot, and stuff breaks down at a frankly scary rate. It just gets fed with whatever's going, and most things vanish into - admittedly perhaps a bit soggier than ideal - compost. I occasionally poke stuff to the edges but beyond that it doesn't get much TLC at all. Annoyingly "compostable" magazine wrappers tend to come out the bottom as a slimy mess, and we have to remove the transparent windows on our sushi boxes (First World problem!) but apart from that it is literally throw it in and forget. Grass cuttings, paper shredding, you name it.
  • When we lived in a city, the Dalek composter worked beautifully and the compost was sublime

    ( drifts off into horticultural heaven for a moment as I remember..)

    NE Scotland is proving slightly different but so far we do have compost.
    Of sorts.
  • Maybe it's a climate thing, then? Mine is in a sheltered corner in a suburban heat island, which must help it keep going.
  • Yup!
    It was in the Only sunny corner of our back garden, sharing the space with newts

    And there is NO corner of our garden here that is not distinctly Windswept!

    Currently contemplating one of those tumbler composters
    It would have to be in a shed though, or firmly fixed to the ground
  • JLBJLB Shipmate Posts: 45
    I've recently inested in a "Hotbin", but am still learning how to use it. It has certainly reached temperatures that our dalek and tumbler type bins never have.There are interesting moulds/fungi growing in it, which the permaculture types enthuse about, so I hope the compost will work well when I get the first lot out soon.
  • Is one allowed to covet a ship mate’s hot bin?

    This would make more sense than the tumbling composter....
  • hot bins, baby...
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Maddened by watching those garden make-over programmes I've ordered a metal arch. I thought I'd put it at the back fence between two clematis (in hopes it might stir them from their current Dead Twig state). Also, hanging basket.

    Another idea I picked up was mini pond. I have a large ceramic planter would do. Anyone done anything in that line? How do you ensure you don't just end up with a bowl of slime?
  • Good question, Firenze - I've just made a mini-pond with two washing-up bowls, gravel and stones, so I'm going to be finding out too! My guess is to keep any plant in a basket-pot in water plant compost (low nutrient, which shouldn't encourage algal blooms), but that's gleaned from the intertubes, no real-life experience yet. And there's not a huge amount of help available for mini-ponds that I've found yet - especially as most plants are sold green, so won't be in the stores yet.

    Piccy of mine in this thread: https://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=83034.msg835355;topicseen#new
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I don't know whether this counts as gardening, but it's the nearest this flat-dwelling, non-green-fingered piglet is likely to get.

    I was given a Marks and Sparks herb growing kit (three little flowerpots in a tray with bags of compost and seeds) for my birthday, and I followed the planting instructions and have put them on a roughly west-facing windowsill with a storage heater below it.

    My question is, how often and with how much should I water them? The pots are 5" tall × 5" diameter at the top; so far I've given them a few tablespoons maybe every other day (I planted them last weekend). Should I be waiting until the soil feels dry to the touch?

    The basil and thyme have started to produce tiny little leaves scattered around the surface, but the oregano is a bit slower off the mark, and its leaves are smaller, and confined to a little space at the edge of the pot.

    The other thing is - to my untrained eye, the leaves all look worryingly similar in shape*: does that mean that they're not actually herbs at all, but weeds?

    * I'm no gardener, but I do cook, and I know roughly what basil, thyme and oregano ought to look like.
  • I have a pond in a butler’s sink on the patio... the back half has a raised area with bricks onto which I have pond edge plants in baskets bought online from a pond plant retailer, so in correct soil etc. The front part is kept clearer and has a mini waterlily which sometimes flowers and some of that cleaning weed.
    I find some plants tend to take over and spread and I occasionally need to pull pond weed out but the pond has survived several years - we get dragonflies visiting it despite living in suburbia.
  • Piglet wrote: »

    The other thing is - to my untrained eye, the leaves all look worryingly similar in shape*: does that mean that they're not actually herbs at all, but weeds?

    The first leaves you will see are the cotyledons, the seed leaves, which are a different shape to the "real" ones - basil ones are sort of "D" shaped, with the flat sides of the D facing each other - thus: https://getbusygardening.com/grow-basil-from-seed/

    Dunno about the others - I'd be surprised if Sparks have stiffed you with weeds. though.

    It sounds as though your watering regime is OK - when the seedlings are tiny you can kill them by letting the surface dry, once they've got a bit of root as long as only the surface dries you should be fine.

