Lokelani

Beans not germinating/being eaten

Well they did germinate in the tissues, it was really exciting!  I was staggered at the % that did. So they'd obviously been just hating the cold & wet soil.

I put them in pots shoots downwards & crossed my fingers. Most came up fine, minus a few. 

I kept them on an indoor windowsill for a few days as the greenhouse is often running with condensation on these damp days. Then they had to brave it. 

Saturday I put half of the runner & dwarf climbing beans out with great trepidation, as they'd shot up in height & am trying to keep slugs/snails off them each evening. They're still a bit nibbled come morning but so far sitll okay. I'm keeping the second batch in their pots on the outside table as back up, until they get too big.

The sugar snap peas are still in the greenhouse as they're still quite small. I just wish I'd planted more of these early on, as the ones planted before the bad weather are cropping fine still. 

So it was well worth it, both to test the seeds & just to get them going. 

What's loving all this rain?

I'm quite enjoying the fact that I'm not spending hours watering the pots each evening! 

The bamboos, hostas & grasses are all loving it. The campanulas, lilies, lavenders, honeysuckle are all fine to name a few. Some of my roses are fine. 

The peas I started very early are great. Some of the leaves on the banana are wind shredded, but the newer ones are lush green & enormous. 

The thalictrums are the tallest they've ever been & the particular light after a rain shower is making the mauve one almost glow.

Deadheading RhodedendonDead

I put some in last autumn & didn't know to deadhead, so thanks. They do look rather untidy.

Watering wise definitely worth thinking about. I noticed all my new azaleas & rhodys wilted a while ago. I guess they don't have deep roots yet & there is sadly an enormous tree in the neighbours garden right near the boundary, so it probably takes most of the water from that border. 

So in spite of the rain, watch out for watering still! Same with camellias, I always water mine if needed now as I think that also helps them flower next year.

Tatties

We emptied 2 out of 3 of ours at the w/e as they flowered a week or two ago & the foliage was going yellow.  With the sodden soil I didn't want to risk them all rotting off.

The big potato bag had charlottes in from seed potatoes. The crop was okay, half filled a large colander. Some really good large ones & a fair few marble sized ones. I was hoping for at least double that. They were lovely though.

The other huge tub had anyas in. I just chitted a few supermarket ones to see what would happen. The crop was the same as the seed charlottes & they were perfect. I know there are concerns with disease etc. which is why you're meant to use proper seed potato stock. As they go in tubs here, not in the ground I wasn't so worried & will definitely try it again one year with better weather.

Rose leaf rolling saw-fly

I've just been removing leaves where I've seen this problem.  It will get to a stage where that's not possible, by the sound of it, from how hard you've tried to eradicate them.

I only learned what these were last year when I bought lots of new roses & saw one of the flies on a rose stem. When I tried to flick it off it was very firmly attached. So I looked it up & found out that they sound very hard to get rid of! 

Good luck with yours. 

Tomatoe plants with no flowers !

I brought some tiny baby plants back from Cornwall with me in Feb to get a head start. It worked well last year! 

Then sowed mine in March, heated propagator indoors. I heated the greenhouse to put them out to 5, then gave in & put it to 10. 

They did then go away with me & were put in an unheated greenhouse for a week end of March, which may have checked them a bit. They weren't potted on too quickly because I knew I needed to transport them. No food until first fruit sets.

Still, I'm in West Sussex & am disappointed that mine are so far behind yours in East Yorkshire Johntheeng! 

My hardneck garlic is falling over

Similar results here. I gave up & lifted all mine today. the outer skin on about half were mushy but rubbed off easily, so just in time probably.

One large elephant garlic, with cloves. The rest had detached from the neck, so without the stem I'm guessing won't dry well, I will use them fresh, most hadn't split into cloves. 

A couple of good solent wights, the rest of them & the purple wights were tiny, smaller than golf balls I'd say on average. I had a pair of bulbs that had grown together, even though I'm careful to plant each clove individually, I've never seen it before either. Also lots had one tiny, single clove attached to the outside of the bulb. Very odd. 

They say you should save the largest cloves to re-plant in the autumn & I'm not sure any of mine are large enough so I may not bother for a year or two. It's tempting to stick cloves in the pots when the tomatoes etc. have finished with them in autumn, but they're still in when I need the pots in spring! 

Good luck drying your crop. Mine are on the bottom shelf slats of my greenhouse which is running with condensation rather than sun at the moment. It's impossible to find somewhere warm to dry them this year prior to plaiting.

Slugs and snails

I only recently read that slugs hate astrantias so much it can be worth planiing them near other plants to deter them.

They've never wowed me, but I may have to buy some just to try. I'm thinking a circle of them around my grown from seed geraniums! I daren't put them in the ground yet, so am growing them bigger in pots first.

Tomatoe plants with no flowers !

I got some fruit on mine early, but since the weather changed they've just sat there as tiny green marbles anyway! 

Same with the early chillis. Flowers now either aren't appearing or if they do they aren't setting fruit as the temperatures are proabably just too low.

I'm not really having to water anything even in the greenhouse. I've probably watered the tomatoes & chillis in their pots once a month, if that. They just aren't drying out. 

Still time for it all to change I reckon.

My hardneck garlic is falling over

I'm thinking of giving up on mine too, I'd guess it will be rotting not swelling otherwise. It may just be a bad year for it.

Young perennials/seedtrays in or out of greenhouse?

Mites in seeds

Taking cuttings with a heel?

How & when erisimum & scabious cuttings?

Beans not germinating/being eaten

Tiny garlic, what to feed?