May In Your Garden - Page 43

Lovely garden photo's.  My garden is suffering from the same absentee gardener issue as Geoff.  I put in some graft today to whip it a bit more into shape but hedge still looks a mess.

Yes Geoff, I managed to spend only 2 hours at Dubai this week (not 24).  Various members of my family offered to text me at Dubai to make sure I was still awake.

So sorry to hear about the sad chook news.  Poor babies.  Actually a man at work who keeps chickens was telling me what happened to one of his after a fox attack.  The fox didn't actually kill it so they nursed it back to health, after which it turned into a cockrell.  That sounds very odd to me but he is one of those earnest types not given to joking.

I have just done a slug run and my foxtail lily is covered in slugs

@figrat tough day, I know that they are not permanent but begonias are good for a grave and red

@gardeningfantic great photos.

@KG, its actually true that hens can change into roosters due to some hormone difference. There have been stories that it is to compensate for lack of males but I'm not sure about this. I don't think the male-hen can fertilise eggs, it just looks and behaves like a guy.

Wintersong wrote (see)

@KG, its actually true that hens can change into roosters due to some hormone difference. There have been stories that it is to compensate for lack of males but I'm not sure about this. I don't think the male-hen can fertilise eggs, it just looks and behaves like a guy.

 

So it does as it told and still thinks it can attract the ladies, despite being past it.

kate1123 wrote (see)

@Excitable boy, you have a son who goes outside, where did you find him???

LOL, he's a student, so I just offer money and cider!!

To be fair he worked really hard yesterday and it's making a big difference. Won't do any "pansy gardening stuff" but he mixed half a tonne of cement yesterday and shifted a tonne and a half of path flint, so I'm not complaining. Of course, after about four hours he's had enough and has to have a lie down by the telly.

Excitable Boy you did not say that you had to offer money but if he is learning skills you should get pay back later.

Might have to go into the compost bin and check on discarded dahlia

Have chelsea chopped the phlox and asters-cannot believe how many plants are showing signs of heat stress in this sunshine

Good morning,all-and a lovely one it is.Forecast is for a couple of days of rain next week--perfect;and for the moment it's not too hot.

I have spent the last days hacking the ivy from my pergola--twenty year's worth, and some trunks as thick as my wrist. I had to crawl under the stairs-it was a horrible job. Perhaps now the grapevine and clematis will have a chance to do something.Strimmed the west garden, and barrowed away much trash to dump in the woods,and today I will work on the circular path and perhaps finish the side deck railing, as long as it's shady there. Too much slog in the sun is not my cup of tea!

Have just taken these-ready for ctical acclaim

Lovely photos, Geoff. What is growing on the bamboo framework?

Just discovered today -

1. my evergreen ceanothus, all of which looked dead as dormice, have broken new shoots from 3 cm thick wood near the base - bang goes one theory.

2. My bay shrubs, 6 feet tall and with every leaf a crispy brown, were getting the heave ho and being cut down to ground level before digging them out, only to find that they are all rpoducing tiny red buds close to ground level.

3. My dahlias, left in the ground over winter, were presumed dead, and I was planting out replacements that I have been growing in pots, when I discovered that every one of them has survived and is sprouting new shoots.  Now I have nowhere for the replacements to go. 

In Lincolnshire last winter we  had several nights of 12 C, in two spells. Live and learn!

That will be the french beans that I sowed yesterday -so at the moment -nothing

@Geoff, spot on with focus mostly...

@Inkadog, I have some overgrowing Ivy that's due a prune in the Autumn, its absolutely loaded with black fly and serves a meal for half my neighbourhood birds and insects, but it is a grotty job I'm not looking forward to.

I have spent all day in the garden...doh, who hasn't?

Nipped off the B&Q this morning to take advantage of their special buy one, get one free offer (typically when my plant budget is already blown for this year). Luckily, I have an understanding husband  and went looking for a couple of large shrubs to give my full sun border much needed maturity, in the absence of my Pampas grass.I had a Sambucus and a smoke bush in mind, but could only manage to find the Sambucus, Black Lace. There were no smoke bushes but I'm over the moon to come away with a Eucalyptus Gunii that will add a very beautiful blue-grey foliage to my middle garden and cool down all the hot pinks and reds I seem to be accumulating there. I may well be doing some slight arranging come the autumn, but we'll see how it all pans out. Now I have two structure shrubs, I can work off those much better with the designing part.

Rest of the day's work consisted of  weeding, sitting, weeding, sitting, sitting, planting out my broad beans and runners, more weeding and more sitting. Oh, and watering pots ofc  

@Gold1locks, same things happened to me,

1. Both my Ceanothus regularly sprout from very thick base stems and the pros keep telling us they don't grow from old wood.

2. My Callistemon leavis was totally wiped out after our snow and presumed dead. When I lifted it, I found the base was still alive, so it got potted and left and is now sprouting red buds at base level!

figrat wrote (see)

Clearing up around the site where I grew runners last year 2 roots at least are sending up new shoots. Feel a bit mean digging them up. Any thoughts?

From what I have heard about growing from old roots for some reason they don't do well but other than that it is something I have never tried-my feeling is if it was good practise we would hear more about it.

Happy as always to be proved a numpty

@Figrat-one of my plants leaves has turned yellow overnight-I wonder why-might have to sow a reserve-any ideas?

@WS-whenever I advise someone never to cut back into old wood with lavenders someone always posts smugly that they have done it and they re-sprout--sort of proves that gardening is not an exact science