  • Where I am now living the city provides a compost bin to put your kitchen and yard waste in and they pick it up along with the trash each week. Then you can call and have compost delivered back to your house for free. What a great arrangement.
  • @Lamb Chopped 😅

    having spent most of today chasing down rabbit holes marked Hot Bin...... I think we will
  • Firenze wrote: »
    Maddened by watching those garden make-over programmes I've ordered a metal arch. I thought I'd put it at the back fence between two clematis (in hopes it might stir them from their current Dead Twig state). Also, hanging basket.

    Another idea I picked up was mini pond. I have a large ceramic planter would do. Anyone done anything in that line? How do you ensure you don't just end up with a bowl of slime?

    Well...

    We've done half-whiskey barrels and full-sized garden ponds, and this is what I know. First decide what you want. If it's crystal clear water, you might as well go whole hog and install a mini-fountain or something, because you won't be able to have plants or animals--you'll be chlorinating to keep the algae out. So get your stuff and carry on as you would for a swimming pool or other water feature.

    If on the other hand you want living things (plants, fish), you will have to expect a certain amount of algae, at least growing along the sides of the container under water. There are things you can do to prevent it taking over the surface and becoming horrible-looking.

    Algae lives on a combo of sunlight and fishpoop. That's why you're bound to have it. To keep it under control, you want to either shade your pond (but that will prevent you growing water lilies, which is a pity) or just shut your eyes when the pond turns greeen greeen GREEEEN in the sunlight of spring (it will stop being so horrible after a few weeks).

    Consider planting something, especially something that has broad leaves and will shade the water below. We grew lotus in our whiskey barrel, but that might be a bit big for you. There are miniature water lilies, also floating pond plants. That will keep the green water thingy to a minimum at most points in the year. Consider also getting one or more common goldfish, the kind they sell as feeder fish for bigger creatures will do just fine. These will munch on the algae and on any mosquito larvae you may be cursed with. I'd start with one if you're doing a small water feature--you don't want it to starve while there's no algae yet to eat. Once your plants and algae get going, a single small fish can probably support itself without additional feeding. And goldfish can make it through the winter, even if the tub freezes over, just so the ice doesn't go solid.

    That ought to be enough to prevent you getting green sheets of scum across the top. Though if you do, simply take a piece of cardboard or something and skim it off and get rid of it. But it's unlikely, unless you're in full sun and have plenty of fish poop.

    You know that you have to let tap water sit for at least 24 hours before you add fish to it? The chlorine etc. has to evaporate out of it, or they'll die a horrible death. It's best to top up the water occasionally with the same care, i.e. keep the new water in an open bucket for a day before you add it. Or use rain water.

    It's probably not a good idea to have a fountain-type thingy in the same tub as a fish, unless you can prevent the fish getting sucked into the intake of the device. If you can, go for it (within reason). Fish like extra oxgyen. Just not perpetual froth and storm. Plants are similar.

    Put your pond set-up somewhere where you can enjoy it every day. Otherwise it gets to be just one more chore keeping an eye on it.

    Expect frogs if you have them near you and maybe even if you don't. Provide any intrepid frogs with a way of getting OUT of the pondlet without drowning. A floating piece of wood or a climbable rock that sticks out of the water is good.

    And don't be too surprised if the local wildlife visits to drink (and possibly to hunt frogs/fish).


  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Thanks @Lamb Chopped that's very helpful. I think the container I have in mind is too small for even one fish. I was thinking one or two aquatic plants and an ornamental rock. I'm hoping birds will use it for drinking and if a frog turns up, great.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited February 2021
    Well, that should work. If you really hate algae, you may still find yourself changing the water every so often, but that's not the worst thing in life. Oh, and if you like butterflies, provide them with an area that has rocks up at the top of the waterline, with fairly still water between them, so they can stand and drink. They like that. You can google "butterfly drinking water" for examples.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Piglet wrote: »

    The other thing is - to my untrained eye, the leaves all look worryingly similar in shape*: does that mean that they're not actually herbs at all, but weeds?

    The first leaves you will see are the cotyledons, the seed leaves, which are a different shape to the "real" ones - basil ones are sort of "D" shaped, with the flat sides of the D facing each other - thus: https://getbusygardening.com/grow-basil-from-seed/

    Dunno about the others - I'd be surprised if Sparks have stiffed you with weeds. though.

    It sounds as though your watering regime is OK - when the seedlings are tiny you can kill them by letting the surface dry, once they've got a bit of root as long as only the surface dries you should be fine.
    Thanks for that, Sanders - that's exactly what the leaves look like. I suspect the bloke in the link is a rather more serious gardener than I'll ever be, with his seed trays and plant lights, but I'll follow the watering instructions - although I can't water them from underneath, it shouldn't be too hard to keep them mildly moist.
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited February 2021
    A plant delivery arrived in the week so it was good gardening weekend. Yesterday I planted up some lupins and snakeshead fritillary and weeded the main flower bed, before putting some mini buddleia in pots on the new decking area. Other half dug out our new fruit bed and planted up rhubarb, raspberries and currants, and put a red buddleia beside the small meadow area where some fruit trees live. Today I weeded the strawberry bed and tidied the mini pond before watching husband putting up some lighting and hanging baskets. I also put my potatoes out to chit.
    Next week end I want to tidy the patio area and perhaps sow some seeds in the shed.
  • Wouldn't pots work better for sowing seeds?

    On the way to get me coat I'll just mention that I've finally moved the fence panels, planted the next section of hedging, and put some chicken wire across it (a) to slow down any scrotes investigating the shed and (b) to stop the parish council strimmer gang strimming them. I've also supplied various local people with cotoneaster seedlings - they keep intruding into the gateway, and need to be removed, so I put out a cry on Nextdoor and bigged up how much the bees love them (they do - you can *hear* the hedge when the stuff is in flower) and lo and behold four people wanted my garden clearings! Just in time for the hedging - the buds are all starting to open!

    I've also sown a few seeds - leeks, celeriac, and hardy lettuce. Another week opr two and I'll start getting serious.
  • I am trying to re-pot some clematis - two share one large pot, and are getting a bit pot-bound after 5 years.
    It's hard going, as it's one of those pots that is fatter round the middle than at the top. Also, I have a bad back that gives me agony when I get up from bending over, and requires a couple of hours lying on a hot water bottle to recover, so I can only do a short time in the garden each day.
    During the summer I scooped some of the compacted compost from the sides of the pot and reduced the amount around the widest point. Yesterday I scooped out some more compost, and with Mr RoS's help upended the pot and got the rootball out and into a big bag. Today I cleaned out the pot, replaced the plant supports and half-filled the pot with gravel, and soil/compost mix.
    Before the weather changes I need to split the roots of the two plants apart and root-prune them, dip them in mycorrhizal fungi granules and re-plant them in the pot. I hope they survive after this drastic treatment.
    At least I will never have to do it again, as there is no way I will attempt this job in my eighties!
  • Ethne AlbaEthne Alba Shipmate
    edited February 2021
    Mycorrhizal fungi granules sound great


    Pot rooted garlic has been hardened off outside over winter and is now gently transplanted with all their compost into the garden soil to continue growing.

    Annual cauliflower ( a new one for me) has been galloping away in the greenhouse, not at all leggy though, and is currently enduring a hardening off period. Sadly the blackbirds have been showing Too Much interest though. Have had to construct a barrier of sorts.

    Onions overwintered in the greenhouse and look fab in their cold frame home. If all goes well it’s into the garden soil for them by March. Birds totally ignoring the onions though...

    Might need to think about starting Some sowing inside.

    Then again

    We are north

  • I tidied my pots yesterday and got my son to lift them from the back to the front of the house. I had them covered with netting to stop the red squirrels digging up the bulbs*. That worked but did not stop them eating the shoots as they came up, so I don't know just what a flowering there will be - but there won't be anything till April at earliest. As @Ethne Alba says "North"!
    Since we will be moving this year I am not planting anything, which is weird, but I will be doing some digging up of bits of plants I put in and want to keep: that's what the pots will be used for this summer - transportation. However the garlic, planted in the ground in the autumn is coming up well: I never bother coddling it: it seems to cope with even -17C . This year, with Restrictions, I couldn't get any proper planting garlic, so I just planted the cloves from the supermarket - they are doing just fine!

    *Squirrels - cute rats with good PR.
  • It's wild how easily and well garlic grows. We have positive hedges of it here--at least small ones! And best of all, the various munchy mammals don't bother it. Or the onions.
  • It's wild how easily and well garlic grows. We have positive hedges of it here--at least small ones! And best of all, the various munchy mammals don't bother it. Or the onions.
    I wonder if planting flowering bulbs and garlic closely together in the pots would solve Cathscats problem of squirrels eating the emerging shoots of the flower bulbs?

  • It's wild how easily and well garlic grows. We have positive hedges of it here--at least small ones! And best of all, the various munchy mammals don't bother it. Or the onions.

    Alliums generally are toxic to most mammals, with one notable exception - lucky for us, eh?
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